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Islam is the religion and faith of about one fifth of the world's population, or, more than 1.2 billion people. Its adherents are called Muslims. Interestingly, only 20% of the world's Muslims are Arabs, but throughout the Arab world approximately 95% of the people are Muslims. Islam (which means "to submit to the will of God Almighty") is the last in an ancient continuum of God's messages revealed to humanity through chosen Messengers, from Adam to Muhammad -- including Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all). There are about 650,000 Muslims in this country and half are Canadian-born. About one third trace their origins to the Indian subcontinent, one third from Arab and Middle Eastern countries, and the remaining third are from more than 30 other nations around the globe.
Islam's basic belief is that there is only ONE God, who is unique, incomparable, eternal, absolute, perfect, and without peer or associates.
Other important tenets of Islam are:
Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the Prophet and Messenger through whom God sent the last divine revelation to humankind.
Muhammad was born around the year 570 C.E. in the Arabian city of Makkah (traditionally spelled Mecca). In the middle of the city stands an ancient house of worship called the Ka'bah, which was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael.
Muhammad was orphaned at age six and grew up in the care of relatives. When he was 40 years old, God called him to teach people to worship the One God and revealed to him the text of the Holy Qur'an. But Muhammad faced severe opposition and persecution from the population of Makkah, who believed in multiple pagan deities.
In the early fall of 622, Muhammad and his followers emigrated from Makkah, northward to the town of Yathrib (later renamed al-Madinah, or Medina). This emigration -- historically known as the Hijrah -- marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, because it was in Yathrib that the followers of Muhammad developed a society organized along the teachings of the Qur'an. In 630 Muhammad peacefully re-entered Makkah, where he cleared the Ka'bah of idols. Two years later, he took ill, and died on June 8, 632 C.E.
The Qur'an is the holy book, or scripture, of Islam. It is the Word of God, originally transmitted to Muhammad in Arabic by the Angel Gabriel. But it was always meant for all humanity, not for any exclusive group. At its core is the teaching of monotheism -- the worship of One God and no others -- but the Qur'an also provides guidance for every aspect of a believer's life.
There is only one version of the Qur'an, unchanged since Muhammad received it. A number of his followers had carefully memorized each of God's revelations, word for word -- an achievement still common among Muslims today. Muslim scholars regard versions of the Qur'an in other languages to be interpretations or paraphrases, rather than true translations, and in Arabic literature there is no work whose eloquence, clarity and erudition approach that of the text of the Holy Qur'an.
The Ka'bah is the black one-room cubical stone structure in the courtyard of the Great Mosque at Makkah. It was built by Adam and rebuilt by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael) as the first place on earth wholly dedicated to the worship of God Almighty, the One True Creator of all. It has been given the honorary name, Beit-allah-alharam, meaning "the sacred house of God."
The interior of the Ka'bah is now completely empty, and it is not entered except for a ritual cleaning each year. A new black cloth covering, called the kiswah, embroidered in gold with Qur'anic calligraphy, is made for it each year. When Muslims pray, wherever in the world they are, they face toward the Ka'bah. During the Hajj -- a spiritual pilgrimage that every Muslim aspires to take at least once in his or her life -- pilgrims circle the Ka'bah seven times in a ritual called the "tawaf," or circumambulation, literally a walking of the circumference The circumambulation performed at times other than Hajj, throughout the rest of the year, is called tawaf.
Islam, in Arabic, means "submission," that is, submission to the will of God. It also means "peace," specifically, the peace one finds through submission to God's will. Muslims accept five primary obligations in life, commonly called the "Five Pillars of Islam." In practice, of course, Muslims can be seen observing all of these to varying degrees, for the responsibility of fulfilling the obligations lies on the shoulders of each individual.
I - The profession of faith (shahadah):
This is a simple statement of the words, "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God."
II - Prayer (salah):
Muslims pray five times a day -- at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening -- facing toward the Ka'bah, the House of God, in the Great Mosque at Makkah. They may pray wherever they are when prayer-time arrives, in any clean place, preferably in the company of other Muslims. On Fridays at noon, Muslims pray in congregation in mosques, or masjids; this weekly prayer is called the Salatul Jumah.
III - Charity: (zakah):
A fixed proportion (2.5%) of a Muslim's net worth -- not just his or her current income -- is prescribed to be donated for the welfare of the community as a whole.
IV - Fasting (sawm):
Every day from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual contact and, even more than at other times, they must also avoid undesirable, or imperfect behaviours.
V - Pilgrimage (Hajj):
The journey to Makkah is obligatory once in a lifetime for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to make it. The Hajj proper is made between the eighth and 13th days of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar, and every pilgrim carries out specified rituals at particular times. At any other time of year, Muslims can perform similar prayers and rituals and thus complete the 'Umrah, or "lesser pilgrimage."
The Islamic calendar is based on a lunar year of 12 full lunar cycles, taking exactly 354 and 11/30th days. Each new year in the Islamic calendar thus begins 10 or 11 days earlier in the 364 and one-quarter-day solar calendar. The 12 months of the Islamic year are: Muharram, Safar, Rabi' al-Awwal ("Rabi' I"), Rabi' al-Thani ("Rabi II"), Jumada al-Ula ("Jumada I"), Jumada al-Akhirah (Jumada II), Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'dah, and Dhy al-Hijjah. The first day of Year One of the Islamic calendar was set as the first day of the hijrah, the Prophet's migration from Makkah to Madinah on July 26, 622 C.E. The Western convention in designating Islamic dates is thus by the abbreviation AH, which stands for the Latin anno hegirae, or "Year of the Hijrah."
To roughly convert an Islamic calendar year (AH) into a Gregorian equivalent (A.D./C.E.), or vice versa, use one of the following equations. AD = 622 + (32/33 x AH) AH = 33/32 x (AD - 622)
There are five divine guidelines that the Qur'an clearly presents to Muslims for building tolerance and understanding among differing religions
Islam's golden age in science, technology and intellectual culture spanned about 500 years, from the ninth until the 14th centuries. Muslim achievements in these areas greatly influenced the European Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the birth of modern scientific method in the 17th century.
Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher, has rightly claimed, it was Muslims "who introduced the empirical method" in the study of nature and cultivated it widely when they were leaders of the civilized world.
The scientific method, as it has been developed in modern western science, was indeed invented by Muslims and first practiced by them on a large scale. Muslim scientists then were not only Arabs, but also people of other racial and ethnic groups such as Persians, East Indians, and Chinese.
Decades ago, when the Italian Orientalist, Assendro Baussani tried to hammer home the point that "Islam is an integral part of Western intellectual culture," he was one of the few Western voices then aware of the historical role of Islam in European civilization.
Very few people today know that Ibn Sina's best medical work, The Canon of Medicine, was taught for centuries in western universities and was one of the most frequently-printed scientific texts of the Renaissance. When the famous 13th-century theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, wanted to create a new rational theology, he studied an Islamized Arabic version of Aristotle. Aquinas realized that Aristotle had found a new home in Islam, so he wanted to seek one in Christianity as well.
Given the fact that today some people believe in an imminent "clash of civilizations" and a fundamental incompatibility between Islam and the West, it is worth remembering that our two civilizations do share a precious intellectual heritage in common. The West takes great pride in modern science as one of the greatest achievements of its intellect, an achievement no one should deny or belittle. Modern science could not have developed without the Renaissance. But without Islamic science and philosophy to build on, there would have been no Renaissance!
Islam's golden age in science, technology and intellectual culture spanned about 500 years, from the 9th until the 14th centuries. Muslim achievements in these areas greatly influenced the European Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the birth of modern scientific method in the 17th century.
Decades ago, when the Italian Orientalist, Assendro Baussani tried to hammer home the point that "Islam is an integral part of western intellectual culture," he was one of the few western voices then aware of the historical role of Islam in European civilization.
The list below, chosen by Islamic art historians Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair, includes only 10 symbolic "pages" or glimpses from the vast "manuscript" of Islamic civilization, but they offer a vibrant cross-section of the riches contained in the whole.
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