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Five Pillars of Islam -to declare, or bear witness, that there is no god except God, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God -to establish regular worship -to pay the zakat alms -to observe the fast of Ramadan -to perform the hajj pilgrimage Five doctrines of islamic faith Twahid-oneness of God Prophets and Scriptures Angels Day of Judgement & Afterlife Predestination & Freewill Eid al-Fitr the holiday celebrating the end of the Ramadan fast; the festival traditionally begins following the sighting of the new moon fatwa a ruling issued by a traditional religion-legal authority hadith the body of texts reporting Muhammad's words and examples, taken by Muslims as a foundation for conduct and doctrine; a hadith is an individual unit of literature Ka'bah most sacred site in Islam. it is the destination of the hajj, and holds the black stone and also the first temples of Islam hajj the annual pilgrimage to Mecca hijrah The Prophet's migration from Mecca to establish a community in Medina in 622 CE. In dates, the abbreviation AH stands for 'year of the hijrah' (the starting point of the Islamic dating system imam the person who leads the prayer when two or more Muslims pray together; Shi'a also use the term to refer to the legitiment leader of the Muslim community after Muhammad Shi'ites Muslims who trace succession to the Prophet's authority through imams in the lineage of 'Ali; the smaller of the two main divisions of Islam, accounting for about one-sixth of all Muslims today Sunnis Muslims who trace succession to the Prophet's authority through the caliphate, which lasted until the twentieth century; the larger of the two main division of Islam, accounting for about five-sixths of Muslims today jihad Struggle in defense of the faith; some jihads are military, waged in response to threats to the community's security or welfare; other are spiritual, waged to improve moral conduct in society kufr rejecting belief; implies lack of gratitude for God's grace qiblah the direction of prayer, marked in mosques by a niche inside the wall nearest to Mecca Ramadan The month throughout which Muslims fast during the daylight hours sadaqah alms given voluntarily, in addition to the required zakat Mecca City in western Arabia; birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, and ritual center of the Islamic religion. salat the prescribed daily prayers, said five times during the day sahadah the Muslim profession of faith in God as the only god and in Muhammad as God's prophet shariah the specific regulations of Islamic law Sunna the "life example" of Muhammad's words and deeds, based mainly on the Hadith literature; after the Qur'an, the primary source of guidance for Muslims surah a chapter of the Qur'an; there are 114 in all, arranged mainly in decreasing order or length except for the first (the Fatihah) ummah The Muslim community zakat the prescribed welfare tax; 2.5 per cent of each Muslim's accumulated wealth; collected by central treasuries in earlier times but now donated to charities independently of state governments ashramas Four stages in the life of an upper-class male: student, householder, forest dweller and ascetic Atman The individual self, held by Upanishadic and Vedantic thought to be identical with Brahman, the world-soul avatara the 'descent' or incarnation of a deity in earthly form Bhagavad Gita A section of the Mahabharata epic recounting a conversation between Krishna and the warrior Arjuna, in which Krishna explains the nature of God and the human soul bhakti Loving deovtion to a deity seen as a gracious being who enters the world for the benefit of humans Brahman The world-soul, sometimes understood in impersonal terms Brahmanas Texts regarding ritual Brahmin a member of the priestly caste dharma religious and social duty, including both righteousness and faith guru a spiritual teacher karma action, good or bad, as it is believed to determine the quality of rebirth in future lives Mahabharata A very long epic poem, one section of which is the Bhagavad Gita mantra An expression of one or more syllables, chanted repeatedly as a focus of concentration in devotion moksha Liberation from the cycle of birth and death; one of the three classical aims in life murti A form or personification in which divinity is manifested Om A syllable changed in meditation, interpreted as representing ultimate reality, or the universe, or the relationship of the devotee to the deity prasada A gift from the deity, especially food that has been presented to the god's temple image, blessed and returned o the devotee Puja Ritual household worship of the deity, commonly involving oil lamps, incense, prayers and food offerings Puranas "old tales", stories about deities that became important after the Vedic period samsara the continuing cycle of rebirths shruti "what is heard" ; the sacred literature of the Vedic and Upanishadic periods, recited orally by the brahmin priests for many centuries before being written down shudra a member of the lowest of the four major classes, usually translated as "servant", thought some groups within the shudra class could be quite prosperous smriti "what is remembered", a body of ancient Hindu literature, including the epics, Puranas, and law codes, fried after the shruti and passed down in written tradition Upanishads Philosophical texts in the form of reported conversations on the theory of the Vedic ritual and nature of knowledge, composed around the sixth century BC Vedas The four collections of hymns and ritual texts that constitute the oldest and most highly respected Hindu sacred literature Yoga A practice and discipline that may involve a philosophical system and mental concentration as well as physical posture and exercises