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One of the greatest assumptions about Islamic history is that the Five Pillars were already set and in place at the time of the Prophet's death in 632 CE. However, most changes to these Islamic rituals came from small differences among minority Muslim groups. The major beliefs of the Pillars were already in place, taking the shape of the life and beliefs of the Prophet Muhammad.The history of the five Arkan is closely tied to the history of Islam itself. The Shahadah was the first thing that the Prophet Muhammad preached, and it is the foundation of all Islamic beliefs. The Salah was also established early on in Islam, and it is one of the most important practices in the religion. The Sawm was first required during the month of Ramadan in the second year after the Hijrah, the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. The Zakat was also established during this time, and it is one of the most important pillars of social justice in Islam. The Hajj was not required until the sixth year after the Hijrah, but it has since become one of the most important pilgrimages in the world.
The five Arkan have been practised by Muslims for centuries, and they continue to be essential for Muslims today. They are the foundation of Islam, and they are essential for Muslims to follow in order to be considered Muslim.
CODIFICATION - Sahih Muslim (Arabic: صحيح مسلم, romanized: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim) is a 9th-century hadith collection and a book of sunnah compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued books in Sunni Islam after the Quran, alongside Sahih al-Bukhari.
The Five Pillars are alluded to in the Quran, and some are even specifically stated in the Quran, like the Hajj to Mecca. However, the difference in the practice of these traditions is accepted in Islam of the Five Pillars, but this does not mean they have all existed since the life of Muhammad. The evidence of differences shows pillars have not always been consistent with what they are today, so it has taken many years for the Pillars to get to their current and classic form.
The Five Pillars of Islam (arkān al-Islām أركان الإسلام; also arkān ad-dīn أركان الدين "pillars of the religion") are fundamental practices in Islam, considered to be obligatory acts of worship for all Muslims. They are summarized in the hadith of Gabriel. The Sunni and Shia agree on the basic details of the performance and practice of these acts, but the Shia do not refer to them by the same name (see Ancillaries of the Faith, for the Twelvers, and Seven pillars of Ismailism). They are: Muslim creed, prayer, charity to the poor, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able.
Pillars of Shia Islam
Twelvers
Twelver Shia Islam has five Usul al-Din and ten Furu al-Din, i.e., the Shia Islamic beliefs and practices. The Twelver Shia Islam Usul al-Din, equivalent to a Shia Five Pillars, are all beliefs considered foundational to Islam, and thus classified a bit differently from those listed above.[34] They are:
Tawhid (monotheism: belief in the oneness of God)
Adl (divine justice: belief in God's justice)
Nubuwwah (prophethood)
Imamah (succession to Muhammad)
Mi'ad (the day of judgment and the resurrection)
In addition to these five pillars, there are ten practices that Shia Muslims must perform, called the Ancillaries of the Faith[35] (Arabic: furūʿ al-dīn).
Salah: 5 daily prayers
Sawm: Fasting Ramadan
Zakat: Almsgiving, similar to Sunni Islam, it applies to money, cattle, silver, gold, dates, raisins, wheat, and barley.
Khums: An annual taxation of one-fifth (20%) of the gains that a year has been passed on without using. Khums is paid to the Imams; indirectly to poor and needy people.
Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca
Jihad: Striving for the cause of Allah
Enjoining good
Forbidding wrong
Tawalla: Expressing love towards good.
Tabarra: Expressing disassociation and hatred towards evil.[36]
Twelver Shia Islam has five Usul al-Din and ten Furu al-Din, i.e., the Shia Islamic beliefs and practices. The Twelver Shia Islam Usul al-Din, equivalent to a Shia Five Pillars, are all beliefs considered foundational to Islam, and thus classified a bit differently from those listed above.[34] They are:
Tawhid (monotheism: belief in the oneness of God)
Adl (divine justice: belief in God's justice)
Nubuwwah (prophethood)
Imamah (succession to Muhammad)
Mi'ad (the day of judgment and the resurrection)
In addition to these five pillars, there are ten practices that Shia Muslims must perform, called the Ancillaries of the Faith[35] (Arabic: furūʿ al-dīn).
Salah: 5 daily prayers
Sawm: Fasting Ramadan
Zakat: Almsgiving, similar to Sunni Islam, it applies to money, cattle, silver, gold, dates, raisins, wheat, and barley.
Khums: An annual taxation of one-fifth (20%) of the gains that a year has been passed on without using. Khums is paid to the Imams; indirectly to poor and needy people.
Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca
Jihad: Striving for the cause of Allah
Enjoining good
Forbidding wrong
Tawalla: Expressing love towards good.
Tabarra: Expressing disassociation and hatred towards evil.[36]
Ismailis - as reported by non- Ismaili sources - Ismaili belief system is covered by TALIMAT books downloadable from this LINK
Main article: Seven pillars of Ismailism
Isma'ilis have their own pillars, which are as follows:
Walayah "Guardianship" denotes love and devotion to God, the prophets, and the Ismaili Imams and their representatives
Tawhid, "Oneness of God".
Salah: Unlike Sunni and Twelver Muslims, Nizari Ismailis reason that it is up to the current imām to designate the style and form of prayer.
Zakat: with the exception of the Druze, all Ismaili madhhabs have practices resembling that of Sunni and Twelvers, with the addition of the characteristic Shia khums.
Sawm: Nizaris and Musta'lis believe in both a metaphorical and literal meaning of fasting.
Hajj: For Ismailis, this means visiting the imām or his representative and that this is the greatest and most spiritual of all pilgrimages. The Mustaali maintain also the practice of going to Mecca. The Druze interpret this completely metaphorically as "fleeing from devils and oppressors" and rarely go to Mecca.[37]
Jihad "Struggle": "the Greater Struggle" and "the Lesser Struggle"
Main article: Seven pillars of Ismailism
Isma'ilis have their own pillars, which are as follows:
Walayah "Guardianship" denotes love and devotion to God, the prophets, and the Ismaili Imams and their representatives
Tawhid, "Oneness of God".
Salah: Unlike Sunni and Twelver Muslims, Nizari Ismailis reason that it is up to the current imām to designate the style and form of prayer.
Zakat: with the exception of the Druze, all Ismaili madhhabs have practices resembling that of Sunni and Twelvers, with the addition of the characteristic Shia khums.
Sawm: Nizaris and Musta'lis believe in both a metaphorical and literal meaning of fasting.
Hajj: For Ismailis, this means visiting the imām or his representative and that this is the greatest and most spiritual of all pilgrimages. The Mustaali maintain also the practice of going to Mecca. The Druze interpret this completely metaphorically as "fleeing from devils and oppressors" and rarely go to Mecca.[37]
Jihad "Struggle": "the Greater Struggle" and "the Lesser Struggle"
General Overviews
There are many basic, introductory texts that incorporate discussions of the five pillars into the big picture of Islamic history, using Muhammad’s lifetime and basic foundational practices as a springboard for broader discussion of the development of faith and practice over time and space, including as a matter of cultural production.
Almost as soon as the Arab armies of Islam conquered new lands, they began erecting mosques and palaces and commissioning other works of art as expressions of their faith and culture. Many aspects of religious practice in Islam also emerged and were codified. The religious practice of Islam, which literally means "to submit to God", is based on tenets that are known as the Five Pillars (arkan), to which all members of the Islamic community (umma) should adhere.
Imām Muslim -Imām Muslim's full name is Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Warat al-Qushayri al- Naysaburi (206-261 AH/821-875 AD).- meticulously collected 300,000 hadith and after a thorough examination of them retained only 4000, the genuineness of which were fully established. He prefixed to his compilation a very illuminating introduction, in which he specified some of the principles in which he had followed in the choice of his material. Imam Muslim has to his credit many other valuable contributions to different branches of Hadith literature, and most of them retain their eminence even to the present day.
Central to faith and practice in Islam are the five pillars outlined in the Hadith of Gabriel, recorded in Sahih Muslim: witnessing (shahadah), the five daily prayers (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm), and the hajj pilgrimage. The declaration of faith (shahadah) that marks entrance into the Muslim community of believers (ummah) is intended to be expressed through adherence to the other four pillars. Although all of the pillars are required of the individual Muslim, they also have a collective dimension, thus demonstrating Islam’s emphasis on individual responsibility and accountability on the one hand and community building and solidarity on the other. Despite agreement on the importance of the five pillars, there is no absolute consensus on their ritual performance. It should be noted that jihad is not one of the five topillars, although some have given it an unofficial status of being the “sixth” pillar.
There are many basic, introductory texts that incorporate discussions of the five pillars into the big picture of Islamic history, using Muhammad’s lifetime and basic foundational practices as a springboard for broader discussion of the development of faith and practice over time and space, including as a matter of cultural production.
Almost as soon as the Arab armies of Islam conquered new lands, they began erecting mosques and palaces and commissioning other works of art as expressions of their faith and culture. Many aspects of religious practice in Islam also emerged and were codified. The religious practice of Islam, which literally means "to submit to God", is based on tenets that are known as the Five Pillars (arkan), to which all members of the Islamic community (umma) should adhere.
Imām Muslim -Imām Muslim's full name is Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Warat al-Qushayri al- Naysaburi (206-261 AH/821-875 AD).- meticulously collected 300,000 hadith and after a thorough examination of them retained only 4000, the genuineness of which were fully established. He prefixed to his compilation a very illuminating introduction, in which he specified some of the principles in which he had followed in the choice of his material. Imam Muslim has to his credit many other valuable contributions to different branches of Hadith literature, and most of them retain their eminence even to the present day.
Central to faith and practice in Islam are the five pillars outlined in the Hadith of Gabriel, recorded in Sahih Muslim: witnessing (shahadah), the five daily prayers (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm), and the hajj pilgrimage. The declaration of faith (shahadah) that marks entrance into the Muslim community of believers (ummah) is intended to be expressed through adherence to the other four pillars. Although all of the pillars are required of the individual Muslim, they also have a collective dimension, thus demonstrating Islam’s emphasis on individual responsibility and accountability on the one hand and community building and solidarity on the other. Despite agreement on the importance of the five pillars, there is no absolute consensus on their ritual performance. It should be noted that jihad is not one of the five topillars, although some have given it an unofficial status of being the “sixth” pillar.
The Five Pillars of Islam were not formally codified at a single moment by a specific person, but rather crystallized gradually through the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and were later systematized by early Islamic scholars. Here's a breakdown of their codification:
1. During the Lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE)
- The practices of the Five Pillars were established during Muhammad’s life, based on revelations in the Qur'an and the Prophet’s actions (Sunnah).
- For example:
- Prayer (Salah) was commanded in the Qur’an and modeled by the Prophet.
- Zakat and fasting in Ramadan (Sawm) were mandated in Medina.
- Hajj was reformed after the conquest of Mecca in 630 CE.
- The Shahada emerged as the core creed early in the Meccan period.
But the concept of "Five Pillars" as a structured set was not named during his lifetime.
2. Codification by Early Islamic Scholars (8th–10th centuries CE)
- The formulation of the Five Pillars as a structured framework came after Muhammad’s death, during the period when Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) was being developed.
- This took place in the Abbasid era, as scholars began to systematize Islamic law and theology.
Key moments:
- Hadith literature was central to this codification. One of the earliest and most famous hadiths:
- Hadith of Gabriel (reported in Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari): The angel Gabriel asks the Prophet about Islam, and he replies by listing the five pillars.
- Scholars like Imam al-Shafi‘i (d. 820 CE), Imam Malik, and others used these hadiths to define and teach the pillars systematically.
- The concept was further popularized in legal and theological texts across the four Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, Hanbali).
3. Sunni and Shia Perspectives
- Sunnis universally recognize the Five Pillars as core practices.
- Shia Islam, while accepting the same acts (e.g., prayer, fasting, pilgrimage), frames them within a broader set of “branches of religion” (Furu‘ al-Din) that also includes jihad, amr bil maʿruf (commanding good), and nahi ʿan al-munkar (forbidding evil).
- Thus, while the five acts were practiced from the beginning, their labeling as “pillars” (Arkan al-Islam) was a later scholarly development, not a divine decree or formal announcement by a caliph or ruler.
Summary
| Period | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 610–632 CE | Life of Muhammad | Practices of the Five Pillars instituted through Qur’an and Sunnah |
| 8th–9th century CE | Hadith compilation | "Five Pillars" term appears in Hadith of Gabriel and others |
| 9th–10th century CE | Islamic legal theory | Scholars formalize the Pillars in legal and educational texts |
| Ongoing | Sunni and Shia theology | Pillars accepted, but framed differently across sects |
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