What is Islam?

What is Islam?

IIslam (Arabic: إسْلام) is a monotheistic religion and understood as the continuation and completion of the Abrahamic faiths. It is the final divinely revealed religion to humanity.

Islam comprises a system of beliefs and practices with the ultimate aim of guiding mankind towards human perfection and achieving happiness and success in this world and the next world; which is meant to be lived in perpetuity after temporal life in this transient realm. Therefore, Islam offers guidance in all aspects of life. Simply put, it is a way of life. In addition, it provides answers to man’s deepest questions about this world and the hereafter.

The term ‘Islam’ means submission, total acceptance, and unconditional obedience to the divine ruling. God says in the Holy Quran in several verses:

• “And who will [ever] forsake Abraham’s creed except one who debases himself? We certainly chose him in the [present] world, and in the Hereafter, he will indeed be among the Righteous (2:130).”
• When his Lord said to him, ‘Submit,’ he said, ‘I submit to the Lord of all the worlds’ (2:131).” 
• Abraham enjoined this [creed] upon his children, and [so did] Jacob, [saying], ‘My children! God has indeed chosen this religion for you; so, do not die except as those who have surrendered themselves [to God]. (2:132)
• Were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, when he said to his children, ‘What will you worship after me?’ They said, ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, the One God, and to Him do we submit.’ (2:133)”.

The religion of Islam was brought to humanity at the hands of God’s final messenger—Prophet Muhammad (pbuh&hp), to whom God’s final scripture was revealed—the Holy Quran. The first invitation to Islam by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh&hp) was made in 610 CE in the city of Mecca, where he was born and resided. The Muslim community increasingly expanded after the immigration, a little more than a decade later, known as the ‘Hijra’ of the Prophet (pbuh&hp) and the early Muslim community to the city of Medina. 

Today, Islam is a religion of nearly two billion people, nearly a quarter of the world’s population. Muslims of today form a diverse population of different races, ethnicities, and languages all over the world. It is the second most practiced faith, globally and the fastest-growing religion.

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