Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

In this short film, the Yousef Jameel Curator of Islamic Art introduces the five pillars of Islam using five key objects from Oxford University collections.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Francesca Leoni and I am the Yousef Jameel Curator of Islamic art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Today we are going to talk about the five pillars of Islam or arkan al-Islam. These are: the shahada (profession of faith); the salat (prayer); the zakat (almsgiving); the sawm (fasting), and the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

The five pillars represent the five duties obligatory for all Muslims. A set of key rituals has been established around them. Although the requirements of each pillar have developed over the course of several centuries and with minor variations among the different Muslim communities, today their observance and performance are fairly consistent throughout the Muslim world.