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186-457: Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad , the religion's founder. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims , who are estimated to number approximately 1.9 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians . Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that

372-548: A combined 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. Muslim jurists consult the hadith ('accounts'), or the written record of Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Quran and assist with its interpretation. The science of Quranic commentary and exegesis

558-533: A crime against humanity by the UN and Amnesty International, while the OHCHR Fact-Finding Mission identified genocide , ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity. Abrahamic religions Abrahamic religions make up the largest major division in the study of comparative religion . By total number of adherents, Christianity and Islam comprise the largest and second-largest religious movements in

744-547: A degree of syncretism , as illustrated by Muhammad's appearance in Hindu folklore. Muslim Turks incorporated elements of Turkish Shamanism beliefs to Islam. Muslims in Ming Dynasty China who were descended from earlier immigrants were assimilated, sometimes through laws mandating assimilation, by adopting Chinese names and culture while Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study. Cultural shifts were evident with

930-662: A direct ancestor; in any case, the emphasis is placed on faith being the only requirement for the Abrahamic Covenant to apply (see also New Covenant and supersessionism ). In Christian belief, Abraham is a role model of faith, and his obedience to God by offering Isaac is seen as a foreshadowing of God's offering of his son Jesus. Christian commentators have a tendency to interpret God's promises to Abraham as applying to Christianity subsequent to, and sometimes rather than (as in supersessionism), being applied to Judaism, whose adherents rejected Jesus . They argue this on

1116-541: A lack of bodily needs and desires, such as eating and drinking. Some of them, such as Gabriel ( Jibrīl ) and Michael ( Mika'il ), are mentioned by name in the Quran. Angels play a significant role in 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 and philosophy . The pre-eminent holy text of Islam

1302-551: 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 , who famously advocated the notion of free-will originated by Wasil ibn Ata . Caliph Mamun al Rashid made it an official creed and unsuccessfully attempted to force this position on

1488-599: A movement which caused thousands of Berbers to accept Islam. Islam was introduced to the Horn of Africa early on from the Arabian peninsula , shortly after the hijra . At Muhammad 's urging, a group of persecuted Muslims were received at the court of the Ethiopian Christian King Aṣḥama ibn Abjar , a migration known as the first Hijarat . Zeila 's two- mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn was built during this period in

1674-496: A person to hell . 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

1860-457: A religious context, it refers to the total surrender to the will of God . A Muslim ( مُسْلِم ), the word for a follower of Islam, is the active participle 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 imān (faith), and ihsān (excellence). Islam itself

2046-637: 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 their religious practice made them stand out from the rest of the population, the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang and by nationalist forces such as during the Bosnian genocide . Myanmar military's Tatmadaw targeting of Rohingya Muslims has been labeled as

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2232-477: A result of Islamic missionary activities ( dawah ), as well as through conquests . The two main Islamic branches are Sunni Islam (85–90%) and Shia Islam (10–15%). While the Shia–Sunni divide initially arose from disagreements over the succession to Muhammad , they grew to cover a broader dimension, both theologically and juridically . The Sunni canonical hadith collection consists of six books , while

2418-687: A result. The second phase covers the period of the Crusades from 1095 to 1291 along the eastern borders of Europe, whereby little or no Islamic missionary activity occurred in Europe due to the on-going conflict between Christian Europe and the adjoining Muslim Caliphates. The third phase covers the period of 14th–20th centuries in Eastern Europe following the establishment of the Ottoman Caliphate . The conquest of significant territories in Eastern Europe by

2604-666: A robe on the convert and award him with bracelets of gold. During Ikhtiyar Uddin Bakhtiyar Khilji's control of the Bengal , Muslim missionaries in India achieved their greatest success, in terms of number of converts to Islam. Muslim missionaries across India received a significant moral boost with the formation of the Mughal Empire in Northern India in the sixteenth century. However,

2790-552: A son of al-Harth ibn Abdul Uzza (also known as Abu Kabsha). It is noted in other accounts that Wahab Abu Kabcha reached Canton by sea in 629 CE. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , along with three Sahabas, namely Suhayla Abuarja, Uwais al-Qarani , and Hassan ibn Thabit , returned to China from Arabia in 637 by the Yunan-Manipur-Chittagong route, then reached Arabia by sea. Some sources date the introduction of Islam in China to 650 AD,

2976-835: A strong proof of the early Islamization of the Sub-Saharan region. The gateways prominently expanded to include the aforementioned trade routes through the Eastern shores of the African continent. With the European colonization of Africa , missionaries were almost in competition with the European Christian missionaries operating in the colonies. Islam is currently the second largest religion in Africa, mainly concentrated in North and Northeast Africa , as well as

3162-453: Is Sahih al-Bukhari , often considered by Sunnis to be one of the most authentic sources after the Quran. Another well-known source of hadiths is known as The Four Books , which Shias consider as the most authentic hadith reference. Belief in the "Day of Resurrection" or Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة ) is also crucial for Muslims. It is believed that the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God, but unknown to man. The Quran and

3348-528: Is tawḥīd (Arabic: توحيد ), the oneness of God. It is usually thought of as a precise monotheism , but is also panentheistic in Islamic mystical teachings. God is seen as incomparable and without multiplicity of persons such as in the Christian Trinity , and associating multiplicity to God or attributing God's attributes to others is seen as idolatory , called shirk . God is described as Al Ghayb so

3534-470: Is a universal religion (i.e. membership is open to anyone). Like Judaism, it has a strictly unitary conception of God, called tawhid or "strict monotheism". The story of the creation of the world in the Quran is elaborated less extensively than in the Hebrew scripture, emphasizing the transcendence and universality of God, instead. According to the Quran, God says kun fa-yakūnu . The Quran describes God as

3720-532: Is a Kurdish religion which combines elements of Shi'a Islam with pre-Islamic Kurdish beliefs; it has been classified as Abrahamic due to its monotheism, incorporation of Islamic doctrines, and reverence for Islamic figures, especially Ali ibn Abi Talib , the fourth caliph and first imam of Shia Islam . A number of sources include the Baháʼí Faith established in the 19th century, since it historically emerged in an Islamic milieu, and shares several beliefs with

3906-647: Is a term used for a deity or a god in general. Angels (Arabic: ملك , malak ) are beings described in the Quran and hadith. They are described as created to worship God and also to serve in 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 include

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4092-544: Is also an important social center for the Muslim community . For example, the Masjid an-Nabawi ("Prophetic Mosque") in Medina, Saudi Arabia , used to also serve as a shelter for the poor. Minarets are towers used to call the adhan , a vocal call to signal the prayer time. Zakat ( Arabic : زكاة , zakāh ), also spelled Zakāt or Zakah , is a type of almsgiving characterized by

4278-554: Is also identified in the Quran as Yawm ad-Dīn ( يوم الدين "Day of Religion"); as-Sāʿah ( الساعة "the Last Hour"); and al-Qāriʿah ( القارعة "The Clatterer"). The concept of divine predestination in Islam ( Arabic : القضاء والقدر , al-qadāʾ wa l-qadar ) 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

4464-677: Is also sometimes classified as Abrahamic, in particular due to its monotheism and use of the Bible as scripture. Chrislam , a group of related Nigerian religious movements which seek to syncretise Christianity and Islam, is sometimes also considered a minor Abrahamic religion. Other African diaspora religions, such as Haitian Vodou and Candomblé , are not classified as Abrahamic, despite originating in syncretism between Christianity and African traditional religions, since they are not monotheistic, and Abraham plays no role in them. Scholarly sources do not classify Sikhism as an Abrahamic religion, but it

4650-402: Is an oath declaring belief in Islam. The expanded statement is " ʾašhadu ʾal-lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh " ( أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله ), 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

4836-543: Is an increasing trend towards hiring of full-time Muslim chaplains to cater to increasing populations of Muslim prisoners in large urban areas . J. Michael Waller claims that Muslim inmates comprise 17-20% of the prison population in New York, or roughly 350,000 inmates in 2003. He also claims that 80% of the prisoners who "find faith" while in prison convert to Islam. With the burgeoning Muslim population in North America by

5022-428: 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 ( الرحمان ) meaning "The Entirely Merciful", and Ar-Rahīm ( الرحيم ) meaning "The Especially Merciful" which are invoked at the beginning of most chapters of the Quran. Islam teaches that the creation of everything in

5208-467: Is controversial, given Mandaeism does not accept Abraham as a prophet, despite revering as prophets several other figures from the Jewish scriptures – on the contrary, they believe that Abraham was originally a priest of their religion, but became an apostate from it. Druze is another religion which emerged from Islam in the 11th century, and hence is sometimes also considered an Abrahamic religion. Yarsanism

5394-489: Is in Xinjiang , with a significant Uyghur population. Lesser but significant populations reside in the regions of Ningxia , Gansu , and Qinghai . Various sources estimate different numbers of adherents with some sources indicating that 1-3% of the total population in China are Muslims. Most of the significant population of Muslims in China is a result, not of missionary activity, but of trade links forged between various Muslim Caliphates with various Chinese dynasties over

5580-878: Is its connection with the Miʿrāj , where, according to traditional Muslim belief, Muhammad ascended through the Seven heavens on a horse like winged beast named Buraq , guided by the Archangel Gabriel , beginning from the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount , in modern times under the Dome of the Rock . Even though members of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not all claim Abraham as an ancestor, some members of these religions have tried to claim him as exclusively theirs. For Jews , Abraham

5766-564: Is known as tafsir . In addition to its religious significance, the Quran is widely regarded as the finest work in Arabic literature , and has influenced art and the Arabic language. Islam also holds that God has sent revelations, called wahy , to different prophets numerous times throughout history. However, Islam teaches that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, such as the Tawrat ( Torah ) and

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5952-507: Is known by different names. Each of these religions preaches that God creates, is one, rules, reveals, loves, judges, punishes, and forgives. However, although Christianity does not profess to believe in three gods—but rather in three persons , or hypostases, united in one essence —the Trinitarian doctrine , a fundamental of faith for the vast majority of Christian denominations, conflicts with Jewish and Muslim concepts of monotheism. Since

6138-405: Is optional and can be undertaken at any time of the year. Other sites of Islamic pilgrimage are Medina , where Muhammad died, as well as Jerusalem , a city of many Islamic prophets and the site of Al-Aqsa , which was the direction of prayer before Mecca. Muslims recite and memorize the whole or parts of the Quran as acts of virtue. Tajwid refers to the set of rules for the proper elocution of

6324-465: Is performed from dawn to sunset. During the month of Ramadan , it is considered a duty for Muslims to fast. 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, such as the Day of Arafah , when fasting is optional. The Islamic pilgrimage , called the " ḥajj " (Arabic: حج ),

6510-483: Is primarily a revered ancestor or patriarch (referred to as Avraham Avinu (אברהם אבינו in Hebrew ) "Abraham our father") to whom God made several promises: chiefly, that he would have numberless descendants, who would receive the land of Canaan (the " Promised Land "). According to Jewish tradition, Abraham was the first post- Flood prophet to reject idolatry through rational analysis, although Shem and Eber carried on

6696-438: Is problematic on closer examination. While there is a commonality among the religions, their shared ancestry is mainly peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences. Alan L. Berger , professor of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University , wrote that "while Judaism birthed both Christianity and Islam, the three monotheistic faiths went their separate ways" and "each tradition views

6882-498: Is seen as a purification of one's excess wealth. The total annual value contributed due to zakat is 15 times greater than global humanitarian aid donations, using conservative estimates. Sadaqah , as opposed to Zakat, is a much-encouraged optional charity. A waqf is a perpetual charitable trust , which finances hospitals and schools in Muslim societies. In Islam, fasting ( Arabic : صوم , ṣawm ) precludes food and drink, as well as other forms of consumption, such as smoking , and

7068-415: Is singular ( tawḥīd ) unique ( wāḥid ) and inherently One ( aḥad ), all-merciful and omnipotent. According to Islamic teachings, God exists without place and according to the Quran, "No vision can grasp him, but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things." God, as referenced in the Quran, is the only God. Islamic tradition also describes

7254-431: Is sometimes popularly misconceived as being one, in particular due to the theory that it is a syncretism of Hinduism and Islam, which was popular in older accounts but has been rejected as inaccurate by contemporary scholarship. Zoroastrianism is not considered an Abrahamic religion, since Abraham is not part of Zoroastrian religious traditions. All Abrahamic religions accept the tradition that God revealed himself to

7440-524: Is suggested as a common ground for Judaism, Christianity, Islam and a hypothesized eschatological reconciliation of the three. Commonalities may include creation , revelation , and redemption , but such shared concepts vary significantly between and within the Abrahamic religions themselves. Proponents of the term argue that all three religions are united through the deity worshipped by Abraham. The Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon stated that

7626-429: Is the Quran . Muslims believe that the verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad by God, through the archangel Gabriel, 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 primary method of transmission was orally through memorization . The Quran is divided into 114 chapters ( sūrah ) which contain

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7812-445: Is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence. In contrast to the Jewish and Christian traditions, which depict God usually as anthropomorph, the Islamic conception of God is less personal, but rather of a conscious force behind all aspects of the universe only known through signs of nature, metaphorical stories, and revelation by the prophets and angels. Islam emphasizes that God

7998-455: Is the founding patriarch of the children of Israel. God promised Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you." With Abraham, God entered into "an everlasting covenant throughout the ages to be God to you and to your offspring to come". It is this covenant that makes Abraham and his descendants children of the covenant. Similarly, converts, who join the covenant, are all identified as sons and daughters of Abraham. Abraham

8184-606: Is the main and final Islamic prophet , through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the Sunnah , documented in accounts called the hadith , provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in oneness and uniqueness of the God ( tawhid ), and belief in an afterlife ( akhirah ) with the Last Judgment —wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise ( jannah ) and

8370-520: 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 . In Mecca , pilgrims walk seven times around the Kaaba , which Muslims believe Abraham built as a place of worship, and they walk seven times between Mount Safa and Marwa , recounting the steps of Abraham's wife, Hagar , who

8556-730: Is typically viewed as the heresy of idolatry by Islam and Judaism. Jerusalem is considered Judaism's holiest city. Its origins can be dated to 1004 BCE, when according to Biblical tradition David established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son Solomon built the First Temple on Mount Moriah . Since the Hebrew Bible relates that Isaac's sacrifice took place there, Mount Moriah's importance for Jews predates even these prominent events. Jews thrice daily pray in its direction, including in their prayers pleas for

8742-780: 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. This established religious freedoms and freedom to use their own laws among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities as well as an agreement to defend Medina from external threats. Meccan forces and their allies lost against

8928-519: The Injil ( Gospel ), have 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. Prophets (Arabic: أنبياء , anbiyāʾ ) are believed to have been chosen by God to preach a divine message. Some of these prophets additionally deliver a new book and are called "messengers" ( رسول‎ , rasūl ). Muslims believe prophets are human and not divine. All of

9114-547: The 99 names of God . These 99 names describe attributes of God, including Most Merciful, The Just, The Peace and Blessing, and the Guardian. Islamic missionary activity Islamic missionary work or dawah means to "invite" (in Arabic, literally "invitation") to Islam . After the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , from the 7th century onwards, Islam spread rapidly from the Arabian Peninsula to then rest of

9300-679: The Arab Spring , Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia and the AK Party , which has democratically been in power in Turkey for decades. In Iran , 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. The group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant would even attempt to recreate

9486-575: 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'awiya in return for Mu'awiya not appointing a successor. Mu'awiya 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

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9672-656: 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 compared to non-Muslim European powers. Earlier, in the 15th century, the Reconquista succeeded in ending the Muslim presence in Iberia . By

9858-533: The Hasmonean Kingdom , and modern Israel). It has been majority Jewish since about 1852 and continues through today. Jerusalem was an early center of Christianity . There has been a continuous Christian presence there since. William R. Kenan, Jr., professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia , Charlottesville, writes that from the middle of the 4th century to the Islamic conquest in

10044-751: The House of Wisdom employed Christian and Persian scholars to both translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. Soldiers broke away from the Abbasid empire and established their own dynasties, such as the Tulunids in 868 in Egypt and the Ghaznavid dynasty in 977 in Central Asia. In this fragmentation came the Shi'a Century , roughly between 945 and 1055, which saw the rise of

10230-405: The Ishmaelites are descended from Abraham through his son Ishmael in the Arabian Peninsula. In its early stages, the Israelite religion shares traits with the Canaanite religions of the Bronze Age ; by the Iron Age , it had become distinct from other Canaanite religions as it shed polytheism for monolatry . They understood their relationship with their god, Yahweh , as a covenant and that

10416-438: The Kingdom of Kano embraced Islam, and later toward the eighteenth century, the Nigeria based Sokoto Caliphate led by Usman dan Fodio exerted considerable effort in spreading Islam. The spread of Islam towards Central and West Africa has been prominent. Previously, the only connection to such areas was through Transsaharan trade, of which the Mali Empire , consisting predominantly of African and Berber tribes, stands as

10602-643: The Last Supper in an "upper room" (traditionally the Cenacle ) there the night before he was crucified on the cross and was arrested in Gethsemane . The six parts to Jesus' trial—three stages in a religious court and three stages before a Roman court—were all held in Jerusalem. His crucifixion at Golgotha , his burial nearby (traditionally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ), and his resurrection and ascension and prophecy to return all are said to have occurred or will occur there. Jerusalem became holy to Muslims, third after Mecca and Medina . The Al-Aqsa , which translates to "farthest mosque" in sura Al-Isra in

10788-506: 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

10974-427: 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. 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

11160-446: The Ottoman presence in the Balkans , missionary movements were also taken up by people from aristocratic families hailing from the region, who had been educated in Constantinople or any other major city within the Empire, in famed madrassahs and kulliyes . Most of the time, such individuals were sent back to the place of their origin, being appointed to important positions in the local governing body. This approach often resulted in

11346-432: The Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate ruled from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley . In the Islamic Golden Age , specifically during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate , most of the Muslim world experienced a scientific , economic and cultural flourishing . The expansion of the Muslim world involved various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as

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11532-475: 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, attempting to avenge

11718-498: The Sahel region. Muslim missionaries played a key role in the spread of Islam in India with some missionaries even assuming roles as merchants or traders. For example, in the 9th century, the Ismailis sent missionaries across Asia in all directions under various guises, often as traders, Sufis and merchants. Ismailis were instructed to speak potential converts in their own language. Some Ismaili missionaries traveled to India and employed effort to make their religion acceptable to

11904-401: The Sassanid Empire and spreading the reach of Islam to as far east as Khorasan , which would later become the cradle of Islamic civilization during the Islamic Golden Age and a stepping-stone towards the introduction of Islam to the Turkic tribes living in and bordering the area. The Arab Christian Bedouins embraced Islam following the wake of the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in which

12090-419: The Sassanids were routed. During the rule of Umar II and Al-Ma'mun , Islam gained numerous converts. Following the initial establishment of the empire and stabilization of borders and ruling elites, various missionary movements emerged during the ensuing Islamic Golden Age , with the express purpose of preaching to the non-Muslim populations in their midst. These missionary movements also preached outside

12276-480: The environment . The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha . The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina , and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem . The religion of Islam originated in Mecca in 610 CE . Muslims believe this is when Muhammad received his first revelation . By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam . Muslim rule expanded outside Arabia under

12462-400: The mathematical model that was later argued to be adopted by Copernicus unrevised in his heliocentric model, and Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. After the introduction of gunpowder weapons, large and centralized Muslim states consolidated around gunpowder empires , these had been previously splintered amongst various territories. The caliphate

12648-499: The millennialist Isma'ili Shi'a missionary movement. One Isma'ili group, the Fatimid dynasty , took control of North Africa in the 10th century and another Isma'ili group, the Qarmatians , sacked Mecca and stole the Black Stone , a rock placed within the Kaaba, in their unsuccessful rebellion. Yet another Isma'ili 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

12834-414: The prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel (Bani Israil), the Zabur ( Psalms ) revealed to Dawud ( David ) and the Injil (the Gospel ) revealed to Isa ( Jesus ). The Quran also mentions God having revealed the Scrolls of Abraham and the Scrolls of Moses . The relationship between Islamic and Hebrew scriptures and New Testament differs significantly from the relationship between

13020-483: The restrictions on pork consumption found in Jewish and Islamic dietary law), and key beliefs of Islam, Christianity, and the Baháʼí Faith not shared by Judaism (e.g., the prophetic and Messianic position of Jesus ). Jewish tradition claims that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob , whose sons formed the nation of the Israelites in Canaan ; Islamic tradition claims that twelve Arab tribes known as

13206-459: The siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), forced Jews to reconcile their belief-system with the destruction of the Second Temple and associated rituals. At this time, both Judaism and Christianity had to systematize their scriptures and beliefs, resulting in competing theologies both claiming Abrahamic heritage. Christians could hardly dismiss the Hebrew scriptures as Jesus himself refers to them according to Christian reports, and parallels between Jesus and

13392-508: The universe was brought into being by God's command as expressed by the wording, " Be, and it is ," 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 is a term with no plural or gender being ascribed to it and is also used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews in reference to God, whereas ʾilāh ( إله )

13578-479: The world's fastest-growing major religious group, due primarily to a higher fertility rate and younger age structure compared to other major religions. In Arabic, Islam ( Arabic : إسلام , lit.   'submission [to God]') is the verbal noun of Form IV originating from the verb سلم ( salama ), from the triliteral root س-ل-م ( S-L-M ), which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of submission, safeness, and peace. In

13764-521: The " Night of Power " ( Laylat al-Qadr ) and is considered a significant event in Islamic history. During the next 22 years of his life, from age 40 onwards, Muhammad continued to receive revelations from God, becoming the last or seal of the prophets sent to mankind. 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,

13950-476: The " sons of God " rather than "children of Abraham". For Muslims, Abraham is a prophet , the " messenger of God" who stands in the line from Adam to Muhammad, to whom God gave revelations, , who "raised the foundations of the House" (i.e., the Kaaba ) with his first son, Isma'il , a symbol of which is every mosque. Ibrahim (Abraham) is the first in a genealogy for Muhammad. Islam considers Abraham to be "one of

14136-467: The "world's first true scientist", in particular regarding his work in optics . In engineering, the Banū Mūsā brothers' automatic flute player is considered to have been the first programmable machine . In 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

14322-447: The 12th century AD. It is commonly held that Islam first arrived in the Malay peninsula since Sultan Mudzafar Shah I (12th century) of Kedah (Hindu name Phra Ong Mahawangsa), the first ruler to be known to convert to Islam after being introduced to it by Indian traders who themselves were recent converts. Hui Muslims are the majority Muslim group in China. The greatest concentration

14508-507: The 16th century, the birth and growth of Protestantism during the Reformation further split Christianity into many denominations . Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches , Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization . Islam is based on the teachings of the Quran . Although it considers Muhammad to be the Seal of

14694-520: The 19th 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

14880-675: 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. Notable forerunners in the movement include Muhammad 'Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani . Abul A'la Maududi helped influence modern political Islam . Similar to contemporary codification , sharia

15066-663: The 1st century as a sect within Judaism initially led by Jesus . His followers viewed him as the Messiah , as in the Confession of Peter ; after his crucifixion and death they came to view him as God incarnate , who was resurrected and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and create an eternal Kingdom of God . In the 1st century AD, under the Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth ; Christianity spread widely after it

15252-602: The 2nd century: "His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things." In the 8th century, John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted. As time passed, theologians developed systematic lists of these attributes, some based on statements in the Bible (e.g., the Lord's Prayer , stating that the Father is in Heaven ), others based on theological reasoning. In Islamic theology , God ( Arabic : الله Allāh )

15438-496: The 7th century AD, Islam was founded by Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula; it spread widely through the early Muslim conquests , shortly after his death. Islam understands its form of "Abrahamic monotheism" as preceding both Judaism and Christianity, and in contrast with Arabian Henotheism . The teachings of the Quran are believed by Muslims to be the direct and final revelation and words of God . Islam, like Christianity,

15624-594: The 7th century, and is the oldest mosque in the city. In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard. He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city, suggesting that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th centuries. On the African Great Lakes coast, Islam made its way inland, spreading at

15810-537: The Abrahamic faiths, including monotheism and recognising Jewish, Christian and Islamic figures as prophets. Some also include Bábism , another 19th century movement which was a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith – but while most followers of Bábism became Baháʼís, a minority did not, and Bábism survives today as an independent religion, albeit only with a few thousand remaining followers. Rastafari , an Afrocentric religion which emerged from Christianity in 1930s Jamaica,

15996-420: The Arabic language and performed in the direction of the Kaaba . The act also requires a state of ritual purity achieved by means of either a routine wudu ritual wash or, in certain circumstances, a ghusl full body ritual wash. 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

16182-582: The Biblical stories of creation and redemption starting with Abraham in the Book of Genesis . The distant God asserted by Jesus according to the Christians, created a form of dualism between Creator and creation and the doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo , which later heavily influenced Jewish and Islamic theology. By that, Christians established their own identity, distinct from both Greeks and Jews, as those who venerate

16368-553: The Ghaznavids higher than 55,000 under the Hanafi school of thought. In the 9th century, the Ismailis sent missionaries across Asia in all directions under various guises, often as traders, Sufis and merchants. Ismailis were instructed to speak to potential converts in their own language. Some Ismaili missionaries traveled to India and employed effort to make their religion acceptable to

16554-552: The Hindus. For instance, they represented Ali as the tenth avatar of Vishnu and wrote hymns as well as a Mahdi purana in their effort to win converts. At other times, converts were won in conjunction with the propagation efforts of rulers. According to Ibn Batuta , the Khaljis encouraged conversion to Islam by making it a custom to have the convert presented to the Sultan who would place

16740-559: The Hindus. For instance, they represented Ali as the tenth avatar of Vishnu and wrote hymns as well as a mahdi purana in their effort to win converts. In 922 the Volga Bulgars were converted to Islam during the missionary work of Ahmad ibn Fadlan —an act with considerable influence on the later history of the Mongol Empire and of Russia , since the Kipchaks who later conquered

16926-537: The Malay Peninsula. Through assimilation Islam had supplanted Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion of Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. At this time, only Bali retained a Hindu majority and the Lesser Sunda Islands remained largely animist but would adopt Islam and Christianity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Islam was also brought to Malaysia by Indian Muslim traders in

17112-620: The Mongols of the Golden Horde and took steps for the Golden Horde Mongols to travel to Egypt . The arrival of the Golden Horde Mongols to Egypt resulted in a significant number of Mongols accepting Islam. By AD 1330s three of the four major khanates of the Mongol Empire had become Muslim . With the conquest of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks , missionaries would find easier passage to

17298-567: 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

17484-520: The New Testament and the Hebrew Bible . Whereas the New Testament draws heavily on the Hebrew Bible and interprets its text in light of the foundations of the new religion, the Quran only alludes to various stories of Biblical writings, but remains independent of both, focusing on establishing a monotheistic message by utilizing the stories of the prophets in a religious decentralized environment. In

17670-531: The Ottomans allowed Muslim missionaries to now operate in hitherto strictly Christian areas inside Europe. Some regions became entirely Muslim as a result, such as the modern day European states of Albania , Kosovo and Bosnia . With the Ottoman Caliphate in a seemingly constant military conflict with Western Europe at their mutual borders, missionary activity in Western Europe was virtually non-existent until

17856-701: 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, helped spread Shia Islam, forming some of

18042-466: The Quran and its surroundings are addressed in the Quran as "the holy land". Muslim tradition as recorded in the ahadith identifies al-Aqsa with a mosque in Jerusalem. The first Muslims did not pray toward Kaaba , but toward Jerusalem. The qibla was switched to Kaaba later on to fulfill the order of Allah of praying in the direction of Kaaba (Quran, Al-Baqarah 2:144–150). Another reason for its significance

18228-729: The Quran. Many Muslims recite the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. One who has memorized the whole Quran is called a hafiz ("memorizer"), and hadiths mention that these individuals will be able to intercede for others on Judgment Day. Supplication to God, called in Arabic duʿāʾ ( Arabic : دعاء   IPA: [dʊˈʕæːʔ] ) has its own etiquette such as raising hands as if begging. Remembrance of God ( ذكر , Dhikr' ) refers to phrases repeated referencing God. Commonly, this includes Tahmid, declaring praise be due to God ( الحمد لله , al-Ḥamdu lillāh ) during prayer or when feeling thankful, Tasbih , declaring glory to God during prayer or when in awe of something and saying ' in

18414-572: The Quranic accounts are collected and explored in the Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets). 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

18600-644: The Shia canonical hadith collection consists of four books . Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries. Approximately 12% of the world's Muslims live in Indonesia , the most populous Muslim-majority country; 31% live in South Asia ; 20% live in the Middle East–North Africa ; and 15% live in sub-Saharan Africa . Muslim communities are also present in the Americas , China , and Europe . Muslims are

18786-660: The United Kingdom, prominent missionary speakers include: The Muslim population in the United States has increased vastly since 1950, with growth driven by both conversion as well as immigration. The conversion to Islam of most converts in North America can be attributed to several distinct, yet symbiotic, missionary activities. A major push for Islamic missionary work in North America occurred when large numbers of educated professional Muslim immigrants as well as higher-education seeking foreign Muslim students began to arrive in Canada and

18972-624: The United States in the early 1970s. The arrival of these new immigrants coincided with a growing curiosity about Islam among the American public in the late 1970s, following political events in the Muslim World, which had been up until this point, somewhat invisible from the American public's consciousness. However, the Middle East oil crisis of 1973 , the Iranian Revolution in 1979, followed by

19158-466: The actual wording, called matn . There are various methodologies to classify the authenticity of hadiths, with the commonly used grading grading scale being "authentic" or "correct" ( صحيح , ṣaḥīḥ ); "good" ( حسن , ḥasan ); or "weak" ( ضعيف , ḍaʻīf ), among others. The Kutub al-Sittah are a collection of six books, regarded as the most authentic reports in Sunni Islam . Among them

19344-421: The annual Hajj pilgrimage. The conception of God as universal remains a common feature of all Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic God is conceived of as eternal , omnipotent , omniscient and as the creator of the universe . God is further held to have the properties of holiness, justice, omnibenevolence , and omnipresence . Proponents of Abrahamic faiths believe that God is also transcendent , but at

19530-583: The area accepted Islam from these earlier converts, eventually fusing to become the Muslim Tatar people. Genghis Khan's grandson, Berke , was one of the first Mongol rulers to convert to Islam. He was converted by Saif ud-Din Dervish, a dervish from Khorazm . Later, it was the Mamluk ruler Baibars who played an important role in bringing many Golden Horde Mongols to Islam . Baibars developed strong ties with

19716-507: The basis that just as Abraham as a Gentile (before he was circumcised ) "believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (cf. Rom. 4:3, James 2:23), "those who have faith are children of Abraham" (see also John 8:39). This is most fully developed in Paul's theology where all who believe in God are spiritual descendants of Abraham. However, with regards to Rom. 4:20 and Gal. 4:9, in both cases he refers to these spiritual descendants as

19902-650: The beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1980 dramatically raised the profile of Islam and Muslims in the North American media. The new wave of Muslim immigrants were thus well-placed to begin a variety of small-scale missionary efforts across their communities to inform their fellow Americans about their religion. A more recent missionary front has been the US prison system, where encouragement of religious study has opened an avenue for Muslims to promote their religion. There

20088-825: The beginning of the compilation of the Quran. The Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz 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 was no compromised middle ground between good and evil, and any Muslim who committed a grave sin would become an unbeliever. The term "kharijites" would also be 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

20274-516: The borders of Europe falls broadly into four different phases. The first phase covers the period of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1031. Following this conquest, the Umayyads of Córdoba promoted Islam in their newly conquered territories of what are today the modern-day European states of Spain and Portugal . Large numbers of local inhabitants converted to Islam as

20460-628: The borders of the Islamic empire taking advantage of the expansion of foreign trade routes, primarily into the Indo-Pacific and as far south as the isle of Zanzibar and the southeastern shores of Africa . In Persia , Islam was readily accepted by Zoroastrians who were employed in industrial and artisan positions because, according to Zoroastrian dogma, such occupations that involved defiling fire made them impure. Moreover, Muslim missionaries did not encounter difficulty in explaining Islamic tenets to Zoroastrians, as there were many similarities between

20646-532: The building of mosques and local kulliyes for future generations to benefit from, as well as spreading the teachings of Islam. Thomas Walker Arnold says that Islam was not spread by force in the areas under the control of the Ottoman Sultan . Rather Arnold concludes by quoting a 17th-century author who stated: Meanwhile he (the Turk) wins (converts) by craft more than by force, and snatches away Christ by fraud out of

20832-478: The centuries. In addition, often Chinese rulers would encourage flourishing of Muslim minority communities as buffers against local Chinese enemies and as a source for loyal military recruits. According to Chinese Muslims' traditional legendary accounts, Islam was first introduced to China in 616-18 AD by Sahaba (companions) of Muhammad : Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas , Sayid, Wahab ibn Abu Kabcha and another Sahaba. Wahab ibn abu Kabcha (Wahb abi Kabcha) may have been be

21018-401: The concept of a function . The government paid scientists the equivalent salary of professional athletes today. Guinness World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859, as the world's oldest degree-granting university. Many non-Muslims, such as Christians , Jews and Sabians , contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and the institution known as

21204-498: The conception of a divine Trinity is not amenable to tawhid , the Islamic doctrine of monotheism, Islam regards Christianity as variously polytheistic . Christianity and Islam both revere Jesus ( Arabic : Isa or Yasu among Muslims and Arab Christians respectively) but with vastly differing conceptions: However, the worship of Jesus, or the ascribing of partners to God (known as shirk in Islam and as shituf in Judaism),

21390-538: The consolidation of Muslim trading networks, connected by lineage, trade, and Sufi brotherhoods , had reached a crescendo in West Africa, enabling Muslims to wield tremendous political influence and power. During the reign of Umar II , the then Governor of Africa, Ismail ibn Abdullah, was said to have won the Berbers to Islam by his just administration. Other early notable missionaries include Abdallah ibn Yasin , who started

21576-466: The country. Baba Deen Mohammad Shaikh mission has converted over 110,000 Hindus to Islam in Pakistan . The first Indonesians to adopt Islam are thought to have done so as early as the eleventh century, although Muslims had visited Indonesia early in the Muslim era. The spread of Islam was driven by increasing trade links outside of the archipelago; in general, traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were

21762-544: The creator of "heavens and earth", to emphasize that it is a universal God and not a local Arabian deity here. While many sources limit the list of Abrahamic religions to only include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, some sources include other religions as well. Samaritanism diverged from Judaism in the 6th to 3rd centuries BCE; although sometimes considered a branch of Judaism, most consider it to be an independent Abrahamic religion. Some sources consider Mandaeism to be an Abrahamic religion – however, that classification

21948-516: 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

22134-521: The decline of the Mughals and a vast majority of the Muslim lands coming under the rule of the European colonial powers, Islamic missionary activity faced a new challenge, vis-a-vis Christian missionaries that arrived along with the colonial rulers. It was said that much of Muslim missionary zeal in India arose to counteract the anti-Muslim tendencies of Christian missionaries and thus, Islamic missionary effort

22320-715: The decrease in Arab influence after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Muslim Mongol Khanates in Iran and Central Asia benefited from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule and thus 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

22506-643: The deity of Jesus. After several periods of alternating persecution and relative peace vis-à-vis the Roman authorities under different administrations, Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire in 380, but has been split into various churches from its beginning . An attempt was made by the Byzantine Empire to unify Christendom , but this formally failed with the East–West Schism of 1054. In

22692-587: The deity promised Abraham a permanent homeland. While the Book of Genesis speaks of multiple gods ( ʾĔlōhīm ), comparable to the Enūma Eliš speaking of various gods of the Canaanite pantheon to create the earth, at the time of the Babylonian captivity , Jewish theologians attributed the six-day narrative all to Yahweh , reflecting an early conception of Yahweh as a universal deity. The monolatrist nature of Yahwism

22878-399: The dramatic changing of the European political map in the 20th century. This along with the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the same timeframe paved way for a subsequent mass immigration of Muslim peoples from the Muslim World into Western Europe after World War I . With the arrival of this new immigrant population, Islamic missionary activity in Western Europe soon followed thereafter. In

23064-417: The early Abbasid era, scholars such as Muhammad al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj compiled the major Sunni hadith collections while scholars like Al-Kulayni and Ibn Babawayh compiled major Shia hadith collections. The four Sunni Madh'habs , the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i, were established around the teachings of Abū Ḥanīfa , Ahmad ibn Hanbal , Malik ibn Anas and al-Shafi'i . In contrast,

23250-405: The empire evolved into a mixed blessing for Islamic missionary work, with its two most powerful rulers taking a somewhat diametrically opposite view of religion. Initially, Akbar the Great chose to follow a form of inter-faith dialogue somewhat contrary to the views of the traditional clergy , a stratagem that was to be totally reversed by his great-grandson Aurangzeb half a century later. With

23436-409: The expense of traditional African religions. This expansion of Islam in Africa not only led to the formation of new communities in Africa, but it also reconfigured existing African communities and empires to be based on Islamic models. Indeed, in the middle of the eleventh century, the Kanem Empire , whose influence extended into Sudan , converted to Islam. At the same time but more toward West Africa,

23622-452: The faiths. Thomas Walker Arnold suggests that the Zoroastrian figures Ahura Mazda and Ahriman were equated with Allah and Iblis . In Afghanistan , Islam was spread due to Umayyad missionary efforts particularly under the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and Umar ibn AbdulAziz . During the reign of Al-Mu'tasim Islam was generally practiced amongst most inhabitants of the region and finally under Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari , Islam

23808-405: The first Muslims" (Surah 3)—the first monotheist in a world where monotheism was lost, and the community of those faithful to God, thus being referred to as ابونا ابراهيم or "Our Father Abraham", as well as Ibrahim al-Hanif or "Abraham the Monotheist". Also, the same as Judaism, Islam believes that Abraham rejected idolatry through logical reasoning. Abraham is also recalled in certain details of

23994-416: The first to adopt the new religion. Dominant kingdoms included Majapahit Kingdom in Central Java, and the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands to the east. By the end of the thirteenth century, Islam had been established in North Sumatra; by the fourteenth in northeast Malaya, Brunei, the southern Philippines and among some courtiers of East Java; and the fifteenth in Malacca and other areas of

24180-453: The gates of itjihad rather than blind imitation of scholars. He called for a jihad against those he deemed heretics, but his writings only played a marginal role during his lifetime. During the 18th century in Arabia, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab , influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim , founded a movement called Wahhabi to return to what he saw as unadultered Islam. He condemned many local Islamic customs, such as visiting

24366-428: The giving of a fixed portion (2.5% annually) 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 acts as a form of welfare in Muslim societies. It is considered a religious obligation that the well-off owe the needy because their wealth is seen as a trust from God's bounty, and

24552-419: 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

24738-605: The hadith, as well as 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

24924-438: The heart of Central Asia. The population within its areas began firmly accepting Islam in significant numbers, notably in Taraz , now in modern-day Kazakhstan . The first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian occurred during the reign of Samanids in the 9th century. According to historians, through the zealous missionary work of Samanid rulers, as many as 30,000 tents of Turks came to profess Islam and later under

25110-405: The hearts of men. For the Turk, it is true, at the present time compels no country by violence to apostatise; but he uses other means whereby imperceptibly he roots out Christianity... Seven years after the death of Muhammad (in 639 AD), the Arabs advanced toward Africa and within two generations, Islam had expanded across North Africa and all of the Central Maghreb . In the following centuries,

25296-403: The lands then formerly belonging to the Byzantine Empire . In the earlier stages of the Ottoman Empire , a Turkic form of Shamanism was still widely practiced in Anatolia, which soon started to give in to the mysticism offered by Sufism . The teachings of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi , who migrated from Khorasan to Anatolia , are good examples of the mystical aspect of Sufism . During

25482-451: 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. Earlier in the 14th century, Ibn Taymiyya promoted a puritanical form of Islam, rejecting philosophical approaches in favor of simpler theology, and called to open

25668-407: The late 1980s, numerous missionary outlets saw an opportunity to receive financing for their missionary work from various Saudi-based religious foundations as well as influential private Saudi citizens. This phenomenon, which flourished for much of the decade of the 1990s, came to an abrupt end following the events of the September 11 attacks . Some of the works undertaken at the time included: With

25854-424: The later definitive form produced by the Ecumenical Council of 381 . Trinitarians, who form the large majority of Christians , hold it as a core tenet of their faith. Nontrinitarian denominations define the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a number of different ways. The theology of the attributes and nature of God has been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity, with Irenaeus writing in

26040-598: The majority. Caliph Al-Mu'tasim carried out inquisitions , with the traditionalist Ahmad ibn Hanbal notably refusing to conform to the Muʿtazila idea that the Quran was created rather than being eternal , which resulted in him being 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 and Ash'ari 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 ideas with

26226-408: The middle of the 7th century, the Roman province of Syria Palaestina was a Christian nation with Jerusalem its principal city. According to the New Testament , Jerusalem was the city Jesus was brought to as a child to be presented at the temple and for the feast of the Passover . He preached and healed in Jerusalem, unceremoniously drove the money changers in disarray from the temple there, held

26412-426: The modern gold dinar as their monetary system. While some of those who broke away were quietist , others believed in violence against those opposing them, even against other Muslims. 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 authority

26598-400: The moral decline and idolatry prevalent in Mecca and seeking seclusion and spiritual contemplation, Muhammad retreated to the Cave of Hira in the mountain Jabal al-Nour , near Mecca. It was during his time in the cave that he is said to have received the first revelation of the Quran from the angel Gabriel . The event of Muhammad's retreat to the cave and subsequent revelation is known as

26784-406: The name is given to Moses when YHWH calls himself " I Am that I Am ", ( Hebrew : אהיה אשר אהיה ’ehye ’ăšer ’ehye ), seemingly connecting it to the verb hayah (הָיָה), meaning 'to be', but this is likely not a genuine etymology. Jewish tradition accords many names to God, including Elohim , Shaddai , and Sabaoth . In Christian theology , God is the eternal being who created and preserves

26970-416: The name of God ' ( بسملة , basmalah ) before starting an act such as eating. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 CE and was orphaned early in life. Growing up as a trader, he became known as the " trusted one " ( Arabic : الامين ) and was sought after as an impartial arbitrator. He later married his employer, the businesswoman Khadija . In the year 610 CE, troubled by

27156-457: The patriarch Abraham. All of them are monotheistic , and all of them conceive God to be a transcendent creator and the source of moral law . Their religious texts feature many of the same figures, histories, and places, although they often present them with different roles, perspectives, and meanings. Believers who agree on these similarities and the common Abrahamic origin tend to also be more positive towards other Abrahamic groups. In

27342-473: The patriarchal figure differently as seen in the theological claims they make about him." Aaron W. Hughes , meanwhile, describes the term as "imprecise" and "largely a theological neologism ." The common Christian doctrines of Jesus's Incarnation , the Trinity , and the resurrection of Jesus , for example, are accepted in neither Judaism nor Islam. There are fundamental beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are likewise denied by most of Christianity (e.g.,

27528-511: The phrase "In-sha-Allah" ( Arabic : إن شاء الله ) meaning "if God wills" when speaking on future events. There are five acts of worship that are considered duties –the Shahada (declaration of faith), the five daily prayers, Zakat (almsgiving), fasting during Ramadan , and the Hajj pilgrimage–collectively known as "The Pillars of Islam" ( Arkān al-Islām ). In addition, Muslims also perform other optional supererogatory acts that are encouraged but not considered to be duties. The shahadah

27714-462: The phrase "Abrahamic religion" means that all these religions come from one spiritual source. The modern term comes from the plural form of a Quranic reference to dīn Ibrāhīm ("religion of Ibrahim"), the Arabic form of Abraham's name. In Christianity, Paul the Apostle , in Romans 4:11–12 , refers to Abraham as "father of all", including those "who have faith, circumcised or uncircumcised." From its founding, Islam likewise conceived of itself as

27900-409: 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. Al-Shafi'i codified a method to determine the reliability of hadith. During

28086-410: The poor, foreigners, and slaves like the first muezzin Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi . The Meccan elite felt Muhammad was destabilizing their social order by preaching about one God and giving questionable ideas to the poor and slaves because they profited from the pilgrimages to the idols of the Kaaba. After 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans , Muhammad and his companions performed

28272-416: The prophets , Islam teaches that every prophet preached Islam, as the word Islam literally means submission, the main concept preached by all prophets. Although the Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God, other Islamic books considered to be revealed by God before the Quran, mentioned by name in the Quran are the Tawrat ( Torah ) revealed to

28458-404: 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 this is said to account 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. The stories associated with the prophets beyond

28644-414: The reigning ruler of the Bornu Empire embraced Islam. As these kingdoms adopted Islam, their populace thereafter devotedly followed suit. In praising the Africans' zealousness to Islam, the fourteenth-century explorer Ibn Battuta stated that mosques were so crowded on Fridays, that unless one went very early, it was impossible to find a place to sit. In the sixteenth century, the Ouaddai Empire and

28830-451: The religion of Abraham. The Bahá’í scriptures state that the religion's founder, Baháʼu’lláh, descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah 's sons. The appropriateness of grouping Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "Abrahamic religions" and related terms has been challenged. Adam Dodds argues that the term "Abrahamic faiths", while helpful, can be misleading, as it conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that

29016-427: The rest of the religion. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required to recite the shahada in front of witnesses. Prayer in Islam, called as-salah or aṣ-ṣalāt (Arabic: الصلاة ), is seen as a personal communication with God and consists of repeating units called rakat that include bowing and prostrating to God. There are five timed prayers each day that are considered duties. The prayers are recited in

29202-426: The restoration and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple (the Third Temple ) on mount Moriah, close the Passover service with the wistful statement "Next year in built Jerusalem," and recall the city in the blessing at the end of each meal. Jerusalem has served as the only capital for the five Jewish states that have existed in Israel since 1400 BCE (the United Kingdom of Israel , the Kingdom of Judah , Yehud Medinata ,

29388-448: The same time personal and involved, listening to prayer and reacting to the actions of his creatures. Jewish theology is unitarian. God is an absolute one, indivisible and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is incomprehensible and unknowable and that it is only God's revealed aspect that brought the universe into existence, and interacts with mankind and

29574-435: The scholarly opinions of the time, notably with the construction of educational institutions known as Nezamiyeh , which are associated with Al-Ghazali and Saadi Shirazi . The expansion of the Muslim world continued with religious missions converting Volga Bulgaria to Islam. The Delhi Sultanate reached deep into the Indian Subcontinent and many converted to Islam, in particular low-caste Hindus whose descendants make up

29760-404: 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

29946-447: 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, the Tafsir al-Tabari , which became one of the most cited commentaries in Sunni Islam. 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 inspired

30132-487: The teachings of 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 ". Islamic scientific achievements spanned a wide range of subject areas including medicine , mathematics , astronomy , and agriculture as well as physics , economics , engineering and optics . Avicenna

30318-446: The term has also been criticized for being uncritically adopted. Although historically the term Abrahamic religions was limited to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, restricting the category to these three religions has come under criticism. The late-19th-century Baháʼí Faith has been listed as Abrahamic by scholarly sources in various fields since it is a monotheistic religion that recognizes Abraham. The figure of Abraham

30504-415: The third sojourn of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, when he was sent as an official envoy to Emperor Gaozong during Caliph Uthman 's reign. Imam Asim, also spelt Hashim, is said to have been one of the first Islamic missionaries in the region of China. He was a man of c.1000 CE in Hotan. A shrine site includes the reputed tomb of the Imam, a mosque, and several related tombs. Islamic missionary activity within

30690-632: The three main Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), the individual, God, and the universe are highly separate from each other. The Abrahamic religions believe in a judging, paternal, fully external god to which the individual and nature are both subordinate. One seeks salvation or transcendence not by contemplating the natural world or via philosophical speculation, but by seeking to please God (such as obedience with God's wishes or his law) and see divine revelation as outside of self, nature, and custom. All Abrahamic religions claim to be monotheistic, worshiping an exclusive God, although one who

30876-452: The tradition from Noah . Christians view Abraham as an important exemplar of faith , and a spiritual, as well as physical, ancestor of Jesus. For Christians, Abraham is a spiritual forebear as well as/rather than a direct ancestor depending on the individual's interpretation of Paul the Apostle , with the Abrahamic covenant "reinterpreted so as to be defined by faith in Christ rather than biological descent" or both by faith as well as

31062-460: The unrighteous will be punished in hell ( jahannam ). The Five Pillars —considered obligatory acts of worship—are the Islamic oath and creed ( shahada ), daily prayers ( salah ), almsgiving ( zakat ), fasting ( sawm ) in the month of Ramadan , and a pilgrimage ( hajj ) to Mecca . Islamic law, sharia , touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and

31248-475: The vast majority of Indian Muslims. Trade brought many Muslims to China , where they virtually dominated the import and export industry of the Song dynasty . Muslims were recruited as a governing minority class in the Yuan dynasty . Through Muslim trade networks and the activity of Sufi orders, Islam spread into new areas and Muslims assimilated into new cultures. Under the Ottoman Empire , Islam spread to Southeast Europe . Conversion to Islam often involved

31434-438: The world through either trade, missionaries, exploration or gradual conversions after conquests. Following the death in 632 AD of Muhammad , Islam spread far and wide within a very short period, much of this occurring through an initial establishment and subsequent expansion of an Islamic Empire through conquest, such as that of North Africa and later Spain ( Al-Andalus ), and the Islamic conquest of Persia putting an end to

31620-489: The world, respectively. Judaism is the smallest of the three major Abrahamic religions, and Samaritanism is the smallest Abrahamic religion. Bábism and Druzism are offshoots of Abrahamic religions. The term Abrahamic religions (and its variations) is a collective religious descriptor for elements shared by Judaism , Christianity , and Islam . It features prominently in interfaith dialogue and political discourse but also has entered academic discourse . However,

31806-403: The world. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent (involved in the world). Early Christian views of God were expressed in the Pauline Epistles and the early creeds , which proclaimed one God and the divinity of Jesus . Around the year 200, Tertullian formulated a version of the doctrine of the Trinity which clearly affirmed the divinity of Jesus and came close to

31992-423: The world. In Judaism, the one God of Israel is the God of Abraham, Isaac , and Jacob , who is the guide of the world, delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt , and gave them the 613 Mitzvot at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah . The national god of the Israelites has a proper name , written Y-H-W-H ( Hebrew : יהוה ) in the Hebrew Bible . The etymology of the name is unknown. An explanation of

32178-423: Was a pioneer in experimental medicine , and his The Canon of Medicine was used as a standard medicinal text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Rhazes was the first to identify 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

32364-510: Was adopted by the Roman Empire as a state religion in the 4th century AD. Paul the Apostle interpreted the role of Abraham differently than the Jews of his time. While for the Jews, Abraham was considered a loyal monotheist in a polytheistic environment, Paul celebrates Abraham as a man who found faith in God before adhering to religious law. In contrast to Judaism, adherence to religious law becomes associated with idolatry. While Christians fashioned their religion around Jesus of Nazareth ,

32550-494: Was by far, the predominant religion of Kabul along with other major cities of modern-day Afghanistan. In Central Asia , Muslim leaders in their effort to win converts encouraged attendance at Muslim prayer with promises of money and allowed the Quran to be recited in Persian instead of Arabic so that it would be intelligible to all. Later, the Samanids , whose roots stemmed from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility, propagated Sunni Islam and Islamo-Persian culture deep into

32736-512: Was claimed by the Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire 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 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

32922-480: Was co-opted and is now often seen as puppets of the state. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the state monopolized religious scholarship and, in Egypt, the state nationalized Al-Azhar University , previously an independent voice checking state power. Salafism was funded in the Middle East for its quietism. Saudi Arabia campaigned against revolutionary Islamist movements in the Middle East, in opposition to Iran. Muslim minorities of various ethnicities have been persecuted as

33108-414: Was defense rather than direct proselytizing. The influence of Christian schools has caused significant interest among younger Indian and South Asian Muslims to study their faith, consequently sparking religious zeal. Moreover, some Muslims have adopted propagation methods of Christian missionaries such as street preaching. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947 there has been revival of Dawa in

33294-402: 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 contributed to

33480-503: Was for the first time partially codified into law in 1869 in the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code. The Ottoman Empire dissolved after World War I , the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished in 1924 and the subsequent Sharifian Caliphate fell quickly, thus leaving Islam without a Caliph . 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 ,

33666-401: Was further developed in the period following the Babylonian captivity , eventually emerging as a firm religious movement of monotheism. With the Fall of Babylon , Judaism emphasised concepts such as messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven and hell, angels and demons, among others, into their belief-system. Christianity traces back their origin to

33852-428: 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. The Islamic creed ( aqidah ) requires belief in six articles : God, angels , revelation, prophets, the Day of Resurrection , and the divine predestination. The central concept of Islam

34038-410: Was killed by Yazid's forces; the event has been annually commemorated by Shias ever since. Sunnis, led by Ibn al-Zubayr and 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 . Abu Bakr's leadership oversaw

34224-470: Was looking for water for her baby Ishmael in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement. The pilgrimage also involves spending a day praying and worshipping in the plain of Mount Arafat as well as symbolically stoning the Devil . All Muslim men 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 ,

34410-407: Was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers , including Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses , and Jesus . Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations , such as the Tawrat (the Torah ), the Zabur ( Psalms ), and the Injil ( Gospel ). They believe that Muhammad

34596-544: 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 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

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