Victor Noel B.

Alamis, RPm
World Religion

Islam
Lesson 5

“Islam” literally means “surrender” or “submission”. In the religious context, it

means “surrender or submission to God”. The followers of Islam are called
“Muslims” or “Moslems” meaning, those who submit to God. Muslims refer to
God in Arabic as “Allah”. Though most Arabs are Muslims, and the early
Muslims were Arabs, the terms “Muslims” and “Arabs” are clearly not
equivalent. There are non-Muslims Arabs (e.g., the Christian Arabs and Jewish
Arabs) and there are non-Arab Muslims (e.g., Filipino Muslims, Indonesian
Muslims, and Indian Muslims).

Among others, this means that, in addition to believing in Allah, one also needs
to accept that Muhammad is God’s last prophet or messenger. In terms of
teachings, Muslims believe that Islam was founded by Allah. But as a religious
tradition, they believe that it was founded by Muhammad. Islam shares some of
the accounts in the bibles of the Jews and Christians

Sacred Texts

o The primary sacred text of Islam is the Qur’an. The secondary ones are
the Hadith (or the Sunnah- though some scholars distinguish between
these two texts) and the book of Shari’ah. The Qur’an contains God’s
messages to Muhammad. As Muhammad is believed to be the last
prophet (and there will not be another one), these messages are believed
to be the final messages of God to humanity.

o Hadith is a written record of the words, actions, decisions, character, and

practices of Muhammad, which constitute a perfect model for a life lived
according to the teachings of the Qur’an.

o The Shari’ah refers to the Islamic legal law, which was based on the Qur’an
and Hadith and was formulated to serve as specific guidelines for
Muslims in carrying out their everyday affairs or activities.

Basic Doctrines
o Oneness of God (Tawhid): Muslims strongly believe that there is only one
God (Allah). They do not accept the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
They call God by numerous different names (99 names, it said).

o The Afterlife: Muslims believe in an afterlife and in the Day of Resurrec-

tion and Day of Judgment. A day will come when dead humans will be
resurrected and will be judged by God according to their deeds on
whether they deserve eternal happiness or suffering. In this connection,
Muslims also believe in heaven or paradise (Jannah), a place or state of
eternal happiness, where good people (people who submit to God’s will)
shall be put in by God; and hell (Jahannam), a place or state of suffering,
where evil people (those who do not submit to God’s will) shall be put in
by God.
o Angels and Jinn: Muslims believe in angels and jinn (the singular is jinnie,
djinnie, or genie) who are spiritual beings created by God. These angles, be-
lieved to have been created by God from light. They do not have free will,
and so they are not accountable for their actions and are neither good nor
evil. They act as messengers from God through the angel prophets. For in-
stance, Muhammad received his messages from God the angel Gabriel.
Angels also keep a record of the good and bad actions of humans.
o It is believed that two angels are assigned to each human being upon birth
to record the good and bad actions of the human being and report them
back to God on the Day of Judgment. On the other hand, the jinn believed
to have been created by God from smokeless and scorching fire, have free
will and thus are morally accountable for their actions and are either good
or evil. For this reason, like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of
Judgment and will be sent either to heaven/ paradise or hell. Satan is an
example of an evil jinnie.
o The Prophets: As already noted, Muslims believe in prophets or
messengers of God. God speaks to the people through the prophets.
Muslims recognize many of the prophets recognized by the Jews and
Christians though they appear in the Qur’an in their Arabic names. These
include Adam (Adem), the first prophet, Abraham (Ibrahim), Ishmael
(Isma’il), Noah (Nuh), Moses (Musa), Elisha (Alyasa), David (Dawid),
John the Baptist (Yahya), Jesus (Isa), and Muhammad. Jesus, as earlier
noted, is recognized as a prophet and not as a God. And Muhammad is
regarded as the last of the list of the prophets.
The Five Pillars of Islam: These are the five obligatory activities for all Muslims:

o Testimony of Faith (Shahadah): "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad

is his messenger." This is the basic statement of the Islamic faith: anyone
who cannot recite this wholeheartedly is not a Muslim. When a Muslim
recites this they proclaim: That Allah is the only God, and that
Muhammad is his prophet; that they personally accept this as true; that
they will obey all the commitments of Islam in their life.

o The Shahadah is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam. Becoming a Muslim,
reciting this statement three times in front of witnesses is all that anyone
need do to become a Muslim. A Muslim is expected to recite this state-
ment out loud, with total sincerity, fully understanding what it means.
o Prayer (Salat): Muslims pray facing Mecca five times a day: at dawn,
noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and after dark. Prayer includes a recitation of
the opening chapter (sura) of the Qur'an, and is sometimes performed on
a small rug or mat used expressly for this purpose. Muslims can pray
individually at any location or together in a mosque, where a leader in
prayer (imam) guides the congregation.

o Men gather in the mosque for the noonday prayer on Friday; women are
welcome but not obliged to participate. After the prayer, a sermon focuses
on a passage from the Qur'an, followed by prayers by the imam and a dis-
cussion of a particular religious topic.
o Charity for the Poor/ Alms (Zakat): In accordance with Islamic law, Mus-
lims donate a fixed portion of their income to community members in
need. Many rulers and wealthy Muslims build mosques, drinking foun-
tains, hospitals, schools, and other institutions both as a religious duty and
to secure the blessings associated with charity.
o Fasting (Sawm): During the daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month
of the Islamic calendar, all healthy adult Muslims are required to abstain
from food and drink. Through this temporary deprivation, they renew
their awareness of and gratitude for everything God has provided in their
lives—including the Qur'an, which was first revealed during this month.
During Ramadan they share the hunger and thirst of the needy as a re-
minder of the religious duty to help those less fortunate.
o Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj): Every Muslim whose health and finances per-
mit it must make at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca, in present-day
 Saudi Arabia. The Ka'ba, a cubical structure covered in black embroidered
hangings, is at the center of the Haram Mosque in Mecca. Muslims believe
that it is the house Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) built for God, and face in
its direction (qibla) when they pray. Since the time of the Prophet Muham-
mad, believers from all over the world have gathered around the Ka'ba in
Mecca on the eighth and twelfth days of the final month of the Islamic cal-
endar.
o Jihad: Though not officially a pillar, the Islamic principle of Jihad- which
literally means struggle- is sometimes referred to by some Muslims as the
sixth pillar. Nowadays, most non-Muslims understand jihad as a military
warfare or battle of Muslims against non –Muslim. Muhammad and his
follower did engage in a military warfare against non-Muslims when they
went back to Mecca from Medina. So jihad does include the meaning of
physical struggle or battle to defend Islam. But jihad is not limited to that.
It also means a psychological, spiritual, and moral struggle to overcome
the evils within oneself and in one’s environment to lead an ethical life
according to the principles of Islam.
Other Practices

o Other Islamic religious practices include the following: Muslims are

opposed to the practice of celibacy even for their imams (religious leader).
Males are allowed to have four wives who must be treated equally; while
women are only allowed to have one husband. Muslims are forbidden to
eat pork, drink alcohol, and engage in usury and gambling. Muslims also
practice circumcision: Male Muslims are circumcised between ages of 7
days and 15 years (about at age 7 or 8 is common) depending on local
practices and in Muslims areas, women are also circumcised at the age of
puberty- sometimes referred to as female genital mutilation). Both men and
women are required by the Qur’an to wear modest clothes, which has
been translated to include, among others, the practice of covering the hair
or both hair and faces of women by a veil or headscarf in varying ways in
different Muslim regions. In traditional Muslim societies, the parents
arrange the marriage of their children with the bridegroom’s family
providing dowry, or an offer of money or property to the family of the
bride as part of the marriage contract.

Festival
 o Some of the main festivals and holy days observed by the Muslims are the
following: Day of Sacrifice (Id al-Adha), which is celebrated during the
month of the Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca); Day of Breaking the Fast
(Id al-Ftr), which is observed just after the end of the month of Ramadan;
Muharram, which celebrates the migration of Muhammad and his
followers to Yathrib (Medina); and Muhammad’s birthday, which is
celebrated on the twelfth day of the third month of the year, and the
birthdays of other holy men and women of Islam.

Challenges

o The Muslims are still troubled by their internal wars, between the Sunnis
and the Shiites, including between mainstream Islam and Sufism. Islam
has also been associated with some terrorist acts, whether rightly or
wrongly. Another challenge concerns how women are treated in Islam.
While outsiders may see them as still not enjoying the rights that they
deserve or are entitled to, insiders generally see that the Islamic laws and
practices pertaining to women are precisely intended to protect women
from being corrupted by the undesirable ways of the world, especially
those of the West.