Overview Questions

Overview Questions

1.     What does 'Islam' mean?

-The religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.

2.    What were the origins of the Muslim religion?

-The origin of Muslim religion is God revelation of Quran to prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) through the angel Gabriel (Jibril) that started in year 610 AD while the prophet was in Mecca (Makkah) that is in the current country of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

3.     How was it different from religious beliefs in Arabia pre-Mohammed?

-It was multi-god and goddess worship like most everywhere else before Judaism kicked in.

4.     How does someone become a Muslim?

-Simply by saying 'there is no god apart from God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.' By this declaration the believer announces his or her faith in all God's messengers, and the scriptures they brought.

5.     How do Muslims practice their religion?

-Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to worship God. Muslims Pray 5 times a day and they worship one god and they practice their religion by following the rules of worship.

6.    What is the Ka'ba?

-Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam.

7.     What were the highlights of the life of Mohammed? How did he become a prophet?

-At the age of 40, while engaged in a meditative retreat, Muhammad received his first revelation from God through the Archangel Gabriel. This revelation, which continued for twenty-three years, is known as the Qur'an.

Muhammad began to recite the words he heard from Gabriel and to preach the truth which God had revealed to him. The people of Makkah were steeped in their ways of ignorance and opposed Muhammad and his small group of followers in every way. These early Muslims suffered bitter persecution.

In the year 622 CE, God gave the Muslim community the command to emigrate. This event, the hijrah or migration, in which they left Makkah for the city of Madinah, some 260 miles to the North, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

Madinah provided Muhammad and the Muslims the safe and nurturing haven in which the Muslim community grew. After several years, the Prophet and his followers returned to Makkah, where they forgave their enemies and dedicated the Ka'bah to the worship of the One God. Before the Prophet died at the age of 63, the greater part of Arabia was Muslim, and within a century of his death, Islam had spread to Spain in the west and as far east as China. 

8.    What is the Quran?

-There holy text

9.    Are there any other sacred sources?

- Yes. The sunnah, (what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or approved of) is the second source in Islam.  The sunnah is comprised of hadeeths, which are reliably transmitted reports by the Prophet Muhammad’s companions of what he said, did, or approved of.  Belief in the sunnah is a basic Islamic belief.

10.  What is jihad?

-Jihad an Islamic term is a religious duty of Muslims.