Questions tagged [islam]

Questions about the religion of the Muslims; a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.

Islam

  1. the religious faith of Muslims, based on the words and religious system founded by the Prophet Muhammad and taught by the Koran, the basic principle of which is absolute submission to a unique and personal god, Allah.

  2. the whole body of Muslim believers, their civilization, and the countries in which theirs is the dominant religion.


Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a religious text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh), and, for the vast majority of adherents, by the teachings and normative example (called the sunnah, composed of accounts called hadith) of Muhammad (c. 570–8 June 632 CE), considered by most of them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim (sometimes spelled "Moslem").

Muslims also believe that God is one and incomparable and that the purpose of existence is to worship God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Although a large majority of Muslims do maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted over time, they are nevertheless all obliged, according to the Qur'an, to treat the older scriptures with the utmost respect. As for the Qur'an, Muslims consider it to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to family life and the environment.

Most Muslims are of two denominations: Sunni (75–90%) or Shia (10–20%). About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, 25% in outh Asia, 20% in the Middle East, and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sizable Muslim communities are also found in Europe, China, Russia, and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world. With about 1.62 billion followers or 23% of the global population, Islam is the second-largest religion by number of adherents and, according to many sources, the fastest-growing major religion in the world.

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Will Europe soon have more Muslims than Christians?

This story, which appeared in the UK tabloid The Sun (and widely repeated elsewhere), has also been doing the rounds on social media. The original story has the strapline: Muslims will soon outnumber Christians in Europe, a Belgian government…
matt_black
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Have more British Muslims joined Islamist groups than serve in British armed forces?

From the New York Times: Her Majesty’s Jihadists Her Majesty’s Jihadists More British Muslims have joined Islamist militant groups than serve in the country’s armed forces. How to understand the pull of jihad. and from the body of the…
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Did Nizari Ismailis assassins commit murders under the influence of hashish?

From Wikipedia: The Assassins (from Arabic: حشّاشين‎ Ḥashshāshīn) were an order of Nizari Ismailis, particularly those of Persia and Syria that formed in the late 11th century. In time, the order began to pose a strong military threat to…
Aeronth
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Does Hijama (cupping) alleviate pain and other ailments?

Hijama is, as I understand it, an Islamic and traditional Chinese technique somewhat similar to bloodletting wherein the patient receives multiple minor perforations to his back after which suction cups suck and expel the blood. This is supposed to…
IAE
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Did an unmarried couple in Iran get shot for holding hands in 2007?

In this video from 2007 Douglas Murray, a British journalist and critic of Islam, says: In Iran, when people - when a couple were shot the other week for holding hands when not being married, the courts congratulated them. The online search I…
Zebrafish
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Are Muslims 25 times more likely to commit terrorist attacks within the United States than non-Muslims?

This article claims that Muslims are 25 times more likely to commit terrorist attacks than non-Muslims. Are the claims of the article at all accurate? In addition is the graph linked in the article of deaths from extremist attacks an accurate…
dsollen
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Do 22% of Muslim women in the UK speak little or no English?

According to the BBC, the UK government claims: 22% of Muslim women living in England speak little or no English. It also quotes a former Superintendent of the Metro Police as disputing this figure: Mr Babu also said he did not recognise the…
PointlessSpike
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Did chess not appear until after the death of Mohammad?

In the book The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi made a claim: Researchers have proven that chess did not appear until after the death of the Prophet Did chess not appear until after the death of the Prophet?
Carlo Alterego
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Could climate affect Aisha's age of sexual maturity?

Critics of Islam state that Muhammad had sex with Aisha bint Abu Bakr when she was nine years old, and that this was sexual abuse. One defense made against the claim is that women become sexually mature earlier in hot climates like arabia than in…
Andrew Grimm
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Do US Military personnel have to observe Ramadan while Gideon volunteers are banned from bases?

The website The Gateway Pundit claims "Military Bans Bibles But Forces Soldiers to Adhere to Ramadan Rules" : The US Air Force kicked Christian Gideon’s volunteers off base in March. The Bibles were too offensive and violated the separation of…
user20862
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Did a banned treatise claim Leonardo da Vinci converted to Islam?

I found this to be strange, if not absurd: Morteza Khalaj Amirhosseini, the author of the book "Leonardo Da Vinci's Drawings", went on to say that the book presents a complete biography of Da Vinci in which he has proved based on first-hand sources…
Carlo Alterego
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Is Islamberg a terrorist training camp?

I just read the following: Islamic Community Forms Own Government, In the USA. Seems a bit sensationalist, and further searches about this Hancock, NY compound bring up lots of similar articles, such as: Muslim Terrorist Training Camps in North…
Doug Kavendek
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Does the miswak help with digestion, eyesight, headache, memory or illness?

The miswak is a traditional Middle-Eastern toothbrush (so to speak) make from a twig of a particular branch, that is claimed to be especially effective. The dental efficacy has been studied, but frankly isn't very interesting - it is, essentially,…
Marc Gravell
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Are there no camels in the Qur'an?

It seems to be an often-repeated saying that "there are no camels in the Koran". But I just repeated this factoid in the presence of a guy from Syria who insisted it's not true and that there is a sura about camels in the holy book of Islam. So I…
hippietrail
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Do 75% of new Muslim converts in the US leave Islam within a few years?

From the Islam-critical site WikiIslam: However, most individuals who convert rarely choose to study Islam objectively before making such an important decision. Instead they choose to be taken in by the propaganda, only to discover that they have…
Rebecca J. Stones
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