To be Muslim is to declare that there is no God but the One God, and Muhammad is His last messenger. To be Muslim is to live that declaration, to be witness of, and witness to that declaration, al-shahada. It is to recognise God. In recognising, one takes the first step towards Him. To testify to that is to submit to Him: Islam.

To be a practising Muslim is to pray five times a day at the appointed times, solah , to remember God; to pay the social, purification tax, zakat , to remember that in our wealth there is a share for people not tested with wealth; to fast during Ramadan, as had been ordained to believers before the revelation of the Qur'an, to remind us on the excessiveness of desires; and to visit His house on Earth if one is able to, hajj , to remind us that all humanity, women and men, all are equal before God. To strive to keep all that are acts of worship, ibadat , is not easy, except for the faithful. There can be no ibadat without submission to Him.