ABSTRACT
Theology, law, and ritual were crucial to the activities which would serve to identify Islam as a religion over and against other faiths and to provide Muslims themselves with a sense of commonality with one another. The tendency towards personalization of faith may be the result of the general globalization of Islam within the world community. More substantial issues related to prayer most certainly do exist, and they reflect the extent to which Muslims have been willing to adapt ritual to the social context in which they live. Zakat and politics have mixed extensively in Pakistan, where charity and income tax have often been equated; it has been argued that only the modern state apparatus can actually handle the equitable distribution of the funds, given the complexities of modern life. The traditional definitional elements of Muslim faith—the summaries of belief and the ritual "Five Pillars"—remain virtually intact in the modern context.
