Islam (/ˈɪslɑːm/;[note 1] Arabic: الإسلام is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a religious text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh), and, for the vast majority of adherents, by the teachings and normative example (called the sunnah, composed of accounts calledhadith) of Muhammad (c. 570–8 June 632 CE), considered by most of them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim (sometimes spelled "Moslem").[1]
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable[2] and that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[3] Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of aprimordial faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.[4] Muslims maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted over time,[5] they are nevertheless all obliged, according to the Qur'an, to treat the older scriptures with the utmost respect.[6]
As for the Qur'an, Muslims consider it to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God.[7] Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, from topics ranging from banking and welfare, to family life and theenvironment.[8][9]
The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders and conversion to Islam by missionary activities.[10] Most Muslims are of two denominations:[11][12]Sunni (75–90%)[13] or Shia (10–20%).[14] About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia,[15] the largest Muslim-majority country, 25% in South Asia,[15] 20% in the Middle East,[16] and 15% inSub-Saharan Africa.[17] Sizable Muslim communities are also found in Europe, China, Russia, and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world.
With about 1.6 billion followers or 23% of the global population,[18][19] Islam is the second-largest religion by number of adherents and, according to many sources
Etymology and meaning:-
Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace.[23] In a religious context it means "voluntary submission to God".[24][25] Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means "submission" or "surrender". Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is theactive participle of the same verb form, and means "one who submits" or "one who surrenders". Believers demonstrate submission to God by serving God, following his commands, and rejectingpolytheism. The word sometimes has distinct connotations in its various occurrences in the Qur'an. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as an internal conviction: "Whomsoever God desires to guide, He opens his heart to Islam."[26] Islam, by its own inner logic, embraces every possible facet of existence, for God has named Himself al-Muḥīṭ, the All-Embracing.[27]
Other verses connect Islām and dīn (usually translated as "religion"): "Today, I have perfected your religion (dīn) for you; I have completed My blessing upon you; I have approved Islam for your religion."[28] Still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith.[29] In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that includes imān (faith), and ihsān (excellence), where islām is defined theologically as Tawhid, historically by asserting that Muhammad is messenger of God, and doctrinally by mandating five basic and fundamental pillars of practice
Articles of faith:-
Main articles: God in Islam and Allah
Islam's most fundamental concept is a rigorous monotheism, called tawḥīd (Arabic: توحيد). God is described in chapter 112 of the Qur'an as:[32] "Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."(112:1-4) Muslims and Jews repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trinityand divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and Muslims are not expected to visualize God.[33][34][35][36] God is described and referred to by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahmān, meaning "The Compassionate" and Al-Rahīm, meaning "The Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).[37]
Muslims believe that the creation of everything in the universe was brought into being by God's sheer command, "'Be' and so it is,"[38] and that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[39] He is viewed as a personal god who responds whenever a person in need or distress calls him.[40] There are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God who states, "I am nearer to him than (his) jugular vein."[41]
Allāh is the term with no plural or gender used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to reference God, while ʾilāh (Arabic: إله) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[42]Other non-Arab Muslims might use different names as much as Allah, for instance "Tanrı" in Turkish, "Khodā" in Persian or Ḵẖudā in Urdu.
Angels
Main article: Islamic view of angels
Angels
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Belief in angels is fundamental to the faith of Islam. The Arabic word for angel (Arabic: ملك malak) means "messenger", like its counterparts inHebrew (malʾákh) and Greek (angelos). According to the Qur'an, angels do not possess free will, and therefore worship and obey God in total obedience. Angels' duties include communicating revelations from God, glorifying God, recording every person's actions, and taking a person'ssoul at the time of death. Muslims believe that angels are made of light. They are described as "messengers with wings—two, or three, or four (pairs): He [God] adds to Creation as He pleases..."[43]
The astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum in his book "Islam's Quantum Question" has pointed to modern Islamic scholars, like Muhammad Asad andGhulam Ahmed Parwez who have emphasized a metaphorical reinterpretation of the concept of angels.[44] For example, Asad highlighted the following words in the Quran as evidence that the aid provided by angels in the Battle of Badr was not literal: "and God ordained this only as a glad tiding."
Pictorial depictions of angels are generally avoided in Islamic Art, as the idea of giving form to anything immaterial is not accepted.[45] Muslims believe that angels can not be seen with the naked eye, and prophets such as Muhammad received revelation from them only in a spiritual sense. Since Muslims do not believe in image-representations of celestial beings, they therefore do not share the perceptions of angelic pictorial depictions, such as those found in Western Art.
Revelations
See also: History of the Quran
The Islamic holy books are the records which most Muslims believe were dictated by God to various prophets. Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, the Tawrat(Torah) and the Injil (Gospels), had become distorted—either in interpretation, in text, or both.[5] The Qur'an (literally, "Reading" or "Recitation") is viewed by Muslims as the final revelation and literal word of God and is widely regarded as the finest literary work in the Arabic language.[46][47]
Muslims believe that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God through the archangel Gabriel (Jibrīl) on many occasions between 610 CE until his death on June 8, 632.[48] While Muhammad was alive, all of these revelations were written down by his companions (sahabah), although the prime method of transmission was orally through memorization.[49]
The Qur'an is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, which combined, contain 6,236 āyāt, or verses. The chronologically earlier suras, revealed at Mecca, are primarily concerned with ethical and spiritual topics. The later Medinan suras mostly discuss social and moral issues relevant to the Muslim community.[50]
The Qur'an is more concerned with moral guidance than legal instruction, and is considered the "sourcebook of Islamic principles and values".[51] Muslim jurists consult the hadith ("reports"), or the written record of Prophet Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Qur'an and assist with its interpretation. The science of Qur'anic commentary and exegesis is known as tafsir.[52] The set of rules governing proper pronunciation is called tajwid.
Muslims usually view "the Qur'an" as the original scripture as revealed in Arabic and that any translations are necessarily deficient, which are regarded only as commentaries on the Qur'an.[53]
Prophets
Muslims identify the prophets of Islam (Arabic: أنۢبياء anbiyāʾ ) as those humans chosen by God to be his messengers. According to the Qurʼan, the prophets were instructed by God to bring the "will of God" to the peoples of the nations. Muslims believe that prophets are human and not divine, though some are able to perform miracles to prove their claim. Islamic theologysays that all of God's messengers preached the message of Islam—submission to the will of God. The Qurʼan mentions the names of numerous figures considered prophets in Islam, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, among others.[55]
Muslims believe that God finally sent Muhammad as the last law bearing prophet (Seal of the Prophets) to convey the divine message to the whole world (to sum up and to finalize the word of God). In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the Sunnah (literally "trodden path"). Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's actions in their daily lives and the Sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of the Qur'an.[56] This example is preserved in traditions known as hadith, which recount his words, his actions, and his personal characteristics. Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, regarded as verbatim words of God quoted by Muhammad but is not part of the Quran.
A hadith involves two elements- a chain of narrators, called sanad, and the actual wording, called matn. Hadiths can be classified, by studying the narration, as "authentic" or "correct", called Sahih (Arabic: صَحِيْح), "good", called Ḥasan (Arabic: حَسَن) or "weak", called Ḍaʻīf (Arabic: ضَعِيْف) among others. Muhammad al-Bukhari[57] collected over 300,000 hadith, but only included 2,602 distinct hadith that passed the tests that codified them as authentic into his book Sahih al-Bukhari,[57] which is considered by many to be the most authentic source after the Quran.[58][59]
Resurrection and judgment
Main article: Qiyama
Belief in the "Day of Resurrection", Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة) is also crucial for Muslims. They believe the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God but unknown to man. The trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah are described in the Qur'an and the hadith, and also in the commentaries of scholars. The Qur'an emphasizes bodily resurrection, a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death.[60]
On Yawm al-Qiyāmah, Muslims believe all mankind will be judged on their good and bad deeds and consigned to Jannah (paradise) or Jahannam (hell). The Qurʼan in Surat al-Zalzalah describes this as, "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it (99:7) and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it (99:8)." The Qurʼan lists several sins that can condemn a person to hell, such as disbelief in God (Arabic: كفر kufr), and dishonesty; however, the Qurʼan makes it clear God will forgive the sins of those who repent if he so wills. Good deeds, such as charity, prayer and compassion towards animals,[61][62] will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims viewheaven as a place of joy and bliss, with Qurʼanic references describing its features and the physical pleasures to come. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God.[63]
Yawm al-Qiyāmah is also identified in the Qur'an as Yawm ad-Dīn (Arabic: يوم الدين), "Day of Religion";[64] as-sāʿah (Arabic: الساعة), "the Last Hour";[65] and al-Qāriʿah (Arabic: القارعة), "The Clatterer".[66]
Divine will
Main article: Qadar
The concept of divine will is referred to as al-qadā wa'l-qadar (Arabic: قدر), which literally derives from a root that means to to measure. Everything, good and bad, is believed to have been decreed
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