Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion founded in the 600s based on the religious text known as the Quran. According to Islam, the religion was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad when Allah sent an angel to dictate a series of revelations to him, which Muhammad memorized. Muhammad was illiterate, and his followers later wrote down Muhammad's memorized revelations to form the Quran. Muhammad is considered to be the final prophet.

Adherents of Islam are called Muslims (sometimes spelled "Moslem".) In some older English texts they are referred to as "Muhammadans" or "Mohammadan"; however this term is not commonly used because Muslims find it offensive, as this term implies that they worship Muhammad, which they do not.

The meaning of the word Islam

Islam is an Arabic word meaning "submission (to Allah)". It has an etymological relationship to other Arabic words, such as Salaam, meaning "peace". The word Muslim is derived from Islam and means "one who surrendered" or submitted (to Allah).

Muslims see submission to Allah as a sign of distinction; this term has no negative connotations. In this view, submission means serving the will of Allah above and beyond one's own goals.

Some Muslims believe that the words peace and submission create a picture of Islam's essential soul. This is often misunderstood by non-muslims as 'compromise' or 'weakness'. The One being submitted to in this concept is Allah - not human beings - so its true meaning is submission to a good and decent way of life which instills integrity.

Denominations of Islam

There are a number of Islamic religious denominations, each of which has significant theological and legal differences from each other. The major branches of Islam are

Shiite (Shi'a)
Sunni
Sufi

Teachings of Islam

Muslims believe in one God, the God of Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, who are all regarded as prophets or "Messengers" before Muhammad. Muslims believe that Muhammad came to bring the final message of God, the correct path and true knowledge of the afterlife to pagan polytheists and to the Christians and Jews. According to Islam the leaders of both Judaism and Christianity deliberately altered the true word of God, and thus led all of their believers down a false path.

For Muslims, the Qur'an answers questions about daily needs, both spiritual and material. It discusses God and God's Names and attributes; believers and their virtues, and the fate of non-believers (kâfir); Mary, Jesus, and all the other prophets; and even scientific subjects. Sunni Muslims (the majority of world's Muslims) do not follow the laws of the Quran exclusively; they also follow the understanding of the Quran contained in the teachings of the prophet known as the Hadith.

Muslims are taught that God sent down 4 books and 100 pages. Besides the Qur'an, the others are the Law of Moses (the Taurah), the Psalms of David (the Zabûr) and the Gospel of Jesus (the Injil). The Qur'an describes Christians and Jews as "the people of the Book" (ahl al Kitâb).

The teachings of Islam concern many of the same personages as those of Judaism and Christianity. However, Muslims frequently refer to them using Arabic names which can make it appear they are talking about different people: e.g. Allah for God, Iblis for Satan, Ibrahim for Abraham, etc. A belief in a Day of Judgment and an Afterlife (Akhirah) are also part of Islamic theology.

The Six Elements of Belief

There are several notable beliefs shared by all Muslims:

God (in Arabic, Allah)
Angels
Books (sent by God)
Messengers (sent by God)
Day of Judgment
Both good and evil (or more precisely, what people call good and evil) come from God. (Although in terms of Evil, it is more a product of people being misguided by the Devil.)

There is no official authority who decides whether a person is accepted to, or dismissed from, the community of believers. Islam is open to all, regardless of race, age, gender, or previous beliefs. It is enough to believe in the central beliefs of Islam. This is formally done by reciting the shahada, the statement of belief of Islam, without which a person cannot be classed a Muslim. As no one can split open another's heart to see what's inside, it is enough to believe and say that you are a muslim, and behave in a manner befitting a Muslim to be accepted into the family of Islam.

The Five Pillars of Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam are five basic duties of muslims:

the recitation and acceptance of the Creed (Shahada)
daily prayer (Salat or Salah)
paying ritual alms (Zakat or Zakah)
observing the fast of Ramadan (Saum or Siyam)
making the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj or Haj)

Jihad, meaning stuggle or holy war, is sometimes considered the "sixth pillar of Islam". This is a matter of dispute within the Islamic community.

Views of other Religions

Islam assigns Jews and Christians (and certain other, much smaller, religions) the status of people of the Book on the basis of their monotheism, and their beliefs about God and the world. This status is based on a passage from the Quran. Muslims believe that the 'People of the Book,' if they are decent and good, regardless of the fact that they are not Muslim, will go to Heaven. They are seen as cousins in the family of believers, and Muslims are encouraged to live on peaceful and equitable terms with them.

According to Islam the leaders of both Judaism and Christianity deliberately altered the true word of God, and thus led all of their believers down a false path. In this view the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament contain deliberate lies about God and God's prophets. The true will of God can only be understood correctly by reading the Quran.

Where people of the Book live in an Islamic nation under Sharia law, they become dhimmi. They are given a number of rights, such as the right to freely practice their faith in private, but are also given additional responsibility and burdens, such as the payment of a special tax called jizyah ("skull tax"). People of the book living in non-Islamic nations are not considered dhimmi.

In practice this status resulted in varying degrees of persecution and discrimination by modern standards, even until the present day. Restrictions on dhimis could even include such things as the height of a dwelling in relation to neighbouring dwellings owned by Muslims. However, non-Mulism religious minorities had generally greater liberty under Islamic rule than they did in Europe during the Medieval period. The liberties afforded to religious minorities in Christian and Muslim countries varied greatly depending on the time and place.

Spread of Islam

Muslims are of many different races and (political and ethnic) nationalities. The majority of Muslims are in the countries of South Asia, South-East Asia, Central Asia, northern Africa and the Middle East (much of northern African being thought of as being a part of the Middle East).

Holidays

The Muslim Sabbath is on Friday. Muslims attend prayer in a mosque, pray and hear a sermon. When the holidays occur is according to the lunar Islamic calendar. This calendar does not correct for the fact that the lunar year does not match the soalar year. Therefore, the Islamic months precess each year; they shift relative to the Gregorian calendar.

Ramadan - month long observance of fasting during daylight hours.

Feast of Breaking the Fast (Eid-ul-Fitr), or the Little Feast (al-Eid saghir)- occurs at the conclusion of Ramadan. It is held on the first four days of the month of Shawwal

The Big Feast, (Eid-ul-Adha,), also "The Feast of Sacrifice" (Kurban Bayram) - two months and 10 days after the Little Feast. Animals are slaughtered to commemorate Abraham's sacrificing of a ram instead of his son Ismael. Those who are able make a pilgrimage to Mecca do so just before this date, on the Hajj.

Ashura - the 10th day of the month of Muharram. This is the day on which Muhammad's grandson, Husain, was martyred in Iraq. For Shi'a Muslims this is a day of mourning. Some muslims connect this holiday to the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt, and is a day of special solemn and emotional prayers, rejoicing and music. This holiday is strongly discouraged by the Islamist movement (fundamentalist Islam), which is the predominant theological voice in the Arab.

Muslim New Year - not generally celebrated as an official Muslim holiday, although many communities have some kind of celebrations. This holiday is prohibited by the Islamist movement (fundamentalist Islam), which is now predominant in the Arab world.

The Prophet's birthday (al-mawlidu n-nabawi sh-sharif) - This holiday is prohibited by the Islamist movement (fundamentalist Islam). Some Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia forbid Muslims to celebrate this holiday.

Historical origin of Islam

Main article: History of Islam

Before Muhammad, Arabia was inhabited by Bedouin; Mecca was a religious and commercial center. Arabs were polytheists, and they worshipped a host of idols in the Ka'aba at Mecca. They had a number of unsavoury habits such as ceaseless tribal warfare, and the burying alive of unwanted infant girls.

Muhammad was born in 571 to the equivalent of a middle-class family. He was known as Al-Ameen, "the trustworthy" because of his spotless reputation in all his dealings. He was said to be illiterate. When he grew up, he traveled with many caravans as an administrator whose responsibility was to see that the caravan arrived safely and with all goods intact. He did this throughout most of his working life. In 610, Muhammad (now aged 40) reported that while he was sitting in a cave in the hills outside Mecca mediating, the angel Gabriel gave him a message from Allah. He was commanded to memorize all of his visions. Islamic historiography holds that since he was illiterate he could not write them down. He did so, and after reluctantly revealing his experiences to his wife Khadijah, he began to gain followers by the force and quality of the words he recited. By 615, he had developed a large following in Mecca.

His basic message was one of belief in One God, respect for morality above and beyond tribal links, and prayer. As the ranks of his followers swelled, he became a threat to the local tribes, especially the Quraysh his own tribe whose responsibility it was to look after the Kaba, which at this time was home to the several thousand 'idols' that people worshipped as gods. As Muhammad preached against this pantheon he became deeply unpopular with the rulers and his followers suffered from repeated attacks to person and property. Eventually there was an assassination attempt. He was forced to flee Mecca on July 16, 622; this is known as the Hijrah, and it is the date that marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Muhammad went to Medina, and the time known as Yathrib where he was invited to become ruler of the town by a large group of residents. He declared a welfare state, collected taxes for the needy, organised town defences against numerous raiding parties from Mecca and beyond, and agreed numerous trade agreements. He built mosques, and established a religous culture based on respect for other religions (the town also was home to a number of Christians and Jews).

After the repeated raid attempts on the town, Muhammad and his followers began to raid the raiders' caravans, in retaliation and he distributed the treasure equally amongst his followers. By 627, Muhammad had united Medina under Islam with protected privileges for the Jews and Christians who lived there. Word of the new religion, with the peace and prosperity it brought spread by trade. The Bedouin became keenly interested in this new religion; they saw its potential to bring peace and plenty to their wandering tribes, and after much negotiation they became allies with Muhammad and after much contact with the town and muslims they gradually converted. At this stage the revelations that had been coming to Muhammad were almost complete, and he was told that he was to return to Mecca and reclaim the Kaba. With negotiation and assent of the elders of the Quraysh he made an unarmed pilgrimage to the Kaba. This continued for a while but then the agreement broke down, and war was declared. But there was no bloodshed. In 630, 20 years after being forced to flee, Muhammad marched with an army of 10,000 followers back to Mecca, and the Meccans surrendered without a fight. He became a religious and political leader of the city. He destroyed all the idols in the Kaba, and gave a general amnesty to all his enemies in the town.

The Quran may have been written down during his lifetime. It is believed to be the word of God, sacred and unalterable, although some Muslim scholars believe that at one time there were verses in the Koran inspired by Satan, which Muhammad removed after the angel Jibreel revealed their source. These are referred to as The Satanic Verses, but scholars disagree as to whether they existed or if this is a mere fable. Only the original Arabic version of it is regarded as the Quran; translations are seen as poor shadows of the original's meaning.

The Quran describes two forsm of Jihad. One form is described as a struggle with one's self for mastery of the soul, another form is described as a holy war, and describes a war that Muslims must wage against all those who oppose them. According to Islam, if a person dies in the middle of Jihad, he is sent to heaven straight away.

When Muhammad died in 622, he did not name a successor and left no sons. His advisors took over, and the next four leaders of Islam are known as the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Abu Bakr was the first as he was the oldest and seen as the wisest; he was Muhammad's father-in-law, and he laid foundations for the years ahead uniting the tribes of Arabia under Islam. Umar was next, and he conquered Persia, Syria, Egypt, and northern Africa. After him came Uthman, who conquered even more territory and developed a navy based in Alexandria, Egypt. Within three generations the Muslims had gone from being a group of wandering camel-herders to being in charge of the largest empire the world has ever known.

When Uthman died, Ali Ben Abu Talib became Caliph. Ali was a descendant of Muhammad and there were people who believed that he should have been the first Caliph because of his relation with the prophet. This was rejected by the majority of Muslims who said that the best person for the task of leader should be chosen. His supporters were known as Shi'a ul Ali, (of Party of Ali) or Shi'a for short. The Shi'a believe that the other three Caliphs were illegitimate because they were unrelated to the prophet. Over time differences between Shi'a Muslims and Sunni Muslim rose to the level of them practically becoming separate faiths. Some Sunni leaders hold that Shi'a is not truly a form of Islam (and vice-versa). In some Arab nations open warfare has erupted between Sunni and Shi'a. (In Iraq today the secular Sunni majority has oppressed the Shi'a minority. In Iran the religious Shi'a minority made life difficult for Sufi, Sunni and other Muslims.)

The Quran

The Quran is the holy book of Islam. Its title means which means "Proclamation". It consists of 114 chapters or Suras laid out roughly in order of size, the largest being near the front, the smallest near the back.

It is written as Arabic poetry and describes the origins of the Universe, Man, and their relationship to each other and their Creator Allah. It sets out laws for society, morality, economics and many other topic. It is intended for recitation and memorization. The Quran is primarily taught from one generation to the next this way. Muslims regard the Quran as sacred and inviolable.

The growth of Islam today

Islam is the largest religion after Crhistianity, and currently the fastest growing. It began in Saudi Arabia in 622AD, and according to adherents.com it now comprises 1.3 billion believers, 23% of the world's population, with almost 2 million believers in the USA. Only 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world, a fifth are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the world's largest Muslim community is in Indonesia. There are significant Islamic populations in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South America.

Dietary laws

When eating meat, Muslims may only eat from meat that has been slaughtered in the name of Allah, and meets stringent dietary requirements. Such meat is called pure, or halal. Islamic law prohibits a Muslim from eating pork, monkey, dog, cat, any carnivores, and several other types animals, as these animals are haram (forbidden). For the meat of an animal to be halal (lawful) it must be one of the declared halal animals, it must be slaughtered by a Muslim, and the animal may not be killed by any cruel or prolonged means. The animal is killed by slicing the jugular veins, and thus rendering the animal unconscious immediately, the blood then flows out from the body, and the animal dies in its sleep. Some Muslim clerics have ruled that the animal does not have to be killed by a Muslim, but may be slaughtered by a Jew as long as it meets their strict dietary laws. Thus, some observant Muslims will accept kosher meat (meat prepared in accord with Jewish law) as halal.

The role of women in Islam

Islam does not prohibit women from working, but emphasizes the importance of caring for house and family for both parents. In theory, Islamic law allows each spouse to divorce at will, by saying "I divorce you" three times in public. In practice it's more involved than this, and there may be sperate state proceedings to follow as well. This practice is valid within most of the Muslim world today. Usually, the divorced wife keeps her dowry from when she was married, if there was one, and is given child support until the age of weaning at which point the child may be returned to its father if it is deemed to be best.

The Quran also places a dress code upon its followers. For women, the hair and body are to be covered with the exception of hands and feet, and no curvatures of the body should be seen. Men also have a dress code, which is more relaxed. The rationale given for these rules is that:

Women should be respected rather than becoming objects of sexual desire.
Men are more easily aroused than women.

Many Muslims do not follow these dress codes, or only follow them during religious ceremonies.

Islamic philosophy

There is a separate section on Islamic philosophy.

Circumcision

Circumcision for males involves the removal of the foreskin and is customary in (although normally performed at different ages in different cultures) most muslim communities.

Islam in the United States of America

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam in the United States is not unified; there are many organizations and groups that work to promote various forms of Islam.

One such group is the moderate Islamic Supreme Council of America. This group represents many Muslims, but likely less than 10% of Muslims in the USA.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known by its acronym CAIR. CAIR is a non-profit pro-Islam organization, established to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. CAIR portrays itself as the voice of mainstream, moderate Islam. However CAIR is also a highly controversial organization; its leadership and members publicly support known terrorist organizations such as Hizbollah and Hamas. (The State Department of the United States classified these groups as terrorist organizations). CAIR has been accused of inciting death threats against moderate American Muslims.

The American Islamic Congress is a small but growing moderate Muslim organization that promotes religious pluralism. Their official Statement of Principles states that "Muslims have been profoundly influenced by their encounter with America. American Muslims are a minority group, largely comprising African-Americans, immigrants, and children of immigrants, who have prospered in America's climate of religious tolerance and civil rights. The lessons of our unprecedented experience of acceptance and success must be carefully considered by our community." Their statement goes on to say that:

American Muslims must champion pluralism and condemn all forms of intolerance. This section of the statement of principles explicitly states that not only should Muslims oppose hateful speech towards Muslims, but that they should oppose hateful speech by Muslims. Secondly, American Muslims must be leading ambassadors to the Muslim world. Thirdly, American Muslims must recognize and celebrate our own diversity. Fourthly, All Muslims around the world should enjoy the social and economic prosperity experienced by American Muslims. Fifthly, American Muslims must champion the rights of minorities in the Muslim world.

Religions evolved from Islam that are not considered Islamic by most Muslims

Ahmaddiya
Babism
Bahaism
The Druze
Nation of Islam, also known as Black Muslims
The Sikh

See Also: Mosque -- History of Islam -- Shariah -- Four Schools of Madhhab -- Shaafi'i -- Hanafi -- Maliki -- Hanbali -- Imam -- Mujtahid -- Tawhid -- Qibla al-Qudsiyya -- Shiite

Jihad -- Islamic rituals (births, weddings, burials...) -- djinn -- Munkar and Nakir -- List of famous Muslims