There are three prominent religions on earth Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. We will now discuss about of one of these and that is Islam also called Muslim religion. It is perhaps one of the oldest religions of earth. Let us start with the history of Muslim religion first.
The Islam dharma started in Arabia. It is said that it was in the seventh century under Prophet Muhammad that this religion first found recognition. Muhammad united all the tribes of Arabia when he was ruling this part of the world. Prophet Muhammad was born in Arabia. He was also called rasul Allah or the messenger of god. He was born in 570 C.E in Mecca and died in Medina in 632 C.E. His father died even before he was born. His mother died when he was six years old.
He became an orphan and was sent to his paternal grandfather who sent him to stay with a nomadic tribe. When he grew up a little big he would join his uncle Abu Talib and go on trading expeditions to Syria.
In one of these trips he met Khadija. She was a widow and was impressed so much by his honesty that she gave him the rights to manage her caravan business. She later asked Muhammad for marriage. He agreed. They were married for twenty four years and had seven children. They had four daughters who lived till adulthood but three boys that were born to them all died in infancy. They were happily married.
When Muhammad was around forty years old he saw a terrible vision one night. This night is called the night of power. This was the night when he became the messenger of god and started preaching the teachings of god to all the people of Mecca. His initial teachings were on how god is one. He taught that if people are greedy in this life they will have to go to hell and face horrible punishments. His teachings slowly accumulated a lot of followers from all the segments of the society.
Prophet Muhammad performed many miracles during his life time. He would be called for many events and speeches. He built mosques in various parts of Mecca and Medina. After his first wife Khadija died he married many times. In his last days he fell sick and died in the house of his youngest wife Aisha. There is very little documented proof of his life. The Quran has a good deal of information about his life and teachings.
The meaning of Islam means surrender and submission. It means that the people who follow this religion must surrender to the god or the Allah. Allah is all mighty or god the supreme. The followers of Islam are called Muslim. The two branches of Islam are Sunni and Shia. There are Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. The Sunni Muslims accepts the authority of the prophet’s companions. Shia Muslims on the other hand belive, that the prophet’s family is most important in the Islam religion.
The five pillars of Islam are faith, ritual prayer, the zakat (charity), fasting and the hajj (this is a pilgrimage to Mecca). All Muslims must follow these five things in order to reach god. They must have complete faith in god. They must regularly pray to the god at least once a day. All Muslims must involve in charity and give a good proportion of what they earn to the poor and the needy.
Mecca is the most holy place on earth for the Muslims. Each Muslim must once in their life time visit the Mecca. Whether rich or poor, king or beggar, anyone who is born as a Muslim must go to Mecca. It must be kept in mind that both the Shia and Sunni Muslims belive in the five pillars of Islam.
Apart from Mecca the two more places of religious importance for the Muslims are Jerusalem and Medina. The place of worship for Muslims is the mosque. It is place where they go to offer prayer to the god or Allah. They also study their religious scriptures in the mosque. The Muslim religion slowly spread from Arabia to the other countries. It has major followers in Asia, Europe and even in America.
The Quran is the holy book of Islam. It gives a good detailed note of Prophet Muhammad’s life and teachings. It shows how humble and simple he was as a person. He was the messenger that god sent. He preached that on judgement day we all will have to face god. Prophet Muhammad was respected for his simplicity and his teachings. He is still respected a lot among the Muslims and in Islam.
The Quran is read by the Muslims in the mosques. The Muslim priests know the Quran by heart. Even the common Muslims attend classes to understand the Quran better. The Quran is the most important source of knowledge as per Islam. The Quran says that god is the creator all the things. He has all the power and he is very merciful. He is the master of all the things and from time to time he sends prophets to earth so that they can teach the human beings the lessons of god.
On the judgement day the god will end the earth and that will be the day when all the human beings will be judged by the gods. All people on earth do good and bad deeds. If your good deeds are more than bad ones you will be sent to paradise. If it is the other way round you will be sent to hell. Iblis was the one who provoked Adam to eat the forbidden apple.
When Adam did so he and Eve were told to leave heaven and go to Earth and face all the pains. God also said that the day Earth will end everything will burn and Iblis will also burn in this fire. He said that till the day Earth ends Iblis will keep playing his tricks on man and make them do wrong deeds. However, the ones who are completely committed to god will not be influenced by Iblis.
The Quran states that god is one and there is no other form or division of god. The Quran also mentions about Gabriel a divine messenger of the gods. He is an angel. He was the one who taught Adam all the alphabets and how to cultivate and survive after he was told to go away from paradise by the gods. This is more or less a brief idea of Islam dharma and the history of Muslim dharma. I hope this will help you understand this religion better.