Islam ( /ˈɪzlɑːm/; Arabic: الإسلام al-ʾislām ) is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله Allāh) and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to love and serve God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. They maintain that previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or corrupted over time, but consider the Qur'an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to warfare and the environment.
The majority of Muslims are Sunni, being 75–90% of all Muslims. The second largest sect, Shia, makes up 10–20%. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia home to 12.7% of the world's Muslims followed by Pakistan (11.0%), Bangladesh (9.2%), and Egypt (4.9%). Sizable minorities are also found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia, Americas, Australia and parts of Europe. With about 1.8 billion followers or 26% of earth's population, Islam is the second-largest and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.
Read more about Islam: Etymology and Meaning, Articles of Faith, Five Pillars, Law and Jurisprudence, Demographics, Criticism of Islam
Other articles related to "islam":
... The autobiography Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life, The Deliverance From Error (Al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl several English translations) is considered a work of major importance ... In it, Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological skepticism was resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast...the key to most knowledge," he studied and mastered the arguments of Kalam, Islamic philosophy and Ismailism ...
... Previously, the government had appointed Muzharul Islam as the center's architect, but Islam deferred, instead recommending Alvar Aalto or Le Corbusier ... When those architects were unavailable, Islam enlisted his former teacher Louis Kahn as the architect ... Throughout the project's design and construction, Islam assisted Kahn ...
... The conversion of the first ruler of Melaka, Parameswara, to Islam was unclear so far with no evidence as to whether he had actually converted ... Parameswara was succeeded by his son, Megat Iskandar Shah, and that only the latter converted to Islam at the age 72 ... class and the subjects began accepting Islam ...
... Main article Criticism of Islam Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages ... prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy ... of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad, the last prophet of Islam, both in his public and personal life ...
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)