Muslims keep Ramadan, the fasting month, not only by abstaining from food, drink, and marital intercourse from dawn to sunset but also from evil intentions and desires. It teaches love, sincerity, and devotion. It develops a sound social conscience, patience, unselfishness, and will power. It also helps the wealthy to understand the difficulties of those who suffer from hunger.
Islamic worship is not limited to the spiritual realm alone. Material obligations apply to those who can afford. Zakah is the annual payment of 2.5% of one's net savings and commercial assets held for a year as a religious duty and a purification of one's wealth. The sum is to be spent directly on poorer sections of the community.
Muslims are required to help the poor, orphans, and the needy by providing them with at least a fixed amount of money in order to facilitate their lives in an attempt to get rid of inequality. Islam always encourages Muslims to share their material opportunities with those less fortunate. The minimum of this sharing is to give zakah
This duty is to be performed once in a lifetime having that one has the health conditions and financial means to do so. Over the last 1,400 years, the Islamic miracle of real brotherhood of all races and nations has been seen in action as Muslims gather for pilgrimage, Hajj, annually in the sacred city of Mecca where the House of Allah, the Ka'bah, is located.
As the only pilgrimage site and the direction to be faced for the five daily prayers, the Ka'bah, an ancient cubic shaped building dating from Abraham's time, is now circumambulated by around three million Muslims each year, all in white gowns, during the Hajj period.
These are the ritual obligations of Islam, each of which has an inner spiritual effect for the sincere ones: therefore, faith and sincerity are essential components of these acts. In addition to these ritual obligations, Muslims make personal prayers known as dua.
