I am interested in learning more about Islam mostly due to all our Muslim friends and not incidentally Taliban, Boko Haram and ISIS. So here goes.

To begin with there is the Five Pillars of Islam. I know for sure that one is charity (2.5% tithe, not bad!) and another one is the Hajj (trip to Mecca). I am unsure what the other three are but without Googling let me guess:
A: Sanctity.
B: Good deeds
C: Conversion of infidels. 
 
Now lets go Google the Five pillars...
1. Shahadah: declaring there is no god except God, and Muhammad is God's Messenger. Actually years ago I attended an oil company orientation in Houston. The lecturer displayed the Saudi flag and explained that the writing said, “There is one god, his name is Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet”. Said so on the flag.
2. Salat: ritual prayer five times a day at pre-dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and night. The five daily prayers are obligatory (fard) and they are performed at times determined essentially by the position of the Sun in the sky. Hence, salat times vary at different locations on the Earth. Remember they invented algebra to aid in time computations (you should see the formulae!!) They also perfected maps and navigation in order to find Mecca for proper orientation of the prayer rugs.
3. Zakat: giving 2.5% of one’s savings to the poor and needy.
4. Sawm: fasting and self-control during the holy month of Ramadan .This is a movable feast based on the lunar calendar and as near as I can remember the holy month advances eleven days for each 365 days. Years ago when I worked at Fairchild Semiconductor there were several Black Muslim ladies working on the graveyard shift. They got very skinny during Ramadan because they didn't eat during the day.
5. Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if one is able.

Wow, three out of five is a good guess, I know there was prayer and fasting but did not know they were Pillars. 

A few years ago I watched a special on the Hajj. It might have been National Geographic but maybe not. The film followed three or four families on their preparations for Hajj and the various rituals they had to perform once there. One group came from America, one family journeyed from England and a third family came from Indonesia. They had to purchase the special clothing, no one wears western clothing while on Hajj. The clothing for men seems to consist of two lengths of cloth to cover torso and a second one to cover head and shoulders all in white. The ladies all wear the basic black gown, head cloth and the same wrap as the men. The only exception I saw was one American blond who wore a pretty red head cloth, I do not know if that has any significance other than style. Get two million pilgrims in town and that is a lot of white. 

The story of how Islam came to be started with a very old Bible story. When Abraham cast out Haggar and Ishmael they wandered in the direction of Mecca. Haggar was desperate to find water for her son and walked back and forth in a valley several time and finally found some water at one end or the other of the valley. As a kid, I had always wondered what happened to Haggar and Ishmael. One of the rituals is for the pilgrims to walk that distant seven times (I think?) and pray. There is actually a covered walk way to keep pilgrims safer from the extremely hot weather when Ramadan happens in high summer.

Another ritual is to walk counter clockwise seven times around the Kaaba and pray. One of the rituals is to walk between two mountains several times and pick up 42 small stones which are used to stone the devil. Another ritual is to sacrifice a sheep, a goat or a camel. There are large abattoirs that provide the animals, all the pilgrim must do is pay for the ritual and the butchers text them when it is done. The sacrificed animals are donated to the poor and hungry. The men must get their heads trimmed or shaved, most of them go for the full head shave. The women are required to get a demure little trim. Oh yes, stoning the devil takes place at three large wells, there are at least two levels built like a super highway to handle the traffic. This allows the pilgrims to walk to get close enough to cast their stones into the well. Now I got to thinking and I figure 42 small stones x 2 million pilgrims is a few tons of gravel. What happens when the wells fill up? Do they empty the wells and recycle the rocks? 

All of these rituals happen during one week twenty-four/seven. That is a lot of organization. One of the managers was interviewed and he stated that having two million come to town was like having 20 Super bowls in one day. Ye Gods and Little Fishhooks!! Oh and there is a permanent tent city divided up by countries. During the filming I could see large commercial cranes in the back ground. Apparently there are several very tall hotels being built so that apparently the rich folk can pray from their rooms. There are also plans for expansion of the mosque surrounding the Kaaba by several square miles in order to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims, total world wide membership is up in the billions with a B.

One of the annual rituals is the covering of the Kaaba. The building is in the center of the mosque and looks smallish but is actually a couple hundred yards cubed. Each year the building gets a new cloth covering. The cloth is black and Koranic verses are embroidered all over it in gold thread, it is quite beautiful and cost five million dollars. There is also a private purification ritual inside the Kaaba itself where certain members come inside to wash the walls. I did notice someone handing a large five gallon plastic bucket inside. Um, I don't want to sound irreligious given that the building covering is so fancy, but wouldn't a gold bucket be nice? Maybe not, a five gallon GOLD bucket might be too heavy to pick up and get inside the building. Maybe one of those expanding hoses...

The film also covered the air travel, once the jets enter Saudi air space, there are specific prayers to be said on board. Part of the journey is to land in a town near Mecca (Medina?) to pray in the Grand Mosque to get into the proper frame of mind then journey to Mecca to continue the Hajj. Once this trip has been completed the pilgrim has earned the right to be called Haji. I wonder if it is the same for women. Let me Google that be right back...Oh they are also called Haji, how nice. 

One last thing: Call to Prayer. I watched several You Tube recordings of various calls to prayer. They were all beautiful. I got to wondering if they ever performed in harmony? The closest I could find was viewing call to prayer from a rooftop in a town with a lot of Mosques and it was sort of harmonious except all the calls were slightly ahead or behind each other. That may be a courtesy thing if singing in harmony is not part of the culture. I also watched one clip of a service where the Imam was singing a very long verse. About halfway through he became very emotional and actually cried. I truly do not know why the man was crying but he manfully got himself under control and finished the prayer with an “Allah”.

One last thought. How would Islam be effected if they mounted a space program and landed on their own planet and had it all to themselves? 

Okay that is enough comparative and/or speculative religion for the day.