Wednesday, January 5, 2011

213. First Moslem Rules



There are some formal rules which one must obey if he calls himself a Moslem and, of course, hundreds or even thousands of “proper social behaviors” which are observed throughout the life of a Moslem—and which differ considerably depending on the country where one is born and lives.


The first rule is to say (and believe): “There is one God, “Allah”, and that Muhammad is His prophet.” In Arabic this phrase sounds to me more or less like: “Lei-hee-lei-hee-eee-Allah, Muhammad rasool-Allah.” though I am absolutely certain lots of Arabic speakers would write it with different English letters. Everybody seems to like to argue immediately about such things!


(By “lei”, above, I mean a word pronounced like the Hawaiian garland of flowers or like “lay”.)


A “Believer” is also expected to pray five times daily, in a mosque if possible or wherever he is if that is not possible. Faithful Moslem men also attend a weekly service for the entire congregation in a mosque on Friday, which is their “Sabbath” day, so I am kept quite busy with my new religious exercises.


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2 comments:

Al-poeta said...

Have you converted to Islam?

Thomas Wold said...

No, Al-poeta. I didn't.

But I spent some time in Tripoli with a Sheik who was teaching me about the religion. I will continue with my notes on that portion of my long-ago "earthprobe" in future postings. Thanks for your inquiry. TW