The practice of Islam involved many things, however early on it mainly consisted of “Arabs who were polytheistic, there was a supreme God named Allah (“Arabic for God”) who ruled over other gods. There was no priesthood; all members of the tribe were involved in the practice of the faith.” (Spielvogel, 203) Its was also known by the members of the Islamic faith …show more content…
The way they developed their faith was by staying true to it, and the best way to do that was to follow the rules of the sacred book other known as the Qur’an. According to Spielvogel there was only one message in the Qur’an, which was that “there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” (Spielvogel, 204) The Islamic faith emphasized the need to obey Allah, this ultimately meant that members of the faith must follow an ethical code which in other worlds was known as the Five Pillars of Islam. The Five Pillars of Islam were, “Belief in Allah and Muhammad as his Prophet; Standard prayer 5 times a day and public prayer on Friday at midday to worship Allah; Observance of the holy month of Ramadan (9th month on the Muslim calendar) by fasting from dawn to sunset; Making a pilgrimage known as the hajj to Mecca In one’s lifetime, Giving alms to the poor and unfortunate” (Spielvogel, 204) The Islamic faith however was not just a set of religious beliefs but for many it was a away of life as well. In fact, there was another law code that began after the death of the late Muhammad, this law code was called the Shari’a. According to Spielvogel the Shari’a was “to provide believers with a set of prescriptions to regulate their daily lives.” (Spielvogel, …show more content…
Muhammad did not leave behind any son just daughters so the Islamic community chose his father-in-Law as “caliph”- temporary leader, of the Islamic community” (Spielvogel, 205) As time progresses issues once again arose about the caliph, soon enough a man by the name of Muawiya became in charge and would take no time at all on making his presence known. Muawiya not long after being named leader created the Umayyad dynasty. According to Spielvogel “As one of the first actions, the Umayyads moved the capital of the Muslim empire from Medina to the Damascus in Syria. This internal dissension over the caliphate created a split in Islam between the Shi’ites or those who accepted only the descendants of Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, as the true ruler and the Sunnites who claimed that the descendants of the Umayyads were the true caliphs.” (Spielvogel,