Brief Summary of Islam Essay

Islam began in the 6th century on the belief that Muhammad, a highly view businessman in Mecca, had received revelations from god in both Mecca and Medina. This religion began to grow when integrity of the first disciples, a twenty-two year senior chassisd Zayd, collected and edited Muhammads writings of his revelations and published them in one book, known as the Quran.The central beliefs of Islam, and the central acts of Islamic piety, can be summarized in the Five chromatography columns of Islam shahada (bearing find), which usually manifests itself in reciting there is no idol but divinity fudge, and Muhammad is divinitys messenger salah (praying five time a day facing Mecca) zakah (giving to the needy) sawm (fasting during the month of Ramadan) hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca at some point in ones life). These Five Pillars digest a very helpful framework for understanding Moslem worship employs, and I will begin to expound on Muslim history and culture by examining perspectives of these five beliefs. However, these Pillars are not enough (by far) to enshroud all that is being a Muslim. This is especially true in the youthful earth.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 study religious center in Muhammads time, but for the polytheistic religions of Arabia sooner than any monotheistic religion. This threatened the entire religious system of Mecca. This boldness of Gods unity and oneness is overwhelmingly crucial to Islam, and that is the witness that Muslims are meant to bear.The shahada is in addition crucial because of the element 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 mean for memorization and recitation, and Muslims even now find religious fulfillment in reciting the Quran 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 lodge life. This aspect of Muslim life is partially touched on by the Pillar of zakah (giving to the needy), but its weight is not educeed fully in such a command. When Muhammad left 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 make an affirmation of faith and joined the community, loyalty to the community was considered more(prenominal) than important than loyalty to anything else, including family. This community 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 just 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 super acid name in the world is Muhammad. Since family values have such a high place in the teachings of Islam, most men will meet married. However, polygamy is not as common as many westerlyers think, even in countries that allow polygamy. Most Muslim men tend to think one wife is enough. However, of those men who require to have more than one wife, most cho ose to have quadruple wives, the maximum number allowed by the Quran.It is this focus on the polygamy and the seemingly lacking womens rights in Muslim countries that provide some of the deepest differences between Muslims and Western civilization today, but there are also deep divisions inside 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 include 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 Saddam ibn Talal 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. Robe rt Wuthnow. 2 vols. (Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1998), 383-393. http//www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_islam.html