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- What is Islam? Islam, with its 1 .2 billion adherents worldwide, is one of the major world religions that, along with Christianity, which has 1 .9
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- billion adherents, and Judaism, which has about 14 million adherents, teaches monotheism, which is the doctrine that there is only one
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- God in all existence. Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam traces its roots back to the patriarch,
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- Abraham, in Genesis 12. The word Islam means surrender or submission, and it comes from the root word salam, which means surrender.
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- A Muslim, or maslam, which means one who surrenders to God, is an adherent of Islam, a religion with precise theological doctrines about God, judgment, heaven, hell, angels, prophets and salvation.
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- The Arabic word for God is Allah, which has become a kind of name for the
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- God of Islam. Islam teaches that Allah is the one and only deity in all existence.
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- It teaches that He is supreme and all -knowing.
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- He is ever -present, different from all of creation, and He is in complete control of all things.
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- According to Islam, Allah created the universe in six days, and that all that is, is allowed to exist by His permission and will.
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- Allah is a non -Trinitarian God found in Surah 573.
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- They teach that He is absolute and eternal and a single, single person. The Koran, which means the reading in Arabic, is the sacred book of Islam and is broken up into 114 chapters called surahs, which cover the subjects of ethics, history, law and theology.
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- It is a very highly revered book, and the Muslims use it as a direct literal word of God.
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- The Koran was supposed to have been delivered by the angel Gabriel, also known as the
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- Holy Spirit, delivered to Muhammad over a 23 -year period after Muhammad's initial encounter with Gabriel in a cave when he was 40 years old.
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- Muslims consider Muhammad to be the final prophet of God in the world.
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- Muhammad was born in AD 570 in Mecca and died in 632
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- AD. Second only to the Islamic belief in the unity and oneness of God is the supremacy of Muhammad as Allah's prophet.
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- Islam acknowledges that several other prophets preceded Muhammad. The major ones are
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- Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus. These prophets gave revelation from God which were written in scriptures, mainly the
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- Old and New Testaments. These predecessors to Muhammad are considered great prophets who spoke for God to specific people and whose message was meant for that time.
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- Jesus, according to Islam, was simply one of the many prophets that came. Therefore, Muslims deny the
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- Christian doctrine of the deity of Jesus and the need for His atoning sacrifice, as found in Surah 157 and 158.
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- They also deny the Trinity, Surah 5, verse 73, and much more. According to Islam, no sacrifice is needed to be forgiven, only faith in Allah, sincere repentance and obedience to Islamic law, as found in Surah 3, verse 135,
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- Surah 7, verses 8 and 9, Surah 21, verse 47, Surah 49, verse 14.
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- In fact, in Islam, the greatest of sins, called shirk, is to attribute partners to God.
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- In other words, to say that God is a trinity of persons is an unforgivable sin to a
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- Muslim. In addition to the Quran, there is this work called the Hadith. It is another source of authority in Islam, though it is second to the
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- Quran. The Hadith is a collection of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by his companions. They are the oral traditions and are considered authoritative and instructive as commentaries and applications of Quranic principles and contain additional principles not found in the
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- Quran. According to Islam, the Hadith are the inspired truths of God transmitted to us in the style and words of Muhammad.
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- By contrast, the Quran is supposed to be the exact words of Allah which are supposed to be perfectly preserved and avoid of any corruption whatsoever.
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- In Islam, all Muslims are united by the common faith irrespective of class, location, race or gender.
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- Therefore, they have a special bond of unity and equality. The primary truth of Islam is found in the first pillar of Islam known as the
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- Shahada, which says this, There is no true God except Allah, and Muhammad is the
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- Messenger of Allah. Islamic theology also teaches that angels were created from light, that jinn are another race of beings created from fire, but they are invisible and yet they are all around us and that there is an eternal judgment that we are all going to go through to get to paradise and it is based on your good works, your bad works and the desire of Allah.
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- People will go to hell for the bad works and the good to go to heaven or paradise. They teach that Jesus was never crucified and that drinking alcohol is forbidden as well as gambling.
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- Within the first two centuries after its inception in Arabia, Islam spread very quickly, often aided by the sword.
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- It went into North America and spread up through Europe and into Spain and went out east into India.
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- Presumably, about one billion people are Muslims worldwide with adherence on every continent and nation.
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- It is perhaps the world's fastest growing religion and second in size only to Christianity. Like most ancient religions, there are sects within it.
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- Islam is no different. The major divisions in Islam are the Sunnis and the
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- Shiites. The Sunnis are the largest group and they comprise about 90 % of the Muslims. The Shiites, though smaller in number, are significant in Islam's history.
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- They presumably occupy the lands of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other
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- Persian Gulf states. The most important place of worship for the Muslim is the mosque which is always pointed towards Mecca which is the birthplace of Muhammad and is located in Saudi Arabia.
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- All Muslims must face Mecca during their time of prayer because in Mecca there is what is called the
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- Kaaba, a cube structure allegedly built by Abraham which contains a sacred stone.
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- When a Muslim is in Mecca, he or she faces the Kaaba when praying. Many Muslims hope for Sharia or Sharia law, the complete rule of Islamic law in the entire world.
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- To this end, Muslims are seeking more converts. They are attacking other religious systems both by the sword and by word.
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- They are moving into every nation and seeking political power wherever they can achieve it. Islam is a growing and aggressive religion that seeks to submit everyone on the planet to its rule.
