ISLAM

Islam, meaning submission, is the faith of the Muslim as revealed through their prophet, Muhammad. The same God as Jews and Christians, He is Allah, Muhammad being seen as the seal of the prophets, the final messenger of God. Their holy book is the Koran, revealed to Muhammad about 616AD by the Angel Gabriel. Muslims live by the Five Pillars of Islam, the Hadith and the Sharia. The Five Pillars are acceptance of the creed – to testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah – to pray 5 times a day, to pay a charitable levy or alms, to fast during daylight through Ramadan, and to make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, an oblong building in the quadrangle of the Great Mosque which contains the Black Stone given to Abraham by Gabriel.
The Hadith is the canon of belief and social regulation, a collection of teachings of Muhammad and stories about his life, second only to the Koran. The Sharia is the moral and religious law of Muslims, including the concept of retribution, reminding all individuals of their rights and responsibilities in the conflicting world of individuality, community and state.
One other major element of Islam is Jihad, sometimes interpreted as holy war, but meaning ‘directed struggle’. In the world it is a system of self-defence against oppression only; to the person it is the fight against his own greed, desires and ego.
Islam itself is one of the purest religions balancing rights and duties and based on absolute tolerance of other religions. Much has been said about the incitement to violence in the Koran. What must be taken into account is that, like most ancient religious texts, it was written in a violent time. It is reasonable to accept that reasonable people will understand this, and refrain from this part of scripture.
There are two main sects of Islam. Sunnis are the largest, believing the first three caliphs after Muhammad’s death were his true successors. Denying any human spiritual authority, they live by the guidance of the Koran, Hadith and Sharia only.
The Shiites rejected the first three caliphs, the fourth, Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali being the first true successor – he was murdered at Kufa in 661. Shiites empower ‘imams’ to intervene between God and humans, thus Sunnis interact with Allah personally, Shiites do so through clergy, their influence centred on Iran.
Muhammad was born to the Quraish tribe in Mecca about 570AD. Orphaned, he became contemplative and married the elder Khadija, a wealthy widow. Beginning to hate the idolatry around him, in 610 he had a vision of the Angel Gabriel, dictated the Koran, began preaching about the One God and spoke of the inevitability of moral judgement. Facing hostility from the Meccans, he left in 622, his flight known as the Hegira, beginning the Muhammadan Era. In Medira he set up the first Islamic community but in 624 the Meccans went to destroy him. Muhammad won the Battle of Badr and Mecca capitulated in 630, much of the Arabian peninsula taking up Islam. Muhammad died two years later.

(c) Anthony North, January 2003