.
 Islam
There
is no doubt that through the prophet Muhammad, the Arabs were
raised to the level of an ethical high religion, grounded in belief
in the one God and in a basic ethic of humanity, with clear imperatives
for more humanity and more justice. From its origins onwards,
Islam was a religion not so much of the law as of an ethic. And
there is also something like the Ten Commandments, the basis of
a common ethic of humanity.
Muslims see
Muhammad as the seal of the prophets, the messenger of God who
brought God’s final revelation to humankind. However, Muslims
attach the greatest importance to the fact that the Prophet Muhammad
does not stand at the centre of Islam, as Jesus Christ stands
at the centre of Christianity. For Muslims, the Word of God did
not become a man but a book. And it is the Qur’an, the original
version of which lies with God himself, that forms the centre
of Islam.
So Islam
is a religion of the book par excellence. The Qur’an completes
and replaces the Torah of the Jews and the Gospel of the Christians.
For Muslims it is unsurpassable, perfect, absolutely reliable.
So it is also solemnly recited and above all learnt by heart by
the experts.
From
left: The Ka'ba, Mecca; Daily ritual prayer.
The confession
of faith is the central message of Islam which can be rendered
with two words:
Allah: Belief in the one God is the first obligation for Muslims,
the foundation of the Islamic community and the sole content of
their prayer liturgy.
Muhammad: Although Muslims regard Muhammad as the last emissary
of the one God, he is in no way more than a human being: “I
am but a man like you”. Qur’an,
Surah 41.6
Islam means
submission to the will of God. It is the message of the Prophet
Muhammad, which was gradually revealed to him in the sixth century
by an angel and was later written down in the Qur’an by Muhammad’s
companions and followers.
The five
pillars of Islam are:
•
Belief
in God and Muhammad as his last Prophet,
•
Daily
ritual prayer,
•
Almsgiving,
•
Ramadan,
the annual month of fasting, with a complete fast from dawn to
sunset, and
•
Pilgrimage
to Mecca if possible once in a lifetime.
There are
around 1.2 billion Muslims; the most important movements are the
Sunni and the Shi’ites.
Most Muslims
today live in South-East Asia and India, Central Asia, Africa,
the Middle East and Turkey, but increasingly so in Europe and
North America.
Muhammad Iqbal |
Muhammed Abduh |
Gamaladdin
al-Afghani |
|
