ISLAM, AL-

means submission. derived from the root S.L.M. Muslims believe that it is the first religion, from Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc. See also SURRENDER.

Some have also said that Islam means peace, but there is no evidence of such a usage of the word, and Muslims have not substantiated this. Muhammad used to send letters to various rulers of the surrounding countries and tribes, inviting them to surrender to God, and to believe in him as a messenger of God. He always ended his letters with "Aslem, Taslam!", which means "surrender and you will be safe".

See Islam & Peace and Chapter Two of Behind the Veil.

It is not to be confused with Nation of Islam.

- and Dead Sea Scrolls prophecies, see this article.

- Christian influence on Islam

  > "Islam did not arise in a backwater from some obscure Judaic-Christian sect, but arose in the full stream of religious life in Asia." (R. Bell, Origins of Islam in Christian Environment, Macmillan, 1926, p. 9)

  > "Professor Tore Andre, of the University of Upsala, has shown in his recent study of Christian origins of Islam... that the opinion hitherto current, of sundry heretical sects to which Muhammad was indebted for his Christian ideas, is a mistaken one. He directs attention to the great church of Asia, the Nestorian Church, as the prime source of Christian though and life in pre-Islamic Arabia. There are many points of similarity between Muslim teachings and Nestorian christianity, but the circle of ideas most prominent and characteristic, according to Tore Andre, is eschatology with its extraordinary stress on the Day of Judgement." (Samuel Zwemer: Foreword to "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise" by J. Stewart, T&T Clark, 1928, p. 8)

  > Arabia came into contact with all three major sections of Christianity: Byzantine, Nestorian and Jacobite-Monophysite churches. (Islam and Christian Theology, Lutterworth Press, 1945, Vol I p. 2)

  > "Prior to A.D. 547 when the great Jacobite revival began, the only form of Christian faith known in the whole independent Arabia and Hirtha was that held by the ``Church of the East,'' the so-called Nestorians, and it is practically certain that every presbyter and bishop in the whole of that area recognized and acknowledged allegiance to the patriarch of Seleucia. When there, mention is found of Christians in Mecca and Medina and even in the tribe of Koreish, one is warranted in assuming that all such, prior to at least, the middle of the sixth century, were in communion with the same patriarchate. When the sudden rise of Islam took place, it was the Nestorians who suffered the most from the impart." (J. Steward, Nestorian Missionary Enterprise, pp. 71,72)

- five pillars of,
  1. To testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and Muhammad is Allah's Apostle.
  2. To offer the (compulsory congregational) prayers dutifully and perfectly (i.e. salat).
  3. To pay zakat (i.e. obligatory charity).
  4. To perform hajj (i.e. Pilgrimage to Mecca).
  5. To observe fast during the month of Ramadan.
  (ref: Muslim Book I, Sahih Bukhari 1.7, etc)

- has a strong appeal due to :
  1. It has a simple monotheistic creed without complicated dogmas and without schisms of Christianity.
  2. It is an international brotherhood with a strong sense of community which cuts across differences of race, colour and caste. This sense of community is demonstrated in the Pilgrimage.
  3. It appeals to the oppressed.
  4. It offers clear guidance about how to live, and claims to be relevant to all the problems of the 20th century - social, economic and political.
  5. It presents itself as an alternative to the materialism and atheism of Communism and to the decadence of the so-called "Christian" west.
  6. It meets the immediate personal needs of the Muslims' live - viz. the need for direction, power, healing and protection, etc.
  (Colin Chapman, You Go and Do the Same, 1983, p.38)

- non-Islamic practices:
  1. veneration of Prophet Muhammad (esp. in Pakistan)
  2. Maraboutism - a system which enables pilgrims to obtain special blessings (baraka) from holy men or holy places (found in N. Africa)
  3. veneration of saints, visiting tombs of saints, praying to saints. this practice is very common among Sufis, especially in the Indian subcontinent
  4. Pre-Islamic religion - eg. animism, superstition. This is very common.
  5. The influence of western secular thought (eg. in French literature in N. Africa and in secular/nominally Muslim novelists in Egypt.)
     (Colin Chapman, You Go and Do the Same, 1983, p.39)

- al-Ma'idah 5:3; as-Saff 61:7.

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