Islam: Its History, Teaching, and Practices

Introduction

Introduction Islam is the second largest world religion after Christianity. Its followers today extend from Morocco to the Philippines, and it includes among its adherents different races and peoples of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In fact, more than three-quarters of the total Muslim population in the world is found in non-Arab countries. The word Islam has two meanings: “submission” and “peace”—submission to the will and guidance of God and living in peace with one’s self and one’s surroundings. The essence of Islam, therefore, lies in submission to God, which results in peace of mind and soul. The correct name for the religion is Islam, and the proper term for its adherents is Muslims. The origin of Islam is ascribed to one of two points in time: creation or the sixth century c.e. in Arabia. From the Muslim perspective, the story of Islam starts not with Muhammad (c. 570–632) but shares a common biblical tradition that begins with Adam—with God’s creation of the universe and human beings. The descendants of Adam are traced to Noah, who had a son named Shem.That is where the word Semite—descendants of Shem—comes from; like the Jews, Arabs regard themselves as a Semitic people.Shem’s descendants are then traced to Abraham and to his wives Sarah and Hagar. At that point, two familiar stories about Abraham provide the cornerstones of the Islamic religion. The ¤rst story, concerning Ishmael, the eldest son of Abraham by Hagar, explains how Abraham’s banishment of Ishmael and his mother led them to Mecca, where he established the family from whose descendants the prophet Muhammad emerged in the sixth century c.e. The second story tells of Abraham’s attempt to sacri¤ce his son (the Bible speci¤es Isaac, the younger son of Abraham by Sarah, while the Qur#an does not mention any names; most Muslim commentators consider it to be Ishmael, while a few think it is Isaac). The story demonstrates Abraham’s submission to the will of God in the supreme test; hence the word Islam. The essence of Islam therefore lies in submission to God. Those who dispute the assumption that Islam began with creation date its origin from the time of Muhammad in the sixth century c.e. in Arabia. To anyone other than an adherent of Islam, the relative merits of these conclusions are academic. No one disputes the role of Muhammad and the universal in®uence of Islam. From its earliest beginnings, Islam has been a religion of action rather than of contemplation. At no time did the prophet Muhammad disdain society or politics. He made it quite clear that his mission was essentially concerned with human affairs—social, political, economic, military, and religious. He perpetuated this principle by making it impossible for future Muslim generations to divorce religious from secular affairs, to dismiss social or political issues as unreligious , or to relegate either to secondary importance. Thus, the sacred-secular dichotomy, a concept common to Westerners, is either blurred or absent in the world of Islam. The Islamic community is at once a political and a religious community. To Muslims, the notion of religion as separable from the totality of the human context is unimaginable, even detestable. All of life is sacred and must conform to the larger whole—the identity of the Islamic faith. All who belong to this great Islamic faith share a sense of identity, a sense of global community . And of the various terms used to denote the Islamic “community” or “nation,” the one that predominates is ummah. Traditionally, the Islamic ummah is divided into three regions: the territory of Islam (dar al-Islam), the territory of peace (dar al-sulh), and the territory of war (dar al-harb). As its name implies, the ¤rst territory identi¤es parts of the world where Muslims predominate and in which Islam, in both its political and religious sense, governs and directs daily life and tribal or national policy. In regions such as Pakistan, Iran, and Libya, Islamic law is assumed to form the basis of government. The second territory represents regions such as India and Africa, where Muslims are in the minority but are permitted for the most part to live in peace and to practice their religion freely. The rest of the world makes up the third territory, which is viewed more as an ideological battleground contested by groups with con®icting values...