The Five Pillars of Islam might be better called five cornerstones
Declaring faith, praying, giving alms, fasting in Ramadan and making the pilgrimage to Mecca form the core duties of Islam. The Arabic word usually translated as pillar actually means the corner of a building or a first principle, and each practice runs through a Muslim's life from birth to deathbed.
Rukn, the singular of arkan, names a building's corner, while actual columns are called umud, which is why some translators prefer five principles. The duties are treated as obligatory in Sunni Islam, and Shia Muslims also regard them as fundamental while grouping and defining them somewhat differently. Some communities, such as the Alevis, reject the scheme and follow a system of Four Doors instead. Each duty is mentioned in the Quran, scattered across different chapters, with fuller detail supplied by the hadith. Similar practices existed in pre-Islamic Arabia and among Jews and Christians, but Islam recast them around strict monotheism and the example of Muhammad.
The shahada is a two-part statement: there is no god but God, and Muhammad is his messenger. Saying it is what makes someone a Muslim. It is repeated during daily prayer, whispered to newborns and spoken to the dying. Salah, prayer, is performed five times a day at set times facing Mecca, after washing the hands, face and feet, with the prayers named for dawn, noon, afternoon, evening and night.
Zakat means purification: giving part of one's wealth, usually about 2.5 percent, is said to make the rest pure. The rate comes from the hadith rather than the Quran, and the money should be spent within the community where it was raised, on mosques or on people in need. Those without money may give good deeds instead.
Sawm is the Ramadan fast from dawn to sunset, excluding food, drink, sex and smoking. Because the Islamic calendar is lunar, Ramadan arrives about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year. Children, the sick, travellers, the elderly and pregnant or nursing women are exempt, and missed days are usually made up later.
Source: Five Pillars of Islam
