Islam

The central tenet of Islam is that there is one God (Allah) and Muhammad is his prophet. The founding of the religion, which is now the world's second largest, began with the revelation of the word of God directly through Muhammad, beginning around the year 611. After receiving the word of Allah Muhammad wrote down everything exactly as it had been transmitted to him in his revelations and this became the Qur'an, the holy scripture of Islam. The term "islam" means "submission" and the religion centers on the submission of the individual and the community to Allah in all things.

The events of Muhammad's life took on extraordinary significance as the practice of Islam evolved. Muhammad was married and had one daughter, Fatima. After his revelations began he spent ten years (611-621) preaching and attempting to reform religious practice in Mecca. But the town was very hostile toward him and very attached to its polytheistic practices. In 622 Muhammad finally fled Mecca with some followers and was much more successful with his preaching in the city of Medina. This flight to Medina was called the Hijra and it became the starting date for the Muslim calendar since it was "the beginning of Muhammad's public and organizational life on a large scale" (Ellwood & McGraw 381). In the remaining ten years of his life Muhammad's successful preaching managed to unite all of Arabia under his religious and civil leadership.

Muhammad's revelations continued until the end of his li

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t, portion of one's wealth to those in need. This is sometimes institutionalized as a tax on the faithful in some Muslim nations. The principal inherent in the third pillar extends, however, to the general notion of care for others in the community. The fourth pillar, consists of total fasting during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. The fifth pillar, the hajj, is a pilgrimage that every Muslim wishes to undertake during her/his lifetime. It is considered to be "a journey achieved from the periphery to the Centre, the locus of Unity" of Islam and, as such, affirms both the individual's membership in the community and the "unity of the Islamic universe" (Du Pasquier 87). Those who are too old, too young, too ill, too infirm, or too poor are excused from this duty. Pilgrims journey to Mecca and worship at the shrine called the Kaaba, which is believed to have been built by Abraham and to contain a rock brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel. Pilgrims at Mecca perform "a collection of diverse traditional acts" which, while very ritualized, have "deep inward meanings" for Muslims (Ellwood & McGraw 390). The five pillars date back to the very beginning of Islam and it was, in a profound sense, the simplicity of doctri

Category: Philosophy - I