QUICK FACTS:
Founder: Muhammad
Founded in: Saudi Arabia in 610AD
Adherents Worldwide: 1.3 billion
Adherents in US: no accurate count (Somewhere between 1-7milllion)
God(s) and Universe: One God (Allah in Arabic)
Human Situation and Life's Purpose: Humans must submit (islam) to the will of God to gain Paradise after death
Afterlife: Paradise or Hell
Practices: Five Pillars: Faith, Prayer, Alms, Pilgrimage, Fasting. Mosque services on Fridays. Ablutions before prayer. No alcohol or pork. Holidays related to the pilgrimage and fast of Ramadan.
Texts: Qur'an (Scripture); Hadith (tradition)
SUMMARY:
According to Muslims, God sent a number of prophets to mankind to teach them how to live according to His law. Jesus, Moses and Abraham are respected as prophets of God. They believe that the final Prophet was Muhammad. According to Muslim belief, the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad, a camel driver, in a mountain cave and delivered a message from the one true God. The Prophet Muhammad dedicated the remainder of his life to spreading a message of this one true God. His life's work is recorded in the Qur'an, the sacred text of Islam.
The LIFE of MUHAMMAD:
Note: Muslims say peace be upon him after every mention of Muhammad's name, as a mark of respect. Muslims do the same when they write the Prophet's name, adding pbuh.
Muhammad (means "highly praised") was born in Mecca in 570 AD. Orphaned at age six, he lived with his uncle, for whom he worked as a shepherd. Around age 9, he joined his uncle on a caravan to Syria. As a young man, Muhammad worked as a camel driver between Syria and Arabia. Soon he established a career managing caravans on behalf of merchants. At age 25, Muhammad was employed by Khadija, a wealthy Meccan widow. The two were married, and by all accounts enjoyed a loving and happy marriage. Although polygamy was common practice at the time, Muhammad took no other wife than Khadija until her death 24 years later.
In his late 30s, Muhammad took to regularly visiting a cave in Mount Hira to seek solitude and contemplation. In 610, at the age of 40, Muhammad returned from one such visit telling his wife he had either gone mad or become a prophet, for he had been visited by an angel. Muhammad reported that while in a trance-like state, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and said "Proclaim!" But like Moses, Muhammad was a reluctant prophet. He replied, "I am not a proclaimer." The angel persisted, and the Prophet repeatedly resisted, until the angel finally overwhelmed Muhammad and commanded him:
Proclaim in the name of your Lord who created! Created man from a clot of blood. Proclaim: Your Lord is the Most Generous, Who teaches by the pen; Teaches man what he knew not. (Qur'an 96:1-3)
After additional angelic visits, Muhammad became confident he had undeniably been chosen as the messenger of God and began to proclaim, as he had been commanded. Muhammad's message to his countrymen was to convert from pagan polytheism, immorality and materialism, repent from evil, and worship Allah, the only true God. He was always careful to clarify his role in God's work - he was only a prophet. He was not an angel, did not know the mind of God, nor did not work miracles. He simply preached what he had received. In the first three years of his ministry, Muhammad gained only 40 followers, and many of his teachings threatened the way of life in Mecca. He and his followers experienced heavy persecution. Members of the small movement were stoned, covered in dirt as they prayed, beat with sticks, thrown into prison and refused service by merchants.
In 622 AD, the Prophet fled north to the city of Yathrib to escape growing persecution. There were many followers of Muhammad in Yathrib, and it was in need of a strong leader. This event is celebrated by Muslims as the Hijira ("flight") and marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar (622 AD = 1 AH). Yathrib was renamed Medinat al-Nabi, "the City of the Prophet," and is now known simply as Medina, "the City." In Medina, Muhammad proved himself an able politician and statesman as well as a prophet.
Eight years later, Muhammad returned to Mecca with an army and defeated it easily. By Muhammad's death in 632, the entire Arabian Peninsula had come under Muslim control. By 634, Islam had taken over the entire Arabian peninsula. Within 100 years of Muhammad's death, it had reached west to the Atlantic and east to the borders of China. This success was due in large part to the military and political abilities of Muhammad's successors, the caliphs.
Holy Texts:
The sacred text of Islam, the Qur'an, was written in Arabic within 30 years of Muhammad's death. Muslims believe it contains the literal word of God as gradually revealed to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel over the course of 20 years. Also important is the Hadith, a secondary text that records sayings of Muhammad and his followers. These two texts form the basis for all Islamic theology, practice and Sharia (Islamic law). The Judeo-Christian Bible is also respected as revelations from the true God, but Muslims believe the Bible to have been corrupted in transmission and translation.
BELIEFS:
To be considered as a Muslim, all that is required is to believe and recite the Shahada: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet." Beyond this core belief, however, Muslim doctrine is often summarized in "Six Articles of Faith." According to this list, to be a Muslim one must believe in:
- One God
- The angels of God
- The books of God, especially the Qur'an
- The prophets of God, especially Muhammad
- The Day of Judgment (or the afterlife)
- The supremacy of God's will (or predestination)
- Shahadah: sincerely reciting the Muslim profession of faith
- Salat: performing ritual prayers in the proper way five times each day
- Zakat: paying an alms (or charity) tax to benefit the poor and the needy
- Sawm: fasting during the month of Ramadan
- Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca
According Muslims, humans are the greatest of all creatures, created with free will for the purpose of obeying and serving God. The Qur'an includes a version of the biblical story of the fall of Adam (Qur'an 7), Adam and Eve begged God's forgiveness (7:23) and he punished them with a mortal life on earth but added, "from it [earth] you will be taken out at last" (7:25). Since Allah forgave the sins of the first pair, Muslims believe, all are born in Al-Fitra, a natural state of submission to Allah. True repentance from sin returns a person to this original sinless state.
According to Muslim theology, mankind's fall is in pride and rebellion. It is humans’ attempt to partner them with God and thereby damage their unity with God. Thus pride is Islam's cardinal sin. The cardinal virtue, then, is submission, or islam, reflecting the religion's central tenet of submitting to the will of God. Islamic practices center on the Five Pillars of Islam:
Carrying out these obligations provides the framework of a Muslim's life. No matter how sincerely a person may believe, Islam regards it as pointless if you do not put your faith into action and practice. Carrying out the Five Pillars demonstrates that the Muslim is putting their faith first, and not just trying to fit it in around their secular lives. When it comes to the afterlife, Islam teaches the eternal existence of the soul and a transformed physical existence after death. They also believe that there will be a day of judgment and humanity will be divided between the eternal destinations of Paradise and Hell. The Qur'an lists several sins that can condemn a person to hell, such as disbelief, usury, and dishonesty. Muslims view paradise as a place of joy and bliss, with Qur'anic references describing its features and the physical pleasures to come.
SECTS:
The division between Sunni and Shi'a, dates to the death of the Prophet Muhammad when his followers were faced with the decision of who would be his successor as the leader of Islam. Shiites are those who followed Ali, the closest relative of Muhammad, as Muhammad's successor. Sunnis followed Abu Bakr, an effective leader instead. The Sunnis, the largest Islam sect, are so named because they believe themselves to follow the sunnah ("custom" or "tradition") of the Prophet.