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Muslims are followers of Islam.
One of the three major monotheistic
religions in the world, Islam
calls for complete acceptance
of and submission to the teachings
and guidance of God. Anyone
may become a Muslim, regardless
of gender, race, or nationality,
by reciting a declaration
of faith and embracing a lifestyle
in accord with Islamic principles.
Specific acts, including fasting,
daily prayer, and the pilgrimage
to Mecca, are considered the
pillars of Muslim spiritual
life.
There are an estimated 1.3 billion Muslims
worldwide. They live in every
world region and belong to
many different cultures and
ethnic groups. The 10 countries
with the largest Muslim populations,
in descending order, are Indonesia,
Pakistan,
Bangladesh, India, Turkey,
Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, and
China. Of these, only Egypt
is an Arab country, and despite
the stereotypes, only 193
million of the world�s Muslims�15
to 18 percent of the total�are
Arabs.
Islam is a system of religious beliefs
and an all-encompassing way
of life. The word Islam comes
from the word salaam, which
means submission or peace.
Muslims believe that God (Allah)
revealed to the Prophet Prophet
Mohammad the rules governing
society and the proper conduct
of society's members. It is
incumbent on the individual
therefore to live in a manner
prescribed by the revealed
law and on the community to
build the perfect human society
on earth according to holy
injunctions. Islam recognizes
no distinctions between church
and state. The distinction
between religious and secular
law is a recent development
that reflects the more pronounced
role of the state in society,
and Western economic and cultural
penetration. The impact of
religion on daily life in
Muslim countries is far greater
than that found in the West
since the Middle Ages.
The duties of Muslims form the five pillars
of Islam, which set forth
the acts necessary to demonstrate
and reinforce the faith. These
are the recitation of the
Shahada ("There is no
God but God and Prophet Mohammad
is his prophet"), daily
prayer (Salat), almsgiving
(Zakat), fasting (Sawm), and
pilgrimage (Hajj).
The believer is to pray in a prescribed
manner after purification
through ritual ablutions each
day at dawn, midday, midafternoon,
sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed
genuflections and prostrations
accompany the prayers, which
the worshiper recites facing
toward Mecca. Whenever possible
men pray in congregation at
the mosque with an imam, and
on Fridays make a special
effort to do so. The Friday
noon prayers provide the occasion
for weekly sermons by religious
leaders. Women may also attend
public worship at the mosque,
where they are segregated
from the men, although most
frequently women pray at home.
A special functionary, the
muezzin, intones a call to
prayer to the entire community
at the appropriate hour. Those
out of earshot determine the
time by the sun. The Aazan
(Arabic for announcement)
is the call or summons to
public prayers proclaimed
by the Muezzmn (crier) from
the mosque twice daily in
all Muslim countries. In small
mosques the Muezzin at Azan
stands at the door or at the
side of the building; in large
ones he takes up his position
in the minaret.
The ninth month of the Muslim calendar
is Ramadan, a period of obligatory
fasting in commemoration of
Prophet Mohammad's receipt
of God's revelation. Throughout
the month all but the sick
and weak, pregnant or lactating
women, soldiers on duty, travelers
on necessary journeys, and
young children are enjoined
from eating, drinking, smoking,
or sexual intercourse during
the daylight hours. Those
adults excused are obliged
to endure an equivalent fast
at their earliest opportunity.
A festive meal breaks the
daily fast and inaugurates
a night of feasting and celebration.
The pious well-to-do usually
do little or no work during
this period, and some businesses
close for all or part of the
day. Since the months of the
lunar year revolve through
the solar year, Ramadan falls
at various seasons in different
years. A considerable test
of discipline at any time
of the year, a fast that falls
in summer time imposes severe
hardship on those who must
do physical work.
All Muslims, at least once in their lifetime,
should make the hajj to Mecca
to participate in special
rites held there during the
twelfth month of the lunar
calendar. Prophet Mohammad
instituted this requirement,
modifying pre-Islamic custom,
to emphasize sites associated
with God and Abraham (Hadrat
Ibrahim), founder of monotheism
and father of the Arabs through
his son Hadrat Ismail.
The lesser pillars of the faith, which
all Muslims share, are jihad,
or the crusade to protect
Islamic lands, beliefs, and
institutions; and the requirement
to do good works and to avoid
all evil thoughts, words,
and deeds. In addition, Muslims
agree on certain basic principles
of faith based on the teachings
of the Prophet Prophet Mohammad:
there is one God, who is a
unitary divine being in contrast
to the Trinitarian belief
of Christians; Prophet Mohammad,
the last of a line of prophets
beginning with Abraham and
including Moses (Hadrat Musa)
and Jesus (Hadrat Isa), was
chosen by God to present His
message to humanity; and there
is a general resurrection
on the last or judgment day.
The Muslim year has two religious festivals--Id
al Adha, a sacrificial festival
on the tenth of Dhu al Hijjah,
the twelfth month; and Id
al Fitr, the festival of breaking
the fast, which celebrates
the end of Ramadan on the
first of Shawwal, the tenth
month. To Sunnis these are
the most important festivals
of the year. Each lasts three
or four days, during which
people put on their best clothes,
visit, congratulate, and bestow
gifts on each other. In addition,
cemeteries are visited. Id
al Fitr is celebrated more
joyfully, as it marks the
end of the hardships of Ramadan.
Celebrations also take place,
though less extensively, on
the Prophet's birthday, which
falls on the twelfth of Rabi
al Awwal, the third month,
and on the first of Muharram,
the beginning of the new year.
Sharia
During his lifetime, Prophet Mohammad
held both spiritual and temporal
leadership of the Muslim community.
Religious and secular law
merged, and all Muslims have
traditionally been subject
to sharia, or religious law.
A comprehensive legal system,
sharia developed gradually
through the first four centuries
of Islam, primarily through
the accretion of precedent
and interpretation by various
judges and scholars. During
the tenth century, legal opinion
began to harden into authoritative
rulings, and the figurative
bab al ijtihad (gate of interpretation)
closed. Thereafter, rather
than encouraging flexibility,
Islamic law emphasized maintenance
of the status quo.
The word �Islam� means �submission.�
A �Muslim,� therefore, is
one who submits to the will
of God. Shariah, frequently
translated as �Islamic law,�
is neither a document nor
a code in the strict sense,
but rather an amalgamation
of scriptural (Quranic) injunctions,
sayings of the Prophet Mohammed,
juridical rulings, and legal
commentaries dealing with
all aspects of social, economic
and political life, similar
to Jewish Halakhic law.
Islam, like Judaism, is a religion of
laws � it is the legal code,
not a theology, which establishes
the criteria of right and
wrong, proper and improper
behavior. Like Halakhah, Shari�a
is believed to be ordained
by God and its scope to be
total, ranging from the loftiest
ideals to the minutiae of
daily life. Even the words
Halakhah and Shariah, have
similar meanings and may be
translated as the �path� or
�road� to righteousness.
In its ideal form, Shariah ensures the
rights of all in an Islamic
state. Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence;
it forms the basis of Shariah
and is a process of ongoing
interpretation. Thus it is
neither static nor monolithic,
and may take different forms
in different countries or
from one period of history
to another. A classic text
on Shariah, by the fourteenth-century
scholar, Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri,
deals with a wide range of
subjects, including purity
of heart, fasting, divorce,
backbiting, crimes, and rules
of warfare.
The hudud can be characterized as the
Islamic �penal code� prescribed
by Shariah. The rules of hudud
identify punishable crimes,
the types of witnesses needed
to convict someone of a crime,
and the punishments for various
crimes.
Islam has no basic concept of inalienable
rights and does not permit
the individual to enjoy the
freedoms of action and association
characteristic of a democracy.
In Islamic states, where there
is no formally recognized
separation between religion
and law, mosque and state,
Shari�a is enshrined and presented
(if not always consistently
implemented) as the final
and ultimate formulation of
the law of God, not to be
revised or reformulated by
mere mortal and fallible human
beings. In Egypt, Algeria,
and Palestine, the Shari�a
is virtually ignored as a
guide to specific legislation
or government policy on many
vital issues. The remaining
Muslim countries, which adopted
Western-style legal and political
systems under colonial tutelage,
enshrine Islamic law in their
codes and constitutions to
various degrees. These nations
range from Pakistan, with
its intense political agitation
over the interpretation and
implementation of Shari�a,
to Indonesia, a self-proclaimed
secular nation that is the
home to more than 180 million
Muslims.
Takfir -- the condemnation of a Muslim
by another Muslim as a kafir
(i.e., disbelievers outside
the pale of Islam) -- is strictly
prohibited in the Quran, the
Hadith, and the writings of
many eminent Muslim authorities.
But fatwas of apostasy and
heresy as well as kufr within
the Muslim ummah are neither
few nor far in between.
After Prophet Mohammad's death the leaders
of the Muslim community consensually
chose Hadrat Abu Bakr, the
Prophet's father-in-law and
one of his earliest followers,
to succeed him. At that time
some persons favored Hadrat
Ali, Prophet Mohammad's cousin
and the husband of his daughter
Fatima, but Ali and his supporters
(the Shia
Ali, or Party of Ali) eventually
recognized the community's
choice. The next two caliphs
(successors)--Hadrat Umar,
who succeeded in A.D.634,
and Hadrat Usman, who took
power in A.D.644--enjoyed
the recognition of the entire
community. When Ali finally
succeeded to the caliphate
in A.D.656, Muawiyah, governor
of Syria, rebelled in the
name of his murdered kinsman
Uthman. After the ensuing
civil war, Ali moved his capital
to Iraq, where he was murdered
shortly there after.
Hadrat Ali's death ended the last of
the so-called four
orthodox caliphates
and the period in
which the entire
community of Islam
recognized a single
caliph. Muawiyah
proclaimed himself
caliph from Damascus.
The Shia Ali refused
to recognize him
or his line, the
Umayyad caliphs,
and withdrew in
the first great
schism to establish
the dissident sect,
known as the Shias,
supporting the claims
of Ali's line to
the caliphate based
on descent from
the Prophet. The
larger faction,
the Sunnis,
adhered to the position
that the caliph
must be elected,
and over the centuries
they have represented
themselves as the
orthodox branch.
There Ghulat or extremist are those who
went to extremes
in exalting a person
or persons to the
extent of raising
him or them above
the ranks of ordinary
human beings. These
ghlat sect are mostly
extremeist Shia
Ismaili
sects. While Bahai
and Ahmadi
have left Islam
as they follow latter
day religious leaders.
Sects
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� Page
last updated:
Friday, July 11, 2008 16:40:13 -0400
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