History of the Middle East balance of power in the Muslim world as Egypt once again emerged as a major power. Religion always played a prevalent role in Middle Eastern culture, affecting learning, architecture, and the ebb and flow of cultures. When Muhammad introduced Islam, it jump-started Middle Eastern culture, inspiring achievements in architecture, the revival of old advances in science and technology, and the formation of a distinct way of life. Islam primarily consisted of the five pillars of belief, including confession of faith, the five prayers a day, to fast during the holy month of Ramadan, to pay the tax for charity (the
Criticism of the Bahá'í Faith between Islam and the Bahá'í Faith, with one critic, Imran Shaykh, arguing that the disparities are evidence to the Bahá'í Faith not being a natural progression of Islam, as is claimed. While Bahá'í teachings assert that men and women are spiritually equal, author Lil Abdo says that the Bahá'í understanding of sexual equality is different from that of secular feminists. Abdo presented the following list of criticisms of the Bahá'í Faith from a feminist perspective at an annual gathering for Bahá'í studies in 1995: Quoting `Abdu’l-Bahā, Iranian critics claim he saw women as inferior to men. According to these critics,