History of Islam The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic and developments of the Islamic civilization. Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century, approximately 600 years after the founding of Christianity. Muslims, however, believe that it did not start with Muhammad, but that...
Shahada The Shahada (الشهادة aš-šahādah,”the testimony”) is an Islamic creed, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, declaring belief in the oneness of God (tawhid) and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. The declaration, in its shortest form, reads (right to left in Arabic): لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh...
Madhhab A madhhab ( مذهب maḏhab, “way to act”; pl. مذاهب maḏāhib) is a school of thought within fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni madhhabs are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four schools recognize...
Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) Fiqh (فقه) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and His companions). Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by...
What is God? Few concepts in human history have generated as much fascination, intense longing, rapturous devotion, somber contemplation, and endless debate as the topic of God. In the English language, the term God, when capitalized and singular (as a proper noun), is typically used to refer to the sole Divine Being in monotheistic religions, and...
Islamic Culture Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to early Umayyad period and early Abbasid period, were predominantly Arab, Byzantine, Persian and Levantine. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim culture has...
Muslims Muslims are people who follow or practice Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their holy book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet and messenger Muhammad. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad (sunnah) as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith). The derivation...
Islamic Holy Books Islamic Holy Books are the texts which Muslims believe were authored by God through various prophets throughout humanity’s history. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws that God ordained for those people. Muslims believe the Quran to be the final revelation of God to mankind, and a...
Omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having fully unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to God or deity of their faith. In the monotheistic philosophies of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of God’s characteristics among many, including omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. The presence of all these properties in...
Islamic Dietary Laws Islamic jurisprudence specifies which foods are halāl (حَلَال “lawful”) and which are harām (حَرَامْ “unlawful”). This is derived from commandments found in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, as well as the Hadith and Sunnah, libraries cataloging things the Islamic prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done. Extensions of these rulings are issued, as fatwas, by mujtahids, with varying...
Haram Haram (حَرَام , ḥarām) is an Arabic term meaning forbidden. This may refer to: either something sacred to which access is forbidden to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or to an evil thus “sinful action that...
Halal Halal (حلال, ḥalāl; also spelled halaal) is an Arabic word that translates to “permissible or lawful” into English. In the Quran, the word halal is contrasted with haram (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification known as “the five decisions”: mandatory, recommended, neutral, reprehensible and forbidden. Islamic jurists disagree on whether...
Qur’an The Qur’ān, (Quran, Koran, or Al-Qur’an; literally “the recitation”) is the central religious text or Scripture of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind and consider the text in its original Arabic to be verbatim the word of Allah, revealed to Muhammad...
Shia Islam Shia Islam or Shi’ism is one of the two main branches of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor and the Imam (leader) after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from the caliphate as a result...
Sunni Islam Sunni Muslims are the larger of the two main branches of Islam. Sunni Islam is also referred to as Sunnism or as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h (أهل السنة والجماعة) (people of the example (of Muhammad) and the community). The word Sunni comes from the word Sunnah (سنة ), which means “example” and refers particularly to the the words and actions...
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah), and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world’s second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world’s population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God...
The Quran and Scientific Discoveries The formation and the developmental phases of an embryo in the uterus What the Quran reveals about the formation and the developmental phases of an embryo in the uterus is striking: O mankind! if you have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created...
Calculation of Zakāt Zakāt (زكاة, zakāt, “that which purifies”,[1] also Zakat al-mal, زكاة ألمال, “zakat on wealth”[2]) is a form of alms-giving treated as a religious tax and/or religious obligation in Islam[3][4][5][6] for all Muslims who meet the necessary criteria of wealth,[7] and one of the Five Pillars of Islam.[8] Beneficiaries of zakat include zakat collectors, poor Muslims,...
Zakat al-Fitr Zakat al-Fitr is a charity taken for the poor a few days before the end of fasting in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The Arabic word Fitr means the same as iftar, breaking a fast, and it comes from the same root word as Futoo which means breakfast. Zakat al Fitr is a smaller amount than Zakat al-Mal. See also:...
Zakat Zakat (زكاة zakāh, “that which purifies”,[1] also Zakat al-mal, زكاة المال, “zakat on wealth”,[2] or Zakah)[3] is a form of alms-giving treated in Islam as a religious obligation or tax,[4][5] which, by Quranic ranking, is next after prayer (salat) in importance.[6] As one of the Five Pillars of Islam, zakat is a religious duty for all Muslims who meet the necessary criteria of wealth.[7] It...
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