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Because fasting is a communal affair, with joint
fast-breaking in the evenings, it also strengthens the
spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood regarded as so
important in Islam. The fasting month is concluded with
the festival of Eid al-Fitr, prior to which everybody,
having learnt the hardships of hunger and thirst, has to
give some charity to allow those in need to join in the
joy of the celebrations.
Zakah... The experience of fasting prepares us for
another important Islamic principle: that nobody really
believes if he fills his stomach whilst his neighbour
goes hungry. Islamic teachings heighten the awareness of
social justice, and the Islamic economic system, with its
prohibition of interest and usury and its encouragement
of fair trading does not condone that some members of
society should exploit others or become prosperous at
their expense. Zakah is one method of penalising the
hoarding of wealth, as it places a social obligation on
any surplus wealth not required for daily
needs.
Once a year every Muslim above the poverty
threshold must give 2.5% of all his belongings which are
not in regular use and wealth which has been allowed to
accumulate for a whole year to set categories of
recipients, those who are needy or without support. Thus
both the spending of wealth, rather than its retention,
as well as a sense of social responsibility are being
encouraged. The Zakah is such an important pillar of the
Islamic belief system, that the Islamic state will assign
its collection to dedicated Zakah collectors, yet it must
not be confused with an income tax or a tax to finance
government activity. It is a levy on surplus wealth only,
and it may only be used for the specified category of
needy recipients.
Hajj... At the annual pilgrimage in Makkah a number of
rituals are carried out which reflect the efforts of
Abraham (Ibrahim), peace be with him, who had left his
second wife Hajar and her young son Ishmael (Isma'il)
there in the arid desert, and Allah rewarded Hajar's
struggle to find water with the well of Zamzam, a spring
which made the region prosperous and a religious focal
point after Ibrahim and Isma' il built the Ka'bah. There
is also the gathering at the plain of "Arafat,
reminiscent of the even larger gathering to come on the
day of judgment.
Hajj is more than a get together of Muslims from
all over the globe; it is akin to a virtual reality
training camp. Pilgrims leave behind their busy world,
dress in simple white sheets of cloth not unlike the ones
they will later be buried in, and concentrate on the
concept of sacrifice -recalling Ibrahim's willingness to
sacrifice his only son Isma'il for Allah. Properly
conducted, this simulated journey from this world to the
next prepares the pilgrims for the remaining life ahead
of them, assisting them in making the right choices and
judging their worldly affairs against the standard of the
hereafter. All over the Muslim world the conclusion of
Hajj is celebrated with the festival of Eid al-Adha, the
feast of sacrifice, where the meat of a sacrificed animal
is shared out between family, friends and the needy,
celebrating the fact that Allah only tested Ibrahim's
willingness but did not demand of him to give up his son,
letting him slaughter a ram instead. Islam thereby
categorically rejects the concept of human sacrifice but
also emphasises that nothing should be so dear to us that
we are not willing to give it up for the sake of
Allah.
DIETARY RULES...
At the time of the Muslim festival of sacrifice,
animal rights campaigners often raise their objections
claiming that the Muslim way of slaughter is barbaric.
Muslims only eat meat where the blood has been allowed to
drain fully from the animal's body, and this is achieved
by cutting the main artery and windpipe of the animal
with a sharp knife, leaving the spinal cord intact. The
lack of oxygen to the brain leads to an immediate
unconsciousness, and whereas the convulsions which can be
seen when the heart pumps out the blood look violent to
the onlooker, the animal feels no more pain. Experiments
have shown that this method of slaughter, besides
ensuring a clean quality of meat free of
toxins,
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