Islam: core beliefs
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Flip to reveal answersWhat do the words islam and muslim mean?
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Question
What do the words islam and muslim mean?
Answer
Islam means submission to the will of God; a muslim is one who submits.
Question
What is tawhid, and what is its opposite?
Answer
The oneness of God — the Islamic expression of monotheism. Its opposite is shirk, associating anything with God, which Muslim teaching treats as the gravest error.
Question
How do Muslims describe the Prophet Muhammad's role?
Answer
As messenger, not author. Muslims hold the Qur'an to be the literal speech of God, revealed in Arabic.
Question
What does the guide give as the human condition in Islam?
Answer
That humans must strive to submit to God's will, because without divine guidance they are likely to stray from the path of prescribed and prohibited actions God has set out.
Question
What does jihad mean?
Answer
Struggle — primarily the moral struggle to live as God directs. Muslim scholars distinguish it from the legal doctrine governing armed conflict, which is hedged with conditions. "Holy war" is not a defensible translation.
Question
Name the two outcomes the guide gives for Islam.
Answer
Janna, paradise, for the faithful through obedience to God's will; jahannam, hell, through disobedience.
Question
What does the guide say a Muslim believes in, besides God?
Answer
The scriptures, angels, jinns, and akhira — life after death.
Question
Name the Five Pillars.
Answer
Shahadah (testimony of faith), salat (ritual prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (the Ramadan fast), hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Question
What is the Sunna?
Answer
The practice of the Prophet Muhammad, together with the Hadith — his divinely inspired sayings. With the Qur'an it is the basis of Islamic teaching and law.
Question
Name one difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam.
Answer
Sunni authority rests with the Qur'an, the Sunna and the consensus of the ulama, with four main schools of law; Shi'a authority also rests with the imams, held to be divinely guided, with the Ja'fari school and additional Hadith collections.
Question
Why does Islamic religious art favour calligraphy and pattern?
Answer
Because of tawhid, the oneness of God: representing God, or associating anything with God, is avoided. The Prophet Muhammad is not depicted.
Question
What is niyya?
Answer
Intention — required for an act of worship to count.
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Judaism, Christianity, Islam
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