Islam 101
What is Islam?
The faith in five minutes
5 min, Intro
Around the year 610, in the Arabian town of Makkah, a merchant began to say two things: that there is one God, and that he had been sent with a message. This lesson follows that idea outward: the word, the God, the messengers, the daily practice, the people.
Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review
The thread
One man, in one trading town, saying one thing: there is no god but God. Everything else in Islam grows from that sentence. This lesson follows it outward. From what the word itself means. To who that God is. To the messengers Muslims say came before. To what it asks of an ordinary day. To the two billion people who live by it now.
A word that means handing yourself over
Islam is not named after a person or a place. Christianity is named after Christ. Buddhism, after the Buddha. Islam is named after an act.
The Arabic word islam means submission: giving yourself over to God, willingly. It comes from the root s-l-m, which also carries the ideas of peace, safety and wholeness. A Muslim is "one who submits".
That is why the Qur'an can use the word for people who lived long before Muhammad ﷺ. It calls Abraham a Muslim. In the Qur'an's own telling, Islam is not a new religion that began in Arabia. It is the original one, renewed.
مَا كَانَ إِبۡرَٰهِيمُ يَهُودِيࣱّا وَلَا نَصۡرَانِيࣱّا وَلَٰكِن كَانَ حَنِيفࣱا مُّسۡلِمࣱا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ ٱلۡمُشۡرِكِينَ ٦٧
67 Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a monotheist Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists.
إِنَّ ٱلدِّينَ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلۡإِسۡلَٰمُۗ وَمَا ٱخۡتَلَفَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ ٱلۡكِتَٰبَ إِلَّا مِنۢ بَعۡدِ مَا جَآءَهُمُ ٱلۡعِلۡمُ بَغۡيَۢا بَيۡنَهُمۡۗ وَمَن يَكۡفُرۡ بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَرِيعُ ٱلۡحِسَابِ ١٩
19 The true religion with Allah is Islam. Those who were given the Scripture did not dispute except after the knowledge had come to them, out of mutual envy and rivalry. But whoever rejects the verses of Allah, then Allah is swift in reckoning.
Islam is named after an act, not a person: handing yourself over to God.
One God, and what that rules out
Makkah, where the message was first preached, was full of gods. So the claim that there is only one was not a detail. It was the whole argument. Muslims call it tawhid, the oneness of God. No partner. No child. No equal. And nothing in creation that shares in being divine.
Is Allah the name of a different god? That is a common misunderstanding. Allah is the Arabic word for God. Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use it in their own prayers. Muslims are not describing a different God from the God of Abraham. They are describing Him differently from the Christian teaching of the Trinity.
The whole creed is often summed up in one short surah, al-Ikhlas. Four lines.
قُلۡ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ١ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ ٢ لَمۡ يَلِدۡ وَلَمۡ يُولَدۡ ٣ وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدُۢ ٤
1 Say: “He is Allah, the One; 2 Allah, the Eternal Refuge. 3 He neither begets nor is He begotten, 4 and there is none comparable to Him.”
Allah is not another god. It is the Arabic word for the one God of Abraham.
Not the first messenger
Muhammad ﷺ did not claim to bring something nobody had heard before. He claimed to be the last in a long line.
Muslims believe God sent messengers to every nation, each calling people back to the one God. The Qur'an names twenty-five of them. Among them are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and John the Baptist.
Muhammad ﷺ is believed to be the final prophet, and the Qur'an the final revelation. Muslims are asked to believe in all the prophets, without ranking one people's prophet over another's. So a Muslim who rejects Moses or Jesus has stepped outside Islam.
قُولُوٓاْ ءَامَنَّا بِٱللَّهِ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيۡنَا وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَىٰٓ إِبۡرَٰهِـۧمَ وَإِسۡمَٰعِيلَ وَإِسۡحَٰقَ وَيَعۡقُوبَ وَٱلۡأَسۡبَاطِ وَمَآ أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَمَآ أُوتِيَ ٱلنَّبِيُّونَ مِن رَّبِّهِمۡ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيۡنَ أَحَدࣲ مِّنۡهُمۡ وَنَحۡنُ لَهُۥ مُسۡلِمُونَ ١٣٦
136 Say [O believers], “We believe in Allah and what has been sent down to us; and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the descendants [of Jacob]; and what was given to Moses and Jesus; and what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.”
To a Muslim, Moses and Jesus are prophets too.
What it asks of an ordinary day
A belief you hold only in your head changes very little. Islam ties the belief to a routine. Its five pillars are the declaration of faith, the five daily prayers, the annual charity called zakat, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Makkah once in a lifetime for those able to make it.
Then the Qur'an does something you might not expect from a religion with that much ritual. It warns against reducing faith to ritual. Righteousness, one ayah says, is not turning your face east or west in prayer. It is believing in God and spending on relatives, orphans, the poor and travellers, keeping promises, and being patient in hardship.
۞ لَّيۡسَ ٱلۡبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمۡ قِبَلَ ٱلۡمَشۡرِقِ وَٱلۡمَغۡرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱلۡبِرَّ مَنۡ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلۡيَوۡمِ ٱلۡأٓخِرِ وَٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلۡكِتَٰبِ وَٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ وَءَاتَى ٱلۡمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ ذَوِي ٱلۡقُرۡبَىٰ وَٱلۡيَتَٰمَىٰ وَٱلۡمَسَٰكِينَ وَٱبۡنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَٱلسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِي ٱلرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَى ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلۡمُوفُونَ بِعَهۡدِهِمۡ إِذَا عَٰهَدُواْۖ وَٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ فِي ٱلۡبَأۡسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَحِينَ ٱلۡبَأۡسِۗ أُوْلَٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُواْۖ وَأُوْلَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلۡمُتَّقُونَ ١٧٧
177 It is not righteousness to turn your faces towards the east or the west, but righteousness is to believe in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Scriptures, and the prophets; and to give charity out of one’s cherished wealth to relatives, orphans, the needy, the wayfarer, beggars, and to free slaves; to establish prayer and give zakah; to fulfill the ratified pledges; to be patient at times of hardship, adversity, and during the battle. Such are the true believers, and such are the righteous.
The Qur'an itself says ritual without character misses the point.
Who lives by it now
The message began in one Arabian town. According to the Pew Research Center's estimates, it is now the faith of roughly a quarter of the world's population. Muslims are among the most varied religious communities on earth.
Most of them are not Arab. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country, followed by countries in South Asia. There are long-established communities across Africa. In South Africa, Muslims have lived for more than three centuries.
Most Muslims are not Arab, and never have been since the faith spread.