Page:Five Pillars of Islam (IA fivepillarsofisl00kamauoft).djvu/19

 any other woman in ordinary times. Prayer and fasting therefore are the first rungs on the ladder by which a genuine votary climbs higher and higher. Pass your eye down all the 90 per cent, of the crimes which darken our society, and you will surely find a cure for all of them in the simple expression spoken by the Holy Prophet Muhammad, who says: "If people would become responsible as to the right use of what lies between their lips and their legs, I stand responsible for their entry into Paradise." Islam prescribes the cure for this in fasting; which does not aim merely at this that we should torture our body, but that we should cultivate the habit of disallowing to ourselves the pleasures that are not ours, by disallowing to ourselves for the love of God those that are rightfully ours.

Every Muslim is expected to take stock of his savings once a year, and has to disburse 2½ per cent., of this as "alms." Charity takes