Submission is built on 5 pillars, these 5 pillars along
with Quran, the final testament is all what you need for salvation.
As you can see from the diagram above, the first main pillar upon which all
the other pillars depend is bearing witness that there is no god except God.
The five pillars form one unit in
God's numerical system that governs the whole universe, as follows:
1- AlShahaada : TGV
490 ("Testimony", bearing witness that
"There is no god except God")
2- AlSalaa : TGV
330
(The contact prayer)
3- AlSiyaam : TGV
318
(Fasting)
4-
AlZakaa :
TGV
221
( Obligatory charity )
5-
AlHajj Wal 'Umrah :
TGV 655
(Hajj & 'Umrah, Pilgrimage once
in a lifetime, for those who can afford it)
Total = 2014 = 19 x 106
P.S: Note that the TGVs are calculated
according to the Quranic spelling of the above distinct words, e.g: Alshahaada
as in [6:19], AlSalaah [2:3], AlSiyaam [2:183], AlZakaah [2:43], AlHajj Wal
'Umrah [2:196].
La Illaaha Illa Allaah
There is no god except God
The
first pillar, Shahadah (Testimony) connects together the 4 other pillars
and gives them meaning.
"There is no god except God" simply means that the only reality there is,
is God, other than God there is nobody and nothing that has any power.
All the visible powers of the creatures around us, and even of ourselves
are nothing but an illusion, all these powers of harm or benefit (e.g: power
of money, power of status, power of looks, skills...etc) are from one source,
God.
Thus if we realize this simple truth and submit to it, we will rarely be
worried, afraid or obsessed with anything/anyone because we will always relate
the powers to the Most Gracious alone. We will be appreciative of Him alone.
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To begin the journey
of Submission, one must realize this simple and profound fact that only God
can harm or benefit. And to keep him or her in this state of mind always,
the Most Gracious sent us a gift through Abraham to help us stay God-centered.
The 4 pillars are
a gift because they help us remember our Lord, and without this remebrance
we are vulnerable to idolize other things and people (by assigning powers
to them) and eventually lose our happiness because of depending on an idol
that is not stable, and that can not help us or harm us in anyway.
The contact prayer is designed in
such a way that keep us in a constant state of remembering God, appreciating
and reverencing His majesty. The way it is spread over the whole day is precisely
calculated, our Designer knows exactly at what time of the day we need 2
units, and at what time we need 3 and 4, the numbers of units are not haphazard,
nor their timings.
If you reflect on how the 5 prayers are divided over the 24 hours, you may
see that they are focused around the mid-day period, which is when we are
most active (e.g:business, family, work) and thus more apt to forget God
and lose sight of Him.
Thus whenever our centers shift to something or someone else than God, the
next prayer shifts it back to God. For example if after we performed the
Noon prayer, we got busy at work and business and started idolizing moeny,
boss, our skills...etc the Afternoon prayer soon comes to bring us back to
the straight path. Every prayer is like a new beginning, it purifies us,
nourishes our souls and charges our spiritual batteries to carry on in accordance
with God's will.
The obligatory charity (Zakaa) also
serves the same principal. Because money is adorned to the human being, Satan
intensifies our love for money through his whispers, and many people fall
in this trap of idolizing money, which means to relate the power of the money
to the money itself instead of God. That's why the need for an obligatory
charity to remind us whenever we get any income that it is from God, and
not because of our skills, or our boss' generousity..etc. Thus our center
in this way will always be with God, and will never shift to money.
Fasting for one month every year
is another way to enhance our self-control and keep us balanced on the straight
path of Submission. In that sense, it is also derived from the core pillar
(There is no god except God), this time we are being trained to resist other
strong centers (body, food and Sex), which makes us more able to control
our bodily sinful lusts intensified by Satan's whispers.
Pilgrimage, is a once in a life time
opportunity to connect with all the other submitters and symbolically proclaim
collectively that we have only one center, one god, thus the circling of
Kaaba (God's shrine in Mecca) symbolically stands for this profound concept,
Submission to God alone.
Note how the 4 pillars help us overcome the following idols among many,
[3:14] Adorned for the people are the worldly pleasures,
such as the women, having children, piles upon piles of gold and silver,
trained horses, livestock, and crops. These are the materials of this world.
A far better abode is reserved at GOD.
Concept, Method and Proofs
