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The five fundamentals of Islam are sacred and ordained by Allah

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 18 October 2024

“Certainly Allah conferred a favour on the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from among them­selves, reci­ting to them His messages and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the Wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error.”  — ch. 3, Āl-i Imrān, v. 164

لَقَدۡ مَنَّ اللّٰہُ عَلَی الۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ اِذۡ بَعَثَ فِیۡہِمۡ رَسُوۡلًا مِّنۡ اَنۡفُسِہِمۡ یَتۡلُوۡا عَلَیۡہِمۡ اٰیٰتِہٖ وَ یُزَکِّیۡہِمۡ وَ یُعَلِّمُہُمُ الۡکِتٰبَ وَ الۡحِکۡمَۃَ ۚ وَ  اِنۡ کَانُوۡا مِنۡ قَبۡلُ لَفِیۡ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِیۡنٍ ﴿۱۶۴﴾

Among the tasks for which the Holy Prophet was raised was to teach the Quran and wisdom to his followers. This task was to present the teachings of this Book, the Quran, by his own wise words and wise actions. As regards the fundamentals of Islam and how a person enters the brother­hood of Islam — which I discussed in two khutbas about six weeks ago — these are, of course, indicated in the Holy Quran but they have been summed up in a systematic way by the Holy Prophet. The following is a very well-known saying of his, occurring right at the beginning of Sahih Bukhari:

بُنِيَ الإِسْلاَمُ عَلَى خَمْسٍ شَهَادَةِ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللّٰہُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ، وَإِقَامِ الصَّلاَةِ، وَإِيتَاءِالزَّكَاةِ، وَالْحَجِّ، وَصَوْمِ رَمَضَانَ ‏

“Islam is based on five (fundamentals): the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, the keeping up of prayer, the giving of Zakat, the Pilgrimage, and the fasting during Ramadan.” (Bukhari, hadith 8)

All these requirements are mentioned in the Quran, but except for prayer and Zakat, they are not mentioned together in a list. The exact words Lā ilāha ill-Allāh occur only in a couple of places in this form, and the words Muḥammad-ur rasūlullāh in exactly this form occur only once. But of course these statements occur very often in the Quran in slightly different words. The Holy Prophet through his revealed wisdom decreed these as the five fundamentals of Islam. The Kalima is the entry into Islam, and after enter­ing Islam the other four are a Muslim’s fundamental duties. These must, of course, be performed both physically by the body and spiritually by the heart and mind.

There is a well-known hadith that the Holy Prophet was sitting with his Compa­nions and a man came and asked him some questions about the very basic teachings of Islam. He first asked him about matters of belief (Īmān), which the Holy Prophet answered, and then he asked him: “What is Islam?”, meaning the matters of practice in Islam. According to the version in Sahih Muslim, the Holy Prophet replied:

“Islam is that you testify that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and keep up prayer, give in charity (Zakaat), fast in Ramadan, and per­form the Pilgrimage (Hajj) if you can undertake the journey.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of Faith, ch. 1, hadith 1)

According to another version of this hadith, the Holy Prophet began his reply with: “Islam is that you serve Allah and do not associate anything with Him” and then added prayer, zakat, Ḥajj and fasting. The man asked: “If I do all this, will I become a Muslim?” The Holy Prophet said: “Yes.” (Nisā’ī, Book of Faith and its signs, ch. 6, hadith 4991).

It is generally believed that this stranger who asked him these questions was the angel Jibreel who came, obviously not to learn Islam from the Holy Prophet, but to confirm that the Holy Prophet was teaching it correctly. That interpretation means that this answer of the Holy Prophet was confirmed as correct by Divine revelation.

Another incident is reported in Hadith that a man from a rural area, a Bedouin, came to the Holy Prophet while he was sitting with his Companions and asked him a number of questions to verify each of the fundamental duties in Islam. He asked the Holy Prophet to answer in the name of Allah if Allah had commanded him with those duties. First he asked the Holy Prophet to say in the name of Allah if he had been sent by Allah. Of course, the Holy Prophet answered, Yes. Then the man asked him about the five daily prayers, and Zakāt, and fasting in Ramadan, and Ḥajj, and to say in the name of Allah if he had been commanded by Allah that these duties should be performed. Of course, the Holy Prophet answered, Yes. The man then left, saying:

“By Him Who sent you with the truth, I shall do no more and no less than this.”

The Holy Prophet said:

“If he spoke the truth, he shall certainly enter paradise.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of Faith, ch. 3, hadith 12a, and Bukhari, hadith 63, second part)

I want to emphasise that the man asked these questions invoking the name of Allah as his witness, as to whether Allah had commanded the Holy Prophet with these duties, and the Holy Prophet affirmed it in the name of Allah. So this was more than an ordinary conversation. In the end the man said that he would do no more and no less than carry out these fundamentals and the Holy Prophet described this as the way which leads to paradise. Of course, what is meant is that if he performs these duties in their true sense and spirit, learning through them how to control bad desires and wrongful behaviour, to display high morals and to do good deeds, then he shall enter paradise in this world and the hereafter. He needs nothing more than these four duties.

These reports show us that these five are sacred institutions: Kalima, prayer, fasting, Zakat and the Pilgrimage. This means we must take them solemnly and seriously and act on them properly. It also means that when a Muslim sees someone adhering to these institutions, he must regard him as his Muslim brother. To expel such a person from the Islamic fraternity is to violate the sacredness of these five duties. If someone is showing devotion and attachment to these duties, then even if he is failing to perform them properly or he has gone wrong in some other religious belief or action, no Muslim is allowed to declare that person as being outside the fold of Islam and an unbeliever and kafir.

There is an incident of Abdullah ibn Umar, son of Hazrat Umar, from the year 73 A.H. when there was a war between two factions of the Muslims. He did not join either side. He was asked by someone who wanted him to join his side:

“Why is it that one year you go for the hajj and one year you go for the umrah, and yet you have discarded jihad in the way of God? You know how much God has encouraged jihad?”

Abdullah ibn Umar replied:

“My nephew, Islam is based on five things: Belief in God and His messenger, five prayers, fasting in Rama­dan, giving zakat, and the pilgri­mage to the House of God.” (Bukhari, hadith 4514)

There is a famous book in English, The Preaching of Islam, written by a Christian Englishman Sir T.W. Arnold, professor of Arabic in the University of London, who had also lived in India, taught in Aligarh and Lahore, and was Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s teacher. He was also a trustee of the Woking Mosque Trust. The last edition of this book was published in 1913. It is a history of the spread of Islam in various parts of the world, starting from the time of the Holy Prophet. This book was so much liked by Muslims that it has been translated from English into many languages of the Muslim world, for example Urdu. Its last chapter deals with the causes of the success­ful spread of Islam. Sir T.W. Arnold writes:

“Foremost among these [causes] is the simplicity of the Muslim creed, There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Apostle of God. Assent to these two simple doctrines is all that is demanded of the convert, and the whole history of Muslim dogmatics fails to present any attempt on the part of ecclesiastical assemblies to force on the mass of believers any symbol couched in more elaborate and complex terms. This simple creed demands no great trial of faith, arouses as a rule no particular intellectual difficulties and is within the compass of the meanest intelligence. Unencumbered with theological subtleties, it may be expounded by any, even the most unversed in theological expression.” (p. 413)

Arnold goes on to quote from a French book by a Professor Montet who writes:

“To believers, the Muhammadan creed is summed up in belief in the unity of God and in the mission of His Prophet, … The simplicity and the clearness of this teaching are certainly among the most obvious forces at work in the religion and the missionary activity of Islam. … A creed so precise, so stripped of all theological complexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinary understanding, might be expected to possess and does indeed possess a marvellous power of winning its way into the consciences of men.” (p. 414)

What these non-Muslim historians are saying is that the Kalima is very simple and easy to understand. It can be understood by people of ordinary intelligence and knowledge, and it can be preached by people who are not experts and scholars of religion. This enabled Islam to be preached on a wide scale, because trained priests and theologians were not needed to preach it. Arnold adds:

“When the convert has accepted and learned this simple creed, he has then to be instructed in the five practical duties of his religion: (i) recital of the creed, (2) observance of the five appointed times of prayer, (3) payment of the legal alms, (4) fasting during the month of Ramadan, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca.” (p. 415)

As we see from these quotations, Islam is admired by its non-Muslim scholars for summarizing its beliefs in a short, simple sentence. There was a Muslim historian and author from India, Maulana Shibli Naumani, who died just over a hundred years ago, who has mentioned this admiration of Islam by non-Muslims. He writes:

“This simplicity is Islam’s mark of distinction as compared to other religions, and a European scholar has expressed his opinion about this simp­licity in the following words: If a Christian thinker will cast a look at the lengthy and complicated beliefs of his religion, he will exclaim, Why could not my religion be so clear and simple that I could be a believer by declaring [something as simple as] belief in one God and His messenger Muhammad. In fact, these were the only two statements by reciting which, and by expressing belief in which, a non-believer became a Muslim.” (book Ilm-ul-kalam aur Al-kalam, p. 273)

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