The Religion Islam What is Islam? The word Islam means submission to the will of God. The religion of Islam is the acceptance of and obedience to the teachings of God which the Muslims—followers of Islam—believe God revealed to his last prophet. Muslims believe that there is only one God. The Arabic word for God is Allah which means, the one and only true God who created the whole universe. According to Muslims, God sent a number of prophets to mankind to teach them how to live according to His law. To the Muslims, Jesus, Moses and Abraham are respected as prophets of God. Muslims believed in the prophets as messengers of God, but according to their beliefs, God’s final message to man was revealed by the prophet Muhammad.
Who is the prophet Muhammad? Muhammad was born in Mecca in the year 570. His father died before he was born and his mother died shortly after. Therefore he was raised by his uncle. Muhammad was raised illiterate. He could not read or write, and remained that way for the rest of his life. As he grew up, he was known to be the truthful, honest, trustworthy, generous, and sincere. Muhammad was very religious, and had long disliked the decadence and idolatry of his society. Muhammad was claimed to receive his first revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel when he was at the age forty. The revelations continued for twenty-three years, and they are known as the Quran. When Muhammad started preaching the truth which God revealed to him, he and his group of followers suffered persecutions from the non-believers. It got so bad for Muhammad and his followers that in the year 622, God gave them the command to emigrate. They migrated from the city Mecca to the city of Yathrib, which is now called Medina. His journey to Yathrib is called Hijra. This marked the beginning of the Muslims calendar. Several years later, Muhammad and his followers returned back to Mecca, where they forgave their enemies. The greater part of