INFORMATION SHEET ON ISLAM

 

Notes prepared for the Press in 1990 at the time of the Gulf War.

           

1) What’s the correct name for this religion?

 

    ISLAM - it’s an Arabic word which means PEACE (SALAM), like the Hebrew word SHALOM: literally it means - MAKING PEACE by submitting to the will of God which is the source of PEACE.
    MUSLIM - another Arabic word which means the person who submits to God in order to have peace; MUSLIMA if you’re a woman.
    So ISLAM is the name of the religion: MUSLIM/MUSLIMA is the name of the follower of the religion.
    Muslims don’t like their religions to be called MUHAMMEDANISM as often happens in the west. It suggests that they worship Muhammad (which they don’t) rather than God (which they do).

 

2) Where and when did Islam begin?

 

   It began historically in ARABIA (modern Saudi Arabia), in the towns of MECCA and MEDINA (near the west coast inland from the Red Sea).
   This was where MUHAMMAD lived (570-632 CE) and where he preached his message of Islam which he - and all Muslims - believed was revealed by God. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last and the greatest PROPHET of God.
   The revelation is recorded in the QUR’AN, the Holy Scripture of Muslims. It’s another Arabic word which means “Recital”: Muslims believe that it was composed by God and recited by Muhammad.
   Arabic is the language of Arabia. So the Qur’an was recited in Arabic, and because Muslims believe that it contains God’s words, they regard Arabic as their sacred language.

 

3) Are all Muslims Arabs?

 

    Definitely not!
    There are about 1 billion Muslims in the world, making Islam the second largest of the world religions. There are about 150 million Arabs, and not all of them are Muslims. So while Islam began among the Arabs, the Arabs are a minority among Muslims who include peoples from many other parts of the world.

             

4) When did Islam spread to so many parts of the world?

 

It began soon after Muhammad died in 632 CE (7th century).
7th century: Other parts of the MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA, PERSIA; AFGHANISTAN
8th century: SPAIN (until 1492); CENTRAL ASIA
10th-13th : TURKEY; AFRICA (south of the Sahara);INDIA including modern PAKISTAN and BANGLADESH; MALAYSIA and INDONESIA
14th-16th : CHINA; PHILIPPINES; EASTERN EUROPE
20th century: WESTERN EUROPE and NORTH AMERICA

 

    Today Muslims are found in most parts of the world; they belong to many different races and nationalities; they sneak many different languages. Most generalizations about who Muslims are, what they think, what they do are likely to be wrong!

             

5) What do Muslims believe?

 

The Qur’an tells Muslims that they must believe in 5 things:
i) ALLAH - the Arabic word for God, meaning simply “the one to be worshiped and obeyed” (like ELOHIM in Hebrew); the Qur’an gives many Names of God, the most common being MERCIFUL and MERCY-GIVING;
ii) ANGELS - God’s servants in heaven; GABRIEL is the Angel of Revelation who, Muslims believe, “recited” the Qur’an to Muhammad;
iii) SCRIPTURES - the QUR’AN, but also scriptures which were revealed before it, especially the TORAH and the GOSPEL;
iv) PR0PHETS - MUHAMMAD “THE SEAL OF THE PROPHETS” – but also the prophets who came before him, especially ABRAHAM, MOSES, and JESUS;
v) AFTERLIFE - Paradise (the Garden) and Hell (the Fire) where human beings will go after the LAST DAY of JUDGEMENT.

             

6) How do Muslims worship God?

 

The Qu’ran sets out the basic duties of worship, and Muhammad shows Muslims how to put them into practice. Accordingly Islamic worship divides into 2 parts:

 

      A) The Pillars

   

i) TESTIMONY – “I bear witness that there is no God but God (ALLAH); I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger/Prophet of God.”
ii) PRAYER - 5 times a day
iii) CHARITY - giving alms (2.5% of your wealth)
iv) FASTING - during the month of RAMADAN
v) PILGRIMAGE - in MECCA in the month of Pilgrimage

 

      B) The Law (SHARI’AH)
   

A system of laws, based on the Qu’ran and Muhammad’s example, but extended by legal reasoning to cover all aspects of individual and social life.
For example: it tells Muslims how to put the pillars of worship into practice, how to organize their family life (marriage, divorce, upbringing of children, inheritance), relations between the sexes, how to eat (dietary laws), how to deal with money and commercial affairs, how to organize political life.
The fundamental principle of the Law is JUSTICE.
On this principle the Law instructs Muslims about what is PERMITTED (HALLAL) and what is PROHIBITED (HARAM).

 

On the basis of these two aspects of worship, Muslims believe that Islam is a total way of life, not just a set of religious doctrines and rituals for one day of the week (N.B.: Friday is the Muslim equivalent to the Jewish Sabbath, or the Christian Sunday).

             

7) What’s the difference between SUNNI and SHI’I Muslims?

 

SUNNIS (often in English Sunnites) make up about 90% of the world Muslim community. They believe all that has been set out above, and try to put it into practice through the principle of CONSENSUS - i.e., Muslims should try find agreement among themselves about matters of religion, by studying the Qur’an together and following the example of the Prophet Muhammad.
SHI’Is (often in English Shi’ites) - a relatively small minority of Muslims, mainly living in Iran and Lebanon, also believe in everything we’ve said so far. But they also believe one thing which Sunnis do not: they believe that Muhammad appointed his close relative, a man called ALI, to be the spiritual leader of the Muslim community after his death in 632 CE. Shi’is call Ali and his descendants their IMAMs, and believe that they continue to have a religious authority which is greater than the consensus of ordinary believers. The AYATOLLAHs in Shi’i Iran are believed to be representatives of the Imam.
This is a very important difference within Islam, somewhat like the difference between Protestants and Catholics in Christianity.

             

8) What is JIHAD all about?

 

It’s another Arabic word, meaning STRIVING.
Islam teaches Muslims that they must “strive” or work hard to make their religion real in their lives and in their societies. This should be done by JIHAD on 4 levels:

   

JIHAD of the TONGUE: speaking about their faith;
JIHAD of the HAND: putting their faith into action by good works;
JIHAD of the HEART: making their faith real as a spiritual force in their lives;
JIHAD of the SWORD: defending their faith when they fear it to be under attack.

             

9) Why is Islam a religion of violence?

 

    It isn’t! This is one of the generalizations which we should be careful of avoid.
    There are some Muslims today - a small minority - who want to use the JIHAD of the SWORD as a means of Islamic revolution against what they see as the evils of the modern world, especially western materialism and secularism which they relate to western political and economic power.
    Iran mounted such a revolution in the late 1970s against the former Shah who many regarded as a puppet of the U.S. Revolutionary Islam has won many followers in other parts of the Middle East where Arabs find themselves in political conflict with the west, particularly in Israel.
    This creates many problems - hostages, terrorism, -etc.
    But it is still incorrect to say that all Muslims are terrorists, or to think that all Muslims are revolutionaries who are ready to give religious justification for violence.

             

10) How man Muslims are there in the United States?

 

    About 5 million (in the 1990s).
    Most Muslims in the US have come here by immigration since the 1950s. They have settled here, most have taken US citizenship, and their children are born in this country. Most1y they are professional people (doctors, lawyers, business-people) and they want to live in this-country like any other religious community.
    About one third of the Muslims in the U.S. are African-Americans, people who have converted to Islam partly in search of their roots (Islam is one of the main religions in West Africa), partly because Christianity has for so long been identified with white people.

             
             

Notes for the press prepared by:
Dr. David A. Kerr, Director Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman Street, Hartford, CT 06105
9/27/90