Muslims

A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. The word Muslim means one who submits and implies complete submission to the will of God (Allah). Muslims believe that nature is itself Islamic, since it follows natural laws placed by God.

Thus a Muslim strives to surrender to God's commands every step of the way. There is no distinction made between daily life and religion or politics.

The most holy book of Muslims is the Qur'an which is often referred to as the 'Koran' in English-speaking countries. Muslims consider the Arabic Qur'an as the direct revelation of God; though translations do exist in other languages but are not regarded as literal word of God.

Other holy books of the Muslim include the hadith which are recordings of the life of the prophet made by the people who were around him. Many matters not specifically mentioned in the Qu’ran are covered in the hadith. The degree to which the hadith are authoritative depends on the sect which a Muslim is from.

The basic beliefs of Muslims are: belief in God, His angels, His revealed Books, His Messengers, the Day of Judgement, and the Al Qadar (which is a form of divine pre-destination). The revealed books of Islam also include the Injil (Christian Gospels), the Torah and the Pslams.

The Five Pillars of Islam on which a Muslim's life is founded are:

• The Testimony that there is none worthy of worship except God and that Muhammad is his messenger.
• Establishing of the five daily Prayers (Salaah). These prayers are ritualistic in nature and adherence to the ritual practice is required. The location at which one prays is not strictly defined as long as one is able to establish the Qiblat.
• The Giving of Zakaah (charity), which is generally 2.5% of the yearly savings for a rich man working in trade or industry, and 10% or 20% of the produce for agriculturists. This money or produce is distributed among the poor.
• Refraining from eating, drinking and having sex from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadhaan (Sawm).
• The Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca during the month of Zul Hijjah, which is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it. This ability includes the financial means and the physical strength since the hajj can be strenuous. Also, one has to obtain a permit from the Saudi government which is granted based on an annual quota based on country.

Until recently the word was also spelled Moslem. Muslims do not recommend this spelling because it is often pronounced "mawzlem," which sounds like an Arabic word for "oppressor." Many English-language writers used to call Muslims "Mohamedans" or "Mohametans", meaning "followers of Mohammed", but this terminology is considered incorrect and insulting, because Muslims think it implies that they worship the prophet Muhammad, contrary to the fundamental principles of Islam itself.

Muslims share all prophets in common with both the Jews and the Christians. However, neither the Jewish nor the Christian faiths include Muhammad.

Jesus ("Isa") is believed to be a prophet of God. The virgin birth is also accepted by Muslims Quran 3:45-48. Muslims do not consider Jesus as divine but do believe that he was born without sin Qu'ran 19:19. Muslims do not believe in orginal sin, so everyone according to Islam is born sinless.

Muslim civilization

Muslim civilization is over fourteen centuries old. Early Muslim philosophy is one possible bridge between classical Greco-Roman civilization and the Europeans of The Renaissance. What Europeans call the "Dark Ages" were in fact the golden age of civilization for Muslims and Islam itself, which spread extremely rapidly through Asia to China in its first decades of existence, and then spread more slowly to Africa and Indonesia. This golden age is usually accepted to be the time of the second caliphate under the Abbasids (approx 750AD). It is not entirely clear how much of the knowledge from this time was actually absorbed from the pre-existing civilizations such as the Persians.

During that time, the principal language of religion and science for all Muslims was Arabic, and for many, it was also the language of daily life. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic provides simple definitions of the most important concepts by which society, religion and law were ruled.

This gleaming golden age is constantly mentioned in most writings on Muslim civilization but the stark contrast with present day Muslim civilization is clear. For example, the works of al-Farabi from the golden age of Islam would not find a home in present day Muslim society since most of his ideas were similiar to those of Aristotle and Plato.

Althought the golden age did not leave a lasting impression on Muslim philosophy, it had an effect on Islamic art which survives to this day. Since Islam does not allow the potrayal of the human form, much of Islamic art is based upon stylized calligraphy and that art form is still prevalent in many parts of the Islamic world.

Under the Ottoman Empire and later under colonialism and the British Empire, practices (especially fiqh or jurisprudence) ossified, and failed to keep up with al-urf, or change in culture. Muslim culture began to revive after World War I, and some consider 1979 to be a crucial year when several events (peace between Israel and Egypt, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Iranian revolution) conspired to be a "wake up" call to the ummah. Shortly thereafter, innovative programs such as the Islamization of knowledge began to emerge, and these are presently spreading widely.

The Islamic World is the world-wide community of all believers in Islam, who are known as Muslims, and who number approximately one-and-a-half billion people

Both the Arab and the Non-Arab Muslims perform the five daily prayers (Salaah) in Arabic. Some other languages with mainly Muslim speakers (Persian, Urdu) are written in scripts derived from the Arabic script. Muslims speaking other languages often learn the Arabic script only to read the Qur'an. Such readings often only involve vocalization without comprehension, although this is not recomended.

Muslim civilization and modernity

Muslims today disagree significantly on how one should reconcile modernity and enlightenment values with adherence to Islam as a faith and way of life.

Islamism is a new form of Islam which views its teachings as the original, authentic form of Islam, and which views other forms of Islam as corrupted and illegitimate. In contrast, many in Sufi Islam see the incorporation of modern enlightenment values as consistent with the original theological program that they believe Islam was based on (see ijthad). In between these two views one can find a wide array of beliefs in Shiite and Sunni Islam.

There are distinctions between those who seek to live their lives as the first three generations of Islam did, and those who seek to change or reform Islam to conform to today's international norms. All the major denominations of Islam are fundamentalist, in the technical sense of the term. The term "fundamentalist" describes a movement to return to what it considers the defining or founding principles of the religion. For religious fundamentalists, their sacred scriptures are the words of God. Fundamentalist beliefs depends on the twin doctrines that God articulated His will precisely to prophets, and that they also have a reliable and perfect record of that revelation, which has been passed down to our day in an unbroken chain of tradition. Since Scripture is the word of God, no one has the right to change it or disagree with it. There are no major denominations of Islam that have a liberal theological approach, but there are some smaller liberal movements within Islam. For more on these topics, please see the articles on Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, Modern Islamic philosophy, and Islam.

Some Muslims of today wish to see the entire world become part of "Dunya al-Islam", with any actions being excusable if it expands the realm of Islam or reduces the "Dunya al-Harb". Their beliefs include the subjugation of all "Kuffar" (deniers/unbelievers) under the banner of Islam. Examples include Islamic organizations in locations such as Sudan, Ethiopia and the Mollucas in Indonesia. They regard any arrangements with non-Muslims as only a cease fire as there can be no proper accommodation between both opposing worlds.

Even though these Muslim extremists exist, there are Muslims who condemn the attacks and the Muslim extremist holy wars as it is against the theoretically ideal Muslim religion to kill or do bad to others. This view is not entirely universal and footage of Palestinians celebrating after Israeli suicide bombings and also the September 11th incident can be widely seen on both western TV and Arabic TV such as Al-Jazeera.

Some Muslim authorities on Islam and Muslims see a need for changes in the philosophy of the ummah. Abdel Rahman al-Rashed the general manager of Al-Arabiya asked: "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims." [1]

We should note that not all terrorists are Muslims. According to US State Department, Patterns of Golbal Terrorism, 1999, of the 169 anti-US attacks reported for 1999, Latin America accounted for 96, Western Europe for 30, Eurasia for 9, and Africa 16. The Middle East accounted for 11, and Asia for 6. [2]

Tamil Tigers, a non-Islamist terrorist group that has 10,000 members, has carried out 240+ suicide bombings. [3] Some Christian terrorist groups in the Indian state of Nagaland and Jewish terrorist groups in the US and Israel are also active. [4]

Anwar Ibrahim former deputy prime minister of Malaysia (which chairs the Organisations of Islamic Conferences in 2004). Himself a graduate in Islamic studies and the previous president of an Islamic youth organisation stated in a New York Times interview:

"This is the single biggest failure of Muslims at present, you don't have credible leaders. You don't have a real voice of conscience." When things go wrong, leaders blame "the Americans and the Jews and the Christians.... we are still in a state of denial." [5]

Muslim marraige culture

One of the tenets of Islam is that all mankind is one, so (particularly in the light of the example of Zayd, a black slave and one of Muhammad's closest disciples, having married Zaynab, a white Arab noblewoman) no orthodox Muslims have religious objections to inter-racial marriage.

Marraige to those who are not Muslim is another matter entirely. A Muslim man can only marry a woman from the People of the Book (Christians, Jews, and in some cases other religions). Though offspring must be raised as Muslim. Due to the inherent complications of such an arrangement, some Muslim states require conversion prior to marriage. Complications do arise in secular countries because some divorces end in custody being granted to the non-Muslim spouse. This would lead to the child being raised as a non-Muslim. Abductions of such children to Muslim countries by the father, and abductions from Muslim countries to the US and Europe by the mother have been known to occur.

See also

• Islam
• List of noted Muslims
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• Qur'an
• Muslim names
• Islam in France

External links

• Quranic Concordance Engine - Proof of Miraculous nature of Quran. Requires IE5+, takes time to load.
• Muslims in China- A history of Islam in China.
• Tijara Pages - Muslim Business Directory - Online Directory of Muslim Businesses, Charities, Schools and Mosques.

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