Islam

For other uses, including people named "Islam", see Islam (disambiguation).

Islam (Arabic: Template:Ar; Template:ArabDIN ) is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Qur'an. It is the second-largest religion in the world, with a total of about 1.2–1.3 billion adherents. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims (Arabic: Template:Ar). Like Judaism, Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith, Islam is an Abrahamic religion.

Muslims believe Muhammad to have been God's (Arabic: [[Allah|Template:ArabDIN]]) final prophet.

From what is today Saudi Arabia, Islam rapidly expanded through conquest under the leadership of Muhammad and his successors in the 7th and 8th centuries. Muslims may be found all over the world today, concentrated especially in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Etymology

In Arabic, Islam derives from the triconsonantal root Template:ArabDIN, with a basic meaning of "to surrender". Islam is an abstract nominal derived from this root, and literally means "submission to 'The God' (Allah)". Other Arabic words derived from the same root include:

• Salaam, meaning "peace", also part of a common salutation, assalamu alaikum ("peace be upon you").
• Muslim, an agentive noun meaning "one who submits [to God]".
• Salamah, meaning "safety", also used in the common farewell ma' as-salamah ("[go] with safety").
• Islam (with a short "a" vowel) also means "I submit", since the addition of a hamza to the beginning of the triliteral root, followed by the first two consonants, a short vowel, and the final consonant, is the first-person singular imperfect tense in Arabic. (For example, from Sĩn-Kãf-Nũn, the word "'askun" means "I live".)

Beliefs

Main article: Basic Muslim Beliefs

File:Aziz efendi-muhammad alayhi s-salam.jpg

"Muhammad" in Arabic calligraphy.

The basic tenet of Islam is found in the shahādatān ("two testimonies"): Template:ArabDIN — "There is no deity worthy of worship other than God (Allah) and Muhammad is a messenger of God (Allah)."

Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for humanity to Muhammad (c. 570–632) and earlier prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet, based on extrapolation from the Qur'anic phrase "Seal of the Prophets", and that his teachings for humanity will last until the Day of the Resurrection. Muslims assert that the main written record of revelation to humanity is the Qur'an, which they believe to be flawless, immutable, and the final revelation of God to humanity.

Muslims hold that Islam is essentially the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to humanity since Adam, with the Qur'an, the text used by all sects of the Muslim faith, codifying the final revelation of God. Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as derivations of the teachings of Abraham, and the Qur'an calls Jews and Christians (and sometimes people of other faiths) "People of the Book". However, Muslims believe that these other faiths have distorted the word of God by deliberately altering words in meaning, form and placement in their respective holy texts, such as Jews changing the Hebrew Bible and Christians the New Testament. This is considered by Muslims to be what necessitated the revealing of the Qur'an to Muhammad, in order to correct the distortion in the other Abrahamic religions. This perceived distortion of the Bible is known as tahrif, or tabdīl, meaning "alteration, substitution". This doctrine is accepted by most Muslims; only a few relatively small sects, such as Mu'tazili and Ismaili, as well as a few Islamic scholars and members of various liberal movements within Islam, reject the view that the Qur'an is a correction of Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Tenets

File:Mosque.Qibla.01.jpg

Muslims performing salat (prayer).

The two largest Muslim subgroups are the Sunni and the Shi'a. Sunni Muslims make up the largest percentage of Muslims overall, although large majorities of Shi'a Muslims are found in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Iraq. However, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, Sunni Muslims are in the majority.

Many Muslims, however, do not like to label themselves as from any of the denominations listed above. These Muslims believe that the following extract from the Qur'an bans the formation of sects within Islam, and therefore classify themselves as simply "Muslims".

As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with God. He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did. (6:159)

Sunni Islam's fundamental tenets are referred to as the Five Pillars of Islam,² while Shi'a Islam has slightly different terminology, encompassing five core beliefs known as the Roots of Religion, and ten core practices known as the Branches of Religion. All Muslims agree on the following five basic obligations for believers, which Sunnis term the "Five Pillars of Islam" and Shi'a Muslims would consider to be elements of the Roots of Religion and the Branches of Religion:

The Pilgrimage (hajj) to Kaaba, Masjid al Haram, Mecca, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam for the Sunni, and one of the Roots of Religion for the Shi'a.

• Shahādah: Testifying that there is none worthy of worship except God (Tawhid) and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger (Nubuwwah). The profession of faith in Allah.
• Salat: Performing the five daily prayers. These are carried out while facing Mecca.
• Sawm: Fasting from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan.
• Zakāt: Giving alms (Zakaah).
• Hajj: The Pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, which is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it.

Shi'a and Sunni also agree on the following beliefs, although they classify them differently: adl, the justice of God; qiyamah, the Day of Resurrection; Amr-Bil-Ma'rūf, commanding what is good; Nahi-Anil-Munkar, forbidding what is evil; and Al Jihad fi sabilillah, striving to seek God's approval.

Distinctive Shi'a beliefs, not held by the Sunni, include khums, paying the tax on profit, and imamah, leadership—the belief in the divinely-appointed and divinely-guided imamate of Ali and some of his descendants.

Other important beliefs which are not regarded as the being included in the Five Pillars include belief in the Angels (mala'ika), belief in life after death (including heaven, jannah, and hell, jahannam), and belief in Fate (qadar). Muslims also believe in all the prophets (nabi) and messengers (rasul) sent by God, while making no distinction between them—i.e., one is not better than another. Lastly, all Muslims believe in the holy books (kutub) sent by God, which include the Suhuf-i-Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah) sent to Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) sent to Daud (David), the Injil (Gospel) sent to Isa (Jesus), and the Qur'an sent to Muhammad.

The Muslim creed in English is:

"I testify that there is no god but God Almighty, Who is One (and only One) and there is no associate with Him; and I testify that Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him), is His Messenger."

"I believe in God; and in His Angels; and in His Scriptures; and in His Messengers; and in The Final Day; and in Fate, that All things are from God, and Resurrection after death be Truth."

God

Main article: [[:Allah, God, Islamic concept of God]]

File:Islam.gif

Allah in Arabic

The fundamental concept in Islam is the Oneness of God (tawhid). This monotheism is absolute, not relative or pluralistic in any sense of the word. God is described in Sura al-Ikhlas, (chapter 112) as follows:

Say "He is God, the One and Only. God, the Eternal, Absolute the Self-Sufficient master. He begetteth not, nor is he begotten. And there is none like unto Him."

In Arabic, God is called Allāh. The word is etymologically connected to ʾilāh "deity", Allāh is also the word used by Christian and Jewish Arabs, translating ho theos of the New Testament and Septuagint; it predates Muhammad and in its origin does not specify a "God" different from the one worshipped by Judaism and Christianity, the other Abrahamic religions.

The name "Allah" shows no plural or gender. In Islam "Allah" Almighty as the Qur’an says:

"(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)" (42:11).

The implicit usage of the definite article in Allah linguistically indicates the divine unity. Muslims believe that the God they worship is the same God of Abraham. Muslims reject the Christian theology concerning the trinity of God (the doctrine of the Trinity which regards Jesus as the eternal Son of God), seeing it as akin to polytheism. Quoting from the Qur'an, sura An-Nisa(4:171):

"O People of the Scripture! Do not transgress the limits of your religion, and do not say about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His word that He had sent to Mary, and a revelation from Him. Therefore, you shall believe in GOD and His messengers. You shall not say, "Trinity". You shall refrain from this for your own good. God is only one God. Be He glorified; He is much too glorious to have a son. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God suffices as Lord and Master."

No Muslim visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry and are thus disdained. Such aniconism can also be found in Judeo-Christian theology. Moreover, most Muslims believe that God is incorporeal, making any two- or three- dimensional depictions impossible. Instead, Muslims describe God by His many Names and Attributes. All but one Sura (chapter) of the Qur'an begins with the phrase "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful". These are regarded as the most important divine attributes, at least in the sense that Muslims repeat them most frequently during their prayers (salat) and throughout their daily lives.

The Qur'an

The first surah in a Qur'anic manuscript by Hattat Aziz Efendi.

Main article: Qur'an

The Qur'an is the sacred book of Islam. It has also been called, in English, "the Koran" and (archaically) "the Alcoran". Qur'an is the currently preferred English transliteration of the Arabic original (قرآن); it means “recitation”. Although the Qur'an is referred to as a "book", when a Muslim refers to the Qur'an, they are referring to the actual text, the words, rather than the printed work itself.

Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and up till his death in 632. In addition to memorizing his revelations, his followers are said to have written them down on parchments, stones, and leaves.

Muslims hold that the Qur'an available today is the same as that revealed to Muhammad and by him to his followers, who memorized and wrote down his words. Scholars generally accept that the version of the Qur'an used today was first compiled in writing by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, sometime between 650 and 656. He sent copies of his version to the various provinces of the new Muslim empire, and directed that all variant copies be destroyed. However, some skeptics doubt the recorded oral traditions (hadith) on which this account is based, and will concede only that the Qur'an must have been compiled before 750.

There are numerous traditions, and many conflicting academic theories, as to the provenance of the Qur'anic verses that were eventually assembled into a single volume. (This is covered in greater detail in Qur'an). Most Muslims accept the account recorded in several hadith, which state that Abu Bakr, The First Caliph, ordered his personal secretary Zayd ibn Thabit to collect and record all the authentic verses of the Qur'an, as preserved in written form or oral tradition. Zayd's written collection, privately treasured by Muhammad's wife Hafsa bint Umar, was, according to Muslim sources, later used by Uthman and is thus the basis of today's Qur'an.

Uthman's version, organized the suras roughly in order of length (excepting the brief opening sura Al-Fatiha), with the longest suras at the start of the Qur'an and the shortest ones at the end. More conservative views state that the order of most suras was divinely set. Later scholars have struggled to put the suras in chronological order, and at least among Muslim commentators, there is a rough consensus as to which suras were revealed in Mecca and which at Medina, with distinctive characteristics observed within these two subgroups. Some suras (e.g. surat Iqra) are thought to have been revealed in parts at separate times.

To understand the notion of "variants" within the received Qur'anic text, one must understand that Arabic had not yet fully developed as a written language. The Qur'an was first recorded in written form (date uncertain) in the Hijazi, Mashq, Ma'il, and Kufic scripts; these scripts write consonants only and do not supply vowels. (Imagine an English text that wrote the word 'bed' as "BD," and required the reader to infer, from context, that the reference was to "bed" - and not to 'bad" or "bide.") Because there were differing oral traditions of recitation as non-native Arabic speakers converted to Islam, there was some disagreement as to the exact reading of many (vowel-free) verses. Eventually, scripts were developed that used diacritical markings (known as points) to indicate the vowels. For hundreds of years after Uthman's recension, Muslim scholars argued as to the correct pointing and reading of Uthman's (unpointed) official text. Eventually, most commentators accepted seven variant readings (qira'at) of the Qur'an as canonical, while agreeing that the differences among the seven are minor and do not affect the meaning of the text.

The Qur'an early became a focus of Muslim devotion and eventually a subject of theological controversy among skeptics. In the 8th century, the Mu'tazilis claimed that the Qur'an was created in time and was not eternal. Their opponents, of various schools, claimed that the Qur'an was eternal and perfect, existing in heaven before it was revealed to Muhammad. The Ashari theology (which ultimately became predominant) held that the Qur'an was uncreated.

Most Muslims regard paper copies of the Qur'an with extreme veneration, wrapping them in a clean cloth, keeping them on a high shelf, and washing as for prayers before reading the Qur'an. Old Qur'ans are not destroyed as wastepaper, but buried in soil.

Most Muslims memorize for personal contact at least some portion of the Qur'an in the original language. Those who have memorized the entire Qur'an are known as hafiz (plural huffaz). This is not a rare achievement; it is believed that there are millions of huffaz that are alive today.

From the beginning of the faith, most Muslims believed that the Qur'an was perfect only as revealed in Arabic. Translations were the result of human effort and human fallibility, as well as lacking the inspired poetry believers find in the Qur'an. Translations are therefore only commentaries on the Qur'an, or "interpretations of its meaning", not the Qur'an itself. Many modern, printed versions of the Qur'an feature the Arabic text on one page, and a vernacular translation on the facing page.

Organization

Religious authority

There is no official authority who decides whether a person is accepted into, or dismissed from, the community of believers, known as the Ummah ("family" or "nation"). Islam is open to all, regardless of race, age, gender, or previous beliefs. It is enough to believe in the central beliefs of Islam. This is formally done by reciting the shahada; which should be made sincerely from the heart, the statement of belief of Islam, without which a person cannot be classed a Muslim. It is enough to believe and say that one is a Muslim, and behave in a manner befitting a Muslim to be accepted into the community of Islam.

Islamic law

File:Masjid Nabawi. Medina, Saudi Arabia.jpg

Masjid al-Nabawi (Mosque of the Prophet)

Main article: Sharia

The Sharia (Arabic for "well-trodden path") is Islamic law, as shown by traditional Islamic scholarship. The Qur'an is the foremost source of Islamic jurisprudence. The second source is the sunnah of Muhammad and the early Muslim community. The sunnah is not itself a text like the Qur'an, but is extracted by analysis of the hadith (Arabic for report), which contain narrations of Muhammad's sayings, deeds, and actions. Ijma (consensus of the community of Muslims) and qiyas (analogical reasoning) are the third and fourth sources of Sharia.

Islamic law covers all aspects of life, from the broad topics of governance and foreign relations all the way down to issues of daily living. Islamic laws that were covered expressly in the Qur’an were referred to as hudud laws and include specifically the five crimes of theft, highway robbery, intoxication, adultery and falsely accusing another of adultery, each of which has a prescribed "hadd" punishment that cannot be forgone or mitigated. The Qur'an also details laws of inheritance, marriage, restitution for injuries and murder, as well as rules for fasting, charity, and prayer. However, the prescriptions and prohibitions may be broad, so how they are applied in practice varies. Islamic scholars, the ulema, have elaborated systems of law on the basis of these broad rules, supplemented by the hadith reports of how Muhammad and his companions interpreted them. See Sin for further discussion about the concept of sin and its atonement according to the Islamic law.

In current times, not all Muslims understand the Qur'an in its original Arabic. Thus, when Muslims are divided in how to handle situations, they seek the assistance of a mufti (Islamic judge) who can advise them based on Islamic Sharia and hadith.

Apostasy and blasphemy

Main article: Apostasy in Islam

Local Islamic communities may exclude those they regard as apostates and blasphemers. In states following more austere versions of Islamic law, apostasy from Islam and blasphemy are considered crimes and may be punished with execution or imprisonment.

Islamic calendar

Main article: Islamic calendar

Islam dates from the Hijra, or migration from Mecca to Medina. Year 1, AH (Anno Hegira) corresponds to AD 622 or 622 CE, depending on the notation preferred (see Common Era). It is a lunar calendar, but differs from other such calendars (e.g. the Celtic calendar) in that it omits intercalary months, being synchronized only with lunations, but not with the solar year, resulting in years of either 354 or 355 days. Therefore, Islamic dates cannot be converted to the usual CE/AD dates simply by adding 622 years. Islamic holy days fall on fixed dates of the lunar calendar, which means that they occur in different seasons in different years in the Gregorian calendar.

Schools (denominations)

Main article: Divisions of Islam

There are a number of Islamic religious denominations, each of which have significant theological and legal differences from each other but possess similar essential beliefs. The major schools of thought are Sunni and Shi'a; Sufism is generally considered to be a mystical inflection of Islam rather than a distinct school. According to most sources, present estimates indicate that approximately 85% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and approximately 15% are Shi'a.

Sunni

The Sunni are the largest group in Islam. In Arabic, as-Sunnah literally means principle or path. Sunnis and Shi'a believe that Muhammad is a perfect example to follow, and that they must imitate the words and acts of Muhammad as accurately as possible. Because of this reason, the Hadith in which those words and acts are described are a main pillar of Sunni doctrine.

Sunnis recognize four legal traditions (madhhabs): Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanafi, and Hanbali. All four accept the validity of the others and Muslims choose any one that he/she finds agreeable to his/her ideas. There are also several orthodox theological or philosophical traditions (kalam).

Shi'a

A view of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a holy site in Islam

Shi'a Muslims, the second-largest branch, differ from the Sunni in rejecting the authority of the first three caliphs. They honor different traditions (hadith) and have their own legal traditions. Shi'a scholars have a larger authority than Sunni scholars and have greater room for interpretation. The Imams play a central role in Shi'a doctrine. Shi'a Muslims hold that Muhammad, his daughter Fatima and the twelve descendants of Muhammad, the Imams, were all sinless and pure. This is based on Qur'anic verses (such as 33:33) and Hadith narrations such as the Event of the Cloak.

The Arabic word Shi'a literally translates into the word 'supporters' or 'followers'. Originally known as Shi'at ul Ali (the supporters of Ali), the group formed shortly after the death of Ali, in Iraq. Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin of prophet Muhammad, and after marriage to Fatima, he also became Muhammad's son-in-law. Muhammad was raised in the house of Abi Taleb after he became an orphan; therefore he and Ali were raised as brothers.

The Shi'a consist of one major school of thought known as the Ithna 'ashariyah or the "Twelvers", and a few minor schools of thought, as the "Seveners" or the "Fivers" referring to the number of infallible leaders they recognize after the death of prophet Muhammad. The term Shi'a, when used without qualification, is usually taken to be synonymous with the Ithna Ashariyya or Twelvers. Most Shi'a live in Iran, Iraq (the country where Ali died), Bahrain, Lebanon, India, Azerbaijan, Yemen and Pakistan. A minority group (about 10-15 million) of Shi'a is known as Ismaili. The Shia Ismaili branch is subdivided into Nizari Ismaili and Mustaali Bohra subbranches. The Nizari Ismaili or are led by the Aga Khan and are found mainly in Pakistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, India, Canada and United States, although the modern day practices of this branch are very different from that of the mainstream Twelvers. The Mustaali Bohra branch is further subdivided into Dawoodi and Sulaimanis subsects. The Dawoodi Bohras are concentrated in Pakistan and India. The Sulaimani Bohras are concentrated in Yemen and Najran province of Saudi Arabia.

See also: Historic background of the Sunni-Shi'a split

Sufism

Sufism is a spiritual practice followed by both Sunni and Shi'a. Sufis generally feel that following Islamic law or jurisprudence (or fiqh) is only the first step on the path to perfect submission; they focus on the internal or more spiritual aspects of Islam, such as perfecting one's faith and fighting one's own ego (nafs). Most Sufi orders, or tariqas, can be classified as either Sunni or Shi'a. However, there are some that are not easily categorized as either Sunni or Shi'a, such as the Bektashi. Sufis are found throughout the Islamic world, from Senegal to Indonesia. Their innovative beliefs and actions often come under criticism from Wahhabis, who consider certain practices to be against the letter of Islamic law.

Others

Wahhabis, as they are called by some muslims and non-muslims, are a smaller, more recent Sunni group. They prefer to be called Salafis. Salafiyyah is a movement commenly thought as founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab in the 18th century in what is present-day Saudi Arabia. They are classified as Sunni. One of the foremost principles, however, is the abolition of "schools of thoughts" (legal traditions), and the following of Muhammad directly through the study of the sciences of the Hadith (prophetic traditions). The Hanbali legal tradition is the stongest school of thought where the Islamic law in Saudi Arabia is derived from, and they have had a great deal of influence on the Islamic world because of Saudi control of Mecca and Medina, the Islamic holy places, and because of Saudi funding for mosques and schools in other countries. The majority of Saudi Islamic scholars are considered as Wahhabis by other parts of the Islamic world.

Sunni and Shi'a have often clashed. Some Sunni believe that Shi’a are heretics while very few Sunni recognize Shi'a as fellow Muslims. According to Shaikh Mahmood Shaltoot, head of the al-Azhar University in the middle part of the 20th century, "the Ja'fari school of thought, which is also known as "al-Shi'a al- Imamiyyah al-Ithna Ashariyyah" (i.e. The Twelver Imami Shi'ites) is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as are other Sunni schools of thought." Al-Azhar later distanced itself from this position.

Another sect which dates back to the early days of Islam is that of the Kharijites. The only surviving branch of the Kharijites are the Ibadi Muslims. Ibadhism is distinguished from Shiism by its belief that the Imam (Leader) should be chosen solely on the basis of his faith, not on the basis of descent, and from Sunnism in its rejection of Uthman and Ali and strong emphasis on the need to depose unjust rulers. Ibadi Islam is noted for its strictness, but, unlike the Kharijites proper, Ibadis do not regard major sins as automatically making a Muslim an unbeliever. Most Ibadi Muslims live in Oman.

Another trend in modern Islam is that which is sometimes called progressive. Followers may be called Ijtihadists. They may be either Sunni or Shi'ite, and generally favor the development of personal interpretations of Qur'an and Hadith. See: Liberal Islam

One very small group, based primarily in the United States, follows the teachings of Rashad Khalifa and calls itself the "Submitters". They reject the Hadith and Fiqh, and say that they follow the Qur'an alone. They also consider Khalifa a messenger after Muhammad (Rashad Khalifa proclaimed himself the Messenger of the Covenant). Note that this is different to a Prophet. Neither the "Submitters" nor Rashad Khalifa believe there will be any more prophets after Muhammed. Most Muslims of both the Sunni and the Shia branches consider this group to be heretical. Some Muslims, however, will reject Khalifa's messenger status but will also reject both the Fiqh and the Hadith.

Religions based on Islam

The following consider themselves Muslims but acceptance by the larger Muslim community varies:

• The Druze
• The Alawites (Alnusairiya)

The following groups are not considered Islamic by the majority of Muslims or Muslim authorities:

• The Nation of Islam (based in the United States)
• The Zikris
• The Ahmadiyya Movement (also called Qadiani)
• The Al-Ahbash (also called Habashies / AICP)

The following religions are said by some to have evolved or borrowed from Islam, in almost all cases influenced by traditional beliefs in the regions where they emerged, but consider themselves independent religions with distinct laws and institutions:

• Yazidi
• Sikhism
• Bábísm
• Bahá'í Faith

The claim of the adherents of the Bahá'í Faith that it represents an independent religion was upheld by the Muslim ecclesiastical courts in Egypt during the 1920s. As of January 1926, their final ruling on the matter of the origins of the Bahá'í Faith and its relationship to Islam was that the Bahá'í Faith was neither a sect of Islam, nor a religion based on Islam, but a clearly defined, independently founded faith. This was seen as a considerate act on the part of the ecclesiastical court and favorable to followers of the Bahá'í Faith, since the majority of Muslims regard a religion based on Islam as a heresy.

The following religions might have been said to have evolved from Islam, but are not considered part of Islam, and no longer exist:

• The religion of the medieval Berghouata
• The religion of Ha-Mim

Islam and other religions

Main article: Islam and other religions

The Qur'an contains both injunctions to respect other religions, and to fight and subdue unbelievers during war. Some Muslims have respected Jews and Christians as fellow people of the book (monotheists following Abrahamic religions), while others have reviled them as having abandoned monotheism and corrupted their scriptures. At different times and places, Islamic communities have been both intolerant and tolerant. Support can be found in the Qur'an for both attitudes.

The classical Islamic solution was a limited tolerance — Jews and Christians were to be allowed to privately practice their faith and follow their own family law. They were called dhimmis and paid a special tax called the jizya. The status of dhimmis is a matter of dispute, with some claiming that dhimmis were persecuted second-class citizens, and others that their lot was not difficult.

The medieval Islamic state was often more tolerant than many other states of the time, which insisted on complete conformity to a state religion. The record of contemporary Muslim-majority states is mixed. Some are generally regarded as tolerant, while others have been accused of intolerance and human rights violations.

History

The territory of the Caliphate in the year 750

Main article: History of Islam

Islamic history begins in Arabia in the 7th century with the emergence of Muhammad. Within a century of his death, an Islamic state stretched from the Atlantic ocean in the west to central Asia in the east, which, however, was soon torn by civil wars (fitnas). After this, there would always be rival dynasties claiming the caliphate, or leadership of the Muslim world, and many Islamic states or empires offering only token obedience to an increasingly powerless caliph.

Nonetheless, the later empires of the Abbasid caliphs and the Seljuk Turks were among the largest and most powerful in the world. After the disastrous defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Christian Europe launched a series of Crusades and for a time captured Jerusalem. Saladin, however, restored unity and defeated the Shiite Fatimids.

From the 14th to the 17th centuries, one of the most important Muslim territories was the Mali Empire, whose capital was Timbuktu.

In the 18th century, there were three great Muslim empires: the Ottoman in Turkey, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean; the Safavid in Iran; and the Mogul in India. By the 19th century, these realms had fallen under the sway of European political and economic power. Following WWI, the remnants of the Ottoman empire were parceled out as European protectorates or spheres of influence. Islam and Islamic political power have revived in the 20th century. However, the relationship between the West and the Islamic world remains uneasy.

Contemporary Islam

Although the most prominent movement in Islam in recent times has been fundamentalist Islamism, there are a number of liberal movements within Islam, which seek alternative ways to align the Islamic faith with contemporary questions.

Early Sharia had a much more flexible character than is currently associated with Islamic jurisprudence, and many modern Muslim scholars believe that it should be renewed, and the classical jurists should lose their special status. This would require formulating a new fiqh suitable for the modern world, e.g. as proposed by advocates of the Islamization of knowledge, and would deal with the modern context. One vehicle proposed for such a change has been the revival of the principle of ijtihad, or independent reasoning by a qualified Islamic scholar, which has lain dormant for centuries.

This movement does not aim to challenge the fundamentals of Islam; rather, it seeks to clear away misinterpretations and to free the way for the renewal of the previous status of the Islamic world as a centre of modern thought and freedom. (See Modern Islamic philosophy for more on this subject.)

Many Muslims counter the claim that only "liberalization" of the Islamic Sharia law can lead to distinguishing between tradition and true Islam by saying that meaningful "fundamentalism", by definition, will eject non-Islamic cultural inventions — for instance, acknowledging and implementing Muhammad's insistence that women have God-given rights that no human being may legally infringe upon. Proponents of modern Islamic philosophy sometimes respond to this by arguing that, as a practical matter, "fundamentalism" in popular discourse about Islam may actually refer, not to core precepts of the faith, but to various systems of cultural traditionalism.

The demographics of Islam today

Main article: [[:Islam by country and Demographics of Islam]]

Distribution of Islam per country. Green represents a Sunni majority and blue represents a Shia majority.

Based on the percentages published in the 2005 CIA World Factbook ("World"), Islam is the second largest religion in the world. According to the World Network of Religious Futurists, the U.S. Center for World Mission, and the controversial Samuel Huntington, Islam is growing faster numerically than any of the other major world religions. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance estimate that it is growing at about 2.9% annually, as opposed to 2.3% per year global population growth. Non-Muslim observers attribute this growth to the higher birth rates in many Islamic countries (six out of the top-ten countries in the world with the highest birth rates are majority Muslim ). A recent demographic study, however, has determined that the birth rates of some Muslim countries are plummeting to the levels of western countries .

The most exact calculations estimate Islamic population to be a little over 1.3 billion. Commonly cited estimates of the Muslim population today range between 900 million and 1.4 billion people (cf. Adherents.com); estimates of Islam by country based on U.S. State Department figures yield a total of 1.48 billion, while the Muslim delegation at the United Nations quoted 1.2 billion as the global Muslim population in September 2005.

Only 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world; 20% are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, about 30% in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and the world's largest single Muslim community (within the bounds of one nation) is in Indonesia. There are also significant Muslim populations in China, Europe, Central Asia, and Russia.

France has the highest Muslim population of any nation in Western Europe, with up to 6 million Muslims (10% of the population ). Albania is said to have the highest proportion of Muslims as part of its population in Europe (70%), although this figure is only an estimate (see Islam in Albania). The number of Muslims in North America is variously estimated as anywhere from 1.8 to 7 million.

Islamism

Main article: Islamism

The term Islamism describes a set of political ideologies derived from Islamic fundamentalism. Islamist ideologies hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state according to its interpretation of Islamic Law, in extreme cases pursuing its aims by resorting to warfare or terrorism.

It attained its modern connotation in late 1970s French academia, thence to be loaned into English again, where it has largely displaced “Islamic fundamentalism.” This usage is controversial. Islamists themselves may oppose the term because it suggests their philosophy to be a political extrapolation from Islam rather than a straightforward expression of Islam as a way of life. Some Muslims find it troublesome that a word derived from "Islam" is applied to organizations they consider radical and extreme. The terms "Islamist" and "Islamism" are used often in several publications within some Muslim countries to describe domestic and trans-national organizations seeking to implement Islamic law. The English website for Al Jazeera, for example, uses these terms frequently.[2][3]

Symbols of Islam

Main article: Islamic symbols

Muslims do not accept any icon or color as sacred to Islam, as they believe that worshipping symbolic or material things is against the spirit of monotheism. Many people assume that the star and crescent symbolize Islam, but these were actually the insignia of the Ottoman Empire, not of Islam as a whole. The color green is often associated with Islam as well; this is custom and not prescribed by religious scholars. However, Muslims will often use elaborately calligraphed verses from the Qur'an and pictures of the Ka'bah as decorations in mosques, homes, and public places. The Qur’anic verses are believed to be sacred.

See also

Further information: [[:List of Islamic and Muslim-related topics]]

• Christo-Islamic
• Criticism of Islam
• Islamic economics
• Islamic feminism
• Islamic law
• Islamic literature
• Islamic studies
• List of converts to Islam
• List of Muslims
• Muslim World
• Political Islamism
• Religion
• Timeline of Islamic history

Bibliography

• Encyclopedia of Islam Online Edition
• Arberry, A. J. The Koran Interpreted: a translation by A. J. Arberry. Touchstone, ISBN 0684825074
• Kramer, Martin. The Islamism Debate. University Press, (1997) ISBN 9652240249
• Kurzman, Charles. Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press, (1998) ISBN 0195116224
• Rahman, Fazlur. Islam. University of Chicago Press; 2nd edition, (1979) ISBN 0226702812
• Safi, Omid. Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism. Oneworld Publications, (2003) ISBN 1-85168-316-X
• Tibi, Bassam. The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder. Univ. of California Press, (1998) ISBN 0520088689

External links

Academic sources

• Encyclopedia of Islam (Overview of World Religions)
• Resources for Studying Islam (Department of Islamic Studies, University of Georgia)
• Unit on Islam from the NITLE Arab Culture and Civilization Online Resource]

Directories

• Islam in Western Europe, the United Kingdom, Germany and South Asia
• Dmoz.org Open Directory Project: Islam (a list of links of Islam)
• Dmoz.org Open Directory Project: Contra Islam (a list of links critical of Islam)

Islam and the arts, sciences, and philosophy

• Islamic Art (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
• Muslim Heritage (Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, UK)
• Islamic Architecture (IAORG) illustrated descriptions and reviews of a large number of mosques, palaces, and monuments.
• Islamic Philosophy (Journal of Islamic Philosophy, University of Michigan)
• Famous Muslim scientists & scholars