Peace be on you!
1= The Holy Quran
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The Holy Quran is a compilation of the verbal revelations given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) over a period of twenty two years. The Holy Quran is the Holy Book or the Scriptures of the Muslims. It lays down for them the law and commandments, codes for their social and moral behaviour, and contains a comprehensive religious philosophy. The language of the Quran is Arabic.
more @ <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alislam.org/quran/">http://www.alislam.org/quran/</a><!-- m -->
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2= PRAYER
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There are two kinds of prayers in Islam: Du'a or the Silent Prayer, invoking God's help, and Salat or the ritualistic Prayer.
The performing of the Salat was the rust duty enjoined upon the Holy Prophet and the keeping up of Prayer is the most frequently repeated injunction in the Holy Quran.
In Islam, no one day is set aside exclusively for Prayer such as the Sabbath (Saturday) for the Jews and Sunday for the Christians. For Muslims, Prayer is made part of everyday life. There is a Prayer in the morning before sunrise; another just after midday; a third in the afternoon; a fourth at sunset; and a fifth later in the evening. The names of these five Daily Prayers are as follows:
Fajr Prayer in the morning before sunrise
Zuhr Prayer in the early afternoon
Asr Prayer in the late afternoon
Maghrib Prayer just after sunset
Isha Prayer later in the evening
There are certain times during the day when the performing of the Salat is prohibited. These are:
o when the sun is rising
o when the sun is directly overhead, and
o when the sun is setting
The reason for this prohibition is that there are some people in the world who worship the sun and these times happen to be important in the daily cycle of the sun.
Each Daily Prayer comprises some obligatory and some nonobligatory prayers, as follows:
Fardh Prayer: these are obligatory upon all Muslims.
Sunnah Prayer: although not obligatory, these Prayers were regularly offered by the Holy Prophet and, therefore, should be performed by the Muslims
Nafl Prayer: these Prayers are completely voluntary
Each Prayer starts with the standing position and includes bowing, prostration and sitting postures. Together, these four postures constitute a Raka't. The various Daily Prayers comprise two, three or four raka't as shown below:
Sunnah Fardh Sunnah Vitr
Fajr Prayer 2 2
Zuhr Prayer 4 4 2
Asr Prayer 4
Maghrib Prayer 3 2
Isha Prayer 4 2 3
In addition to the five Daily Prayers, Muslims are exhorted in the Holy Quran to get up in the middle of the night to offer the Tahajjud Prayer. It is a non obligatory Prayer and is offered in four units of two raka't each.
The Muslims are enjoined to offer all Daily Prayers in congregation as far as possible. On every Friday, there is a special congregational Prayer called the Jumuah Prayer
(THE FRIDAY PRAYER) which is performed in place of the Zuhr Prayer. On this occasion the prayer is led by an Imam who also delivers a Khutba or sermon before the Prayer.
During their Prayers, the Muslims are enjoined to face the Ka'ba. The direction of Ka'ba from any given place is known as the Qiblah. In the early days of Islam, Muslims used to face the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Later on, Prophet Muhammad received the revelation in which he was commanded by God to face the Ka'ba, which then became the Qiblah of the Muslims.
Besides the five Daily Prayers and the Jumuah Prayer on Friday, there are other Prayers in Islam which are performed at special occasions:
Salat ul Eid: performed at the occasion of Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha
(Eid Prayer)
Salat ul Kasoof: performed on the occasion of solar and lunar eclipses
(Eclipse Prayer)
Salat ul Istisqa: performed when the need for rain is extreme
(Prayer for rain)
Salat ul Janaza: part of the funeral services for the deceased
(Funeral Prayer)
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3=
MORE peaceful Islam @ <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alislam.org">http://www.alislam.org</a><!-- m --> (particulary Friday sermon section)
