Islam is defined as a complete submission to the will of God Islam is also a monotheistic religion which focuses on one god and Muhammad is the prophet of that god, that throughout his life, received messages from god. To become Muslim all you need to do is state that Allah is god and that Muhammad is his messenger. Islam is a religion that has no toleration for other religions. It believes that all other religions are just total blasphemy.
There are two main sects of Islam, Sunnis and Shi’a. After Muhammad’s death there was no clear cut successor to lead the people so there have been varied accounts as to who was supposed to lead. The Sunnis believe that the successors were Muhammad’s right hand men and they heard Muhammad’s accounts first hand. The Shi’a believe that Muhammad gave all his knowledge and power directly to Ali before he died.
Like I stated before the central beliefs of Islam are that you must believe that Allah is the only God and that Muhammad is his messenger. There are also five practices or the five pillars that must be met in order to receive god. The first pillar is called “The Testimony of Faith”. In this practice you must announce that there is no god but God (Allah) and that Muhammad is the messenger (prophet) of God. The second Pillar is to pray five times a day. You are supposed to kneel down and face towards Mecca and repeat the prayer and do this five times a day. Zakat or “the giving” is the third pillar in which Muslims must abide by. This is where more prominent Muslims give a percentage of the wealth that they have accumulated throughout the year to less fortunate Muslims because without Allah, there is nothing. The fourth pillar of Islam is fasting. Fasting is a normal activity to the Musli ...