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In Arabic, Islam means “submission” and is described as a Din, meaning “way of life” and/or “religion.” Etymologically, it is derived from the same root as, for example, Salam meaning “peace” (also a common salutation). The word Muslim is also related to the word Islam and means “one who surrenders” or “submits” to God, or a “vassal” of God.

Muslims hold that it is essentially the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to mankind since Adam, with the Qur’an (the one definitive text of the Muslim faith) codifying the final revelation of God. Islam sees Judaism and Christianity as derivations of the teachings of certain of these prophets – notably Abraham – and therefore see them as fellow Abrahamic religions, and People of the Book. Unlike Christianity, Islam has not undergone any period of reformation; however, that is essentially the goal of various liberal movements within Islam. Islam has two primary branches of belief, based largely on a historical disagreement over the succession of authority after Muhammad’s death; these are known as Sunnite and Shi’ite.

The basis of Muslim belief is found in the shahadatan (“two statements”): la ilaha illa-llahu; mu?ammadur-rasulu-llahi — “There is no god but God; Muhammad is the messenger of God.” One needs to recite and believe these statements in order to become a Muslim. All Muslims agree to this, although Sunnis further regard this as one of the five pillars of Islam.

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Islam World Religion Beliefs

Six articles of belief
There are six basic beliefs shared by all Muslims:

• 1. Belief in Allah, the one and only one worthy of all worship.
• 2. Belief in the Angels.
• 3. Belief in the Books (sent by God).
• 4. Belief in all the Prophets and Messengers (sent by God).
• 5. Belief in the Day of Judgment (Qiyamah) and in the Resurrection.
• 6. Belief in Fate (Qadar)1

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The Muslim creed in English:

• God, Allah

The fundamental concept in Islam is the unity of God (tawhid). This monotheism is absolute, not relative or pluralistic in any sense of the word. God is described in Sura al-Ikhlas, (chapter 112) as follows: Say “He is Allah, the one, the Self-Sufficient master. He never begot, nor was begotten. There is none comparable to Him.”

In Arabic, God is called Allah, a contraction of al-ilah or “the deity”. Allah thus translates to “God” in English; it is not grammatically a proper name, unlike the Israelite divine name Yahweh or the Christian usage of Jesus as a personal divine name. The implicit usage of the definite article in Allah linguistically indicates the divine unity. In spite of the different name used for God, Muslims assert that they believe in the same deity as the Judeo-Christian religions. However, Muslims disagree with the Christian theology concerning the unity of God (the doctrine of the Trinity and that Jesus is the eternal Son of God).

Although no Muslim visual images or depictions exist of God (because artistic depictions are considered idolatry), Muslims define God by the many divine attributes mentioned in the Qur’an, also commonly known as the 99 names of Allah. All but one Surah (chapter) of the Qur’an begins with the phrase “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful”. These are consequently the most important divine attributes in the sense that Muslims repeat them most frequently during their ritual prayers (called salah in Arabic).

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Prophets of Islam

The Prophets of Islam. The Qur’an speaks of God appointing two classes of human servants: messengers (rasul in Arabic), and prophets (nabi in Arabic and Hebrew). In general, messengers are the more elevated rank. All prophets are said to have spoken with divine authority; but only those who have been given a major revelation or message are called messenger. According to the Hadith, there are 124,000 messengers sent by Allah to different nations.

Notable messengers include Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, all belonging to a succession of men guided by God. Islam demands that a believer accept all of the Judeo-Christian prophets, making no distinction between them. In the Qur’an, twenty five specific prophets are mentioned.

Mainstream Muslims regard Muhammad as the ‘Last Messenger’ or the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ based on the canon. However, there have been a number of sects whose leaders have proclaimed themselves the successors of Muhammad, perfecting and extending Islam, or, whose devotees have made such claims for their leaders.

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Islamic Law

Muslims in Islamic societies have traditionally viewed Islamic law as essential to their religious outlook. For Muslims living in secular Western countries sharia ceases to be relevant as law, but remains a source of personal ethics (for example, the avoidance of pork and alcohol). The Qur’an is the foremost source of Islamic jurisprudence; the second is the Sunnah (the practices of the Prophet, as narrated in reports of his life). The Sunnah is not itself a text like the Qur’an, but is extracted by analysis of the Hadith (Arabic for “report”) texts, which contain narrations of the Prophet’s sayings, deeds, and actions of his companions he approved.

One hadith of especial importance for Islamic contractual law should be mentioned here. A merchant named Hakim ibn Hizam reported, “I asked the Prophet: O Messenger of Allah! A man comes to me and asks me to sell him what is not with me, so I sell him and then buy the goods for him in the market. And the Prophet said: sell not what is not with you.” This hadith has rendered controversial within the Moslem world much of what is considered routine finance outside of it, including the sale of futures and options, both of which might be characterized as the sale of ‘what is not with you.’

In recent times, traditional Islamic law has often been questioned by liberal movements within Islam. In a related development, Mohammad Hashim Kamali has questioned the reliability and contemporary relevance of the above quoted hadith of Hakim ibn Hizam.

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Religious authority

There is no official authority who decides whether a person is accepted to, or dismissed from, the community of believers, known as the Ummah (“Family”). 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. 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 community of Islam.

Islamic eschatology

Islamic eschatology is concerned with the Qiyamah (end of the world) and the final judgement of humanity. Like Christianity and some sects of modern Judaism, Islam teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the immortality of the human soul; the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah (Paradise, from the Hebrew pardes or orchard, also known as the garden of Heaven, from the Hebrew gan or garden), while the unrighteous are punished in Jahannam (a fiery Hell, from the Hebrew ge-hinnom or “valley of Hinnom”; usually rendered in English as Gehenna). A significant fraction of the Qur’an deals with these beliefs, with many hadith elaborating on the themes and details.

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Other beliefs

Other beliefs include the Angels, the Jinns (a species of invisible beings), and the existence of magic (which is strictly forbidden).

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The Five Pillars of Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam is the term given to the five most fundamental aspects of Islam. These five pillars are different in the Shia and Sunni sects.For the Sunni sect, the Five Pillars are the five most important obligations of a Muslim under Sharia law, and which devout Muslims will perform faithfully, believing them to be essential to pleasing Allah.

The Five Pillars of the Sunni sect are:
The Testimony that there is none worthy of worship except God and that Muhammad is his messenger.Establishing of the five daily Prayers (salah).The Giving of Zakaah (charity), which is generally 2.5% of the yearly savings for a rich man working in trade or industry, and 10% or 20% of the produce for agriculturists. This money or produce is distributed among the poor.Fasting from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan (sawm).The Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca during the month of Dhul Hijjah, which is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it.For the Shia sect, the Five Pillars (u?ulu-d-din), or more correctly translated “the principles of religion”, are the five fundamental principles of Islam; no more, no less.

The Shia sect consider the Sunni five pillars to be merely the most important obligations rather than these being the Five Pillars of Islam.

The Five Pillars of the Shia sect are:The Oneness of God (tawhid).The Justice of God (‘adl).Prophethood (nubuwwah).The Leadership of Mankind (imamah).The Resurrection (me’ad).

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The Qur’an

The Qur’an is the sacred book of Islam. It has also been called, in English, the Koran and the Quran. Qur’an is the currently preferred English transliteration of the Arabic original, it means “recitation”.

Muslims believe that the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and Muhammad’s death in 632. In addition to memorizing his revelations, his followers are said to have written them down on parchments, stones, bones, sticks, and leaves.

Muslims believe that Qur’an available today is same as that revealed to Prophet Muhammad without any alteration, due to hifz. Written Qur’an was compiled by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, sometime between 650 and 656. He sent copies of his version to the various provinces of the new Muslim empire, and directed that all variant copies be destroyed. However, some skeptics doubt the recorded oral traditions (hadith) on which the account is based and will say only that the Qur’an must have been compiled before 750.

There are also numerous traditions, and many conflicting academic theories, as to the provenance of the verses later assembled into the Qur’an. (This is covered in greater detail in the article on the Qur’an.) Most Muslims accept the account recorded in several hadith, which state that Abu Bakr, the first caliph, ordered Zayd ibn Thabit to collect and record all the authentic verses of the Qur’an, as preserved in written form or oral tradition. Zayd’s written collection, privately treasured by Muhammad’s widow Hafsa bint Umar, was used by Uthman and is the basis of today’s Qur’an.

Uthman’s version organized the revelations, or suras, roughly in order of length, with the longest suras at the start of the Qur’an and the shortest ones at the end. Later scholars have struggled to put the suras in chronological order, and among Muslim commentators at least there is a rough consensus as to which suras were revealed in Mecca and which at Medina. Some suras (eg surat Iqra) were revealed in parts at separate times.

Because the Qur’an was first written [date uncertain] in the Hijazi, Mashq, Ma’il, and Kufic scripts, which write consonants only and do not supply the vowels, and because there were differing oral traditions of recitation, there was some disagreement as to the correct reading of many verses. Eventually scripts were developed that used “points” to indicate vowels. For hundreds of years after Uthman’s recension, Muslim scholars argued as to the correct pointing and reading of Uthman’s unpointed official text, (the rasm). Eventually, most commentators accepted seven variant readings (qira’at) of the Qur’an as canonical, while agreeing that the differences are minor and do not greatly affect the meaning of the text.

The form of the Qur’an most used today is the Al-Azhar text of 1923, prepared by a committee at the prestigious Cairo university of Al-Azhar.

The Qur’an early became a focus of Muslim devotion and eventually a subject of theological controversy. In the 8th century, the Mu’tazilis claimed that the Qur’an was created in time and was not eternal. Their opponents, of various schools, claimed that the Qur’an was eternal and perfect, existing in heaven before it was revealed to Muhammad. The Mu’tazili position was supported by caliph Al-Ma’mun. The caliph persecuted, tortured, and killed the anti-Mu’tazilis, but their belief eventually triumphed and is held by most Muslims of today. Only reformist or liberal Muslims are apt to take something approaching the Mu’tazili position.

Most Muslims regard the Qur’an with extreme veneration, wrapping it in a clean cloth, keeping it on a high shelf, and washing as for prayers before reading the Qur’an. Old Qur’ans are not destroyed as wastepaper, but deposited in Qur’an graveyards. The Qur’an is regarded as an infallible guide to personal piety and community life, and completely true in its history and science.

From the beginning of the faith, most Muslims believed that the Qur’an was perfect only as revealed in Arabic. Translations were the result of human effort and human fallibility, as well as lacking the inspired poetry believers find in the Qur’an. Translations are therefore only commentaries on the Qur’an, or “translations of its meaning”, not the Qur’an itself.