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| The Kaaba in Mecca
is the direction of prayer and destination of
pilgrimage. |
Islam
Islam (/ˈɪslɑːm/; Arabic: ٱلْإِسْلَام, [alʔɪsˈlaːm]) is
an Abrahamic monotheistic religion. All of its teachings
and beliefs are written out in the Quran (also spelled
Qur'an or Koran), the holy scripture of Islam. Believers
of Islam are called Muslims which means "submitter to
God". They believe that the Quran was spoken to Muhammad
by the angel Gabriel, and that it is the word of God (or
Allah). They view Muhammad as a prophet and messenger of
God. Other beliefs and rules about what Muslims should
do come from reports of what Muhammad taught or hadith.
Linguistically, Islam is defined as surrender to the
command of God without objection, without submission,
rebellion, and stubbornness. As for its idiomatic
meaning, it is the religion that was brought by
“Muhammad bin Abdullah,” sent by Almighty God, and which
Muslims believe is the law with which God sealed the
heavenly messages. In a hadith on the authority of Abu
Hurairah that the Prophet Muhammad defined Islam: “By
worshiping God and not associating anything with Him,
performing the prayer, paying the obligatory zakat,
fasting Ramadan and performing the pilgrimage to the
house of God.”
Muslims believe that there were many other prophets
before Muhammad since dawn of humanity, beginning with
the Prophet Adam and including the Prophet Noah (Nuh),
the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim), the Prophet Moses (Musa),
and the Prophet Jesus (Isa). They believe that all these
prophets were given messages by God of the oneness of
God to their communities at different times in history
of mankind, but Satan (referred to as 'Shaytan' in
Arabic) made the past communities deviate from the
message of oneness and other social codes. Muslims
believe that the content of the Quran (written in
Arabic) is protected by Allah as mentioned in the Quran
and is the final message of God for all of mankind until
the day of judgment.
Most Muslims belong to one of two groups. The most
common is Sunni Islam (75–90% of all Muslims are Sunni
Muslims). The second is Shia Islam (10–20% of all
Muslims are Shias – also called Shiites). But there are
many more groups like the Alevis in Turkey.
With about 1.75 billion followers (24% of the world's
population), Islam is the second-largest religion in the
world. Islam is also the fastest-growing religion in the
world. Islam is also the second-largest and
fastest-growing religion in Europe. |
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Beliefs and practices
According to the Qur’an, Muslims believe in God, his
angels, his books, his messengers, the Last Day, and
Fate. In accordance with a Qur’anic verse: “We have
created everything with predestination As much is good
and bad". And in hadith the Messenger Muhammad when he
said that faith is: “to believe in God, his angels, his
books, his messengers, and the Last Day, and believe in
the destiny of good and bad.” Muslims believe that God
is the one God who created the universe with everything
in it. The Qur’an revealed to the Prophet Muhammad
through Gabriel. They believe that he is the final
messenger of all messengers that are sent before him.
The Prophets are human beings and children of Adam, whom
God chose to be his messengers. Muslims believe that the
prophets are not gods, but merely human beings with some
miracles to prove their prophethood. They are the ones
who receive divine revelation.
The Quran mentions the names of many prophets, including
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others. According
to the Qur’an, all of the prophets were Muslims who
preached Islam, but with different laws. Islam is
defined in the Qur’an as “the instinct of God upon which
people have broken in.” "Therefore set your face to the
religion purely, the upright creation upon which He
originated people. There is no change in the creation of
Allah. This is the valuable religion, although most
people do not know} (The Romans -Ar-Rum Surah, versus
30) Muslims also believe that Hanifism is the basis of
Abraham's religion. And they see that the difference
between the Abrahamic religions is in the Sharia (Law)
only and not in the creed and that the Sharia of Islam
abrogates what preceded it from the Sharia. this means
that Islamic religion consists of Belief and Sharia.
As for belief, it is the set of principles that a Muslim
must believe in, and it is fixed and does not differ
according to the different prophets. As for Sharia
(Law), it is the name for practical rulings that differ
according to the different messengers.
The Five Pillars of Islam
According to Islamic tradition, there are five basic
things that Muslims should do. They are called "The Five
Pillars of Islam": |
- Shahadah: The Testimony (faith in
English) is the core of the Muslim belief that there is
no god but Allah himself, and that Muhammad is his last
messenger.
- Salaat: Muslims pray five times per
day, at special times of the day. When they pray, they
face Kaaba, a large cubic structure located at the holy
city of Mecca. Salat is namaz in Persian, Turkish and
Urdu. Shia Muslims can pray the afternoon and evening
prayers right after each other.
- Zakat: Muslims who have money must
give a percentage of the money which it's still with
them for a year 1/40th of their money (charity in
English) to help people who do not have money or need
help.
- Sawm or Siyam: Fasting during
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year. Muslims do
not eat or drink from dawn till sunset for one lunar
month. After Ramadan, there is a holiday called Eid al-Fitr
(which means "festival of end-fast" in English). On Eid
al-Fitr, Muslims usually go to the mosque in the morning
for a special religious service, and then have a party
with families and friends.
- Hajj (Pilgrimage in English): During
the month of Zulhejja, the 12th month of the Islamic
Calendar is the pilgrimage season where many Muslims go
to Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. However, if a
Muslim is financially unable to perform the Hajj, it is
not necessary for them to do so. Those who possess great
financial capacity were the most obligated to perform
the Hajj.
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Note: The Five Pillars of Islam is a term in the view of
Sunni Islam that gathered out of the hadith. There is
another term Osul al-Din (Religion Principles in English) in
Shia Islam. That contains five beliefs : Tawheed, Adl,
Nabovah, Imamah, Maad.
Quran
In Islamic belief, the Quran is the holy book of Islam and
contained to words of Allah (God) and is conveyed to the
Prophet Muhammad by the archangel Jibraeel, who had been
tasked since Adam as the conveyor of the words of God as
guidance to mankind. The Quran is the central point of
reference and is a link which connects humanity with God.
The Qur'an contains many passages and chapters which covers
the entire aspect of humanity, down to the most minute
detail. From the creation and conception of human child to
the details of the Earth and beyond. In the aspect of human
life it contains stories and tales of old civilizations and
past prophets and their life chronicles. The Quran also
contains the Syaria' law or hudud, and emphasizes the equal
rights man and women alike with mothers given special status
where it is sinful to even glare at them.
The Qur'an has a total of 30 juzuks. In each juzuk, contains
many surahs or verses, with 114 surahs which begins with
Surah al-Fatehah(The Beginning) and ended with Surah an-Naas(Humanity).
A Hafeez is a Muslim who has committed the Quran to memory
and can accurately recite every word in the Quran without
flipping a single page and apply them to daily life.
Other important teachings in Islam are the Sunnah (which
tell about Muhammad's life) and the Hadith (which are
collections of dialogues of conversation that Muslims
believe Muhammad said).
The Qur'an is considered in Islam as a manual to all of
humanity and its teachings are to be implemented and shared
by its readers.
Muslims pray in a place of worship called the mosque. A
mosque is called a masjid in Arabic. Most mosques were
mostly recognized having at least a single dome, and some
have one or more towers. However many mosques were built
without either domes or towers.
Muslims take their shoes off before entering the masjid to
pray. Prayer is one of the most important things that a
Muslim does.
Prayer
The Muslim is called to prayer or solah five times a day.
This call to prayer is called Adhan. The muezzin, a man
chosen to make the call to prayer, uses a loudspeaker, which
carries his voice to the people nearby. The call to prayer
is often done out loud, in public, in Muslim countries.
Being called to solah is a normal part of daily life for
most people in Muslim countries.
Muslims pray on a mat, which is called a prayer mat or
prayer rug in English. Common Arabic names for the prayer
mat include sajjāda and namazlık.
When it is time to pray, Muslims face the direction of Qibla
- the direction they are supposed to pray in, towards Mecca.
They then roll out their prayer mat, and perform their
prayers to God.
Peace be upon him
According to Islamic teachings, Muslims must say "Peace be
upon him" (PBUH or pbuh) whenever they hear Prophet's name.
In this way, they show respect to Muhammad and other
prophets. |
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Islam in the world
In 2009, a study was done in 232 countries and
territories. This study found that 23% of the global
population or 1.57 billion people are Muslims. Of those,
between 75% and 90% are Sunni and between ten and twenty
five percent are Shi'a. A small part belong to other
Islamic sects. In about fifty countries, more than half
of the people are Muslim. Arabs account for around
twenty percent of all Muslims worldwide. Islam has three
holy sites; Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina.
Most Muslims live in Asia and Africa. Around 62% of the
world's Muslims live in Asia, with over 683 million
followers in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
In the Middle East, non-Arab countries such as Turkey
and Iran are the largest Muslim-majority countries; in
Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the biggest Muslim
communities.
Most estimates indicate that the People's Republic of
China has about 20 to 30 million Muslims (1.5% to 2% of
the population). However, data provided by the San Diego
State University's International Population Center to
U.S. News & World Report suggests that China has 65.3
million Muslims. Islam is the second largest religion
after Christianity in many European countries, and is
slowly catching up to that status in the Americas. |
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Different denominations
Like with other religions, over time different movements
have developed in Islam. These movements are based on
different interpretations of the scriptures. The
following sections list the most common movements. |
- Non-denominational Muslims are
Muslims who don't follow any branch and simply call
themselves Muslim. They are also called Ghayr
Muqallids.
- The Muwahidin or Muwahid Muslims
are a Muslim restoration movement that accepts
mainstream Islam, but prefer to orient themselves
towards a primacy of God's commands on issues
pertaining to sharia law. Muwahidists believe that
modern Islam has been mixed with many cultural
traditions and they want to change that.
- The Shi'ites believe that just
as only God can appoint a prophet, he can appoint a
second leader after the prophet. Shi'a Muslims
believe that God chose Ali as the leader after
Muhammad. About 10-20% of Muslims are Shi'a which
means that there are about 120 million world wide.
Shi'a Muslims form the majority of Muslims in Iran,
Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon. The largest
adhab in Yemen is Zaydi Shia. Shias commonly gather
for Day of Ashura in Karbala. They accept four
hadiths.
- Sunnism considers Abu Bakr to be
the successor of Muhammad. Sunnis make up roughly
75% of Muslims. Sunnis believe that leaders of Islam
should be chosen by the people of the Muslim world.
After Abu Bakr died, Omar took his place, then
Uthman, and then Ali. All of them were companions of
Muhammad and lived in Medina. Sunni beliefs are
typically based on the Qur'an and the Kutub al-Sittah
(six hadiths). Sunnis are sometimes called
Bukharists.
- The Sufi are a branch in Islam
that focuses more on the spiritual and mystic
elements of Islam. Sufis usually conclude their
prayers with dhikr recitations.
- The Quraniyoon generally reject
the authority of the hadiths. Such Muslims, also
known as Quranists and Ahle Quran, believe that the
Quran is the only source of guidance. They say the
hadiths are not endorsed by the Quran, and some call
them an innovative bid'ah.
- Ibadis are Muslims who
originated from the Kharijites. Ibadis today have
reformed beliefs from original Kharijites.
- Ahmadiyyas are Muslims who
follow Mirza Ghulam Ahmed whom they consider to be
the mahdi. They are divided into two subgroups; the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Lahore Ahmadiyya
Movement.
- The Nation of Islam is a
denomination in Islam primarily geared towards
African Americans.
- The Five-Percent Nation, a
denomination predominantly consisting of African
Americans, also known as Nation of Gods and Earths.
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 Kiddle: Islam
Wikipedia: Islam |
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