Islam

Islam

Islam is the second largest world religion and still growing which comes from an Arabic root work meaning “peace” and “submission”.   Islam teaches that one can only find peace in one’s life by submitting to Almighty God (Allah) in heart, soul and deed.
The same Arabic root work gives us “Salaam alaykum,” (Peace be with you), the universal Muslim greeting.   A person who believes in and consciously follows Islam is called a Muslim, also from the same root word.   There are over 1 billion followers worldwide (1/5 of the world population).   The basic beliefs of Muslims fall into six main categories, which are known as the “Articles of Faith”: Faith in the unity of God, Faith in angels, Faith in prophets, Faith in books of revelation, Faith in an afterlife, Faith in destiny/divine decree.   The history of Islam centers around one person, Muhammad.   He was born around 570 A.D. and was raised by his extended family after the death of his parents.   As he grew, he became dissatisfied with polytheism and came to believe in one God, Allah.   As other religions there are different kinds of Islam- those are: Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Sufi Islam, and Wahabi Islam.
The first type Sunni Islam which is the most common.   The vast majority of the world’s Muslims are Sunnis.   Followers of the Sunni tradition are know as Sunnis or Sunnites.   Sunnis have their historical roots in the majority group who followed Abu Bakr, and effectice leader, as Muhammad’s successor instead of the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-low Ali.   Sunnis base their religion on the Quran and the Sunnah as understood by the majority of the community under the structure of four schools of thought.   The four Sunni schools of law are - the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafi’i and the Hanbali.   Hanafi School was founded by Abu Hanifa, who was born in Iraq.   His school is considered to have more reason and logic than the other schools.   Muslims of India and Turkey follow this school.   The Maliki was founded by Malik...