5 Pillars
How much do Christians know the basics of Islam? Do you know 5 pillars of Islam?
What else do you know about Islam? Why do you think Mohamed cannot be the last prophet?
The five pillars of Islam are the shahadah, salah, zakat, sawm, and hajj.
The shahadah is the exclamation about there being only one God (Allah) and Muhammad being his prophet.
Salah is ritual prayer.
Zakat is alms-giving.
Sawm is fasting during Ramadan.
Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca.
I've read most of the Qur'an.
And I don't believe Muhammad can be the "last prophet" because he contradicts what was taught to Christians from the beginning by the Apostles.
Ba Zi (or 4 Pillars) Fundamentals
Ba Zi literally means 8 character. The 8 characters refers to the 4 Heavenly Stems and 4 Earthly Branches of our birth time. The year, day, month and time of our birth can be converted using the Chinese Solar calendar into 4 Heavenly Stems and 4 Earthly Branches each.
Fundamentals of Ba Zi consist of:
• Yin and Yang (sometimes referred to as polarity)
• 5 elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth)
• 10 Heavenly Stems
• 12 Earthly Branches
• 24 Solar Periods
• 12 Qi phases
• 10 Gods
• Shen Sha (Deities & Gods or others termed Stars)
• Imagery
Ba Zi can be divided into 4 pillars (Year, Month, Day & Hour) and each pillar consist of 1 Heavenly Stem and 1 Earthly Branch. Traditionally the chart is written from right to left, starting with the Year Pillar on the right. Further to the imagery part, this is a list of Heavenly Stem and their image.
Jia - Trees
Yi - Flowers; shrubs
Bing - Sun
Ding - Fire
Wu - Mountains, stones
Ji - Soil
Geng - Axe
Xin - Scissors/Jewellery
Ren - Sea
Gui - Clouds; dew
It is useful during analysis to link the image back to chart
The earthly branches and their corresponding zodiac sign (which laymen are more familiar with) as as below:
Zi/Rat
Chou/Ox
Yin/Tiger
Mao/Rabbit
Chen/Dragon
Si/Snake
Wu/Horse
Wei/Sheep
Shen/Monkey
You/Rooster
Xu/Dog
Hai/Pig
All the branches have some form of relationship or inclination among themselves. The commonly used combinations are:
3 Combinations (San He)
Shen+Zi+Chen (Monkey+Rat+Dragon) ==>Water Frame
Hai+Mao+Wei (Pig+Rabbit+Ram)==>Wood Frame
Yin+Wu+Xu (Tiger+Horse+Dog) ==>Fire Frame
Si+You+Chou (Snake+Rooster+Ox)==>Metal Frame
3 Union (San Hui)
Hai+Zi+Chou (Pig+Rat+Ox) ==>Winter / Water Frame
Yin+Mao+Chen (Tiger+Rabbit+Dragon)==>Spring / Wood Frame
Si+Wu+Wei (Snake+Horse+Ram)==>Summer / Fire Frame
Shen+You+Xu (Monkey+Rooster+Dog)==>Autumn / Metal Frame
6 Combinations (Liu He)
Zi+Chou (Rat+Ox)==>Earth Frame
Yin+Hai (Tiger+Pig)==>Wood Frame
Mao+Xu (Rabbit+Dog)==>Fire Frame
Chen+You (Dragon+Rooster)==>Metal Frame
Si+Shen (Snake+Monkey)==>Water Frame
Wu+Wei (Horse+Ram)==>Fire Frame
About the Author
I am a Fengshui Practitioner in private practice and I specialise in Bazi, ZWDS, Flying Star Fengshui, I-Ching and other Chinese Metaphysics tools. My blog site is at: http://fengshuiforward.com and http://fengshuiforward.com/forum
The Devil'z Rejects - 5 Pillars (Feat. Singapore Kane)
