{"id":177,"date":"2021-01-27T17:37:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/islam\/"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:16:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T21:16:29","slug":"islam","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/islam\/","title":{"rendered":"2.5 Islam"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_449\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"295\"]\"Muslim<\/a> Muslim calligraphy[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIslam<\/em> is an Arabic word which means \u201csubmit.\u201d Islam is described as being a way of living one\u2019s life that is centered around submitting to God's will and plan. A Muslim is one who attempts to live their life according to the ideas that\u00a0 God has made plain in the Qur'an, the revelation from God to Muhammad, the final prophet.\u00a0 The Arabic word for God is Allah, and Muslim people in all cultures and in all languages still use the Arabic to identify and call on their divine.\r\n\r\nLike the other Abrahamic traditions, Christianity and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East, but is now a global faith. There are more than one billion Muslims living all over the globe. According to Muslims, Allah\u2019s final prophet and messenger was Muhammad, and Allah\u2019s final word the Qur\u2019an. Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, communities of\u00a0 Muslims been following the path of Islam in many cultural contexts.\r\n\r\n \r\n
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Try this!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nTake this quiz from the Pew Research Center and test your knowledge of Islam.\u00a0 Once you have taken it, it will give you statistics comparing you to others in the US:\r\n

Muslims and Islam<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

The beginnings<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nBorn in the city of Mecca on the Arabian peninsula, a man named Muhammad was born in 570 CE to a powerful tribe, the Quraish, who were merchants. He was raised an orphan in his uncle\u2019s house. He married an older woman, the widow Khadijah, for whom he had worked in the caravan trade as a merchant. Muhammad performed devotions each year on Mount Hira, outside of Mecca.\u00a0 The year he was 40 years old, he began a series of visions that would change his life, and change the world.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_461\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"256\"]\"Cave<\/a> Cave at Hira, near Mecca[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOne year,\u00a0 Muhammad reported having a strange encounter during his devotions. The angle Gabriel, ((Jibra'il<\/em> in Arabic))\u00a0 commanded him, \u201cRecite!\u201d Twice Muhammad asked, \u201cRecite what?\u201d After he had asked this three times, the angel replied: \u201cRead! In the name of your Lord who created: He created man from a clinging form. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One who taught by [means of] the pen, who taught man what he did not know.\u201d (Qur'an, 96:1-5).\r\n\r\nMuhammad felt \u201cas though the words were written on [his] heart.\u201d He ran down the mountain, but he heard a voice from the sky: \u201cMuhammad, you are the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.\u201d\r\n\r\nFrom about 610CE until his death in 632CE, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations first at Mecca and subsequently at Medina, to where he had emigrated in 622CE. The messages that he received warned of divine judgment and an invitation to return to the ways of the earlier prophets, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus. As he gained more followers, these revelations challenged his society. \u00a0His world was polytheistic at the times, and the revelations to Muhammad spoke of the unity and oneness of the divine being. Meccan merchants were afraid that trade, which they believed was protected by the pagan gods, would suffer if polytheism was destroyed. Tribal feuds were a common part of the social structure, but the Prophet spoke of a universal community, or ummah<\/em>. The revelation Muhammad received demanded social justice and reform: one should not only perform regular prayers, but also care for the poor and the weak.\r\n\r\nAs his message gained followers, Muhammad was threatened in Mecca. For a time, the influence and status of his wife Khadijah and his uncle, Abu Talib, the chief of the clan, protected Muhammad. After they died, however, Muhammad's situation in Mecca changed.\r\n\r\nThe early Muslims encountered increasingly harsh persecution. In a forced flight in 622 CE, the Prophet and his followers emigrated north from Mecca to Medina. This event became known as the hijrah<\/em>. The Prophet became the actual leader of all of Medina, establishing order and unity in the town. In 630 CE, after a series of military battles and negotiations with enemies in Mecca, Muhammad returned to the city with most of his followers. Many Meccans then embraced Islam, and the Prophet dedicated the Ka\u2019bah, <\/em>which had been a\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_455\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Kaaba<\/a> Kaaba in Mecca[\/caption]\r\n\r\nplace of pilgrimage even before the beginning of Islam, \u00a0to the worship of the this one God. By the time of the Prophet\u2019s death in 632 CE, much of the Arabian peninsula had embraced Islam.\r\n\r\nWhen Muhammad died he had not named a successor to lead the Muslims as they expanded across Arabia and into Africa. One faction, the Shi'a, believed that only individuals directly descended from the Prophet could lead the Muslim community righteously. They thought that 'Ali, Muhammad's closest surviving blood male relative, should be their next leader. The other faction, the Sunnis, believed that the Prophet's successor should be determined by a consensus of the followers, and so they successively elected three of his most trusted companions, commonly referred to as the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and 'Uthman), as leaders of the Muslim community; 'Ali succeeded them as the fourth caliph.\r\n\r\nToday Islam remains divided, largely, into Sunni and Shi'a branches. Sunnis revere all four caliphs, while Shi'as regard 'Ali as the first caliph. The division between these two groups, based on their ideas about proper leadership for the people of Islam,\u00a0 has resulted in differences in worship as well as varied political and religious views. Sunnis are in the majority and occupy most of the Muslim world such as Syria, Egypt, Yemen and large majorities in southeast Asia, while Shi'a populations are concentrated in Iran and Iraq, with large numbers in Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.\r\n\r\n \r\n
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Key Takeaway<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

To quote Harvard's Pluralism Project: \"Most Muslims are careful to insist, however, that \u201cMuhammad is no more than a messenger\u201d (Qur'an 3:144), and not a divine being. When Muslims refer to the Prophet Muhammad, to show reverence, his name is often followed by the phrase \u201csalla llahu alayhi wa sallam\u201d meaning \u201cMay the prayers and peace of God be upon him.\u201d In writing, this may be abbreviated as (sa), SAW, or PBUH meaning \u201cpeace be upon him,\u201d while in other cases the calligraphic Arabic form is written.\"<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

5 Pillars of Islam<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n \r\n
The Five Pillars are the core beliefs and practices of Islam:<\/b><\/div>\r\n
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