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Religion

Islam

The religion of submission to the one God, revealed in the Qurʾān to the Prophet Muḥammad.

Introduction

Islam, “submission” or “surrender” to God, is the religion founded on the revelation of the Qurʾān to the Prophet Muḥammad in Arabia in the seventh century. Its central teaching is tawḥīd, the oneness of God, who is creator, judge and merciful, and beside whom there is no other god. Muslims regard Muḥammad as the last in a line of prophets that includes Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Islamic practice rests on the five pillars: the profession of faith, the five daily prayers, almsgiving, fasting in the month of Ramaḍān, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Islamic law, the sharīʿa, as interpreted by the jurists, orders worship and life; theology (kalām) and philosophy (falsafa) reflect on God and the world; and Sufism cultivates the inward life of the heart.

A saying of the Prophet, known as the ḥadīth of Gabriel, describes three dimensions of religion: islām, the outward practice; īmān, faith; and iḥsān, “doing what is beautiful”, defined as worshipping God as though you see God, for even if you do not see God, God sees you. The Sufis took iḥsān as the description of their path.

History

Historical

Muḥammad began to receive the revelations of the Qurʾān around 610 in Mecca. Persecuted there, he and his followers emigrated in 622 to Medina, the start of the Islamic calendar. By his death in 632 much of Arabia had accepted Islam, and within a century the caliphate stretched from Spain to Central Asia.

Disputes over the leadership of the community led to the division between Sunnīs and Shīʿīs. In the following centuries the schools of law took shape, the traditions of the Prophet were collected, and in Baghdad, under the ʿAbbāsid caliphs, Greek philosophy and science were translated into Arabic, giving rise to the Islamic philosophers.

Sufism emerged from the early ascetics, and by the twelfth century had formed orders that spread across the Islamic world. Great empires, the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal, carried Islamic civilization into the modern period. Today Islam is the faith of nearly a quarter of humanity, with its largest populations in South and Southeast Asia.

  1. c. 610The first revelations of the Qurʾān to Muḥammad in Mecca
  2. 622The emigration (hijra) to Medina
  3. 632The death of the Prophet
  4. 9th c.Translation of Greek philosophy into Arabic in Baghdad
  5. 12th–13th c.The Sufi orders take shape

Major thinkers

Key concepts

Important texts

Convergence and divergence

Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.

Areas of convergence

  • Tawḥīd, with Judaism

    Scholarship

    Islam and Judaism share an uncompromising monotheism, a revealed law, and the rejection of images of God.

Areas of divergence

  • God, with Christian Mysticism

    Historical

    Islam honours Jesus as a prophet but rejects the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation as compromising God’s oneness.

Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Islam.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islam.

Chicago (note)

“Islam,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islam.

MLA

“Islam.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islam.

BibTeX
@misc{traditions-islam,
  title = {{Islam}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islam}
}

Schools and branches

Also in this tradition

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