Too many questions, I'll answer a few though.

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Islam the word means submission/surrender. Specifically submitting and surrendering instead of to your own whims and desires, to the commands of your Creator. The sun and the moon for instance, are considered "Muslim" (Muslim is the active participle of Islam, this also answers another question) because they submit/surrender to the commands/laws of God (laws of motion/gravity etc.) Now for entities like the Sun and the Moon, they have no choice in their submission/surrender to God's will, as it's just their function, but human beings have free will (this answers another question further down the list, I guess), and therefore must choose to either submit/surrender or to rebel/disobey. This is in fact the essence of all religions, that God has stated what the correct/moral way of conduct is, and then people either choose  to follow it (submit/surrender to it) or they choose to disobey and rebel against it.

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The five 'contact' prayers are required of a Muslim every day, yes. But that is not all prayer/worship entails. A Muslim also prays extra prayers when he feels like it, or when certain circumstances dictate, for instance, during times of drought, it's recomended to pray and beseech God for rain. Muslims have regularly done this  during Australia's recent drought, although I doubt most Australians know about this, as it can barely be noticed through the barrage of negative reports about Muslims.

So the 5 daily prescribed prayers are a way of keeping in constant contact/remembrance of God. It helps to keep the soul regulated and constantly spiritual, as it is always on your mind, and makes you take regular time out of your day to devote to the worship of your Lord.

This is something present in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, although Christians have probably neglected it quite a lot, Jews do indeed perform daily contact prayers (3 times a day though).

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This statement is used in every prayer, as it is one verse of the standard surah of the Qur'an that is read in each prostration of prayer. However it is not the only statement used to address God. Each prostration of prayer involves reading the opening chapter (surah) of the Qur'an, along with some other verses/chapters of the Qur'an of your own choosing.

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Yes, of course. Islamic prayer has a very standard form, which involves prostrations and bowing. Likewise Jews and Christians once prostrated in prayer, but don't seem to much anymore, if at all. Do you prostrate in prayer? If you pray that is.

Prostration appears quite a few times in the Bible, both in the OT & NT:

Gen 17:3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
Num 20:6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them
Jos 5:14 And he said, Nay; but [as] captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
Mat 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou [wilt].

Anyone who's seen Muslims pray will know this is a description of how a Muslim prays, not a Jew or a Christian.

Tbey also used to make ablutions/purification before prayer same as the Muslims do:

Exd 40:31 And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat:
Act 21:26        Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them

Which as far as I know, Christians do not do before prayer, not sure about Jews.

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It's a sign of willful submission and surrender to God. It's a sign we recognise his position as our Creator, and therefore we obey his commands/laws and reject being rebellious to him. If you want to call it slavery, great, but note that slavery has very different connotations in your language/culture than it does for Muslims and even in the Bible, where "servant of God" is a name used in your own Bible. In the Semitic languages, both the word for slave and worshipper derive from the same root, so there's sometimes some confusion for non-Semitic speakers to mix them up and claim ridiculous things like "Islam is about bondage". In the Bible itself, the relationship between maan and God is described with the same exact word as in the Qur'an, that of being a surrendered servant of God.

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As explained above, although there is ritually prescribed prayers, even they may contain 'free form' supplications. Also I think  maybe you're confusing between prayer and supplication. Christians mostly just supplicate from what I know, they don't actually even have prayer per se. They perhaps just count their supplications as prayers. Whereas for Muslims we have both prayer and supplication.

Maybe I'll answer some more later, we'll see how we go..

Grendel wrote on Nov 13^th, 2008 at 10:41am:






Grendel,

The Aussie drought is your fault, you infidel you!



Dry blamed on 'faithless Aussies'
Liam Houlihan
March 11, 2007
A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah.
Radical sheik Mohammed Omran told followers at his Brunswick mosque that out-of-control secular scientific values had caused environmental disaster.
"The fear of Allah is not there. So we have now a polluted earth, a polluted water, a wasteland," he told a meeting this year.
"What are the people now crying for? The prophet told you hundreds of years ago, 'Look after the water'."
.....British-based Sheik Abdul Raheem Green forbade Muslims from having fewer than four children so Australia would become an Islamic state.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21359123-661,00.html




Er,

I could ask, why in Allah's name, are all of the lands of the middle east, Allah's heartland, all parched arid land, or desert????

And using the same reasoning, doesn't this circumstance prove how faithless the muslims, of the middle east are???



++++++++


Psalms 68:6
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

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Didn't say it wasn't mentioned, I know it was mentioned, as I read articles about it. What I said is, most Australians probably aren't aware of it, due to the fact it was drowned out by a barrage of other negative articles.

Btw, you added this to your post after? Did you go and google it to check if it is reported? ie. indicating I was right, and you are one of those Aussies who only notices the negative press about Islam?

sigh

well my point was that I knew about it and if I'm an average Ausssie then I pressume most other people would have been aware of it too.

As my computer has a habit of freezing here I tend to type and save and type and save until the whole thing is done.

I take exception to you claim.  
I doubt your opinion of me is anywhere near right.

Oh I also add stuff as it comes to mind or if I feel it needs to be added.
Sometimes I add it to the post or create a new one.  I think you will find I added the prayer comment at the end... in answer to your previous slight.

abu_rashid wrote on Nov 13^th, 2008 at 11:14am:


Can you post some "positive press"on Islam,Abu?

what's the difference between prayer and supplication?

excuse my ignorance

Correct me if I'm wrong Abu:

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Yes.

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Yes.

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No. If they are in a 'foreign' country, they must obey local laws, probably 'within reason'.

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Yes. Once there is another caliphate, all Muslims will be required to return.

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Yes.

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I've had trouble getting that one answered. I think it is by force, as soon as they are powerful enough. Basically, the old fashioned way. They are not supposed to vote in 'secular' elections.

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Yes, not that it excludes a concept of heaven.

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Yes.

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See below.

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Yes.

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Yes. There are special rules for Christians and Jews, designed to force them into constant humiliation.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Islam_and_Australian_values#Confli...

Other people (Pagans, Hindus, Atheists etc) seem to be given a choice of convert or die, though no Muslim here is prepared to explain how these people are to be treated.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1226292000

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that sounds like they passed out.

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How much notice do you expect Australians to pay to it? I also recall seeing it in the paper. I thought, that's nice, shame about Bali and the Muslim terrorists in Melbourne, I guess they had to find something good to say about Muslims. It would be nice if they would take to the streets and show their opposition to fellow Muslim terrorists a bit more powerfully, but this will have to do.