Understanding Islam:The origins and foundation

For decades Islam has evoked discussion and debate. The religion is under a microscope after the 9/11 attacks. Never before has Islam been so questioned as to the extent that it is today. A few scholars have come to its rescue to clarify the principles on which Islam is based. One such scholar is Dr. John L. Esposito who has done so through his writings.

This is the second in a series of nine articles by Esposito shedding light on the many areas of Islam, among them being the Holy Quran, politics, women, and terrorism, to eliminate the misunderstandings in Islam.

Understanding Islam and Muslims requires an appreciation of the origins of Islam, the role of the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and basic Muslim beliefs, a number of which are shared with Judaism and Christianity.

How did Islam originate?

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam originated in the Middle East. It was not a totally new monotheistic religion that sprang up in isolation. Belief in one God, monotheism, had been flourishing for many centuries.

Knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism had been brought to Mecca in Arabia by foreign trade caravans. Moreover, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Jewish tribes lived in Arabia.

In the sixth century, Makkah was emerging as a new commercial centre with vast new wealth, but also with a growing division between rich and poor, challenging the traditional system of Arab tribal values and social security.

This was the time and social environment in which the Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) preached the message of the Holy Quran, which formed the basis for the religion we know as Islam, calling all to return to the worship of the one true God and a socially just society.

Muslims believe that God sent revelations first to Moses (as found in the Hebrew scriptures, the Torah), then to Jesus (the Gospel), and finally to Mohammed(PBUH) (through the Islamic scripture, the Quran). Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) is not considered the founder of the new religion of Islam.

Like the biblical prophets who came before him, he was a religious reformer. Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) said that he did not bring a new message from a new God but called people back to the one true God and to a way of life they had forgotten or deviated from.

Because it is not a new revelation, the Holy Quran contains many references to stories and figures in the Old and New Testaments, including Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses, David and Solomon, and Jesus and Mary.

Islam and worship of Allah – the Arabic word for God, meaning literally "the God" – was a return in the midst of a polytheistic society to the forgotten past, to the faith of the first monotheist, Abraham.

To the Prophet (PBUH) most of his contemporaries in Mecca, with its tribal polytheism, lived in ignorance of the one true God and His will as revealed to the prophets Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

The revelations Prophet Mohammed(PBUH) received led him to believe that Jews and Christians, over time, had distorted God's original message to Moses and later to Jesus. Thus the Torah and the Gospels were seen by Muslims as a combination of original revelation and later human additions such as the elevation of Jesus from a prophet to the son of God.

The revelations Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) received were calls to religious and social reform. They emphasised social justice (concern for the rights of women, widows, and orphans), corrected distortions to God's revelations in Judaism and Christianity, and warned that many had strayed from the message of God and his prophets.

They called upon all to return to what the Holy Quran refers to as the straight path of Islam or the path of God, revealed one final time to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), the last or "seal" of the prophets.

What is the Muslim scripture?

Holy Quran (sometimes written Koran) means "recitation" in Arabic. The Quran is the Muslim scripture. It contains the revelations received by the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) from God through the angel Gabriel. Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), who was illiterate, functioned as God's intermediary; he was told to "recite" the revelation he received.

For Muslims, the Prophet(PBUH) was neither the author nor editor of the Holy Quran. Therefore, the Holy Quran is the eternal, literal word of God, preserved in the Arabic language in which it was revealed and placed in an order that was commanded by divine revelation.

Over a period of twenty-three years, from the Prophet's (PBUH) fortieth year until his death in 632 AD, the Holy Quran's 114 chapters (called surahs) were revealed to him.

Muslims believe that the Holy Quran was initially preserved in oral and written form during the lifetime of the Prophet (PBUH). The entire text was finally collected in an official standardised version some 15 or 20 years after his death. The Holy Quran is approximately four-fifths the size of the New Testament.

Its chapters were assembled from the longest chapter to the shortest, not edited or organised thematically. This format has proved frustrating to many non-Muslims, who find the text disjointed or disorganised from their point of view.

However, it enables a believer to simply open the text at random and start reciting at the beginning of any paragraph, since each represents a lesson to be learned and reflected upon.

Recitation of the Holy Quran is central to a Muslim's life; many Muslims memorise the Holy Quran in its entirety. Recitation reinforces what Muslims see as the miracle of hearing the actual word of God expressed by the human voice.

Muslims recite passages from the Holy Quran that are included in their five daily prayers; musical and poetic recitations of Quranic verses serve as an introduction to every community event, from weddings and funerals to lectures and business dinners.

Quran recitations are performed before devout and enthusiastic Muslims in stadiums, whose numbers resemble those of Americans or Europeans attending an opera or concert. Many Muslims experience deep aesthetic pleasure from listening to the rich, resonant, rhyming prose, with its repetitions and subtle inflections.

What role does Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) play in Muslim life?

During his lifetime and throughout the following centuries, the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) has been the ideal model for Muslims to follow as they strive to do God's will. Some Muslims say that Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) is the "living Quran," the witness whose words and behaviour reveal God's will.

In contrast to the often spiritualised Christian view of Jesus, Muslims look upon Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) as both a prophet and a very human figure – one who had great political as well as spiritual insights.

Thus Muslims look to the Prophet's (PBUH) example for guidance in all aspects of life: how to treat friends as well as enemies, what to eat and drink, how to mourn and celebrate. The importance given to the Prophet's (PBUH) example is a variation on a tradition that originated with pre-Islamic Arabian tribes who preserved their ideals and norms in what was called their sunnah (trodden path). These were the tribal customs, the traditions handed down from previous generations by word and example.

Prophet Mohammed (