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Islam

Islam (/ˈɪzlɑːm, ˈɪzlæm/ IZ-la(h)m;[7] Arabic: ٱلْإِسْلَام, romanizedal-Islām, IPA: [alʔɪsˈlaːm], lit.'submission [to the will of God]') is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad, the religion's founder. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number approximately 1.9 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.[8]

This article is about the religion. For other uses, see Islam (disambiguation).

Islam

c. 1.9 billion[6] Increase (individually referred to as Muslims, collectively referred to as the Ummah)

Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (the Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injil (Gospel). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final Islamic prophet, through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the sunnah, documented in accounts called the hadith, provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam emphasizes that God is one and incomparable. It states that there will be a "Final Judgment" wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise (jannah) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell (jahannam). The Five Pillars—considered obligatory acts of worship—comprise the Islamic oath and creed (shahada); daily prayers (salah); almsgiving (zakat); fasting (sawm) in the month of Ramadan; and a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Islamic law, sharia, touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment. The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.


The religion of Islam originated in Mecca in 610 CE. Muslims believe this is when Muhammad received his first revelation. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. Muslim rule expanded outside Arabia under the Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate ruled from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley. In the Islamic Golden Age, specifically during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate, much of the Muslim world experienced a scientific, economic and cultural flourishing. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as a result of Islamic missionary activities (dawah), as well as through conquests, imperialism, and colonialism.


The two main Islamic branches are Sunni Islam (85–90%) and Shia Islam (10–15%). While the Shia–Sunni divide initially arose from disagreements over the succession to Muhammad, they grew to cover a broader dimension, both theologically and juridically. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries. Approximately 12% of the world's Muslims live in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country; 31% live in South Asia; 20% live in the Middle East–North Africa; and 15% live in sub-Saharan Africa. Muslim communities are also present in the Americas, China, and Europe. Largely due to having a high proportion of young people, and a high fertility rate, Muslims are the world's fastest-growing major religious group.

The was founded in British India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, who claimed to be the promised Messiah ("Second Coming of Christ"), the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims as well as a "subordinate" prophet to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[346][347] There are a wide variety of distinct beliefs and teachings of Ahmadis compared to those of most other Muslims,[346][348][349][347] which include the interpretation of the Quranic title Khatam an-Nabiyyin[350] and interpretation of the Messiah's Second Coming.[348][351] These perceived deviations from normative Islamic thought have resulted in rejection by most Muslims as heretics[352] and persecution of Ahmadis in various countries,[348] particularly Pakistan,[348][353] where they have been officially declared as non-Muslims by the Government of Pakistan.[354] The followers of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam are divided into two groups: the first being the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, currently the dominant group, and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam.[348]

Ahmadiyya Movement

14th century Great Mosque of Xi'an in China

14th century Great Mosque of Xi'an in China

16th century Menara Kudus Mosque in Indonesia showing Indian influence

16th century Menara Kudus Mosque in Indonesia showing Indian influence

The phrase Bismillah in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the Ottoman region

The phrase Bismillah in an 18th-century Islamic calligraphy from the Ottoman region

Geometric arabesque tiling on the underside of the dome of Hafiz Shirazi's tomb in Shiraz, Iran

Geometric arabesque tiling on the underside of the dome of Hafiz Shirazi's tomb in Shiraz, Iran

Glossary of Islam

Index of Islam-related articles

Islamic mythology

Islamic studies

Major religious groups

Outline of Islam