islam

islam

The most recently revealed of the three great monotheistic

religions, Islam spread quickly from its roots in the Middle

East and has been hugely influential in both scholarship

and politics all over the world. The essence of the faith is simple: a belief in

one God and that Muhammad is his prophet.

Muslims (followers of Islam)  believe that the Islamic sacred text, the Qur’an, contains the words of God himself. These words were revealed to the prophet Muhammad over a period of years, beginning in 610ce. Although this was when the message of Islam was first made manifest on Earth, Muslims believe that their faith, based on the words of the eternal God, has always
existed, and that earlier prophets of the monotheistic religions, such as Moses in Judaism and the  Christian Jesus, are precursors of Muhammad himself. Muhammad has a special significance, as he was chosen to receive the Qur’an.


 The importance of reading God’s actual words in Arabic—the language in which they were revealed—has meant that literacy and education have always been paramount in Islam. Muslim scholars not only learned how to read the Qur’an, but also became leading scientists and writers. They used their learning to preserve the work of their predecessors. For example, many of the discoveries of the Ancient Greeks, which had been lost to the West, were preserved by Islamic scholars. Islamic scientists made many discoveries of their own, too, in fields ranging from chemistry to astronomy.


 In the centuries after Muhammad received the faith, news of Islam spread. Arab merchants carried their religion along trade routes across Asia, to areas such as India and Indonesia. They also traveled through Africa, taking Islam across North Africa and southward to the west of the continent. There were also Arab conquests, which brought the faith to Central Asia and Spain. Today, most people in North and West Africa,
the Middle East, and Indonesia are Muslim. With many converts in the West, too, the voice of  Islam has never been more widely heard. 

but today disagreed and reached around the world.

Al haram mosque

The prophet's mosque