Brief Summary of Islam Essay

Islam began in the 6th century on the belief that Muhammad, a highly respected businessman in Mecca, had genuine revelations from divinity fudge in both Mecca and Medina. This religion began to grow when one of the first disciples, a twenty-two year old detectd Zayd, collected and edited Muhammads literary works of his revelations and published them in one book, known as the Quran.The central beliefs of Islam, and the central acts of Islamic idolisation, can be summarized in the Five Pillars of Islam shahada (bearing witness), which usu bothy manifests itself in reciting thither is no god but perfection, and Muhammad is paragons messenger salah (praying five times a day facing Mecca) zakah (giving to the needy) sawm (fasting during the month of Ramadan) hajj (a expedition to Mecca at some point in ones life). These Five Pillars provide a very helpful framework for understanding Muslim worship practices, and I will begin to expound on Muslim history and culture by examining a spects of these five beliefs. However, these Pillars argon not enough (by far) to encompass all that is being a Muslim. This is especially true in the modern world.The affirmation in the shahada that there is no god but God, or that God is one, was radical for his place and time. Mecca was already a major religious center in Muhammads time, but for the polytheistic religions of Arabia rather than any monotheistic religion. This exist the entire religious system of Mecca. This assertion of Gods unity and oneness is overwhelmingly important to Islam, and that is the witness that Muslims are meant to bear.The shahada is also crucial because of the gene of recitation that it brings. Recitation is also very important to Muslims. In fact, the first word in Gods first revelation to Muhammad (seen in sura 96) is iqraa (recite), from which the word Quran originates. The Quran was in melted for memorization and recitation, and Muslims even now find religious fulfillment in reciting the Qur an aloud. This religious virtue of recitation is seen even in the Quran itself when God holds a contest to see what being can name all of the things the that he had created. The human Adam was the only being, including all the angels, that could recite the names of everything, and this showed God that human beings could be trusted with much responsibility.Not all aspects of Muslim life, however, are encompassed by the Five Pillars. One important aspect, for example, is family and community life. This aspect of Muslim life is partially touched on by the Pillar of zakah (giving to the needy), but its weight is not expressed fully in such a command. When Muhammad left field Mecca, he began a fully Muslim community at the oasis of Yathrib, which became known as the City of the Prophet or Medina. For those who made an affirmation of trustingness and joined the community, loyalty to the community was considered more important than loyalty to anything else, including family. This communit y set the standard for Muslim communities, as Islam today could still be considered a way of life more than a religion that is separate from other aspects of life. Many communities and states who adopted Islam made it a way of life rather than retributive a religion, and this practice even continues today in Muslim nations.Community is extremely important to Islam, but family is crucial as well. All life comes from God, so each child is also considered a precious gift from God. The family can express their gratitude for this gift of life by giving their child a name with religious meaning. This is why the most(prenominal) common name in the world is Muhammad. Since family values have such a high place in the teachings of Islam, most men will get married. However, polygamy is not as common as many Westerners think, even in countries that allow polygamy. Most Muslim men tend to think one wife is enough. However, of those men who choose to have more than one wife, most choose to have four wives, the maximum number allowed by the Quran.It is this focus on the polygamy and the seemingly absent womens rights in Muslim countries that provide some of the deepest differences between Muslims and Western civilization today, but there are also deep divisions within Islam itself. The fundamentalist Shii Muslims, want to bring their Sunni brothers away from their Western ties and get back to the basics of Islam, which surprisingly may allow in more womens rights. This fundamentalist movement and dislike of Western culture is seemingly a pushback against the secular culture of the West that governments, such as ibn Talal Hussein Husseins regime in Iraq, have embraced. This embrace of a secular community rather than a religious community runs counter to what the Shii Muslims believe are the foundations of Islam.Works CitedKellogg, F. http//www.ehcweb.ehc.edu/faculty/fkellogg/211u4.htm Voll, J. O. (1998). From Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, ed. Robert Wuthnow. 2 vol s. (Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1998), 383-393. http//www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_islam.html