Ibadet
Often, when I get a chance to talk about Christianity with Turkish friends, the conversation turns to the structure of worship. Since Islam is anchored in large part by a shared set of practices all over the world, people think about these as the definition of what it means to be a Muslim. That is, a Muslim is someone who believes in Allah and his prophet, prays five times a day toward Mecca, fasts during Ramadan, donates a percentage of his income to the poor, and if possible goes to Mecca on a pilgrimage at least once in his lifetime. In reality, a vast majority of Muslims don't do these things, but still they understand that a Muslim should do these things. And the form of these practices is basically the same all over the world. The complex set of rituals is memorized and reproduced wherever there are Muslims. So, Muslims often wonder what the parallel practices are in Christianity. In Turkish they ask what the "shape" of our "ibadet" is ("ibadet"...