But this is not a simple or obvious task, and American students of religion would probably differ widely in their interpretation of these passages. Muslims must be wearing specific types of clothing which keep areas of their body covered, face Mecca before beginning and must recite phrases and passages from the Qur’an at certain points. Islam had already spread into northern Africa by the mid-seventh century A.D., only a few decades after the prophet Muhammad moved with his followers from Mecca to Medina on the neighboring Arabian Peninsula (622 A.D./1 A.H.). The Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the 16th century. The Arab conquest of Spain and the push of Arab armies as far as the Indus River culminated in an empire that stretched over three continents, a mere hundred years after the Prophet’s death. In the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, led by a group of Berber nomads who were strict observers of Islamic law, gave the conversion process a new momentum in the Ghana empire and beyond. Performing salah is a process with a specific structure and set of principles which must be followed.

The process of performing salah is complex. What Does Salah Mean? Literally translated, salah can mean prayer or supplication and is generally considered the act of worshipping Allah SWT; an act which is specifically mentioned in the Holy Qur’an with a variety of rules and guidelines surrounding it. An average dog can also learn words and understand emotions, and there have been countless stories of their loyal and brave actions protecting and saving the people they love. These are the obligatory prayers only; there are many other prayers that Muslims can perform voluntarily for their own benefit. Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota branch of The Council on American-Islamic Relations, recently joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to discuss Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Statue of Liberty, U.S. There are many other prayers in Islam, such a Namaaz-e-Mayyit, which is performed at the janaaza funeral of the deceased and Namaaz-e-Eid, which is a prayer traditionally performed on the mornings of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, prior to which, all Muslims are liable to give to charity in the form of fitrana. There is special importance dedicated to the Friday prayer, which is also known as Jumaa Namaz.

The principle of salah is to ensure Muslims maintain their faith and devotion to Allah SWT, to increase taqwa (closeness to Allah SWT) and to remain conscious of the importance of faith and submission to their Creator. Many of these voluntary prayers are undertaken by Muslims during the Holy month of Ramadan due to the many rewards and blessings bestowed in this virtuous month. Yemenis are divided into two principal Islamic religious groups: 65% Sunni and 35% Shia. Two other holy sites for Twelver Shia in Iraq are the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad, which contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Shia Imams (Mūsā al-Kādhim and Muhammad al-Jawad) and the Al-Askari Mosque in Sāmarrā, which contains the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams (Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-‘Askarī). Between the eighth and ninth centuries, Arab traders and travelers, then African clerics, began to spread the religion along the eastern coast of Africa and to the western and central Sudan (literally, “Land of Black people”), stimulating the development of urban communities.

However, the only written documents at our disposal for the period under consideration derive from Arab sources (see, for instance, accounts by geographers al-Bakri and Ibn Battuta). The masses of rural peasants, however, remained little touched. Throughout the Roman Republic this remained the central Roman cult; and, although Augustus’ new foundations (Apollo Palatinus and Mars Ultor) were in some sense its rivals, that emperor was far too shrewd to attempt to oust Iuppiter Optimus Maximus from his paramount position; he became the protecting deity of the reigning emperor as representing the state, as he had been the protecting deity of the free republic. Her text provides an introduction the Quran, its themes and its central role in Muslim society. America’s overall strategy in Iraq and the greater Middle East is founded precisely upon the possibility of democracy’s birth and growth in those Muslim regions. Listen:What’s it like to be Muslim in America?