Felicia Lombard
REL 134
November 13, 2014
William Umstetter
Understanding Islam
Islam is a world religion and Muslims are the people who practice it. All Muslims have the same essential beliefs and are shared with values and God approach centered to the world. Many different cultures and people practice Islam. The prime source of Muslims’ faith and practice is the Qur’an, and the wordings that were transcribed fourteen years ago have not been changed. The basis of Muslim’s life is the five pillars. These five pillars are: belief that there is only one God and that Muhammad is his last messenger and prophet which is called “the confession”, perform prayers five times each day facing Mecca called “Salat”, fasting is …show more content…
It consist of 4/5 of the length of the New Testament. Muslims believe the angel Gabriel was sent by Allah to Mohammed to reveal his word and this identical book is in Heaven. The Qur’an is sectioned into 114 chapters of Surahs which are revelations said to be given to Mohammed during his “Prophethood” of 23 years from 610 AD to 632 AD The Five Pillars of Faith was described in the beginning of my paper but the importance of these Pillars is to a Muslim believer requirement that everyone must observe ("Truthnet", n.d.). The ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar is named Ramadan. It is important due to their culture where Muslims all across the world observe Ramadan by fasting from dawn to sunset. They perform nightly prayers and also daily obligatory prayers. They conclude the end of fasting each day by having dinner with family and friends (Brutell, …show more content…
The difference between the two of them which are Shiite and Sunni is over the conceptions of the caliphate. Shiite Islam believe in caliph as a spiritual leader and feel that only his decedents from Muhammad’s immediate family should have the political power over Islam whereas Sunni Islam believe in authoritative caliphs who were taught to rule in God’s name and doesn’t have to come from blood relation to Muhammad. The Sufi Islam is entirely different from both due to their use of Mysticism (Molloy, 2013, Chapter