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Islam - is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God and by the teachings and normative example of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim. Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to love and serve God.[1] Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. Angels - Belief in angels is fundamental to the faith of Islam. The Arabic word for angel (‎ malak) means "messenger", like its counterparts in Hebrew (malakh) and Greek (angelos). Prophet - Muslims identify the prophets of Islam (nabī ) as those humans chosen by God to be his messengers. According to the Qur'an, the descendants of Abraham were chosen by God to bring the "Will of God" to the peoples of the nations. Muslims believe that prophets are human and not divine, though some are able to perform miracles to prove their claim. Islamic theology says that all of God's messengers preached the message of Islam—submission to the will of God. The Qur'an mentions the names of numerous figures considered prophets in Islam, including Adam, Noah,Abraham, Moses and Jesus, among others. Muslims believe that God finally sent Muhammad (Seal of the Prophets) to convey the divine message to the whole world (to sum up and to finalize the word of God). In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the Sunnah (literally "trodden path"). This example is preserved in traditions known as hadith ("reports"), which recount his words, his actions, and his personal characteristics. Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, regarded as the words of God repeated by Muhammad differing from the Quran in that they are expressed in Prophet Muhammad's words, whereas the Qur'an is understood as the direct words of God. The classical Muslim jurist ash-Shafi'i (d. 820) emphasized the importance of the Sunnah in Islamic law, and Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's actions in their daily lives. The Sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of the Qur'an.[51] ------------------------------------------------- Five pillars (1) the shahadah (creed),(2) daily prayers (salat),(3) almsgiving (zakah), (4) fasting during Ramadan (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) the similarities and differences between Islam & Christianity Islam is similar to Christianity, both believe that: - There is only one God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. - God sent prophets such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Joseph, John the Baptist, Jesus, Mohammad, etc. - People should follow the Ten Commandments and the moral teachings of the prophets. - Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin; therefore Jesus was born miraculously. - Jesus Christ is the Messiah and he performed miracles. - The Old testament/Torah and the new testament/Gospel) are holy scriptures. - Satan is evil; therefore, people should not follow Satan. - An Anti-Christ will appear on Earth before the Day of Judgment. - Jesus Christ will return by descending from Heaven and will kill the Anti-Christ. - The Day of Judgment will occur and people will be judged. - There is hell and paradise.   There are 3 main differences between Islam & Christianity: 1.  Today, most Christians believe in the Trinity, meaning that God has 3 forms (Father, Son, Holy Ghost/ Spirit).  The concept of trinity was not adopted by Christianity until the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Some of the early Christians were Unitarians.     (a) Trinity is totally rejected. Jesus is neither God, nor Son of God (in the literal sense). Jesus was a human prophet and not divine.     (a) Muslims worship only God, the one and only the creator of the universe.     (b) This God (the Quran refers to as Allah) is the God and creator of Jesus and is the same God that Jesus in the current Bible refers to as Father and to whom Jesus used to pray.     (c) Muslims consider Mohammad, Moses, and Jesus as prophets and messengers sent by God ("messengers" is term that refers to prophets who brought holy scriptures to their people as a message from God). These prophets were human beings, not divine, and should not be worship directly or indirectly.     (d) Muslims believe God neither has sons nor daughters.     (e) Finally, angels (such as Gabriel) are servants/agents of God. Angels are created by God; therefore, they are not divine and should not be worshiped.  2. The Quran says Jesus did not die on the cross, but God made it appear that way to people. Furthermore, the Quran also says that Jesus was ascended to Heaven by God. Most Christians today insist Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, but two days later was resurrected. 3. Christians believe in the concept of "Original Sin" which means that human beings are born as sinners , bearing the burden of the "Original Sin" of Adam and Eve. Muslims do not believe in the " Original Sin" for 2 main reasons:       (a) In the Quran, God forgave Adam for what he has done, and       (b) according to the Quran, no one should be made to bear the burden of someone else's sin or mistake because it is unfair. What is Islam & what is the Quran' Islam is simply the religion of God, meaning the set of beliefs and practices that God wants human beings to follow. Islam is a full way of life. The teachings of Islam span almost every aspect of the life of human beings. The Quran (can also be spelled as Qur'an, Kuran, or Koran) is the holy scripture of Muslims. The Quran states that the name of God's religion is Islam and it refers to its followers as Muslims. Muslims' View of Christianity 1. The true teachings of Jesus (pbuh) are fully compatible with Islam. Muslims are the true followers of the teachings of Jesus, Moses, and Mohammad (peace be upon them). 2. Muslims regard the real, "original" Bible (that reflects God's actual message and the real teachings of Jesus and the prophets before him) as a holy scripture. We believe that the Bible has been corrupted due to many factors and reasons. The current Bible is corrupted, but not completely false. So, we can still find today in the Bible some traces of the truth, such as verses that contradict with the Trinity. That is why Muslims are willing to accept the "current" Bible only to the extent that it does not contradict with the Quran. 3. Modern Christianity was not founded by Jesus, but rather by Paul and the Romans in the Council of Nicea in 325 AD (meaning about 325 years after Jesus), inspired by Satan. In this Council of Nicea, Church leaders from around the World debated and finally decided on what should and what should not be included in the Bible. There were different views expressed in the Council; however, the views of the those who were most powerful won. As a result, lots of Gospels were thrown away. For Christianity to be adopted by the Roman Empire as its official religion, it had to succumb to the desires of the Romans who wanted to incorporate their own pagan religious beliefs and myths into Christianity. The integrity of the message brought by Jesus from God was compromised to appease the Roman Empire. Christianity has evolved into a cult that has deviated significantly from the true teachings of Jesus by: (a) adding new doctrines not preached by Jesus, (b) deleting or modifying some of the teachings of Jesus, and (c) creating an "unholy", man-made scripture. A holy scripture must be in the form and content intended, inspired, or revealed by God, not created by human beings. 4. Many Christians insist that Muslims do not worship the same God of Christianity. We say that Islam requires Muslims to worship only God (the God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad), the creator of the universe. Many Christians mistakenly believe that without Trinity, there is no Christianity. We ask them if Trinity is so important why didn't Jesus speak about it clearly. In many verses in Bible, Jesus contradicts the Trinity. We, as Muslims, say to such Christians, obviously, we do not worship the same "triune" God that you do. The Quran instructs us to worship only the creator of the universe and not worship any human being. Muslims today are the true followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ, as well as the teachings of Prophet Mohammad and the other prophets before them. Muslims worship the God of Jesus, the God who created Jesus and whom Jesus himself worshipped. Who is more worthy of worship: God or Jesus ' 5. The Quran says clearly that Islam is the religion of "Fitra" (meaning "the inborn nature of everything created by God"). This means that Islam is the innate/inborn religion. This makes a lot of sense because it is natural for a human being to worship his/her creator who has also created and sustains the whole universe because no one knows more about human beings' nature and needs than their creator and no one can sustain the balance and life in the universe better than God. Furthermore, it is natural to believe that there is one God because if there were more than one God, the universe would have been chaotic. Therefore, it is natural for human beings to want to establish a good relationship with the one and only God. God has sent prophets such Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad, exactly to tell human beings that in order to maintain a good relationship with God, they should follow God's religion, meaning the set of beliefs and practices that: (a) is good for them personally for their life on Earth and in the hereafter, and (b) that creates peace and harmony among people as well as between people and the rest of the universe. God offered one religion preached by all of God's prophets and this religion was finally given the name Islam. Just imagine yourself trying to explain the Trinity of Christianity to someone. The first thing this person is likely to accept is that he should worship God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, of course as long as this person is not an atheist. If you are dealing with an atheist, then first you have to prove to this person that there is God. Then, you can simply say that since now you believe in the existence of God, God expects you to worship him. Now, your final task, that is to make him believe in the Trinity, is certainly going to be much harder than convincing him of the need to worship God. Trinity is not a "natural" concept. It is a hypothesis (theory) that is more difficult to accept. You have to convince him that 3 is equal to 1. Trinity defies the laws of mathematics and the laws of nature. The purpose or rationale for the Trinity was to say that Jesus died for the sins of human beings and merely by believing in the Trinity and worshiping Jesus, people will be saved and they will go to paradise. There are at least 6 problems with the Trinity and the "Original Sin" doctrines: (a) These doctrines merely form a man-made hypothesis that defies the natural/inborn tendencies of people to worship only their creator as we have explained above. (b) They were adopted in the Council of Nicea in 325 AD in which there were views that differ sharply from today's Christianity and many gospels were discarded. (c) Trinity is a concept that was copied from a popular pagan religion of the Romans, called Mithraism. For more information about this matter, visit the section of our site that explains this issue. (d) There are several verses in the Bible that contradict with the doctrine of Trinity. For example, the Bible says: " God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act' Does he promise and not fulfill' " (Numbers 23:19) " For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath." (Hosea 11:9) (e) The Original Sin concept encourages people to sin as much as they want and not to do any good deeds. After all, regardless of their sins, Christianity teaches that Christians will be forgiven, saved and go to heaven as long as they believe in Jesus, as explained above. (f) The Original Sin concept is not fair, as we have explained earlier, because no one should be made to bear the burden of someone else's sin or mistake. God Main articles: Allah and God in Islam Islam's most fundamental concept is a rigorous monotheism, called tawhīd (Arabic: توحيد‎). God is described in chapter 112 of the Qur'an as:[29] "Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."(112:1-4) Muslims and Jews repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and Muslims are not expected to visualize God.[30][31][32][33] God is described and referred to by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahmān, meaning "The Compassionate" and Al-Rahīm, meaning "The Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).[34] Muslims believe that the creation of everything in the universe was brought into being by God’s sheer command, “‘Be’ and so it is,”[35] and that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[36] He is viewed as a personal god who responds whenever a person in need or distress calls him.[37] There are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God who states, "I am nearer to him than (his) jugular vein".[38] The reciprocal nature is mentioned in the hadith qudsi, "I am as My servant thinks (expects) I am".[39] Allāh is the term with no plural or gender used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to reference God, while ʾilāh (Arabic: إله‎) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[40] Other non-Arab Muslims might use different names as much as Allah, for instance "Tanrı" in Turkish or "Khodā" in Persian. Resurrection and judgment Main article: Qiyama Belief in the "Day of Resurrection", Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة‎) is also crucial for Muslims. They believe the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God but unknown to man. The trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah are described in the Qur'an and the hadith, and also in the commentaries of scholars. The Qur'an emphasizes bodily resurrection, a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death.[52] On Yawm al-Qiyāmah, Muslims believe all mankind will be judged on their good and bad deeds. The Quran in Surat Az-Zalzalah describes this as "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it (99:7) and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it (99:8)". The Qur'an lists several sins that can condemn a person to hell, such as disbelief in God (Arabic: كفر‎ Kufr), and dishonesty; however, the Qur'an makes it clear God will forgive the sins of those who repent if he so wills. Good deeds, such as charity, prayer and compassion towards animals,[53][54] will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims view heaven as a place of joy and bliss, with Qur'anic references describing its features and the physical pleasures to come. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God.[55] Yawm al-Qiyāmah is also identified in the Qur'an as Yawm ad-Dīn (Arabic: يوم الدين‎), "Day of Religion";[56] as-sāʿah (Arabic: الساعة‎), "the Last Hour";[57] and al-Qāriʿah (Arabic: القارعة‎), "The Clatterer."[58] Testimony Main article: Shahadah The Shahadah,[62] which is the basic creed of Islam that must be recited under oath with the specific statement: "'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh", or "I testify there are no deities other than God alone and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." This testament is a foundation for all other beliefs and practices in Islam. Muslims must repeat the shahadah in prayer, and non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required to recite the creed.[63] Prayer Muslim men prostrating during prayer in a mosque. Ritual prayers, called Ṣalāh or Ṣalāt (Arabic: صلاة), must be performed five times a day. Salah is intended to focus the mind on God, and is seen as a personal communication with him that expresses gratitude and worship. Salah is compulsory but flexibility in the specifics is allowed depending on circumstances. The prayers are recited in the Arabic language, and consist of verses from the Qur'an.[64] A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims, who often refer to it by its Arabic name, masjid. The word mosque in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated to Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque (masjid jāmi`).[65] Although the primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place of prayer, it is also important to the Muslim community as a place to meet and study. Modern mosques have evolved greatly from the early designs of the 7th century, and contain a variety of architectural elements such as minarets.[66] Alms-giving Main articles: Zakat and Sadaqah "Zakāt" (Arabic: زكاة‎ zakāh "alms") is giving a fixed portion of accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy and for those employed to collect Zakat and for bringing hearts together and for freeing captives and for those in debt (or bonded labour) and for the (stranded) traveller [67][68] It is considered a religious obligation (as opposed to voluntary charity) that the well-off owe to the needy because their wealth is seen as a "trust from God's bounty". Conservative estimates of annual zakat is estimated to be 15 times global humanitarian aid contributions.[69] The amount of zakat to be paid on capital assets (e.g. money) is 2.5% (1/40),[70] for people who are not poor. The Qur'an and the hadith also urge a Muslim give even more as an act of voluntary alms-giving called ṣadaqah.[71] The Kaaba during Hajj Fasting Main article: Sawm Further information: Sawm of Ramadan Fasting, (Arabic: صوم‎ ṣawm), from food and drink (among other things) must be performed from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadhan. The fast is to encourage a feeling of nearness to God, and during it Muslims should express their gratitude for and dependence on him, atone for their past sins, and think of the needy. Sawm is not obligatory for several groups for whom it would constitute an undue burden. For others, flexibility is allowed depending on circumstances, but missed fasts usually must be made up quickly.[72] Pilgrimage Main article: Hajj The pilgrimage, called the ḥajj (Arabic: حج‎ ḥaǧǧ) during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, must make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime. Rituals of the Hajj include, walking seven times around the Kaaba, walking seven times between Mount Safa and Mount Marwah recounting the steps of Abraham's wife, while she was looking for water in the desert, before Mecca developed into a settlement. Spending a day in the desert at Mina and then a day in the desert in Arafat praying and worshiping God in the desert, following the foot steps of Abraham. Symbolically stoning the Devil in Mina recounting Abraham's actions. History In Muslim tradition, Muhammad (c. 570 – June 8, 632) is viewed as the last in a series of prophets.[124] During the last 22 years of his life, beginning at age 40 in 610 CE, according to the earliest surviving biographies, Muhammad reported revelations that he believed to be from God conveyed to him through the archangel Gabriel (Jibril). The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his companions.[125] During this time, Muhammad in Mecca preached to the people, imploring them to abandon polytheism and to worship one God. Although some converted to Islam, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted by the leading Meccan authorities