Chapter 9 World of Islam

Blog 2

It has always interested me about the teachings of the Quran and how Muslims perceive it. When I deployed I met some really humble Muslims that would say that the Quran teaches love and other positive things but the extreme terrorists groups believe themselves to follow the Quran but not in the right way leading to war and murder.

The core message of the Quran is the remembrance of God and was summarized as a set of five requirements for the believers, known as the Pillars of Islam (Strayer, 2015). The first pillar is the heart of the Islamic message that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God. The second pillar was for ritual prayer performed five times a day. I remember witnessing prayer that the Muslims did every day. There would be speakers all over the city I was deployed to and it would play their “call to prayer” which sounded to me like a song being hummed and repeated many times a day. Muslims would then stop where they were at and what they were doing and pray facing the direction of Mecca.

The third pillar is almsgiving where it is reflected of the Qurans demands for social justice by requiring that the people who follow the Quran give back to their society by helping out the poor and the needs of their community. The fourth pillar is during the month of Ramadan where fasting happens and they must refrain from all food, drink and sexual relations from the first light of dawn to sundown. It was pretty interesting to see Muslims during the month of Ramadan and how disciplined they were to following the fast. Many could not sleep all day and had to work in the hot sun all hours of the day with no food or water. When I asked them how they were feeling and if they enjoyed the fast and I always got a positive answer with no complaints and that hey were “used to it.”

The fifth pillar encouraged pilgrimage to the Mecca that happened once a year, Muslims all over the world would make this trip and are required to make the trip at least once in their lifetime.


I chose to reflect on this topic because all the years I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and worked so close to Muslims, I never took the time to really understand nor cared to understand this part of their culture until now.

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