Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an
Abrahamic
The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran.
Jewish traditi ...
monotheistic religion centred primarily around the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
, a religious text considered by
Muslims to be the direct word of
God (or ''
Allah'') as it was revealed to
Muhammad, the
main and final Islamic prophet.
[Peters, F. E. 2009. "Allāh." In , edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: ]Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. . (See also
quick reference
) " e Muslims' understanding of Allāh is based...on the Qurʿān's public witness. Allāh is Unique, the Creator, Sovereign, and Judge of mankind. It is Allāh who directs the universe through his direct action on nature and who has guided human history through his prophets, Abraham, with whom he made his covenant, Moses/Moosa, Jesus/Eesa, and Muḥammad, through all of whom he founded his chosen communities, the 'Peoples of the Book.'" It is the
world's second-largest religion behind
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
, with its followers ranging between 1-1.8 billion globally, or around a quarter of the world's population.
Due to the average younger age and higher
fertility rate
The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if:
# she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime
# she were ...
,
Islam is the world's fastest growing major religious group, and is projected by ''
Pew Research Center'' to be the world's largest religion by the end of the 21st century, surpassing
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
.
It teaches that God is
merciful,
all-powerful
Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one ...
, and
unique, and has guided humanity through
various prophets,
revealed scriptures, and
natural signs, with the Quran serving as the final and universal revelation and Muhammad serving as the "
Seal of the Prophets" (the last prophet of God).
The teachings and practices of Muhammad () documented in traditional collected accounts () provide a secondary constitutional model for Muslims to follow after the Quran.
Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a
primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets such as
Adam,
Noah,
Abraham,
Moses, and
Jesus, among others; these earlier revelations are attributed to
Judaism and
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
, which are regarded in Islam as
spiritual predecessor faiths. They also consider the Quran, when preserved in
Classical Arabic, to be the unaltered and final revelation of God to humanity. Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam also teaches of a "
Final Judgement" wherein the righteous will be rewarded in
paradise () and the unrighteous will be punished in
hell (). The religious concepts and practices of Islam include the
Five Pillars of Islam—considered obligatory acts of worship —and following Islamic law, , which touches on virtually every aspect of life, from
banking and finance
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
and
welfare to
women's roles and the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
.
[ (See also:]
sharia
via '' Lexico''.) The Five Pillars comprise ''
Shahada'', the Islamic
oath and
creed; ''
Salah'', daily
prayers; ''
Zakat,'' forms of
almsgiving;
''Sawm'', religious
fasting; and ''
Hajj'', a
mandated once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to
Mecca during the 12th month of the lunar calendar.
''Khitan'', the religious rite of
circumcision, is seen as obligatory or recommendable for male followers.
Prominent
religious festivals
A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. The science of religious rites and festivals is know ...
include
Ramadan,
Eid al-Fitr, and
Eid al-Adha. The cities of Mecca,
Medina, and
Jerusalem are home to the
three holiest sites in Islam, in descending order:
Masjid al-Haram,
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, and
Al-Aqsa Mosque, respectively.
Islam originated in the 7th century at
Jabal al-Nour, a mountain peak near Mecca where
Muhammad's first revelation is said to have taken place. Through various
caliphates, the religion later
spread outside of Arabia shortly after Muhammad's death, and by the 8th century, the
Umayyad Caliphate had imposed Islamic rule from the
Iberian Peninsula in the west to the
Indus Valley in the east. The
Islamic Golden Age refers to the period traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during the reign of the
Abbasid Caliphate, when much of the
Muslim world was experiencing a
scientific,
economic, and
cultural flourishing. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas especially
medicine,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
astronomy,
agriculture as well as
physics,
pharmacology,
engineering and
optics. The expansion of the Muslim world involved
various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as a result of
Islamic missionary activities ().
There are two major
Islamic denominations
Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam. There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and schools of Islamic theology, or ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves ...
:
Sunni Islam (85–90 percent)
[Denny, Frederick. 2010]
''Sunni Islam: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide''
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. p. 3. "Sunni Islam is the dominant division of the global Muslim community, and throughout history it has made up a substantial majority (85 to 90 percent) of that community." and
Shia Islam (10–15 percent);
combined, they make up a majority of the population in
49 countries. While
Sunni–Shia differences initially arose from disagreements over the
succession to Muhammad, they grew to cover a broader dimension both
theologically
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and
juridically, with the divergence acquiring notable political significance.
Approximately 12 percent of the world's Muslims live in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, the most populous Muslim-majority country; percent live in
South Asia; 20 percent live in the
Middle East–North Africa; and 15 percent live in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Sizable Muslim communities are also present in the
Americas,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
Etymology
In Arabic, ''Islam'' ( ar, إسلام, lit=submission
o God}) is the verbal noun of
Form IV originating from the verb (), from the
triliteral root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowe ...
(), which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of submission, safeness, and peace. In a religious context, it refers to the total surrender to the will of
God.
A ''
Muslim'' (), the word for a follower of Islam, is the
active participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
of the same verb form, and means "submitter (to God)" or "one who surrenders (to God)". In the
Hadith of Gabriel, ''Islam'' is presented as one part of a triad that also includes (faith), and (excellence).
Islam itself was historically called
''Mohammedanism'' in the
English-speaking world. This term has fallen out of use and is sometimes said to be
offensive, as it suggests that a human being, rather than God, is central to Muslims' religion, parallel to
Buddha in
Buddhism. Some authors, however, continue to use the term ''Mohammedanism'' as a
technical term for the religious system as opposed to the
theological concept of Islam that exists within that system.
Articles of faith
The Islamic
creed (''
aqidah
''Aqidah'' ( (), plural ''ʿaqāʾid'', also rendered ''ʿaqīda'', ''aqeeda'', etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means " creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology.
''Aqidah'' go beyond concise sta ...
'') requires belief in
six articles: God, angels, revelation, prophets, the
Day of Resurrection
In Islam, "the promise and threat" () of Judgment Day ( ar, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-qiyāmah, Day of Resurrection or ar, یوم الدین, italic=no, Yawm ad-din, Day of Judgement),
when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, ...
, and the divine decree.
God
The central concept of Islam is ''
tawḥīd
Tawhid ( ar, , ', meaning "unification of God in Islam (Allāh)"; also romanized as ''Tawheed'', ''Tawhid'', ''Tauheed'' or ''Tevhid'') is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion's central and single mo ...
'' ( ar, توحيد, link=no), the oneness of God. Usually thought of as a ''precise
monotheism'', but also
panentheistic in Islamic mystical teachings. God is seen as incomparable and without partners such as in the
Christian Trinity, and associating partners to God or attributing God's attributes to others is seen as
idolatory
Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the ...
, called
''shirk''. God is seen as transcendent of creation and so is beyond comprehension. Thus, Muslims are not
iconodules and do not attribute forms to God. God is instead described and referred to by several
names or attributes, the most common being ''Ar-Rahmān'' () meaning "The Entirely Merciful," and ''Ar-Rahīm'' () meaning "The Especially Merciful" which are invoked at the beginning of most chapters of the Quran.
Islam teaches that the creation of everything in the
universe was brought into being by God's command as expressed by the wording, "
Be, and it is,"
[ Q2:117 ] and that the
purpose of existence is to worship God. He is viewed as a personal god
and there are no intermediaries, such as
clergy, to contact God. Consciousness and awareness of God is referred to as
Taqwa. ''
Allāh
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
'' is a term with no
plural
The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
or
gender being ascribed to it and is also used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews in reference to God, whereas ' () is a term used for a deity or a god in general. Other non-Arab Muslims might use different names as much as Allah, for instance in Turkish or in Persian.
Angels
Angels ( ar, ملك, link=no, ') are beings described in the Quran and hadith. They are described as created to worship God and also to serve other specific duties such as communicating
revelations from God, recording every person's actions, and taking a person's
soul at the time of death. They are described as being created variously from 'light' (
''nūr'') or 'fire' (''nār''). Islamic angels are often represented in
anthropomorphic forms combined with
supernatural images, such as wings, being of great size or wearing heavenly articles. Common characteristics for angels are their missing needs for bodily desires, such as eating and drinking. Some of them, such as
Gabriel and
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
, are mentioned by name in the Quran. Angels play a significant role in the literature about the
Mi'raj, where Muhammad encounters several angels during his journey through the heavens. Further angels have often been featured in
Islamic eschatology,
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
.
Books
The Islamic holy books are the records that Muslims believe various prophets received from God through revelations, called ''
wahy''. Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, such as the ''
Tawrat'' (
Torah) and the ''
Injil'' (
Gospel), had become
distorted—either in interpretation, in text, or both,
while the Quran (lit. 'Recitation')
is viewed as the final, verbatim and unaltered word of God.
Muslims believe that the verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad by God, through the
archangel Gabriel (''
Jibrīl''), on multiple occasions between 610 CE and 632, the year Muhammad died. While Muhammad was alive, these revelations were written down by his companions, although the prime method of transmission was orally through
memorization.
The Quran is divided into 114 chapters (
suras
The Abhira kingdom in the Mahabharata is either of two kingdoms near the Sarasvati river.
They were dominated by the Abhiras, sometimes referred to as Surabhira also, combining both Sura and Abhira kingdoms. Modern day Abhira territory lies wit ...
) which combined contain 6,236 verses (''
āyāt''). The chronologically earlier chapters, revealed at
Mecca, are concerned primarily with spiritual topics while the later
Medinan chapters discuss more social and legal issues relevant to the Muslim community.
[
"The word ''Quran'' was invented and first used in the Qurʼan itself. There are two different theories about this term and its formation."] Muslim jurists consult the ''hadith'' ('accounts'), or the written record of Prophet Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Quran and assist with its interpretation. The science of Quranic commentary and exegesis is known as ''
tafsir''. The set of rules governing proper
elocution of recitation is called
tajwid. In addition to its religious significance, it is widely regarded as the finest work in
Arabic literature, and has influenced art and the Arabic language.
Prophets
Prophets (Arabic: ar, أنبياء, label=none, translit=anbiyāʾ) are believed to have been chosen by God to receive and preach a divine message. Additionally, a prophet delivering a new book to a nation is called a ''rasul'' ( ar, رسول, label=none, translit=rasūl), meaning "messenger". Muslims believe prophets are human and not divine. All of the prophets are said to have preached the same basic message of Islam – submission to the will of God – to various nations in the past and that this accounts for many similarities among religions. The Quran
recounts the names of numerous figures considered
prophets in Islam, including
Adam,
Noah,
Abraham,
Moses and
Jesus, among others.
Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad as the final prophet ("
Seal of the prophets") to convey the completed message of Islam. In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the
sunnah (literally "trodden path"). Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's moral behaviors in their daily lives, and the Sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of the Quran. This example is preserved in traditions known as
hadith, which are accounts of his words, actions, and personal characteristics.
Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, regarded as God's verbatim words quoted by Muhammad that are not part of the Quran. A hadith involves two elements: a chain of narrators, called
''sanad'', and the actual wording, called ''
matn
Hadith studies ( ar, علم الحديث ''ʻilm al-ḥadīth'' "science of hadith", also science of hadith, or science of hadith criticism or hadith criticism)
consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in th ...
''. There are various methodologies to classify the authenticity of hadiths, with the commonly used grading being: "authentic" or "correct" ( ar, صحيح, links=no, translit=
ṣaḥīḥ, label=none); "good", ''hasan'' ( ar, حسن, links=no, label=none, translit=
ḥasan); or "weak" ( ar, ضعيف, label=none, translit=
ḍaʻīf), among others. The ''
Kutub al-Sittah'' are a collection of six books, regarded as the most authentic reports in
Sunni Islam. Among them is ''
Sahih al-Bukhari'', often considered by Sunnis to be one of the most
authentic sources after the Quran.
[ al-Rahman, Aisha Abd, ed. 1990. '' Muqaddimah Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ''. Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1990. pp. 160–69] Another famous source of hadiths is known as ''
The Four Books
''The Four Books'' ( ar-at, ٱلْكُتُب ٱلْأَرْبَعَة, '), or ''The Four Principles'' (''al-Uṣūl al-Arbaʿah''), is a Twelver Shia term referring to their four best-known ''hadith'' collections:
Most Shi'a Muslims use d ...
'', which Shias consider as the most authentic hadith reference.
Resurrection and judgment
Belief in the "Day of Resurrection" or ''
Yawm al-Qiyāmah
In Islam, "the promise and threat" () of Judgment Day ( ar, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-qiyāmah, Day of Resurrection or ar, یوم الدین, italic=no, Yawm ad-din, Day of Judgement),
when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, an ...
'' ( ar, يوم القيامة, link=no), is also crucial for Muslims. It is believed that the time of ''Qiyāmah'' is preordained by God but unknown to man. The Quran and the hadith, as well as in the commentaries of
scholars, describe the trials and
tribulations preceding and during the ''Qiyāmah''. The Quran emphasizes
bodily resurrection, a break from the
pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death.
On Yawm al-Qiyāmah, Muslims believe all humankind will be judged by their good and bad deeds and consigned to ''
Jannah'' (paradise) or ''
Jahannam'' (hell). The Quran in
Surat al-Zalzalah describes this as: "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it." The Quran
lists several sins that can condemn a person to
hell, such as
disbelief in God ( ar, كفر, translit=kufr, label=none), and dishonesty. However, the Quran makes it clear that God will forgive the
sins of those who repent if he wishes. Good deeds, like charity, prayer, and compassion towards animals, will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims view heaven as a place of joy and blessings, with Quranic references describing its features. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God. ''Yawm al-Qiyāmah'' is also identified in the Quran as ''Yawm ad-Dīn'' ( "Day of Religion");
[;] ''as-Sāʿah'' ( "the Last Hour");
[;] and ''
al-Qāriʿah'' ( "The Clatterer");
Divine predestination
The concept of
divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
decree and
destiny in Islam ( ar, القضاء والقدر, ') means that every matter, good or bad, is believed to have been decreed by God. ''Al-qadar'', meaning "power", derives from a root that means "to measure" or "calculating". Muslims often express this belief in divine destiny with the phrase
"Insha-Allah" meaning "if God wills" when speaking on future events. In addition to loss, gain is also seen as a test of believers – whether they would still recognize that the gain originates only from God.
Acts of worship
There are five obligatory acts of worship – the
Shahada declaration of faith, the five daily prayers, the
Zakat alms-giving,
fasting during Ramadan and the
Hajj pilgrimage – collectively known as "The Pillars of Islam" (''Arkān al-Islām'').
Apart from these, Muslims also perform other supplemental religious acts.
Testimony
The
''shahadah'', is an
oath declaring belief in Islam. The expanded statement is "" ( ar, أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله, label=none), or, "I testify that there is no
deity except
God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God." Islam is sometimes argued to have a very simple creed with the shahada being the premise for the rest of the religion. Non-Muslims wishing to
convert to Islam are required to recite the shahada in front of witnesses.
Prayer
Prayer in Islam, called
as-salah or aṣ-ṣalāt ( ar, الصلاة, link=no), is seen as a personal communication with God and consists of repeating units called
rakat that include
bowing
Bowing (also called stooping) is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. It is most prominent in Asian cultures but it is also typical of nobility and aristocracy in many European cou ...
and
prostrating to God. Performing prayers five times a day is compulsory. The prayers are recited in the Arabic language and consist of verses from the Quran. The prayers are done in direction of the
Ka'bah. Salah requires ritual purity, which involves ''
wudu'' (ritual wash) or occasionally, such as for new converts, ''
ghusl'' (full body ritual wash). The means used to signal the prayer time is a vocal call called the ''
adhan
Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer ( salah) in a mo ...
''.
A
mosque is a
place of worship for Muslims, who often refer to it by its Arabic name masjid. Although the primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place of prayer, it is also important to the
Muslim community as a place to meet and study with the
Masjid an-Nabawi ("Prophetic Mosque") in Medina,
Saudi Arabia, having also served as a shelter for the poor.
Minarets are towers used to call the
adhan
Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer ( salah) in a mo ...
.
Charity
Zakāt (
Arabic: ar, زكاة, translit=zakāh, label=none) is a means of
welfare in a Muslim society, characterized by the giving of a fixed portion (2.5% annually)
[Ahmed, Medani, and Sebastian Gianci. "Zakat." p. 479 in ''Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy''.] of
accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy, such as for freeing captives, those in
debt, or for (stranded) travellers, and for those employed to collect zakat. It is considered a religious obligation that the well-off owe to the needy because their wealth is seen as a "trust from God's bounty" and is seen as a "purification" of one's excess wealth. The total annual value contributed due to zakat is 15 times greater then global humanitarian aid donations, using conservative estimates. ''Sadaqah'', as opposed to Zakat, is a much encouraged
supererogatory charity. A
waqf is a perpetual
charitable trust, which financed hospitals and schools in Muslim societies.
Fasting
During the month of
Ramadan, it is obligatory for Muslims to fast. The Ramadan fast (
Arabic: ar, صوم, translit=ṣawm, label=none) precludes food and drink, as well as other forms of consumption, such as smoking, and is performed from dawn to sunset. The fast is to encourage a feeling of nearness to God by restraining oneself for God's sake from what is otherwise permissible and to think of the needy. In addition, there are other days when fasting is supererogatory.
Pilgrimage
The obligatory Islamic
pilgrimage, called the "" ( ar, حج, link=no), is to be done at least once a lifetime by every Muslim with the means to do so during the
Islamic month of
Dhu al-Hijjah. Rituals of the Hajj mostly imitate the story of the family of
Abraham. Pilgrims spend a day and a night on the plains of
Mina, then a day praying and worshipping in the plain of
Mount Arafat, then spending a night on the plain of
Muzdalifah; then moving to
Jamarat, symbolically
stoning the Devil, then going to the city of
Mecca and walking seven times around the
Kaaba, which Muslims believe Abraham built as a place of worship, then walking seven times between
Mount Safa and Mount Marwah recounting the steps of Abraham's wife,
Hagar, while she was looking for water for her baby
Ishmael in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement. All Muslim men should wear only two simple white unstitched pieces of cloth called
ihram, intended to bring continuity through generations and uniformity among pilgrims despite class or origin. Another form of pilgrimage, ''umrah'', is supererogatory and can be undertaken at any time of the year.
Medina is also a site of Islamic pilgrimage and
Jerusalem, the city of many Islamic prophets, contains the
Al-Aqsa Mosque, which used to be the
direction of prayer before Mecca.
Quranic recitation and memorization
Muslims recite and memorize the whole or parts of the Quran as acts of virtue. Reciting the Quran with elocution (''tajwid'') has been described as an excellent act of worship. Pious Muslims recite the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. In Muslim societies, any social program generally begins with the recitation of the Quran. One who has memorized the whole Quran is called a hafiz ("memorizer") who, it is said, will be able to intercede for ten people on the Last Judgment Day. Apart from this, almost every Muslim memorizes some portion of the Quran because they need to recite it during their prayers.
Supplication and remembrance
Supplication to God, called in Arabic ''ad-duʿāʾ'' ( ar, الدعاء ) has its own etiquette such as
raising hands as if begging or invoking with an extended index finger.
Remebrance of God ( ar, ذكر, translit=Dhikr', label=none) refers to phrases repeated referencing God. Commonly, this includes Tahmid, declaring
praise be due to God ( ar, الحمد لله, translit=al-Ḥamdu lillāh, label=none) during prayer or when feeling thankful,
Tasbih, declaring glory to God during prayer or when in awe of something and saying '
in the name of God' (, ) before starting an act such as eating.
History
Muhammad (610–632)
Born in
Mecca in 570, Muhammad was orphaned early in life. New trade routes rapidly transformed Meccan society from a semi-bedouin society to a commercial urban society, leaving out weaker segments of society without protection. He acquired the nickname "
trustworthy
Trust is the willingness of one party (the trustor) to become vulnerable to another party (the trustee) on the presumption that the trustee will act in ways that benefit the trustor. In addition, the trustor does not have control over the acti ...
" ( ar, الامين), and was sought after as a bank to safeguard valuables and an impartial arbitrator. Affected by the ills of society and after becoming financially secure through marrying his employer, the businesswoman
Khadija, he began retreating to a
cave to contemplate. During the last 22 years of his life, beginning at age 40 in 610
CE, Muhammad reported receiving revelations from God, conveyed to him through the
archangel Gabriel, thus becoming the seal of the prophets sent to mankind, according to Islamic tradition.
During this time,
while in Mecca, Muhammad preached first in secret and then in public, imploring his listeners to abandon
polytheism and worship one God. Many early converts to Islam were women, the poor, foreigners, and slaves like the first
muezzin Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi. The Meccan elite profited from the pilgrimages to the idols of the Kaaba and felt Muhammad was destabilizing their social order by preaching about one God, and that in the process he gave questionable ideas to the poor and slaves. Muhammad, who was accused of being a poet, a madman or possessed, presented the
challenge of the Quran to imitate the like of the Quran in order to disprove him. The Meccan authorities persecuted Muhammad and his followers, including a boycott and banishment of Muhammad and his clan to starve them into withdrawing their protection of him. This resulted in the
Migration to Abyssinia of some Muslims (to the
Aksumite Empire).
After 12 years of the
persecution of Muslims by the Meccans
In the early days of Islam at Mecca, the new Muslims were often subjected to abuse and persecution. The persecution lasted for twelve years beginning from the advent of Islam to Hijrah. Muhammad preached Islam secretly for three years. Then, he o ...
, Muhammad and his
companions performed the ''
Hijra'' ("emigration") in 622 to the city of Yathrib (current-day Medina). There, with the Medinan converts (the ''
Ansar'') and the Meccan migrants (the ''
Muhajirun''),
Muhammad in Medina established his
political and religious authority. The
Constitution of Medina was signed by all the tribes of Medina establishing among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities religious freedoms and freedom to use their own laws and agreeing to bar weapons from Medina and to defend it from external threats. Meccan forces and their allies lost against the Muslims at the
Battle of Badr in 624 and then fought an inconclusive battle in the
Battle of Uhud before unsuccessfully besieging Medina in the
Battle of the Trench (March–April 627). In 628, the
Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed between Mecca and the Muslims, but it was broken by Mecca two years later. As more tribes converted to Islam, Meccan trade routes were cut off by the Muslims. By 629 Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless
conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 (at age 62) he had united the
tribes of Arabia into a single religious
polity. Muhammad's closest companions, such as
Abu Hureyrah, recorded and compiled what would constitute the hadith.
Caliphate and civil strife (632–750)
Muhammad died in 632 and the first successors, called
Caliphs –
Abu Bakr,
Umar,
Uthman ibn al-Affan,
Ali ibn Abi Talib and sometimes
Hasan ibn Ali – are known in Sunni Islam as ''al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn'' ("
Rightly Guided Caliphs"). Some tribes left Islam and rebelled under leaders who declared themselves new prophets but were crushed by Abu Bakr in the
Ridda wars. Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians, persecuted as religious minorities and heretics and taxed heavily, often helped Muslims take over their lands, resulting in rapid expansion of the caliphate into the
Persian and
Byzantine empires.
Uthman
was elected in 644 and his assassination by rebels led to Ali being elected the next Caliph. In the
First Civil War, Muhammad's widow,
Aisha, raised an army against Ali, asking to avenge the death of Uthman, but was defeated at the
Battle of the Camel. Ali attempted to remove the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya, who was seen as corrupt. Mu'awiya then declared war on Ali and was defeated in the
Battle of Siffin. Ali's decision to arbitrate angered the
Kharijites, an extremist sect, who felt that by not fighting a sinner, Ali became a sinner as well. The Kharijites rebelled and were defeated in the
Battle of Nahrawan but a Kharijite assassin later killed Ali. Ali's son, Hasan ibn Ali, was elected Caliph and signed a
peace treaty to avoid further fighting, abdicating to
Mu'awiyah
Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
in return for Mu'awiyah not appointing a successor. Mu'awiyah began the
Umayyad dynasty with the appointment of his son
Yazid I as successor, sparking the
Second Civil War. During the
Battle of Karbala,
Husayn ibn Ali was killed by Yazid's forces; the event has been
annually commemorated by Shia ever since. Sunnis, led by
Ibn al-Zubayr, opposed to a dynastic caliphate were defeated in the
Siege of Mecca. These disputes over leadership would give rise to the
Sunni-
Shia schism,
with the Shia believing leadership belongs to Muhammad's family through Ali, called the
ahl al-bayt.
Quietist forms of Kharijites led to the third largest denomination in Islam,
Ibadiyya.
Abu Bakr's leadership oversaw the beginning of the compilation of the Qur'an. The Caliph
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, an ...
set up the committee,
The Seven Fuqaha of Medina, and
Malik ibn Anas wrote one of the earliest books on Islamic jurisprudence, the ''
Muwatta'', as a consensus of the opinion of those jurists. The
Kharijites believed there is no compromised middle ground between good and evil, and any Muslim who commits a grave sin becomes an unbeliever. The term is also used to refer to later groups such as
Isis. The
Murji'ah taught that people's righteousness could be judged by God alone. Therefore, wrongdoers might be considered misguided, but not denounced as unbelievers. This attitude came to prevail into mainstream Islamic beliefs.
The Umayyad dynasty conquered the
Maghreb, the
Iberian Peninsula,
Narbonnese Gaul and
Sindh. The Umayyads struggled with a lack of legitimacy and relied on a heavily patronized military. Since the jizya tax was a tax paid by non-Muslims which exempted them from military service, the Umayyads denied recognizing the conversion of non-Arabs as it reduced revenue. While the Rashidun Caliphate emphasized austerity, with Umar even requiring an inventory of each official's possessions, Umayyad luxury bred dissatisfaction among the pious. The Kharijites led the
Berber Revolt leading to the first Muslim states independent of the Caliphate. In the
Abbasid revolution, non-Arab converts (''
mawali''), Arab clans pushed aside by the Umayyad clan, and some Shi'a rallied and overthrew the Umayyads, inaugurating the more cosmopolitan Abbasid dynasty in 750.
Classical era (750–1258)
Al-Shafi'i codified a method to determine the reliability of hadith. During the early Abbasid era, scholars such as
Bukhari Bukhari or Bokhari () means "from Bukhara (Uzbekistan)" in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Hebrew, and may refer to:
People
* al-Bukhari (810–870), Islamic hadith scholar and author of the
*Bukhari Daud (1959–2021), Indonesian academician and reg ...
and
Muslim compiled the major
Sunni hadith collections
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...
while scholars like
Al-Kulayni and
Ibn Babawayh compiled major Shia hadith collections. The four Sunni
Madh'hab
A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within '' fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence).
The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.
They emerged in the ninth and tenth centurie ...
s, the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i, were established around the teachings of
Abū Ḥanīfa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Musl ...
,
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Malik ibn Anas and
al-Shafi'i
Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schol ...
. In contrast, the teachings of
Ja'far al-Sadiq formed the
Ja'fari jurisprudence. In the 9th century
Al-Tabari completed the first commentary of the Quran, that became one of the most cited commentaries in Sunni Islam, the ''
Tafsir al-Tabari
''Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān'' (, also written with ''fī'' in place of ''ʿan''), popularly ''Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī'' ( ar, تفسير الطبري), is a Sunni '' tafsir'' by the Persian scholar Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari ( ...
''. Some Muslims began questioning the piety of indulgence in worldly life and emphasized poverty, humility, and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Ascetics such as Hasan al-Basri would inspire a movement that would evolve into ''Tasawwuf'' or Sufism.
At this time, theological problems, notably on free will, were prominently tackled, with Hasan al Basri holding that although God knows people's actions, good and evil come from abuse of free will and the
devil. Greek rationalist philosophy influenced a speculative school of thought known as
Muʿtazila, first originated by
Wasil ibn Ata. Caliphs such as
Mamun al Rashid
Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...
and
Al-Mu'tasim made it an official creed and unsuccessfully attempted to force their position on the majority. They carried out inquisitions with the traditionalist
Ahmad ibn Hanbal notably refusing to conform to the Mutazila idea of the creation of the Quran and was tortured and kept in an unlit prison cell for nearly thirty months. However, other
schools of
speculative theology –
Māturīdism founded by
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ḥanafī al-Māturīdī al-Samarḳandī ( fa, أبو منصور محمد بن محمد بن محمود الماتریدي السمرقندي الحنفي; 853–944 CE), often referred t ...
and
Ash'ari
Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer, and scholastic theologian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in th ...
founded by
Al-Ash'ari – were more successful in being widely adopted. Philosophers such as
Al-Farabi,
Avicenna and
Averroes sought to harmonize Aristotle's metaphysics within Islam, similar to later
scholasticism within Christianity in Europe, and
Maimonides' work within Judaism, while others like
Al-Ghazali argued against such
syncretism and ultimately prevailed.
This era is sometimes called the "
Islamic Golden Age".
Avicenna was a pioneer in
experimental medicine,
[Jacquart, Danielle (2008). "Islamic Pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Theories and Substances". European Review (Cambridge University Press) 16: 219–227.] and his ''
The Canon of Medicine'' was used as a standard medicinal text in the Islamic world and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
for centuries.
Rhazes was the first to distinguish the diseases
smallpox and
measles.
Public hospitals of the time issued the first medical diplomas to license doctors.
Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern
scientific method and often referred to as the "world's first true scientist", in particular regarding his work in
optics.
[ Haq, Syed (2009). "Science in Islam". Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. . Retrieved 22 October 2014] In engineering, the
Banū Mūsā brothers'
automatic flute player is considered to have been the first
programmable machine A program is a set of instructions used to control the behavior of a machine. Examples of such programs include:
*The sequence of cards used by a Jacquard loom to produce a given pattern within weaved cloth. Invented in 1801, it used holes in punc ...
.
In
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, the concept of the
algorithm is named after
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who is considered a founder of
algebra, which is named after his book
''al-jabr'', while others developed the concept of a
function. The government paid scientists the equivalent salary of professional athletes today.
The
Guinness World Records recognizes the
University of Al Karaouine, founded in 859, as the world's oldest degree-granting university.
The vast Abbasid empire proved impossible to hold together. Soldiers established their own dynasties, such as the
Tulunids,
Samanid and
Ghaznavid dynasty. Additionally, the
millennialist Isma'ili Shi'a missionary movement rose with the
Fatimid dynasty
The Fatimid dynasty () was an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty of Arab descent that ruled an extensive empire, the Fatimid Caliphate, between 909 and 1171 CE. Claiming descent from Fatima and Ali, they also held the Isma'ili imamate, claiming to be the ...
taking control of North Africa and with the
Qarmatians sacking Mecca and stealing the Black Stone in their unsuccessful rebellion. In what is called the
Shi'a Century, another Ismaili group, the
Buyid dynasty conquered Baghdad and turned the Abbasids into a figurehead monarchy. The Sunni Seljuk dynasty, campaigned to
reassert Sunni Islam by promulgating the accumulated scholarly opinion of the time notably with the construction of educational institutions known as
Nezamiyeh, which are associated with Al-Ghazali and
Saadi Shirazi. The Ismailis continued splintering over the legitimacy of successive imams with the
Alawites and the
Druze, offshoots of Shi'a Islam, dating to this time.
Religious missions converted
Volga Bulgaria to Islam. The
Delhi Sultanate reached deep into the
Indian Subcontinent and many converted to Islam, in particular
low-caste Hindus whose descendents make up the vast majority of Indian Muslims. Many Muslims also went to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
to trade, virtually dominating the import and export industry of the
Song dynasty.
Pre-Modern era (1258–18th century)
Through Muslim trade networks and the activity of Sufi orders, Islam spread into new areas. Under the
Ottoman Empire, Islam spread to
Southeast Europe. Conversion to Islam, however, was not a sudden abandonment of old religious practices; rather, it was typically a matter of "assimilating Islamic rituals, cosmologies, and literatures into... local religious systems", as illustrated by Muhammad's appearance in
Hindu folklore. The Turks probably found similarities between Sufi rituals and Shaman practices. Muslim Turks incorporated elements of
Turkish Shamanism beliefs to Islam.
Muslims in China
Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6-2 percent of the total population (21,667,000- 28,210,795) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most numero ...
, who were descended from earlier immigrants, were assimilated, sometimes by force, by adopting Chinese names and
culture while
Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study.
While cultural influence used to radiate outward from Baghdad, after the
Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Arab influence decreased. Iran and Central Asia, benefiting from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under
Mongol rule, flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as the
Timurid Renaissance under the
Timurid dynasty.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) proposed the
mathematical model that was later adopted by
Copernicus unrevised in his heliocentric model and
Jamshīd al-Kāshī's estimate of
pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. Many Muslim dynasties in India chose Persian as their court language.
The introduction of gunpowder weapons led to the rise of large centralized states and the Muslim
Gunpowder empires consolidated much of the previously splintered territories. The
caliphate was claimed by the
Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire since
Murad I's
conquest of Edirne in 1362, and its claims were strengthened in 1517 as
Selim I became the
ruler of Mecca and Medina. The Shia
Safavid dynasty rose to power in 1501 and later conquered all of Iran. In South Asia,
Babur founded the
Mughal Empire. The Mughals compiled the Islamic legal text, the
Fatwa Alamgiri.
The religion of the centralized states of the Gunpowder empires influenced the religious practice of their constituent populations. A
symbiosis between
Ottoman rulers and Sufism strongly influenced Islamic reign by the Ottomans from the beginning. The
Mevlevi Order and
Bektashi Order had a close relation to the sultans, as Sufi-mystical as well as
heterodox and
syncretic approaches to Islam flourished. The often forceful
Safavid conversion of Iran to the Twelver Shia Islam of the Safavid Empire ensured the final dominance of the
Twelver sect within Shia Islam. Persian migrants to South Asia, as influential bureaucrats and landholders, help spread Shia Islam, forming some of the largest Shia populations outside Iran.
Nader Shah, who overthrew the Safavids, attempted to improve relations with Sunnis by propagating the integration of Twelverism into Sunni Islam as a fifth ''madhhab'', called Ja'farism, which failed to gain recognition from the Ottomans.
Modern era (18th – 20th centuries)
Earlier in the 14th century,
Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم � ...
promoted a
puritanical form of Islam,
[Mary Hawkesworth, Maurice Kogan ''Encyclopedia of Government and Politics: 2-volume set'' Routledge 2013 pp. 270–271] rejecting philosophical approaches in favor of simpler theology
and called to open the gates of
itjihad
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
rather than blind imitation of scholars. He called for a jihad against those he deemed heretics
[Richard Gauvain ''Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God'' Routledge 2013 p. 6] but his writings only played a marginal role during his lifetime. During the 18th century in Arabia,
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
; "The Book of Monotheism")
, influences =
, influenced =
, children =
, module =
, title = Imam, Shaykh
, movement = Muwahhidun (Wahhabi)
, native_name = محمد بن ...
, influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and
Ibn al-Qayyim, founded a movement, called
Wahhabi with their self-designation as ''Muwahiddun'', to return to what he saw as unadultered Islam.
[Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters ''Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire'' Infobase Publishing 2010 p. 260] He condemned many local Islamic customs, such as visiting the grave of Muhammad or saints, as later
innovations and sinful
and destroyed sacred rocks and trees, Sufi shrines, the
tombs of Muhammad and his companions and the tomb of Husayn at Karbala, a major Shia pilgrimage site. He formed an alliance with the
Saud family, which, by the 1920s, completed their conquest of the area that would become
Saudi Arabia.
Ma Wanfu and Ma Debao promoted salafist movements in the nineteenth century such as
Sailaifengye in China after returning from Mecca but were eventually persecuted and forced into hiding by Sufi groups. Other groups sought to reform Sufism rather than reject it, with the
Senusiyya and
Muhammad Ahmad both waging war and establishing states in Libya and Sudan respectively. In India,
Shah Waliullah Dehlawi attempted a more conciliatory style against Sufism and influenced the
Deobandi movement. In response to the Deobandi movement, the
Barelwi movement was founded as a mass movement, defending popular
Sufism and reforming its practices.
The
Muslim world was generally in political decline starting the 1800s, especially regarding non-Muslim European powers. Earlier, in the fifteenth century, the
Reconquista
The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the N ...
succeeded in ending the
Muslim presence in Iberia. By the 19th century; the British
East India Company had formally annexed the
Mughal dynasty in India. As a response to
Western Imperialism, many intellectuals sought to
reform Islam.
Islamic modernism, initially labelled by Western scholars as
''Salafiyya'', embraced modern values and institutions such as democracy while being scripture-oriented.
[Robert Rabil ''Salafism in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism'' Georgetown University Press 2014 chapter: "Doctrine"] Notable forerunners include
Muhammad 'Abduh and
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani.
[Henri Lauzière ''The Making of Salafism: Islamic Reform in the Twentieth Century'' Columbia University Press 2015 ] Abul A'la Maududi helped influence modern
political Islam. Similar to contemporary
codification, Shariah was for the first time partially codified into law in 1869 in the Ottoman Empire's
Mecelle code.
The
Ottoman Empire disintegrated after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
and the
Caliphate was
abolished in 1924 by the first
President of the Turkish Republic,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as part of his
secular reforms.
Pan-Islamists attempted to unify Muslims and competed with growing nationalist forces, such as
pan-Arabism. The
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of
Muslim-majority countries, was established in 1969 after the burning of the
Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem.
Contact with industrialized nations brought Muslim populations to new areas through economic migration. Many Muslims migrated as indentured servants (mostly from India and Indonesia) to the Caribbean, forming the largest Muslim populations by percentage in the Americas. Migration from Syria and Lebanon was the biggest contributor to the Muslim population in Latin America. The resulting urbanization and increase in trade in sub-Saharan Africa brought Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith, likely doubling its Muslim population between 1869 and 1914. Muslim immigrants began arriving largely from former colonies in several Western European nations since the 1960s, many as
guest workers.
Contemporary era (20th century–present)
Forerunners of Islamic modernism influenced Islamist political movements such as the
Muslim Brotherhood and related parties in the Arab world, which performed well in elections following the
Arab Spring,
Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia and the
AK Party
The Justice and Development Party ( tr, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, ; AKP), abbreviated officially AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democrat. It is one of the two major parties of contemporar ...
, which has democratically been in power in Turkey for decades. In
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
revolution replaced a
secular monarchy with an
Islamic state. Others such as
Sayyid Rashid Rida broke away from Islamic modernists and pushed against embracing what he saw as Western influence.
In opposition to Islamic political movements, in 20th century Turkey, the military carried out
coups to oust Islamist governments, and headscarves were legally restricted, as also happened in Tunisia. In other places religious power was co-opted, such as in Saudi Arabia, where the state monopolized religious scholarship and are often seen as puppets of the state
while Egypt nationalized
Al-Azhar University, previously an independent voice checking state power. Salafism was funded for its quietism. Saudi Arabia campaigned against revolutionary Islamist movements in the Middle East, in opposition to Iran,
Turkey and Qatar.
Muslim minorities of various ethnicities have been persecuted as a religious group. This has been undertaken by communist forces like the
Khmer Rouge, who viewed them as their primary enemy to be exterminated since they stood out and worshiped their own god and the
Chinese Communist Party in
Xinjiang and by nationalist forces such as during the
Bosnian genocide.
The globalization of communication has increased dissemination of religious information. The adoption of the
hijab has grown more common and some Muslim intellectuals are increasingly striving to separate scriptural Islamic beliefs from cultural traditions. Among other groups, this access to information has led to the rise of popular "
televangelist" preachers, such as
Amr Khaled
Amr Mohamed Helmi Khaled ( ar, عمرو محمد حلمي خالد; born: 5 September 1967) is an Egyptian Muslim activist and television preacher. '' The New York Times Magazine'', in reference to Khaled's popularity in English-speaking co ...
, who compete with the traditional
ulema in their reach and have decentralized religious authority. More "individualized" interpretations of Islam notably include
Liberal Muslims
Liberalism and progressivism within Islam involve professed Muslims who have created a considerable body of Progressivism, progressive thought about Islamic understanding and practice. Their work is sometimes characterized as "Progressivism, prog ...
who attempt to reconcile religious traditions with current secular governance and women's issues.
In the 21st century, the rise of
Isil in 2013 presented a new breed of triumphalist extremist Islamist group that seized parts of Iraq and Syria and sought to declare a new medieval caliphate. Rejected as terrorists by the mainstream global Muslim community, the group was forced to resort to insurgency-like tactics in the face of Iranian intervention commanded by
Qasem Soleimani in 2014
and a US-led military intervention in 2017 that by 2019 saw almost all of its territorial gains reversed.
Demographics
About 23.4% of the global population, or about 1.8 billion people, are Muslims.
[Lipka, Michael, and Conrad Hackett. ]015
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak albu ...
6 April 2017.
Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group
(data analysis). ''Fact Tank''. Pew Research Center. In 1900, this estimate was 12.3%, in 1990 it was 19.9%
and projections suggest the proportion will be 29.7% by 2050.
It has been estimated that 87–90% of Muslims are Sunni and 10–13% are Shia, with a minority belonging to other sects. Approximately 49 countries are
Muslim-majority
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
, with 62% of the world's Muslims living in Asia, and 683 million adherents in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
, and
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
alone.
[ Information provided by the International Population Center, Department of Geography, San Diego State University (2005).] Most estimates indicate
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
has approximately 20 to 30 million Muslims (1.5% to 2% of the population).
Islam in Europe is the second largest religion after
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
in many countries, with growth rates due primarily to immigration and higher birth rates of Muslims in 2005.
Religious conversion has no net impact on the Muslim population growth as "the number of people who
become Muslims through conversion seems to be roughly equal to the number of Muslims who leave the faith".
By both percentage and total numbers, Islam is the world's fastest growing major religious group, and is projected to be the world's largest by the end of the 21st century, surpassing that of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
.
It is estimated that, by 2050, the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world, "due to the young age and high
fertility-rate of Muslims relative to other religious groups".
[Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life. April 2015.]
The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050
" Pew Research Center. p. 7
Article
Schools and branches
Sunni
Sunni Islam or Sunnism is the name for the largest denomination in Islam. The term is a contraction of the phrase "ahl as-sunna wa'l-jamaat", which means "people of the
sunna (the traditions of the prophet Muhammad) and the community". Sunnis, or sometimes Sunnites, believe that the first four caliphs were the rightful successors to Muhammad and primarily reference
six major hadith works for legal matters, while following one of the four traditional schools of jurisprudence: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki or Shafi'i.
Sunni schools of theology encompass Asharism founded by
Al-Ashʿarī (c. 874–936), Maturidi by
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ḥanafī al-Māturīdī al-Samarḳandī ( fa, أبو منصور محمد بن محمد بن محمود الماتریدي السمرقندي الحنفي; 853–944 CE), often referred t ...
(853–944 CE) and
traditionalist theology under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855 CE). Traditionalist theology is characterized by its adherence to a literal understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah, the belief in the Quran is uncreated and eternal, and opposition to reason (kalam) in religious and ethical matters. On the other hand, Maturidism asserts, scripture is not needed for basic ethics and that ''good'' and ''evil'' can be understood by reason alone, but people rely on revelation, for matters beyond human's comprehension. Asharism holds that ethics can derive just from divine revelation but not from human reason. However, Asharism accepts reason regarding exegetical matters and combines Muʿtazila approaches with traditionalist ideas.
In the 18th century, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab led a Salafi movement, referred by outsiders as Wahhabism, in modern-day Saudi Arabia. A similar movement called
Ahl al-Hadith also de-emphasized the centuries' old Sunni legal tradition, preferring to directly follow the Quran and Hadith. The ''
Nurcu'' Sunni movement was by
Said Nursi (1877–1960);
[Svante E. Cornell ''Azerbaijan Since Independence'' M.E. Sharpe p. 283] it incorporates elements of Sufism and science,
and has given rise to the
Gülen movement.
Shia
Shia Islam, or Shi'ism, is the second-largest Muslim denomination. Shias, or Shiites, split with Sunnis over Muhammad's
successor as leader, who the Shia believed must be from certain descendants of Muhammad's family known as the
Ahl al-Bayt and those leaders, referred to as
Imams, have additional spiritual authority. Some of the first Imams are revered by all Shia groups and Sunnis, such as
Ali.
Zaidi, the second-oldest branch, reject special powers of Imams and are sometimes considered a 'fifth school' of Sunni Islam rather than a Shia denomination.
The
Twelvers, the first and the largest Shia branch, believe in
twelve Imams, the last of whom went into
occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
to return one day. The
Ismailis split with the Twelvers over who was the seventh Imam and have split into more groups over the status of successive Imams, with the largest group being the
Nizaris.
Ibadi
Ibadi Islam
The Ibadi movement or Ibadism ( ar, الإباضية, al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a school of Islam. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis.
Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in 632 AD as a moderate s ...
or
Ibadism is practised by 1.45 million Muslims around the world (~ 0.08% of all Muslims), most of them in
Oman. Ibadism is often associated with and viewed as a moderate variation of the
Khawarij movement, though Ibadis themselves object to this classification. Unlike most Kharijite groups, Ibadism does not regard sinful Muslims as unbelievers. Ibadi hadiths, such as the
Jami Sahih collection, uses chains of narrators from early Islamic history they considered trustworthy but most Ibadi hadiths are also found in standard Sunni collections and contemporary Ibadis often approve of the standard Sunni collections.
Quranism
The
Quranists are Muslims who generally believe that Islamic law and guidance should only be based on the
Qur'an, rejecting the
Sunnah, thus partially or completely doubting the
religious authority, reliability or authenticity of the
Hadith literature, which they claim are fabricated.
There were first critics of the hadith traditions as early as the time of the scholar
Al-Shafi'i
Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schol ...
; however, their arguments did not find much favor among Muslims. From the 19th century onwards, reformist thinkers like
Sayyid Ahmad Khan
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...
, Abdullah Chakralawi, and later
Ghulam Ahmad Parwez in India began to systematically question the hadith and the Islamic tradition. At the same time, there was a long-standing discussion on the sole authority of the Quran in Egypt, initiated by an article by
Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi named "Islam is the Quran alone" (''al-Islām huwa l-Qurʾān waḥda-hū)'' in the magazine al-Manār. Quranism also took on a political dimension in the 20th century when
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
declared the Quran to be the constitution of Libya. In America,
Rashad Khalifa, an Egyptian-American biochemist and discoverer of the
Quran code (Code 19), which is a hypothetical mathematical code in the Quran, founded the organization "United Submitters International".
The rejection of the hadith leads in some cases to differences in the way religion is practiced for example in the ritual prayer. While some Quranists traditionally pray five times a day, others reduce the number to three or even two daily prayers. There are also different views on the details of prayer or other pillars of Islam such as zakāt, fasting, or the Hajj.
Other denominations
*
Bektashi Alevism is a
syncretic and
heterodox local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical (
bāṭenī) teachings of Ali and
Haji Bektash Veli. Alevism incorporates Turkish beliefs present during the 14th century,
[Jorgen S Nielsen Muslim ''Political Participation in Europe'' Edinburgh University Press 2013 page 255] such as
Shamanism and
Animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...
, mixed with Shias and Sufi beliefs, adopted by some Turkish tribes. It has been estimated that there are 10 million to over 20 million (~0.5%–1% of all Muslims) Alevis worldwide.
* The
Ahmadiyya movement was founded by
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mirzā Ghulām Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam. He claimed to have been divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Mahdi—which is the metapho ...
in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
in 1889. Ahmad claimed to be the "Promised Messiah" or "Imam Mahdi" of prophecy. Today the group has 10 to 20 million practitioners, but is rejected by most Muslims as heretical, and Ahmadis have been subject to religious persecution and discrimination since the movement's inception.
Non-denominational Muslims
Non-denominational Muslims is an
umbrella term that has been used for and by Muslims who do not belong to or do not self-identify with a specific
Islamic denomination.
Recent surveys report that large proportions of Muslims in some parts of the world self-identify as "just Muslim", although there is little published analysis available regarding the motivations underlying this response. The
Pew Research Center reports that respondents self-identifying as "just Muslim" make up a majority of Muslims in seven countries (and a plurality in three others), with the highest proportion in
Kazakhstan at 74%. At least one in five Muslims in at least 22 countries self-identify in this way.
Mysticism
Sufism (Arabic: ar, تصوف, translit=tasawwuf, label=none), is a
mystical-
ascetic approach to Islam that seeks to find a direct
personal experience of God. Classical Sufi scholars defined ''Tasawwuf'' as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God", through "intuitive and emotional faculties" that one must be trained to use.
[ Zarruq, Ahmed, Zaineb Istrabadi, and Hamza Yusuf Hanson. 2008. ''The Principles of Sufism''. Amal Press.] It is not a sect of Islam and its adherents belong to the various Muslim denominations.
Ismaili Shias, whose teachings root in
Gnosticism and
Neoplatonism, as well as by the
Illuminationist and
Isfahan schools of Islamic philosophy have developed mystical interpretations of Islam.
Hasan al-Basri, the early Sufi ascetic often portrayed as one of the earliest Sufis, emphasized fear of failing God's expectations of obedience. In contrast, later prominent Sufis, such as
Mansur Al-Hallaj and
Jalaluddin Rumi, emphasized religiosity based on love towards God. Such devotion would also have an impact on the arts, with Rumi, still one of the best selling poets in America, writing his Persian poem
Masnawi
Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghalib ...
and the works of
Hafez (1315–1390) are often considered the pinnacle of Persian poetry.
Sufis reject ''materialism'' and ''ego'' and regard everything as if it was sent by god alone, Sufi strongly believes in the oneness of god.
Sufis see ''tasawwuf'' as an inseparable part of Islam, just like the ''sharia''. Traditional Sufis, such as
Bayazid Bastami
Abū Yazīd Ṭayfūr bin ʿĪsā bin Surūshān al-Bisṭāmī (al-Basṭāmī) (d. 261/874–5 or 234/848–9), commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī ( fa, بایزید بسطامی), was a PersianWalbridge, John. " ...
, Jalaluddin Rumi,
Haji Bektash Veli,
Junaid Baghdadi, and Al-Ghazali, argued for Sufism as being based upon the tenets of Islam and the teachings of the prophet. Historian
Nile Green argued that Islam in the Medieval period, was more or less ''Sufism''.
Popular devotional practices such as the veneration of Sufi saints have been viewed as innovations from the original religion from followers of
salafism, who have sometimes physically attacked Sufis, leading to a deterioration in
Sufi–Salafi relations
Since the classical era, traditional Islamic religious culture was divided between two main theological schools, Sufi-Ash'arism represented by Ghazzali (1058-1111) and Salafism represented by Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328). The dispute between thes ...
.
Sufi congregations form orders (''
tariqa'') centered around a teacher (''
wali'') who traces a spiritual chain back to Muhammad. Sufis played an important role in the formation of Muslim societies through their missionary and educational activities.
Sufi influenced Ahle Sunnat movement or
Barelvi movement defends Sufi practices and beliefs with over 200 million followers in south Asia. Sufism is prominent in Central Asia, as well as in African countries like
Tunisia,
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
,
Senegal,
Chad and
Niger.
Law and jurisprudence
Sharia is the
religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition.
It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God's divine law and is contrasted with ''
fiqh'', which refers to its scholarly interpretations.
[Vikør, Knut S. 2014.]
Sharīʿah
" In ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics'', edited by E. Shahin. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. Archived from th
original
on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2020. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists.
Traditional
theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four
sources of sharia: the Quran, sunnah (''Hadith'' and
''Sira''),
qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ''
ijma
''Ijmāʿ'' ( ar, إجماع , " consensus") is an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law. Sunni Muslims regard ''ijmā as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur' ...
'' (juridical consensus).
[ Quote: " .. by the ninth century, the classical theory of law fixed the sources of Islamic law at four: the ''Quran'', the ''Sunnah'' of the Prophet, ''qiyas'' (analogical reasoning), and ''ijma'' (consensus)."] Different
legal schools developed methodologies for deriving sharia rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ''
ijtihad''.
Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two principal branches of law,''
ʿibādāt'' (rituals) and ''
muʿāmalāt'' (social relations), which together comprise a wide range of topics.
Its rulings assign actions to one of five categories called
ahkam: mandatory (''
fard''), recommended (''
mustahabb''), permitted (''
mubah''), abhorred (''
makruh''), and prohibited (''
haram'').
Forgiveness is much celebrated in Islam and, in criminal law, while imposing a penalty on an offender in proportion to their offense is considered permissible; forgiving the offender is better. To go one step further by offering a favor to the offender is regarded as the peak of excellence. Some areas of sharia overlap with the Western notion of law while others correspond more broadly to living life in accordance with God's will.
Historically, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists (
muftis). Their legal opinions (
fatwa) were taken into account by ruler-appointed
judges
A judge is an official who presides over a court.
Judge or Judges may also refer to:
Roles
*Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc.
*Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...
who presided over
qāḍī
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
's courts, and by ''
maẓālim'' courts, which were controlled by the ruler's council and administered criminal law.
In the modern era, sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models.
The
Ottoman Empire's 19th-century
Tanzimat reforms lead to the
Mecelle civil code and represented the first attempt to
codify sharia. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, its classical rules were largely retained only in
personal status (family) laws.
Legislative bodies which codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence.
[Mayer, Ann Elizabeth. 2009.]
Law. Modern Legal Reform
" In ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World'', edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. The
Islamic revival
Islamic revival ( ar, تجديد'' '', lit., "regeneration, renewal"; also ', "Islamic awakening") refers to a revival of the Islamic religion. The revivers are known in Islam as ''mujaddids''.
Within the Islamic tradition, ''tajdid'' has bee ...
of the late 20th century brought along calls by
Islamist movements for complete implementation of sharia.
The role of sharia has become a contested topic around the world. There are ongoing debates whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights,
freedom of thought, and
women's rights.
Schools of jurisprudence
A school of jurisprudence is referred to as a ''madhhab'' ( ar, مذهب). The four major Sunni schools are the
Hanafi,
Maliki,
Shafi'i,
Hanbali madhahs while the three major Shia schools are the
Ja'fari,
Zaidi and
Isma'ili madhahib. Each differs in their methodology, called ''
Usul al-fiqh'' ("principles of jurisprudence"). The following of decisions by a religious expert without necessarily examining the decision's reasoning is called ''
taqlid''. The term ''
ghair muqallid
Non-denominational Muslims () are Muslims who do not belong to, do not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches.
Non-denominational Muslims are found primarily in Central A ...
'' literally refers to those who do not use taqlid and, by extension, do not have a madhab. The practice of an individual interpreting law with independent reasoning is called ''ijtihad''.
Society
Religious personages
Islam, like Judaism, has no clergy in the
sacerdotal sense, such as priests who mediate between God and people. ''
Imam'' ( ar, إمام, label=none) is the religious title used to refer to an Islamic leadership position, often in the context of conducting an Islamic worship service.
Religious interpretation is presided over by the ''‘ulama'' (Arabic: علماء), a term used describe the body of Muslim scholars who have received training in
Islamic studies. A scholar of the hadith is called a ''
muhaddith'', a scholar of jurisprudence is called a ''
faqih'' ( ar, فقيه, label=none), a jurist who is qualified to issue legal opinions or ''
fatwas'' is called a
mufti, and a ''
qadi'' is an Islamic judge.
Honorific titles given to scholars include
sheikh,
mullah and ''
mawlawi''.
Some Muslims also venerate
saints associated with
miracles ( ar, كرامات, translit=karāmāt, label=none). The practice of visiting the tombs of prophets and saints is known as ''
ziyarat''. Unlike saints in Christianity, Muslim saints are usually acknowledged informally by the consensus of common people, not by scholars.
Governance
Mainstream Islamic law does not distinguish between "matters of church" and "matters of state"; the
scholars function as both jurists and theologians. Various forms of Islamic jurisprudence therefore rule on matters than in other societal context might be considered the preserve of the state. Terms traditionally used to refer to Muslim leaders include
Caliph and
Sultan, and terms associated with traditionally Muslim states include
Caliphate,
Emirate,
Imamate and
Khanate (
e.g. the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
).
In
Islamic economic jurisprudence, hoarding of wealth is reviled and thus
monopolistic behavior is frowned upon. Attempts to comply with shariah has led to the development of
Islamic banking. Islam prohibits ''
riba'', usually translated as
usury, which refers to any unfair gain in trade and is most commonly used to mean interest. Instead, Islamic banks go into partnership with the borrower and both share from the profits and any losses from the venture. Another feature is the avoidance of uncertainty, which is seen as gambling and Islamic banks traditionally avoid derivative instruments such as futures or options which substantially protected them from the
2008 financial crisis
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of ...
. The state used to be involved in distribution of charity from the treasury, known as
Bayt al-mal
''Bayt al-mal'' () is an Arabic term that is translated as "House of money" or "House of wealth." Historically, it was a financial institution responsible for the administration of taxes in Islamic states, particularly in the early Islamic Cali ...
, before it became a largely individual pursuit. The first
Caliph,
Abu Bakr, distributed zakat as one of the first examples of a
guaranteed minimum income, with each man, woman and child getting 10 to 20
dirhams annually. During the reign of the second Caliph Umar,
child support was introduced and the old and disabled were entitled to stipends, while the Umayyad Caliph
Umar II
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, an ...
assigned a servant for each blind person and for every two chronically ill persons.
Jihad means "to strive or struggle
n the way of God
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
and, in its broadest sense, is "exerting one's utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of
disapprobation". This could refer to one's striving to attain religious and moral perfection
with the Shia and Sufis in particular, distinguishing between the "greater jihad", which pertains to spiritual
self-perfection, and the "lesser jihad", defined as warfare.
[. ] When used without a qualifier, jihad is often understood in its military form.
Jihad is the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law and may be declared against illegal works, terrorists, criminal groups, rebels,
apostates, and leaders or states who oppress Muslims.
Most Muslims today interpret Jihad as only a defensive form of warfare. Jihad only becomes an individual duty for those vested with authority. For the rest of the populace, this happens only in the case of a
general mobilization.
For most
Twelver Shias,
offensive jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
can only be declared by a
divinely appointed leader of the Muslim community, and as such, is suspended since
Muhammad al-Mahdi's
occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
is 868 CE.
Daily and family life
Many daily practices fall in the category of ''adab'', or etiquette and this includes greeting others with "''
as-salamu 'alaykum''" ("peace be unto you"), saying ''
bismillah'' ("in
the name of God") before meals, and using only the right hand for eating and drinking.
Specific prohibited foods include pork products, blood and
carrion. Health is viewed as a trust from God and
intoxicants, such as
alcoholic drinks, are prohibited.
All meat must come from a
herbivorous animal slaughtered in the name of God by a Muslim, Jew, or Christian, except for game that one has hunted or fished for themself. Beards are often encouraged among men as something natural and body modifications, such as
permanent tattoos, are usually forbidden as violating the creation. Gold and silk for men are prohibited and are seen as extravagant. ''
Haya'', often translated as "shame" or "modesty", is sometimes described as the innate character of Islam and informs much of Muslim daily life. For example,
clothing in Islam emphasizes a standard of modesty, which has included the
hijab for women. Similarly,
personal hygiene is encouraged with certain requirements.
In
Islamic marriage
In Islam, nikah is a contract between two people. Both the groom and the bride are to consent to the marriage of their own free wills. A formal, binding contract – verbal or on paper – is considered integral to a religiously valid Islami ...
, the groom is required to pay a bridal gift (''
mahr'').
Most families in the Islamic world are monogamous. However, Muslim men are allowed to practice
polygyny and can have up to four wives at the same time. There are also cultural variations in weddings.
Polyandry, a practice wherein a woman takes on two or more husbands, is prohibited in Islam.
After the birth of a child, the
Adhan
Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer ( salah) in a mo ...
is pronounced in the right ear. On the seventh day, the ''
aqiqah'' ceremony is performed, in which an animal is sacrificed and its meat is distributed among the poor. The child's head is shaved, and an amount of money equaling the weight of its hair is donated to the poor.
Male circumcision is practised. Respecting and obeying one's parents, and taking care of them especially in their old age is a religious obligation.
A
dying Muslim is encouraged to pronounce the ''
Shahada'' as their last words. Paying respects to the dead and attending funerals in the community are considered among the virtuous acts. In
Islamic burial rituals, burial is encouraged as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours. The body is washed, except for martyrs, by members of the same gender and enshrouded in a garment that must not be elaborate called ''kafan''. A "funeral prayer" called ''
Salat al-Janazah'' is performed. Wailing, or loud, mournful outcrying, is discouraged. Coffins are often not preferred and graves are often unmarked, even for kings. Regarding inheritance, a son's share is double that of a daughter's.
[.]
''
Khitan'', the Islamic religious rite of
circumcision, is near-universal in the
Muslim world.
It is seen as obligatory or is highly recommended by all
Islamic schools of jurisprudence.
It is considered a sign of belonging to the wider
Muslim community (''Ummah'').
Arts and culture
The term "
Islamic culture" can be used to mean aspects of culture that pertain to the religion, such as
festivals and dress code. It is also controversially used to denote the cultural aspects of traditionally Muslim people. Finally, "Islamic civilization" may also refer to the aspects of the synthesized culture of the early Caliphates, including that of non-Muslims, sometimes referred to as "
Islamicate".
Islamic art encompasses the
visual arts including fields as varied as architecture,
calligraphy, painting, and
ceramics, among others. While the making of images of animate beings has often been frowned upon in connection with
laws against idolatry, this rule has been interpreted in different ways by different scholars and in different historical periods. This stricture has been used to explain the prevalence of
calligraphy,
tessellation
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of ...
, and pattern as key aspects of Islamic artistic culture. In
Islamic architecture, varying cultures show influence such as North African and Spanish Islamic architecture such as the
Great Mosque of Kairouan containing
marble and
porphyry columns from Roman and Byzantine buildings, while
mosques in Indonesia
This is a list of mosques in Indonesia. The Indonesian term ''Masjid Agung'' is translated as "Great Mosque", while ''Masjid Raya'' is translated as "Grand Mosque." ''Masjid Keramat'' is translated as "Holy Mosque." ''Masjid Jami'' is translated ...
often have multi-tiered roofs from local
Javanese styles.
The
Islamic calendar is a
lunar calendar that begins with the
Hijra of 622 CE, a date that was reportedly chosen by Caliph Umar as it was an important turning point in Muhammad's fortunes. Islamic
holy days fall on fixed dates of the lunar calendar, meaning they occur in
different seasons in different years in the
Gregorian calendar. The most important Islamic festivals are ''
Eid al-Fitr'' ( ar, عيد الف) on the 1st of ''
Shawwal'', marking the end of the fasting month ''Ramadan'', and ''
Eid al-Adha'' () on the 10th of ''Dhu al-Hijjah'', coinciding with the end of the
Hajj (pilgrimage).
File:Sixty Dome Mosque,Bagerhat.jpg, 15th century Sixty Dome Mosque, in Khalifatabad, Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
File:Djenne great mud mosque.jpg, Great Mosque of Djenné
The Great Mosque of Djenné ( ar, الجامع الكبير في جينيه) is a large brick or adobe building in the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style. The mosque is located in the city of Djenné, Mali, on the flood plain of the Bani R ...
, in the west African country of Mali
File:Closeup of Mir-i-Arab Madrasa.jpg, Dome in Po-i-Kalyan, Bukhara, Uzbekistan
File:1 great mosque xian 2011.JPG, 14th century Great Mosque of Xi'an in China
File:Masjid Menara Kudus.jpg, 16th century Menara Kudus Mosque in Indonesia showing Indian influence
File:Basmalah-1wm.svg, The phrase '' Bismillah'' in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the Ottoman region
File:Roof hafez tomb.jpg, Geometric arabesque tiling on the underside of the dome of Hafiz Shirazi's tomb in Shiraz, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
Derived religions
Some movements, such as the
Druze,
Berghouata
The Barghawatas (also Barghwata or Berghouata) were a Berber tribal confederation on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, belonging to the Masmuda confederacy. After allying with the Sufri Kharijite rebellion in Morocco against the Umayyad Caliph ...
and
Ha-Mim, either emerged from Islam or came to share certain beliefs with Islam, and whether each is a separate religion or a sect of Islam is sometimes controversial.
Yazdânism
Yazdânism, or the Cult of Angels, is a pseudohistoric pre-Islamic religion with claimed ties relating to a Mithraic religion of the Kurds. The term was introduced and proposed by Kurdish and Belgian scholar Mehrdad Izady to represent what he con ...
is seen as a blend of local Kurdish beliefs and Islamic Sufi doctrine introduced to
Kurdistan by
Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir in the 12th century.
Bábism stems from Twelver Shia passed through
Siyyid 'Ali Muhammad i-Shirazi al-Bab while one of his followers Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri
Baha'u'llah founded the
Baháʼí Faith.
Sikhism
Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
, founded by
Guru Nanak in late-fifteenth-century
Punjab, primarily incorporates aspects of Hinduism, with some Islamic influences.
Criticism
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early criticism came from Christian authors, many of whom viewed Islam as a
Christian heresy or a form of
idolatry, often explaining it in apocalyptic terms. Later, criticism from the Muslim world itself appeared, as well as from
Jewish writers and from
ecclesiastical Christians.
Christian writers criticized Islamic salvation optimism and its carnality. Islam's sensual descriptions of paradise led many Christians to conclude that Islam was not a spiritual religion. Although sensual pleasure was also present in early Christianity, as seen in the writings of
Irenaeus, the doctrines of the former
Manichaean,
Augustine of Hippo, led to the broad repudiation of bodily pleasure in both life and the afterlife.
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari defended the Quranic description of paradise by asserting that the Bible also implies such ideas, such as drinking wine in the
Gospel of Matthew.
Defamatory images of
Muhammad, derived from early 7th century depictions of the
Byzantine Church,
[ Reeves, Minou, and P. J. Stewart. 2003. ''Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making''. NYU Press. . p. 93–96.] appear in the 14th-century epic poem ''
Divine Comedy'' by Dante Alighieri.
[Stone, G. 2006. ''Dante's Pluralism and the Islamic Philosophy of Religion''. Springer Publishing. . p. 132.] Here, Muhammad appears in the eighth circle of hell, along with Ali. Dante does not blame Islam as a whole but accuses Muhammad of schism, by establishing another religion after Christianity.
Other criticisms focus on the question of human rights in modern Muslim-majority countries, and the treatment of women in Islamic law and practice. In the wake of the recent multiculturalism trend, Islam's influence on the ability of Muslim immigrants in the West to assimilate has been criticism of multiculturalism, criticized. Both in his public and personal life, others objected to the morality of Muhammad, therefore also the sunnah as a role model.
See also
* Glossary of Islam
* Index of Islam-related articles
* Islamic mythology
*
Islamic studies
* Major religious groups
* Outline of Islam
References
Footnotes
Qur'an and hadith
Citations
Sources
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* Siljander, Mark D., and John David Mann (2008). ''A Deadly Misunderstanding: a Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide'' (1st ed.). New York: HarperOne.
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Encyclopedia of Sahih Al-Bukhariby Arabic Virtual Translation Center (New York 2019, Barnes & Noble ). The foundation of Islam: from revelation to tawhid.
* Abdul-Haqq, Abdiyah Akbar (1980). ''Sharing Your Faith with a Muslim''. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers. ''N.B''. Presents the genuine doctrines and concepts of Islam and of the Holy Qur'an, and this religion's affinities with Christianity and its Sacred Scriptures, in order to "dialogue" on the basis of what both faiths really teach.
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* Cragg, Kenneth (1975). ''The House of Islam'', in ''The Religious Life of Man Series''. Second ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company 1975. xiii, 145 p. .
* Hourani, Albert (1991). ''Islam in European Thought''. First pbk. ed. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1992, cop. 1991. xi, 199 p. ; alternative ISBN on back cover, 0-521-42120-0.
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* Khanbaghi, A, (2006). ''The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran''. I. B. Tauris.
* Khavari, Farid A. (1990). ''Oil and Islam: the Ticking Bomb''. First ed. Malibu, Calif.: Roundtable Publications. viii, 277 p., ill. with maps and charts. .
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{{Authority control
Islam,
610 establishments
Abrahamic religions
Religious organizations established in the 7th century