ISLAM

Arabic word formed from the root salam (peace), meaning submission or reconciliation (to the will of God). Founded in Arabia in the 7th century, Islam is the religion professed by the prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that God revealed himself to Muhammad through oral communications which he received while meditating on Mount Hira, near Mecca, through the intermediary of the archangel Djabra?il (Djibril, Gabriel). These revelations were written down during Muhammad's life, and later collected in the Qur?an, the entire corpus of revelations. Muhammad was charged with the task of transmitting the message to humankind, based on the unity of God, and to become thereby an Arab prophet of the God of Abraham and Moses.

In preaching this message, Muhammad struggled for almost twenty years with the reigning polytheism of the region. Confronted by Meccan hostility, he and his supporters left Mecca for Medina on 16 July 622. This date was considered subsequently to mark the beginning of the Muslim era: the hijra (immigration or exile). In 630, after many months of fighting, the Muslim community took Mecca, where they destroyed the many idols in the Ka?ba, built by Abraham, leaving only the Black Stone in place. After the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632, Islamic rule spread, in a little over a century, from Samarkand (Uzbekistan) to Andalusia.

In the Muslim religion, the believer is alone with Allah, without the intermediary of any clergy, the imam being there only to direct the collective prayer. Five "pillars of Islam" define what it means to be a Muslim: shahada (profession of monotheistic faith), salat (prayer in the direction of Mecca), sawm (fasting during the period of Ramadan), zakat (charity obligation), and the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca during the 12th lunar month).

As it evolved throughout history Islam, like all other religions, has known division and dissidence (fitna), reflecting a diversity of doctrinal opinions and juridical options. Consequently, Sunnism and Shi?ism have become the two principal components of Islam.

Finally, Islam defines itself as a religion and project of community life based on a double source: the laws revealed in the Qur?an and the practices instituted by the prophet Muhammad recorded in the Sunna (the sayings and practices of the Prophet).

SEE ALSO Abraham;Hijra;Ka?ba;Mecca;Moses;Muhammad;Shi?a;Sunna.