What makes muslims different

It is not uncommon for Muslims to memorize whole chapters of it. They read part of it every day. The Sunnah is a record of Muhammads words and deeds.

The Sunnah is used to help interpret the Koran. There is also instruction in it on belief, worship and behavior. Islam: Basic Beliefs How did Islam begin? How many Muslims are there? What does Islam mean? Who is Allah God? Muslims have six major beliefs: Belief in one God Allah Belief in the Angels Belief in the holy books sent to all the prophets including Torah that was revealed to the prophet Moses, Bible that was revealed to the prophet Jesus, and Qur'an Koran that was revealed to the prophet Muhammad Belief in all the prophets sent by God including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

Belief in the Day of Judgment and life after death. The best reward for performing good deeds is getting closer to God. Belief in divine decree. This means that God is all-powerful and nothing can happen without His permission, however, he has given human beings freedom to choose whether to be good or bad. In the end, everyone will be questioned about how they lived in this life. What are the Five Pillars of Islam?

These are guides for daily life for putting the beliefs of Muslims into practice: Shahadah declaration of faith —to bear witness or testify that there is no god except one God Allah and Muhammad is His prophet or messenger. Needless to say, such devotion is often frowned upon by more fundamentalist interpretations. While most legal schools are content — albeit somewhat bothered — by such practices, the conservative Hanbali school forbids cults like this.

Its adherents have, among other things, destroyed tombs of saints in both the premodern and modern eras. The Hanbali school, backed by the wealth of the Saudi ruling family, has also tried to make inroads into other areas.

Those associated with this legal school, for example, have built madrasas religious seminaries in regions traditionally influenced by other legal schools of thought. Most fundamentalist movements in Islam, including Islamic State, have emanated from such ultra-conservative elements. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for instance, are influenced by the more conservative elements of Hanbali ideology, even though they exist in a predominantly Hanafi legal environment.

The goal of many of these groups, sometimes referred to as Wahhabis or Salafis, is to return to what they imagine to be the pure or pristine version of Islam as practised by Muhammad and his earliest followers. They often have strict interpretations of Islam, strict dress codes and separation of the sexes.

Today, there are more than one and a half billion Muslims worldwide, making Islam the second-largest religion on the planet after Christianity. But it is a rich and variegated religion. And this variation must be taken into account when dealing with it. Most importantly, the variation cannot be papered over with simplistic slogans or stereotypes. That women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia but are in places like Malaysia tells you something about this variation.

This article is the fourth in our series on the historical roots of Islamic State. Download our special report collating the whole the series. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.

There are other sects of both Sunni and Shiite in African and Arab nations. Sharia Law. Sharia is an Arabic word originally meaning "the path leading to the source of water.

Is derived from the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers. Is a system of morals, religious observance, ethics, and politics that covers both religious and non-religious aspects of life. Many Muslim countries use Sharia law as a basis for their laws. Differs from Western legal systems in that the scope of Sharia law is much larger and the Islamic concept of law results from the expression of the divine will. Other Facts. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, there were 1.

That number is projected to increase to 2. Islam is the second-largest religion in the world , following Christianity. Indonesia has the largest following of the Islamic religion - Pakistan, India and Bangladesh also have large Muslim populations.