ISLAM

Galura, Alleanna Yvonne

Garcia, Paulo Miguel

Section 4A
Islam: Basic Beliefs

Islam is an Arabic word which means "surrender, submission, commitment and peace." Thus, Islam
can be defined as a path to attain complete peace through voluntary submission to the divine will.

How did Islam begin?

Islam is a monotheistic faith centered around belief in the one God (Allah). In this regard, it shares some beliefs with
Judaism and Christianity by tracing its history back to the patriarch Abraham, and ultimately to the first prophet, Adam.
All the prophets preached the same universal message of belief in one God and kindness to humanity. The last in the
series of prophets, according to Muslims, was Muhammad. Muhammad was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia around 570
CE. He worked first as a shepherd and then as a merchant. He was not happy with the people around him because of
superstitions and social and economic injustice. The people were worshipping many gods and had forgotten the message
of prophet Abraham to worship one God. Muhammad loved to pray and meditate in the mountains. On one of those
occasions, in the year 610 CE, when he was about 40 years old, he received a revelation from God through the angel
Jibril (Gabriel). He continued to receive messages from God throughout his life and he began preaching to others what
he had learned. His main message is that there was no other God but Allah and that people should lead their lives in a
way that was pleasing to Allah.

Who is Allah (God)?

"Allah" is simply the Arabic word for God. He is the same universal God worshipped by people of all faiths. The word
"Allah" is sometimes preferred over God because it is neither masculine nor feminine. Also, there is no plural for "Allah."

Who is Prophet Muhammad?

From the beginning of mankind until the present day Allah has sent a Prophet to every nation to
guide them to the truth. They were sent to teach their people to worship God alone and not to
ascribe any divine partners to Him. The names of these Prophets may sound familiar to you. They
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include Adam, Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail, Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqub (Jacob), Jesus,
Muhammad, and many others (peace be upon them all). Muslims believe Jesus to be a Prophet of
God rather than a divine being or son. We will cover this difference in faith between the Muslims
and Christians in a future guide. This chain of prophethood began with Adam and ended with
Muhammad (peace be upon him), the final Prophet of Allah. He was born in Makkah in the year
570, about six centuries after Jesus. He grew up to be known as an honest and truthful person
throughout the city. When he reached the age of 40 he was chosen to be a Prophet of Allah. He
was chosen at a time when mankind had turned away from the original message of Islam that the
previous Prophets had come with. Muslims believe the Gospel, Torah, and other scriptures were
distorted by people after their Prophets had passed away. Allah sent the archangel Gabriel to reveal
the Qur’an to Muhammad (peace be upon him) to spread the correct, unadulterated teachings of
Islam to the four corners of the globe. Allah gave Muhammad (peace be upon him) the ability to
carry on the message successfully. They are grateful for the blessing of calling themselves Muslim.

Who are Muslims?

A person who believes in and consciously follows Islam is called a Muslim, also from the same root word. So, the
religion is called "Islam," and a person who believes in and follows it is a "Muslim."

How many Muslims are there?

Islam spread quickly first throughout Arabia and surrounding countries and then throughout the world. There are 1.6
billion Muslims in the world with 7 million in the United States. Only about 18% of Muslims are Arabs and live in the
Middle East. The countries with the largest Muslim populations are Indonesia and India.

There are two basic groups of Islam: the Sunnis (about 80% of the world's Muslims) and the Shi'ites (about 20% of the
world's Muslims). Although they share the same basic beliefs, they disagree on who was the rightful leader of Islam after
Muhammad's death.

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What do Muslims believe?

Muslims have six major beliefs: The 6 Pillars of Faith

1. To Believe in God (Allah)

 Monotheism (tawhid = “divine unity”)
o God is absolute, a single inseparable unity
o One God - Same God for Jews, Christians, Muslims
o Allah: not a proper name, but the Arabic word for “God”
o “99 Names of God”: found throughout the Qur’an
 God has “no associate or partner”
o Muslims reject the Christian concept of “Trinity”
o God cannot become human; humans cannot be God
o Consider Jesus a great prophet, but not divine

2. To Believe in Unseen
 Angels
o God’s messengers; reveal messages to Prophets
 Ex: Angel Gabriel revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad
o No free will; sole purpose is serving God
o Accompany, guide, and protect people at all times
 Spirits (Jinn)
o Spiritual beings, with free will
o Thus can be good or evil
o Root of English word/concept: “genie”

3. To Believe in Prophethood
 Prophets (nabi ) and Messengers (rasul )
o Prophets speak God’s words to people orally.
o Messengers record God’s words in book form.
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 o So, not all prophets are messengers, but all messengers are also prophets.
 Muslims believe in 1000’s of prophets
o “Chain of Prophets”: Adam was first; Muhammad was last
o Also incl. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Jesus, etc.
o All transmit same basic message throughout history

4. To Believe in Revelation
 Holy Books
o Revealed scriptures; messages from God
o Different languages, different cultures, different eras
o But same basic message, culminating in the Qur’an
 Progressive Revelation
o Books of Moses, Psalms of David, Gospels of Jesus
o Ultimately the Qur’an, revealed thru Muhammad

NOTE: Most Muslims do not read the interpretations believing ancient Jews & Christians altered
the messages God had revealed through Moses, David, and Jesus

5. To Believe in the Day of Judgment

 Resurrection of the Dead
o At the end of time, all people will be raised
o Everyone is held accountable for his/her own deeds
 Judgment / Afterlife
o Everyone is judged based on one’s life/actions on earth
 If good deeds outweigh bad deeds:
o Reward - eternal life with God in heaven/paradise/garden
 If bad deeds outweigh good deeds:
o Punishment - in everlasting fires of hell

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6. To Believe in the Divine Decree
 Human Nature / Free Will
o Everyone has knowledge & ability to choose between right & wrong, and so is held
responsible
o Yet God has correct fore - knowledge of everyone’s path
 Destiny / Fate / Predestination
o God wrote down our destiny in the “Preserved Tablet”
o God knows what our nature will cause us to do
 A person’s actions are not caused by what God has written
 But God is omniscient - God knows in advance

What are the Five Pillars of Islam?

The Five Pillars of Islam are the five obligations that every Muslim must satisfy in
order to live a good and responsible life according to Islam.

1. Shahadah (declaration of faith)—to bear witness or testify that there is no god except
one God (Allah) and Muhammad is His prophet or messenger.

2. Salat (ritual prayer)—the five daily prayers are performed at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon,
sunset and night. The prayers are offered in Arabic language and facing the direction of
Mecca.

The five daily prayers:

o Fajr (early morning, before dawn)

o Duhr (mid-day, just after noon)
o ‘Asr (mid afternoon)
o Maghrib (just after sunset)
o Isha (at night, after dark has fallen)

3. Zakah (alms tax) –Giving 2.5% of one's wealth to the poor and needy.

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 4. Sawm (fasting)—Muslims fast during the daylight hours in the ninth month of the
Islamic lunar calendar called Ramadan. The purpose is to remind people of the goodness
of what they have and to show equality with the poor. Ramadan is a time for study and
self-discipline.

5. Hajj (pilgrimage): Muslims believe in making a pilgrimage to Mecca to the Ka'bah at

least once in their lifetime. The kA'bah is believed to have been built by Ibrahim
(Abraham) and one of his sons. Muhammad restored it to worship Allah. For this reason
it is a very sacred place to Muslims.

Why are they important?

Carrying out these obligations provides the framework of a Muslim's life, and weaves their
everyday activities and their beliefs into a single cloth of religious devotion.

No matter how sincerely a person may believe, Islam regards it as pointless to live life without
putting that 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.

What is the final revealed scripture (a sacred text) for Muslims?

Muslims believe that the last revealed scripture sent by God is the Qur'an or Koran

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Islam: Imagery

The Qur’an or Koran is the holy book of Islam. The original was written in Arabic.

Muslims stop to pray five times a day. If they are not in a mosque, they pray in a clean place or spread a prayer mat on
the floor. The prayer position represents submission to God’s will or obedience to Allah.

Both Muslim men and women try to dress modestly. Some women cover their entire bodies when outside the home.

The crescent moon and stars are symbols associated with Islam. Islam has a lunar calendar, hence the crescent. Stars
are signs of Allah.

A mosque is the house of worship for Muslims. The worship of images of Allah, people, or animals is forbidden in
Islam. For this reason, Islamic art and architecture uses geometric shapes and patterns.

The tower of a mosque is called a minaret. A muezzin calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret.

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Islam: Sources of Islamic doctrinal and social views

Islamic doctrine, law, and thinking in general are based upon four sources, or fundamental
principles (uṣūl):

(1) The Qurʾān,

(2) The Sunnah (“Traditions”),

(3) Ijmāʿ (“consensus”), and

(4) Ijtihād (“individual thought”).

1) The Qurʾān (literally, “reading” or “recitation”) is regarded as the verbatim word, or

speech, of God delivered to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. Divided into 114 suras
(chapters) of unequal length, it is the fundamental source of Islamic teaching. The suras
revealed at Mecca during the earliest part of Muhammad’s career are concerned mostly
with ethical and spiritual teachings and the Day of Judgment. The suras revealed at Medina
at a later period in the career of the Prophet are concerned for the most part with social
legislation and the politico-moral principles for constituting and ordering the community.

2) Sunnah (“a well-trodden path”) was used by pre-Islamic Arabs to denote their tribal or
common law. In Islam it came to mean the example of the Prophet—i.e., his words and
deeds as recorded in compilations known as Hadith (in Arabic, Ḥadīth: literally, “report”;
a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet). Hadith provide the written documentation
of the Prophet’s words and deeds. Six of these collections, compiled in the 3rd century AH
(9th century CE), came to be regarded as especially authoritative by the largest group in
Islam, the Sunnis. Another large group, the Shīʿites, has its own Hadith contained in four
canonical collections.

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3) The doctrine of ijmāʿ, or consensus, was introduced in the 2nd century AH (8th century
CE) in order to standardize legal theory and practice and to overcome individual and
regional differences of opinion. Though conceived as a “consensus of scholars,” ijmāʿ was
in actual practice a more fundamental operative factor. From the 3rd century AH ijmāʿ has
amounted to a principle of stability in thinking; points on which consensus was reached in
practice were considered closed and further substantial questioning of them prohibited.
Accepted interpretations of the Qurʾān and the actual content of the Sunnah (i.e., Hadith
and theology) all rest finally on the ijmāʿ in the sense of the acceptance of the authority of
their community.

4) Ijtihād, meaning “to endeavour” or “to exert effort,” was required to find the legal or
doctrinal solution to a new problem. In the early period of Islam, because ijtihād took the
form of individual opinion (raʾy), there was a wealth of conflicting and chaotic opinions.
In the 2nd century AH ijtihād was replaced by qiyās (reasoning by strict analogy), a formal
procedure of deduction based on the texts of the Qurʾān and the Hadith. The transformation
of ijmāʿ into a conservative mechanism and the acceptance of a definitive body of Hadith
virtually closed the “gate of ijtihād” in Sunni Islam while ijtihād continued in Shiʿism.
Nevertheless, certain outstanding Muslim thinkers (e.g., al-Ghazālī in the 11th–12th
century) continued to claim the right of new ijtihād for themselves, and reformers in the
18th–20th centuries, because of modern influences, caused this principle once more to
receive wider acceptance.

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Islam: Celebrations and Festivals

Id ul-Fitr

This festival marks the end of the month of fasting, Ramadan. It ends with the sighting of the new moon in the sky.
Muslims visit their mosque to say special prayers, visit friends and relatives, eat special feast foods and exchange gifts
and cards. It is a time of thankfulness for Allah's blessings which are better appreciated because of the experience of
fasting during Ramadan.

Hajj

This is the pilgrimage to Mecca to worship in the Ka'bah. Muslims try to do this at least once in their lifetime. Pilgrims
wear plain, identical clothes to show that all are equal in Allah's eyes. They walk around seven times, counterclockwise.
They they walk or run seven times between two hills followed by a 16 mile walk to Mount Arafat where Muhammad
preached his last sermon. On the way back to Mecca, Muslims throw stones at three stone pillars which represent Satan.
Then they make a final seven circles around the kA'bah.

Id ul-Adha

The Hajj, whether on pilgrimage or at home, ends with the festival of Id ul-Adha in which a sheep or goat is sacrificed.
This is a reminder of the sacrifice Ibrahim (Abraham) was asked to make of his son, Isma'il (Ishmael). When Ibrahim
was just about to sacrifice his son to show his obedience to God, God provided a lamb instead. The festival celebrates
God's mercy and Ibrahim's obedience. This story in different versions is in the Koran, the Bible, and the Old Testament
which shows the common heritage of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Id Ul-Ghadir

This festival in Shia communities around the world celebrates the anniversary of the Holy Prophet Mohammed's
completion of his final message to humankind with regard to his succession. Ghadir-e-Khun is the famous place where
this event took place during the month of Hajj in the 10th year of the Hijra, or migration, of the Prophet Mohammed
from Mecca to Medina.

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Milad an-Nabi (birthday of the Holy Prophet)

Muslims celebrate this occasion with great rejoicing. Muslims gather to narrate the stories of the Prophet's birth,
childhood, his character, manhood and his mission.

Lailat al-Qadr (Night of Power)

The night in which the prophet Mohammed received the first revelation from God. The Night of Power is one of the
odd-numbered nights of the last ten days of Ramadan. A portion of this night is spent reading the Qur'an and making
special prayers.

Islam: Sacred Spaces and Places

The most sacred place in all of Islam is the Ka'ba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Ka'ba is a
shrine, built by Abraham according to Muslim tradition, around a black stone. The Prophet
Muhammad specifically designated Mecca as the holy city of Islam and the direction (qibla) in
which all Muslims should offer their prayers.

The second most important place in Islam is Medina (or Medinah), the "City of the Prophet,"
is in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. It was to Medina city that Muhammad fled when
he was initially driven out of Mecca, and the place where he attracted his first followers.

The third most sacred city in Islam is Jerusalem, which was the original qibla (direction of
prayer) before it was changed to Mecca. Jerusalem is revered because, in Muslim tradition,
Muhammad miraculously traveled to Jerusalem by night and ascended from there into heaven.

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Although Muslims pray five times daily in their homes or wherever they are, in fact even in the streets, Muslims also
worship in mosques.

Mosques can be very elaborate, large structures or very simple ones. However most have these common features:

Sahn - a courtyard surrounded by arcades called riwags. There are fountains of water inside the courtyard to symbolize
purity and where worshippers can bathe before entering the mosque.

Minaret - a tower from which the muezzin calls Muslims to prayer. The minaret looks down on the sahn.

Mihrab - an empty arch which indicates the direction of Mecca.

Minbar - a pulpit from which the imam (prayer leader) gives the sermon and leads prayers.

Zulla or prayer hall off the sahn.

Mosques are decorated with a special kind of art. Muslims do not believe in making images of Allah, Muhammad, any
other prophets, or any person or animal. There are two reasons for this. One is that the worship of images is forbidden in
Islam. The other reason is that no artist's representation of Allah's creation would be able to show its true beauty. It is a
way of honoring Allah.

So, instead, Islamic artists use geometric shapes and patterns on their walls, floors, in their holy books, and on other
decorative items. Islamic mosques are known for incredible complex mosaic work. This medium suits the geometric
nature of Islamic art. Stars and crescents are also found on mosques and are symbols associated with Islam. The crescent
comes from the fact that Islam has a lunar calendar. In the Koran, stars are often signs from Allah.

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References:
https://www.mymasjid.ca/beginners-guide-understanding-islam/

https://www.slideshare.net/shilpaskumar77/islam-24581434

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/practices/fivepillars.shtml

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam

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