The Five Pillars of Islam and Sunni-Shia differences

Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam are Shahada, Salat, Zakat, Sawm of Ramadan and Hajj. The Shahada refers to the fact that Allah is the only existing God (a strong statement of monotheism) and Mohammad is his prophet on Earth. The second pillar refers to the fact that a Moslem has to pray five times a day

The third pillar is the obligation of charity for whom the material situation allows them to give to the poor. The fourth pillar involves the ritual fasting in month of Ramadan, while the hajj is the ritual pilgrimage to the city of Mecca. Today, it is probably more difficult to perform some of these traditions and religious rituals: a working environment makes it more difficult to pray five times a day, while every day activities may affect the capacity to take time off and go on the hajj.

The main religious and historical difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims is that the former believe that leadership over the Muslim community should have stayed within the prophet's family after his death, while Sunni believed and imposed that the ablest Muslim in the community assume the leadership. From this concept comes an important difference in the religious practice, in that the Shia believe that the religious leader can be venerated as saints, while Sunnis hold that there can be no veneration of saints based on such perceptions.