himself or herself recognizes his or her faith to be true and sincere and so that others in the community must recognize it as well. Such professions of faith are certainly not unique to Islam and are in fact fairly similar in form to many such professions made by Christians with the difference that the Islamic profession of faith is more formalized than are most Christian professions (Benthall, 1997, p. 16).
The second duty of the observant Moslem is that of five daily prayers and once again the form of such prayers is highly formalized û much more so than for Christians (for example) but not differing very much from the formality of some versions of Judaism. The first prayer is offered before sunrise, the second in the very early afternoon, the third in the late afternoon, the fourth immediately after sunset, and the fifth before retiring and before midnight. In prayers, Muslims face the Kaaba, a small, cube-shaped structure in the courtyard of al-Haram (the ôinviolate placeö), the great mosque of Mecca. A single unit of prayer consists of a standing posture, then a genuflection followed by two prostrations, and finally a sitting posture. In each of these postures prescribed prayers and portions of the Koran are recited.
All five prayers in Islam are congregational and are to be offered in a mosque, but they may be offered individually if, for some reason, a person cannot be present with a congregation. This emphasis on group prayer is different from the solitary form of prayer and/or meditation practiced in many religions and must be for many if not most Moslems a defining aspect of their experience as an observant person.
For the Moslem, individual, devotional prayers are not obligatory, but Muslims are encouraged to offer them after midnight and in reflection of this they are called tahajjud (ônight-vigilö). In the Middle East and Indonesia, women also join the congregational prayers, although they pray in a separate ...