The teachings of Islam were passed down to humankind through Mohammed who is widely thought of as the last, so far, in the line of Middle Eastern prophets. The first was Abraham of Judaism renown, then there was Jesus for Christianity and then came Mohammed. Mohammed was born in about 570 AD in Mecca, western Saudi Arabia and died 62 years later in 632 in Medina.
The Koran, or the ‘Recitation’ in English, consists of 144 chapters and was revealed to Mohammed by God. These doctrines were written down by his secretaries during the course of 23 years.
Like its antecedent religions, Islam is a monotheistic religion and its narrative includes stories or references to Abraham, Moses (and the Ten Commandments) and Jesus, but does not accept Christianity’s claim to his divinity.
Another major variance from the Middle Eastern religions before it, is that Jews trace their ancestry through Abraham’s son Isaac, whereas Muslims trace their history through Abraham’s son Ishmael by another wife.
The root of the word Islam – ‘s-l-m’ – means ‘peace’ and ‘submission’ (to God). A Muslim’s association with God is determined by the ‘Five Pillars of Islam’. These five pillars are: Shahadah (profession of faith); public and collective prayer five times every day; charity to the poor; fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest of places to Muslims, at least once in their lifetime.
Islam has stringent dietary laws, notably about eating pork, and prohibitions against promiscuity, stealing, gambling and deceit. Muslims worship in Mosques and the services are led by Imams. The most critical time to pray is at midday on a Friday, which is the Muslim Sabbath.
The vast majority of Muslims are Sunnites, who are the traditionalists, and the rest are Shi’ites or ‘partisans’. This could generally be compared with the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. The variances between the two sects in the both religions have caused untold misery for centuries and there is no sign of it ceasing any time soon.
There is significantly more known about Mohammed than of Jesus. Mohammed was brought up by his uncle and at the age of 25 he was a trader. At the age of 40, in 610, an angel instructed him to spread the word of God. He was not accepted in Mecca but the authorities invited him to quell the city of Medina in 622, which he did.
His condition for accepting this task was that the people accept the word of God. This they did – this move is called the Hegim and it is the date from which Muslims record modern history – like the Western world uses the birth of Jesus.
By 632 Mohammed was dead, but by then the vast majority of Arabs were Muslims. For one reason or another, Islam spread east and west from Saudi Arabia taken usually by Arab traders probably. Islam never actually got a foothold in Europe (except Spain) but it did move East quite extensively.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on many subjects but is currently involved with Easter.If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Celebrating Easter
