Difference between revisions of "Islam"

Revision as of 23:28, March 14, 2007

Islam is monotheistic religion of Abraham based on the teachings of Muhammad. Islam has grown to be the second largest and fastest growing religion in the world, with over 1.4 billion followers. The word "Islam" means "submission", to God. The followers of Islam are called Muslims or, less commonly, Moslems. Muslims practice monotheism, worshipping a god called Allah and believing Muhammad to be his last and greatest prophet. Muslims live by the Qu'ran, which they consider to be the pure and holy word of Allah. Muslims wash their hands before reading the book, which is considered complete and perfect only in the original Arabic, and burn old copies instead of throwing them away. Muslims follow the five pillars of Islam.

Mecca, the holy city of the Muslim's

Five Pillars of Islam

• Shahadah (Profession of Faith) -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. The English translation is "There is none worthy of worship except the God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God"

• Salat (Ritual Prayer) -All Muslims are required to Pray to Allah five times each day while facing Mecca.

• Zakat (Charity) Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of the value of most valuables and savings held for a full lunar year.

• Sawm (Fasting) All able-bodied Muslims (children, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must fast during daylight hours during the entire month of Ramadan. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul.

• Hajj (Pilgrimage) All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

Pages from the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic religion.

Islam and Christianity

While Muslims do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God or that he was crucified, they consider him to be one of God's most important prophets. However, the Qu'ran warns against worshipping Jesus, for fear of idolatry.^[1]

The Qur'an states that Christians will burn in Hell: “Unbelievers are those that say: ‘God is the Messiah, the son of Mary.’ He that worships other deities besides God, God will deny paradise, and the Fire shall be his home. None shallhelp the evil-doers. Unbelievers are those that say: ‘God is one of three.’ There is but one God. If they do not desist from saying so, they shall be sternly punished.” (5:71-73)

Christians, on the other hand, believe that Muslim practices violate the first commandment, for which the traditional punishment is death by stoning:

"Thou shalt have none other gods before me." (Deuteronomy 5:7)

Islam and Paganism

Although most Muslims profess belief in a single, almighty God, a substantial minority of accredited Western scholars believe that some Muslim beliefs, like those of the early Roman Catholic Church, system can be traced back to distinctly polytheistic antecedents. Some, for example, have attempted to link Allah to a moon deity, though Allah is cited in the Koran as the God of Abraham and Isaac (Judaism and Christianity). ^[2] Others have pointed to the pagan roots of various Muslim prohibitions, such as the ban on pork (also practiced in Orthodox Judaism) originating in the 3rd-century AD Damascene cult of the pig-god Jamal. ^[3] There is some evidence that traditional Muslim scholars have been suppressing this information as well as various recently-recovered scrolls that hint at early Muslim human sacrifice, which was also a part of early Judaism which ended after the Genisis story of Abraham and Isaac (e.g., at Uhud). ^[4] Like all major religions, Christianity included, Islam has ill-understood and fascinating roots that modern scholarship has yet to fully plumb.

References

1. ↑ Christian Churches of God Articles on Islam, March 10, 2007
2. ↑ Abramahov, "Islamic Theology". Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1988. [1]
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ↑ Esposito, "The Oxford History of Islam", p. 523. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999. [2]