What is Islam

                       Islam - Daily Life

General

• Muslims believe that Allah will hold them responsible for their actions on Judgment Day.
• Muslims also believe that they shouldn’t publicize anyone’s weakness in public, so they give a lot of advice in private.
• Anyone who sees or experiences tyranny must speak out against it.
• Muslims believe that they should treat their neighbors well.
• Muslims believe that they should not discriminate anyone for any reason, since we all share the common ‘parents’ of Adam and Eve.
• The society is responsible for the welfare of an individual.
• Muslims are forbidden from: dishonesty, theft, murder, suicide, bribery, forgery, usury, gambling, lottery, consumption of alcohol or pork, backbiting, gossiping, slandering, hoarding, destruction of property, cruelty to animals, adultery, fornication, public nudity, ect...
• Muslims should wear decent and dignified dress. Men should cover their boy from their navel to their knees, and woman should cover their body except for their face and hands.
• Mothers should be held in very high respect.
• There should be no prejudices and discrimination.

Prayer

A Muslim should stop 5 times a day, whether it be work, play or sleep, and pray to Allah. These prayers are so important that they are the second Pillar. When they pray, they face the Kabba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muslims are encouraged to fix their lives around the prayers, like holding off a errand, or rising earlier for the dawn prayer. The prayer times are before dawn, noon, afternoon, after sunset, and evening. Each time is flexible, with about an hour to pray during each time.

When the prayer is performed properly, with humility and remembrance of Allah, it fills has a lasting affect on the person praying. It also fills the heart with fear, hope and remembrance of Allah.

The prayers are compared by Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) like having a river in front of your house. Then, if you bathed in that river five times a day, no dirt would remain.

Marriage
In Islam, marriage is meant to be permanent, with no thought of divorce, although they are allowed when the marriage is irrevocably damaged.

When they get married, the groom gives the bride a gift, called a mahr. It is usually money, but it could be anything. In one case, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) gave permission for a poor man to teach his wife a few verses of the Qur’an.

Neither the bride or groom can be forced in a marriage. Also, many women do not work outside the house, and they don’t have to spend any money on kids or household expenses, because the husband pays all household expenses and other expenses. The husband is the leader of the house, and his wife has to obey him, although that does not mean that the wife is the slave.

Abortion is forbidden because every child has the right to live. No child is favored over another, and if the father dies before the child is born, the child has the right to the inheritance.

Calander
The Islamic calendar starts each month when a lunar cresent can be seen, after a new moon. It depends on where the veiwer is and what the weather is like. The twelve months are:

1. Muharram
2. Safar
3. Rabi’ al-awwal (Rabi’ I)
4. Rabi’ al-awwal (Rabi’ II)
5. Jumada al-awwal (Jumada I)
6. Jumada al-awwal (Jumada II)
7. Rajab
8. Sha’ban
9. Ramadan
10. Shawwal
11. Dhu al-Qi’dah
12. Dhu al-Hijjah