The core of Islamic law is expressed in five basic precepts, which are known as the Five Pillars of Islam that every good Muslim must honor. These are:
1. Declaration of faith. The believer must recite the following statement in order to become a Muslim, and also during the most significant events in life: <em>There is only one God and Muhammad is his messenger</em>.
2. Prayer. Muslims pray five times a day at specific hours and facing in the direction of Mecca. Praying can be performed anywhere, but, on Fridays, the afternoon prayer must be said at the mosque.
3. Alms-giving. Muslims can give spontaneously in order to please God, but, those who can also afford it, must give ten percent of their income (<em>zakat</em>).
4. Ritual fasting during the month of Ramadan. During this month (in which the Quran was revealed) Muslims must refrain from eating, drinking and having sexual relationships from dawn to dusk.
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca. Every adult Muslim that can afford it is obliged to make this pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime.
B. The expulsion of non-Christians from Spain.
The Reconquista had the ultimate effect of driving Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula, and contributed to the unification of a single Spanish kingdom.
Muslim incursions into the Iberian Peninsula had happened already back in the 8th century, and Muslim populations controlled the southern portions of Spain and Portugal for many centuries. "The Reconquista" is the name given to the retaking of the lands by Portugal and Spain, completed in 1492. Following that, there were efforts to force Muslims to convert to Catholic Christianity if they wished to remain in the land. [Jews were targeted also.] The Reconquista had been pursued on and off since the 8th century, but was most aggressively--and successfully--carried out by the monarchy team of Ferdinand and Isabella, who completed the conquest over Muslims in Grenada in 1492.
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had joined their kingdoms by marriage to one another in 1469. Their success against the Muslim presence in the peninsula advanced their control over all of Spain. Under their son, King Charles I, Spain was ruled as a single kingdom. (Charles is perhaps more famously known also as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, as he held that imperial title also from 1519 to 1556.)
