For many, Islam is described as an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, because it restricts the worship of the only supreme Lord who is the Creator of the universe, whom they identify with the name of Allah, based on the Koran, a book considered by his faithful followers as the literal word of God that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad or Muhammad. In other words, Muslims are those who believe in only one God and in Muhammad as the last prophet of God; dedicating their lives to the service of it.
What is the Islam
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Currently, many people have a limited idea about what Islam is. This, as mentioned above, is a monotheistic religion in which devotion is owed to God, idolatry is set aside and obedience is prioritized. The followers of the Islam religion are called Muslims, this term derives from Muslim, which means subjected or undergoes a certain action. In the Islam religion, a last prophet named Muhammad is believed, who was in charge of shaping the sacred writings through the Archangel Gabriel.
This Archangel is quite known in the world thanks to the Bible, but in the Koran (a holy book in Islam) he is known as Jibril. But in addition to Muhammad, Islam also considers Moses, Abraham, Noah, Adam, Jesus (better known in Islam as Issah) and Solomon as prophet.
The Islam teaches that God is the source of all creation and that humans are the best of creation. It communicates by inspiring them to goodness and sending prophets who deliver God's message. Muslims believe that the first prophet was Adam followed by a long chain of Prophets to guide mankind. The word islam derives from the classical Arabic "islam" which according to various sources means "submission" or "performance" to the Will of God, coming from the root of the word "salam", which means peace.
Unlike the many existing religions in the world, Islam has no more gods or deities to praise, or to whom devotion is owed, there are no partners, only one God, one obligation and one way to go.
It should be added that it is important to differentiate Islamism from the Islamic State.
The Islamic State is far from comparing itself to what Islam stands for. While Islam is defined as a religion, the Islamic State is directly associated, conceptualized and known as a terrorist group that, although it follows certain parameters of what Islam means, they are called heterodox of the religion. They only follow Allah, but they do not fulfill the obligations that the Quran establishes. The Islamic State, also known to the world as ISIS, has become very controversial due to the beheadings, which, incidentally, have been recorded and disseminated on the web since 2014.
The origin of Islam
Before the arrival of Muhammad, the Middle East followed too many religions, including Christianity and Judaism. It took many years for all the settlements of the East to accept God (Allah) as the only existing deity to worship and Muhammad as their last prophet, in fact, there are 8 textual words in the Qur'an that reflect this same statement: “… There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet… ”and this is just the beginning of what Islam means, as there are still more expansive details of the religion.
For example, the symbol of Islam, which is represented by a 5-pointed star and a crescent located just to its right. This symbol has been quite well known in the world and unfortunately, they have associated it with terrorist groups, but not everything they represent goes hand in hand with Islam, as it follows the love of God and not the violence of man to impose itself on the world. Once the etymology of what Islam is known, important aspects of the religion can be mentioned, for example, its characteristics.
Characteristics of Islam
Like any religion, Islam has some characteristics that individualize it and differentiate it from the rest. There are certain customs and even ceremonies that are carried out and that are essential for Muslims, for example, on the subject of ceremonies, there are 3 that are imperative and celebrated: birth, marriage and death. Each one is a phase of life of the people, all very different, with different experiences but true, obligatory. Having clarified this, we can talk about the characteristics of Islam. The first is the willingness to recognize Muhammad as a prophet.
Muhammad is and will be important in this religion because he was commissioned to write the 114 chapters of the Koran thanks to the help of the Archangel Gabriel. He was one of those who was closest to the divinity of God and that has marked a before and after in the life of Muslims. Likewise, there are the origins of faith, characteristics that include daily praying, pilgrimage, fasting and doing Jihad (the search or battle of faith that is carried out internally by each religious) It is not something easy, it is a strong test, but with favorable results.
On the other hand, in addition to the holy book of Islam, there is the Hadith, a book that narrates the entire life of Muhammad (that is, his actions, sayings and way of life). This is considered as a second Muslim law after the Qur'an and is called Sunna. Then there is the Sharia, that is, the Islamic law made up of the Koran, the Sunna, the Ijma and the ijtihad.
The last two represent consensus and effort, but all refer to the obligations and rights of Muslims, not only at the political and civic level, but also morally. There are also prohibitions and many other permits that apply to all Muslims in the world. Finally, there is the community known as Umma, which unified all of Islam and which had a rupture after the death of Muhammad. This is one of the greatest aspirations of Muslims, however, it has not been fulfilled to date, only two different points of the community have been created.
Islam possesses two major schools of thought. First, the Sunnis believe that the community selects its own leader after the death of Prophet Muhammad while the Shiites believe that the prophet had appointed 'There, by divine will, to be his successor. Thus it is pointed out that both Sunnis and Shiites are united in their main beliefs, that is, they believe in the same God, the same book, the same prophets and pray in the same direction. The differences are mainly theological and jurisprudential.
Doctrines and principles of Islam
Islam teaches that God is the source of creation. But it also teaches that human beings are the best of their creation. It communicates by inspiring them to goodness and sending prophets who deliver God's message.
According to Muslims, Islam is the last religion revealed to man through the Prophet Muhammad; This person of great importance for this religion was born in Mecca in Saudi Arabia in the year 570 AD. He was a very sincere and honest person, the history shows that at the age of forty, God asked him, through the angel Gabriel, to proclaim the religion of Islam publicly and God's message to humanity was delivered in the Qur'an containing 114 chapters called Suras.
Many of these texts have been known throughout the world by different prophets who, interestingly, have also been named in the bible.
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Prophets of Islam:
Now, speaking formally of the doctrines of Islam, one can mention fasting, which is part of the 5 pillars of faith. It takes place in the ninth month of the religious calendar and is compulsory for all Muslims, starting from dawn until sunset. There is also charity. Islam makes all its followers or subjects totally charitable, but this charity is not like the one known in the world (that of helping others). No, in this regard, it is talking about doing honestly, doing works that liberate the soul.
A week later, the aqiqah ceremony is held, a festival to give the creature a name. The next ceremony is marriage, always suggested by the parents and optionally rejected only by the future spouse. The ceremony takes place in the house of either party in front of an Imam (subject who makes the wedding official) and at least two witnesses must be present, in this way, it is recorded that both are contracting marriage of their own free will. This ceremony is criticized in the rest of the world for many aspects.
However, the one that is most powerful is the fact that parents are looking for their children's partners, more out of convenience than out of love. Finally, there is death. When the person knows that he is going to die, he should recite the shahada, a kind of holy prayer. In the event that it cannot do so, then the people who are present before, during or after death do. After death, the body must be washed with clean water, then wrapped in the sacred savannah called Irma and taken to the Mosque.
All this must be done by people of the same sex as the deceased. Another important characteristic is that of the term Allah, which is known as God, but if there is something significant in this, it is that no one else within the religion can be called that.
The books of Islam
As has been said on previous occasions, this religion has a special book that regulates the actions of all Muslims, however, it should be noted the existence of 3 more that have a lot of importance within the religion. These books will be mentioned and briefly explained in this same section in order to understand everything related to Islam, not only in its customs, but in what faithfully represents them as followers of one of the largest and most practiced religions in the world.
- The Koran: in this book not only is the divinity of God dictated and all Muslims are prohibited from believing in any other deity than him, but it also mentions the existence of at least 20 prophets who went around the world preaching the word of Allah, seeking followers, expanding and taking their knowledge to all corners of the world. The prophets did not alter the texts of the Quran, they simply focused on letting humanity know that God was unique and that no one was more divine than him.
- The Torah: is the representation of the doctrine, teachings and instructions of Muslims in the world. It is known in Christianity as the Pentateuch, (Old Testament) because it represents the foundations of Judaism (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was revealed to Moses the prophet, the Torah is the beginning of everything that is known in the actuality, the genesis of the universe, the meaning of life, it explains the creation of the universe and its designs from its beginnings to the end.
- The Psalms: these are made up of 5 religious texts that, in turn, are part of the old Christian testaments. It was revealed to King David and contains praise to Allah in poetic or chanting forms. These are classified into hymns, supplications, thanksgiving psalms, messianic psalms, royal psalms, songs of Zion, wisdom psalms, and didactics.
- The Gospel: it is the good news that God sent through Jesus (Issah) fulfilling the words of Allah and all his prophets about the total abolition of sin through the death of his only son, Jesus, in the cross. The gospel applies in the Christian religion and in Islam as a reminder that God always keeps his word and that all those who follow him voluntarily and with great faith will be saved.
Islamic Art
This type of writing has angles and lines, several times you can see something elongated vertically or horizontally. Despite the fact that this calligraphy was used to capture the Koran, there are still some territories in the Middle East that use it, of course, with some classic alterations due to the passage of time.
As for Islamic architecture within Islamic art, we can mention the Lacería, one of the styles that has lasted the longest in time. These are lines that are intertwined with each other, so that they end up forming different figures such as polygons or stars.
There is also the ataurique, a type of natural or plant art that forms drawings of nature using various materials. Islamic art encompasses architecture and in it you can see the Mosques and Madrasas. In the case of mosques, they are buildings in which various ceremonies of religion are carried out. Madrasas are educational institutions that promote Islam among children. They are quite common in the Middle East, however, there are also some in different parts of the world for Muslims who have emigrated for reasons beyond their control.
Another characteristic of Islamic art is Andalusian pottery, which was developed in the 8th century. These are beautiful vessels made with glass, tiles and enamels of all colors. It had a huge impact in Europe and they are still used today in different parts of the world. There is also the eboraria, known as ivory, and the Islamic textile works. The sanctuary art was the most prominent in Islam, using varied and precious elements and materials to decorate the sacred facilities. Islam is more than religion, it can also be art.
