Islamic Religion

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate November 2001

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"Surrender to God who is One," is the true meaning of Islam. Islam, AL ISLAM in Arabic, means at once submission and peace, for it is submitting to God"˜s will that human beings gained peace in their lives in this world and in hereafter. Islam is based on having complete knowledge of Allah (God). "You must show that he has oneness, as the only god to be worshiped."�(www.iad.org) Islamic Religion is a very interesting thing to study. If you do take the time to study it you would find that two major practices or beliefs are the Quran and the Five Pillars of Islam. The Quran is a record of exact words said by God through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad. Muhammad memorized these messages and recited them to his companions who wrote them down. These records were not compiled into a collection until after Muhammad's death. It took 20 years for the Muslims to collect all of the writings so they could compile them into the Quran, which means "recital"�.

The other important branch of Islam is The Five Pillars. These include Faith, Prayer, Alms, Fasting, and Pilgrimage. These represent the essential duties that all Muslims are to fulfill. The first pillar, faith, is the confession of submitting to Gods will. The second pillar is prayer. This is said five times a day, at sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. Muslims show how much they worship Allah by praying. The third pillar, Alms, is the giving to Charity which reflects the concept of the wealthy giving to the poor. Fasting is the forth pillar. It occurs the ninth month in the Muslim calendar during the month of Ramadan. It only lasts a day, but three days following the fast is a celebration. The last pillar, pilgrimage, is when...