Islam

What is Islam?

Islam is a religion founded by a man named Muhammad (A.D. 570-632) in the western area of what is
now Saudi Arabia. The basic practices of Islam may be expressed as "Five Pillars:"

Shahada: a recitation which is required for a person to become a Muslim (an adherent of Islam):
"There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah."

Salat: daily prayers, which are to be performed five times a day, in the direction of the Arabian city of
Mecca. In addition to the five daily prayers, serious Muslims typically attend mosques (house of
worship) on Fridays at noon, led by an imam (a teacher or spiritual guide).

The Fast of Ramadan: each year for one month, nothing is to touch one's mouth during daylight hours.
Zakat: the donation of portion of one's income, to go for charitable purposes.

Hajj: a pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca. Every Muslim is required to visit Mecca once; if a
person is physically unable to make the journey, someone else may be sent in one's place. The
pilgrimage involves various rituals, including worship at the Ka'aba, the center of Islamic worship.

Besides these Five Pillars, another practice is sometimes called the Sixth Pillar of some forms of Islam:

Jihad: holy war, waged to promote the spread of Islam. The term "Jihad" may be applied to any sort of
struggle to advance Islam -- spiritual, economic, or physical. Physical Jihad, though frequently invoked
in the early days of Islam, has always had to meet certain qualifications in order to be legitimate. The
recent terrorist attacks did not meet those qualifications, inasmuch as the terrorists killed non-
combatants, themselves, and Muslims. Islamic alim (well-taught Muslims) see the attacks as unIslamic.

While Islam is a religion, it is also a way of life. The standards which establish Islam as a way of life
are (1) the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, (2) the Hadith, sayings of Muhammad, and (3) the Sunna,
examples set by Muhammad, which provide some background for some of the Hadith. Considered
collectively, the Qur'an, the Hadith, and the Sunna are the foundation of Shariah Law, the civil law
enforced by the governments of Islamic nations. In countries in which Muslims are a minority, Muslims
tend to be peaceful and tolerant. In countries ruled by Shariah Law, it is generally a serious crime for a
Muslim to become a Christian or for a Christian to attempt to convert a Muslim.

The Life of Muhammad

Arabia was mostly a pagan country when Muhammad was born in A.D. 570. In the city of Mecca, a
shrine called the Ka'aba (that is, Cube) was filled with various idols. His marriage to a well-to-do widow
named Khadija allowed him time for thoughtful contemplation about the differences between the beliefs
of his tribe (the Quraish) and the various other belief-systems that he encountered, such as Judaism and
some unBiblical versions of Christianity (such as Nestorianism).

At about age 40, Muhammad began to encourage religious reform. He described his call to become the
messenger of the one God, Allah, as a visitation from the angel Gabriel. Though initially apprehensive,
Muhammad came to believe that he was God's messenger, on a divine mission.

At one point, according to some Muslim historians, he told the people of Mecca, "Have you thought
upon Al-Lat and Al-Uzza and Manat, the third, and the other? These are exalted deities, and their
intercession is to be sought." Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat were the names of pagan deities. Soon,
however, Muhammad withdrew this statement, claiming that Satan had provoked him to make that
statement. The leaders of Mecca opposed Muhammad, and after the death of Muhammad's influential
uncle Abu Talib, he decided to leave the city with his followers on June 25, 622. This event is called the
Hijra, and it marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Muhammad went to the city of Medina (also called Yathrib), and was well-received. By this time,
Khadija had died and Muhammad had married another widow, named Sauda. He also married a young
girl named Aisha, who was about age 10 or 12. She was the daughter of Abu Bakr, a close friend of
Muhammad. In the course of time, Muhammad accumulated several wives. They included Sauda,
Aisha, Hafsa, Zainab (who had previously been the wife of Zaid, Muhammad's adopted son-in-law),
Juwariya, Safiya (who was a 15-year-old Jewish captive when he took her), Maimuna of Mecca, and
others. He also had at least two female servants, Mary (a "Coptic Christian") and Raihana.

Using Medina as a base of operations, Muhammad organized military raids, hoping to eventually conquer
Mecca. In the Battle of Badr, he successfully attacked a caravan. He later conquered the Jewish
settlement of Khaibar. After this, at the Battle of Uhud, the Meccans defeated Muhammad's army in a
battle in which Muhammad was wounded in the mouth. Muhammad proclaimed that those Muslims killed
in the battle would enter paradise. Soon, Muhammad resumed his raids. The Meccas attacked Medina
but failed, largely because Muhammad had ordered a large trench to be dug around the city. The raids
continued, and on at least one occasion the captured men were killed and the women and children were
sold as slaves. Finally, in A.D. 630 Muhammad entered Mecca with his army, met little resistance, and
took over the city. He ordered his men to destroy the idols in the Ka'aba, and continued to present
"revelations" to his followers. Muhammad died in A.D. 632 and was entombed in the city of Medina.

Islam After Muhammad

Before he died, Muhammad did not explicitly say who should be the next leader of the Ummah (that is,
the community of believers). Muhammad's daughter Fatima had married a man named Ali, but another
close associate of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph. Abu Bakr ordered the military
conquest of much of the Middle East. He was followed by Umar, whose armies conquered much of the
Middle East. Then Uthman, from the 'Umayyad tribe, became Caliph in 645. Caliph Uthman ordered
that the surahs of the Qu'ran should be published in a single definitive volume.

In A.D. 656, Uthman was assassinated and Ali became Caliph. Ali, too, was assassinated a few years
later. His son Hussain claimed that he should become Caliph. Others disagreed, however. A civil war
commenced, which eventually led to a permanent division of the Muslims into two groups, the Shi'ites
(who had supported Ali) and the Sunni (who had opposed Ali and Hussain). In A.D. 680, at the Battle of
Karbala, Hussain was killed. The 'Umayyad dynasty consolidated their power and oversaw the westward
expansion of their rule throughout northern Africa and into Spain, until their armies were defeated at the
Battle of Tours (in modern-day France) in A.D. 732.

Various denominations of Islam have developed over the centuries: the "Twelver" Shi'ites in Iran, the
"Ahmadiyya" sect in Pakistan (which some Muslims do not regard as truly Islamic), the extremely
conservative "Wahhabi" in Saudi Arabia, and others, including the Sufi and Ismaelite forms of Islam.
One of the Hadith states that Muhammad predicted that the Islamic community would divide into 73
groups, all of which would enter hell except one. There is some disagreement among various Islamic
groups regarding how the Sunna ought to be applied today.

There are about 900 million Muslims in the world today, and about 50 nations are governed by Islamic
governments. In the United States there are about 5-7 million Muslims (different sources have cited
different numbers).

Islam and Christ

The relationship between Bible-based Christianity and Islam is too complex to discuss sufficiently in a
simple introduction, so only a few things will be noted here. Muslims consider the Bible to be accurate
except wherever it disagrees with the Qur'an. In those cases, they consider the Bible to be corrupted.
In the Qur'an, Jesus is portrayed as a great prophet, but His status as the Son of God is explicitly
denied. (The term "Son of God" may have had a negative connotation to Muhammad's audiences that it
does not have to Bible-believing Christians.) Many Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified.
Muslims do not see Jesus as the ransom for their sins or as their Savior and Lord. They generally
expect that, on the Day of Judgment, people will be sent to Paradise or Hell, depending on their
performance of good works or evil works. Some, however, may realize that their own efforts cannot
guarantee them salvation (since it is impossible to make God a debtor) and they may hope that God's
grace will somehow save them.

Some non-Muslim researchers who have compared Islam to the religions encountered by Muhammad
have noticed that Islam looks a lot like what would result if someone took a little bit of Arabian
Christianity, a lot of Arabian folk-religion, and some Judaism, and mixed them together. They believe
that the Qur'an is not the result of supernatural guidance, and that it is, instead, the work of a man who
wanted to guide his people out of paganism while preserving their culture. It has been said that the
fingerprints of Muhammad are all over the Qur'an. Generally, the view of non-Muslim analysts of the
Qur'an has been that while it repeats some of the contents of the Bible, it also contains very serious
disagreements. It has also been proposed that there appears to be a connection between some of the
contents of the Qur'an and previously-existing material in the Bible and in Jewish legends.