1280x720px 1600x1200px 1280x720px 1920x1200px 803x2032px 1280x720px 1280x720px 1756x1200px 3840x2160px 1920x1357px 1280x720px 1280x720px 768x1600px 1920x1200px 1280x720px 1280x720px 1024x768px 1300x924px 1280x800px 1440x810px 7680x3200px 1600x1200px 2160x3840px 1024x768px 900x1600px 720x1280px 1280x800px 1920x1080px 990x1760px 900x1286px 1680x1080px 2560x1440px 1920x1080px 2048x1152px 1920x1200px 1920x1080px 1366x768px 1600x1200px 5120x1440px 1280x979px 2560x1440px 1680x1200px 1536x864px 1024x768px 739x1600px 1280x800px 1400x1080px 1600x1342px 2000x1361px 1920x1200px 1920x1080px 1440x900px 1920x1080px 1500x1000px 2560x1440px 1000x1355px 1920x1200px 1500x992px 1920x1080px 1400x1040px 1920x1275px 2048x1536px 1025x1439px 735x1081px 1920x1200px 1920x1080px 1920x1080px 2560x1620px
The Five Pillars of Islam
The Five Pillars are the core beliefs and practices of Islam:
Profession of Faith (shahada). The belief that “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God” is central to Islam. This phrase, written in Arabic, is often prominently featured in architecture and a range of objects, including the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book of divine revelations. One becomes a Muslim by reciting this phrase with conviction.
Prayer (salat). Muslims pray facing Mecca five times a day: at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and after dark. Prayer includes a recitation of the opening chapter (sura) of the Qur’an, and is sometimes performed on a small rug or mat used expressly for this purpose (see image 24). Muslims can pray individually at any location (fig. 1) or together in a mosque, where a leader in prayer (imam) guides the congregation. Men gather in the mosque for the noonday prayer on Friday; women are welcome but not obliged to participate. After the prayer, a sermon focuses on a passage from the Qur’an, followed by prayers by the imam and a discussion of a particular religious topic.
Alms (zakat). In accordance with Islamic law, Muslims donate a fixed portion of their income to community members in need. Many rulers and wealthy Muslims build mosques, drinking fountains, hospitals, schools, and other institutions both as a religious duty and to secure the blessings associated with charity.
Fasting (sawm). During the daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, all healthy adult Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink. Through this temporary deprivation, they renew their awareness of and gratitude for everything God has provided in their lives—including the Qur’an, which was first revealed during this month. During Ramadan they share the hunger and thirst of the needy as a reminder of the religious duty to help those less fortunate. Fig. 1. Portrait of Prince Muhammad Buland Akhtar, known as Achhe Sahib, at Prayer: Folio from an album, 17th century; painter: Hujraj; India; ink and opaque watercolor on paper; 13 1/16 x 9 in. (33.2 x 22.9 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1925 (25.138.2)
This illustration shows a Mughal prince praying on a mat that features an arch recalling the shape of a prayer niche (mihrab), symbolic of the gateway to Paradise. The prince is barefoot as a gesture of humility before God. The simplicity of his surroundings is an indication of piety; the emphasis here is on the prince’s spiritual nature rather than the opulence of his costume or surroundings (which is the case in many royal Mughal portraits; see The Mughal Court and the Art of Observation ).
Pilgrimage (hajj). Every Muslim whose health and finances permit it must make at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia. The Ka’ba, a cubical structure covered in black embroidered hangings, is at the center of the Haram Mosque in Mecca (fig. 2). Muslims believe that it is the house Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) built for God, and face in its direction (qibla) when they pray. Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, believers from all over the world have gathered around the Ka’ba in Mecca on the eighth and twelfth days of the final month of the Islamic calendar. Fig. 2. Folio from the Futuh al-Haramain (Description of the Holy Cities), mid-16th century; by Muhi al-Din Lari; Turkey; ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper; 8 3/8 x 5 3/4 in. (21.3 x 13.3 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1932 (32.131)
This book illustration provides a schematic view of the innermost enclosure of the Haram Mosque in Mecca. It includes six minarets, the names of the gates, and even shows mosque lamps hanging in the arcades around the Ka’ba at the center of the composition. The book is a pilgrimage manual, which describes the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the rituals that pilgrims are required to perform at each location. The most important of these rituals include walking around the Ka’ba seven times, running between the hills of Safa and Marwa to commemorate the story of Ishmael (Isma’il in Arabic) and his mother, and symbolically stoning the devil in the area of Mina.
RELATED AUDIO FROM THE GALLERY GUIDE
Sheila Canby: The call to prayer reminds pious Muslims five times a day to make their prayers to God. Imam Shamsi Ali, from the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, recites it for us in his beautiful voice.
Scenery drawing HD wallpapers
- 1280x720px
- 1280x720px
Airbnb Just Made it Easier to Find Quality Listings
Link copied
The result is Guest Favorites, a new collection of the most-loved homes on Airbnb that launched on the app on November 8. (This effectively replaces the Airbnb Plus category that was retired quietly on November 6.) Now, when guests search for a vacation rental, listings marked with a “Guest Favorites” badge appear in search results, in the same way “Superhosts” are available to sort in search results.
The Guest Favorites collection launched with 2 million homes around the world, including the charming A-frame cabin outside of Quebec City seen above. More will be added as new listings gather more reviews. “Now, to put this in perspective, Hilton Hotels, one of the largest chains in the world, has about 1.1 million rooms worldwide,” Chesky said.
Airbnb determined which homes received the new Guest Favorites designation based on “ratings, reviews, and reliability,” Chesky said. To qualify, listings must have a minimum of five reviews, an average host cancellation rate of 1 percent, and an incident rate of less than 1 percent. At the time of the launch, Guest Favorite listings have an average rating of 4.92 out of 5. (Airbnb couldn’t confirm a minimum rating required since the designation is built on a dynamic model that will change as ratings come in.)
Improved ratings and reviews
Airbnb also completely redesigned its ratings and reviews pages because “ratings and reviews are the best way to understand the quality of a listing,” Chesky said. According to him, the former reviews page provided too little information, making it difficult for guests to find reviews relevant to them.
The redesign makes the ratings easier to read, putting the overall rating and subcategory ratings (like cleanliness and value) front and center. Reviews now include more information about past guests—including where they’re from, their length of stay, and if they’ve traveled with kids, pets, or a large group—and can be sorted by highest rated or by most recent stay.
New listings tab for hosts
The third and final part of Airbnb’s latest release makes it easier for hosts to manage their listings and add key details that guests care about. This will, in turn, hopefully make it simpler for guests to understand what they’re booking.
For example, before these changes, Airbnb said only 17 percent of hosts had added details about sleeping arrangements and only 8 percent manually tagged images to create a photo tour to help guests understand the layout of the home.
To fix this, Airbnb had its designers and engineers redesign the app to put a newly simplified listings tab front and center. Now, amenities are listed out alphabetically, instead of by category, to make them easier for hosts to find and tag, and Airbnb trained AI to sort photos and automatically organize them by room to create a photo tour to better show what the layout of the house looks like.
Finally, Airbnb has connected its app to smart lock systems—including Schlage, Yale, and August—so hosts can integrate their accounts with the Airbnb app to create a custom generated code for each reservation. The host can also decide via the app how long before and after the reservation the code will be active. To help guests figure out how to use lock systems they may be unfamiliar with, Airbnb has also added custom animations to each check-in page to illustrate how to input the codes.
Lyndsey Matthews is the senior commerce editor at AFAR who covers travel gear, packing advice, and points and loyalty.
