Sawm - The Pillars of Islam

What is the Arabic term for 'fast'?

"Huh?"

"It starts with S?"

"Ramadan?"

"Nope. Recite the buniyyal Islam hadith and you'll find the answer, or the kutiba ayat," I said.

They recalled the hadith and a few moments later I heard,

"Oh! Sawm?"

"Is it sawm, ummi?"

I nodded and they filled in the puzzle.

For this day, we did the five pillars of Islam. I gave an analogy of a tent, the middle pole being Shahadah and the rest being salat, zakat, sawm and hajj.

"What if we're too poor that we cannot go to hajj?"

"Say the hadith again," I said.

"...manistatta'tu 'alaihi sabeela."

"It means, for whoever can afford to go."

"But the rest of the stuff we cannot leave, ever. "

"What does the shahadah mean?" I asked them. I wondered how much they retained.

"That we believe in Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," S replied. (SAW)

"That Allah is the only god worthy of worship. Because guess what, the kuffar at the time of the prophet SAW also believed in Allah."

I expounded on the concept of worship of one god and talked about how the Arabs during the time of the jahiliyyah believed in Allah, but also worshipped idols.

We also talked about how Abu Bakr declared war on the people who refused to pay zakat, implying that one who does not pay zakat is dangerously stepping outside the fold of Islam.