Islam (Arabic:
الإسلام)
Islam is an
Abrahamic,
monotheistic
religion founded in the
7th century 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, sent to preach the same message as did the prophets of
Christianity and
Judaism (and possibly
Zoroastrianism and other ancient religions).
Adherents of Islam are called
Muslims (sometimes spelled in older English texts as "Moslem".)
In some older English texts they are referred to as "Muhammadans" or
"Mohammadan", but this term is not commonly used because Muslims
find it offensive, as it implies that they worship
Muhammad, which they do not.
Muslims believe that prophets were sent before Muhammad to all
parts of the world and at all times. However, the original purity of
their message was lost with passage of time. Allah, the one and only
God of all mankind, then sent Muhammad as the final prophet to all
mankind, with the message of Islam. There is no religion to be
followed after this and Allah, in his infinite mercy, has taken it
upon Himself to save the Quran from any alteration till the end of
time.
Islam is an
Arabic word meaning "submission (to Allah)". It has an
etymological relationship to other Arabic words, such as Salaam,
meaning "peace". The Arabic word "Muslim"
is related to the word 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.
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
Sunni Islam comprises somewhere around 80% of all Muslims. It is
broken into four schools of thought which interpret specific pieces
of Islam, such as which foods are
halal (permissible) under the religious laws. They are Malik,
Shafi, Hanafi, and Hanbali.
Al-Azhar University[?] in
Cairo, the oldest Islamic institution of learning, considers
Shia to be an additional school, under Jafiri.
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 followers of both Judaism and
Christianity intentionally 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 (kaffir);
Mary, Jesus, and all the other prophets; and even scientific
subjects. Muslims do not follow the laws of the Quran exclusively;
they also follow the examples of the prophets, which is known as the
Sunnah, and 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 Zabūr) and the Gospel of Jesus (the
Injil). The Qur'an describes Christians and Jews as "the people
of the Book" (ahl al Kitāb). An article on
The Bible in Islam is found here.
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.
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 are five basic duties of muslims:
At least one group believes that
Jihad, meaning inner struggle against
Satan (greater jihad) or external struggle {lesser
jihad), is the "sixth pillar of Islam". Other groups consider
"Allegiance to the Imam" and "Hajj" to be the sixth pillar of Islam.
Muslims who believe in the "Five Pillars of Islam" may be offended
by the mention of a violent sixth pillar. For more information, see
the
Sixth pillar of Islam article.
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 the Quran, Mohammed charges the Jewish people
with "falsehood" (Sura 3:71), distortion (4:46), and of being
"corrupters of Scripture."
Some parts of the Quran attribute differences between Muslims and
non-Muslims to tahri fi-manawi, a "corruption of the
meaning" of the words. In this view, the Jewish Bible and Christian
New Testament are true, but the Jews and Christians misunderstood
the meaning of their own Scripture, and thus need the Quran to
clearly understand the will of God. However, other parts of the
Quran make clear that many Jews and Christians used deliberately
altered versions of their scripture, and had altered the word of
God. This belief was developed further in medieval Islamic polemics,
and is a mainstream part of both Sunii and Shiitte Islami today.
This is known as the doctrine of tahrifi-lafzi, "the
corruption of the text".
- Ye People of the Book! Why do ye clothe Truth with falsehood
and conceal the Truth while ye have knowledge? Surah 3.71
- Can ye (o ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will
believe in you? - seeing that a party of them heard the Word of
God and perverted it knowingly after they understood it. Surah
2.75
- Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands
and then say: "This is from God", to traffic with it for a
miserable price! - Woe to them for what their hands do write,
and for the gain they make thereby. Surah 2.79
Islam says that the previous prophets also spread the
monotheistic message of Islam, and surrendered to God. All those who
followed it were also considered "Muslims," including Christians and
Jews before the arrival of Islam in its current form.
- "Abraham
was not a
Jew, nor yet a
Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to
Allah), and he was not of the idolaters." (III - The house of
Imran 67)
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 several
passages from the Quran that say how Christians, Jews, and Muslims
share common scripture, morals, and prophets. 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.
Where people of the Book live in an Islamic nation under
Sharia law, they become
dhimmis. They are given a number of rights, such as the right to
freely practice their faith, but are also required to pay of a
special tax called
jizyah[?]. In an Islamic state, the giving of charity is
mandatory by law for Muslims. The
jizyah[?] tax money goes to charity, as well as the construction
of churches and synagogues for non-Muslims living in the state. As a
benefit, non-Muslims are exempted from any
draft for the state. People of the book living in non-Islamic
nations are not considered dhimmi. Non-Muslim religious minorities
had generally greater liberty under Islamic rule than they did in
Europe during the Medieval period. In Moorish-controlled Spain, for
700 years the Christians and Jews lived under a time of religious
freedom under the Islamic government. It was known as the "Golden
Age of Judaism" because the conditions for the Jews was better there
than anywhere else in the world at the time. The liberties afforded
to religious minorities in Christian and Muslim countries varied
greatly depending on the time and place.
There is a separate article on the relationship between
Islam and Judaism.
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).
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 solar 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. Muslims also connect this holiday to the deliverance
of the Children of
Israel from
Egypt, and it is a day of special solemn and emotional
prayers, rejoicing and music. This holiday is prohibited by the
Islamist movement (fundamentalist Islam). Some Arab nations,
such as Saudi Arabia forbid Muslims to celebrate this holiday.
- 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) - Some scholars consider this holiday to be an
innovation in the religion, as Muhammad himself did not
celebrate it except by fasting. This holiday is prohibited by
the Islamist movement (fundamentalist Islam). Some Arab nations,
such as
Saudi Arabia forbid Muslims to celebrate this holiday.
