Muslims

A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. The feminine form of Muslim is Muslimah. Literally, the word means "one who submits to God". - - Most Muslims accept as a fellow Muslim (brother/sister) anyone who has publicly pronounced the Shahada, which states, "There is none worthy of worship except God, and Muhammad is His Messenger." This is often translated as, "There is no God except Allah," however "Allah" is the Arabic word for God, as "Dieu" is the French word for God.

Muslims believe that the basics of Islam existed long before Muhammad, and describe many Biblical figures -- such as Adam, Noah (Arabic: Nuh), Moses (Arabic: Musa) and Jesus (Arabic: Isa) -- as Muslims, because they are said to have submitted to God and preached His message as prophets.

Etymology

The word "Muslim" is an Arabic agent noun formed from the causative (Form IV) of the tri-consonantal root S-L-M سلم (be at peace), which is أَسْلَمَ meaning "to submit" or "to surrender". The plural form is "Muslimeen" (مسلمين) in Arabic and "Muslims" in English. The word Islam is the corresponding abstract noun, meaning "one submits to God." "Moslem", an old-fashioned transliteration generally avoided at present, approximates the Persian pronunciation of the word; "Muslim" (with various spellings) is based on the corresponding Urdu form.

The Qur'an offers several illustrations of the word's usage, and of the resulting ambiguity in English translation, as exemplified in two translations of verse ^{[Quran 2:127]}:

Pickthall: "And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower. Our Lord! And make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation submissive unto Thee, and show us our ways of worship, and relent toward us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Relenting, the Merciful."

Yusuf Ali: "And remember Abraham and Isma'il raised the foundations of the House (With this prayer): "Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing. Our Lord! make of us Muslims, bowing to Thy (Will), and of our progeny a people Muslim, bowing to Thy (will); and show us our place for the celebration of (due) rites; and turn unto us (in Mercy); for Thou art the Oft-Returning, Most Merciful."

Other words for Muslim

Until the late 1980s, the term Moslem was commonly used. Muslims do not recommend this spelling because it is often pronounced "mawzlem" /mɒzlɛm/ which sounds somewhat similar to an Arabic word for "oppressed" (Za'lem in Arabic). The word is pronounced /muslem/ in Arabic, but often /mʊślɪm/ in English. The word is now most commonly written "Muslim".

Many English-language writers used to call Muslims Mohammedans or Mahometans. Muslims consider this terminology offensive, as it suggests that they worship the prophet Muhammad rather than God. It is also seen as too similar to Christians as followers and worshippers of Christ.

English writers of the 19th century and earlier sometimes used the words Mussulman, Musselman, or Mussulmaun. Variant forms of this word are still used by many Indo-European languages. These words are similar to the French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese words for "Muslim."

Muslim and mu'min

File:Esharplar.jpg

Muslim woman wearing the Hijab (headscarf)

One of the verses in the Qur'an makes a distinction between a mu'min, a believer, and a Muslim:

(Rodwell 49:14) The Arabs of the desert say, "We believe." (tu/minu) Say thou: Ye believe not; but rather say, "We profess Islam;" (aslamna) for the faith (al-imanu) hath not yet found its way into your hearts. But if ye obey God and His Apostle, he will not allow you to lose any of your actions: for God is Indulgent, Merciful.

According to the Western academician Carl Ernst, contemporary usage of the terms "Islam" and "Muslim" for the faith and its adherents is a modern innovation. As shown in the Quranic passage cited above, early Muslims distinguished between the Muslim, who has "submitted" and does the bare minimum required to be considered a part of the community, and the mu'min, the believer, who has given himself or herself to the faith heart and soul. Ernst writes:

"The Arabic term islam itself was of relatively minor importance in classical theologies based on the Qur'an. If one looks at the works of theologians such as the famous al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the key term of religious identity is not islam but iman, or faith, and the one who possesses it is the mu'min, or believer. Faith is one of the major topics of the Qur'an; it is mentioned hundreds of times in the sacred text. In comparison, islam is a relatively less common term of secondary importance; it only occurs eight times in the Qur'an. Since, however, the term islam had a derivative meaning relating to the community of those who have submitted to God, it has taken on a new political significance, especially in recent history."

Disagreements

There are some groups that consider themselves Muslims, but are not accepted as Muslim by the majority of Muslims. For example, neither Sunni nor Shi'a Muslims accept Ahmedis or adherents of the Nation of Islam as fellow Muslims. Some Sunni regard the Shi'a and the Alawī sects as non-Muslim. There have also been numerous instances in which some Sunnis have declared other Sunnis to be unbelievers, some Shi'a have declared other Shi'a the same. The act of declaring other Muslims to be unbelievers, who profess Islam, is called takfir.

See also

• Islam
• Muhammad
• List of Muslims
• Muslim World
• Musulman
• Muzulman
• Qur'an
• Ahmedis

• [http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/14/india.terrortrial/index.html Muslim actor accused. (from CNN News Network)