We explain what Islam is, its branches, history, and main beliefs. We also explain the place of women and what the Quran is.
What is Islam?
Islam is one of the world’s great monotheistic religions, the second largest after Christianity. It has around 1.9 billion followers worldwide (24% of the global population).
It is an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity, as it identifies with the religious tradition that recognizes Abraham (called Ibrahim by Muslims) as its ancestor and first patriarch, who, according to sacred texts, established a covenant with God. However, Islam is distinguished from Judaism and Christianity in that it believes that the last and most important prophet was Muhammad, called the “messenger of God” and “seal of the prophets.” You must read about Temperature once.
The sacred book of Islam is the Quran, considered the word of God revealed to Muhammad. Other important books are the compilations of hadiths (singular, hadith), that is, the sayings and deeds of Muhammad that serve as guides for the daily conduct of Muslims. It also accepts as sacred texts the Torah of the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Pentateuch and called Tawrat in Arabic), the biblical Psalms (called Zabur in Arabic), and the Gospel (called Injil in Arabic).
Islam exclusively venerates Allah, whose name means God in Arabic and comes from the Semitic word “El,” used in the Bible. He is considered the only God, and graphic representations of him are not tolerated and are judged as idolatry. Islam means “submission (to God)” in Arabic, and followers of Islam are called “Muslims” (from the Arabic word “muslim,” meaning “one who submits”).
Islam is divided into two main branches (Sunnism and Shiism). These are joined by a third minority branch (Khariyya, today represented by the Ibadi movement) and a form of Islamic mysticism called Sufism (practiced by some followers of the various denominations of Islam). Maybe you should definitely read about History of Gymnastics once.
KEY POINTS
- Islam is the second largest monotheistic religion in the world (after Christianity), with approximately 1.9 billion followers. It is an Abrahamic religion, as, like Judaism and Christianity, it recognizes its origins in the covenant established between God (called Allah in Arabic) and the patriarch Abraham.
- It emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century and considers Muhammad as its founder and principal prophet.
- Its sacred book is the Quran, which according to religious tradition was dictated by Allah to Muhammad, and its main rituals (called the “five pillars”) include the pilgrimage to Mecca (Muhammad’s birthplace).
- Sharia (or Islamic law) governs some aspects of Muslim daily life, but its degree of legal enforcement varies by country.
- It has two main currents: Sunni Islam, which is the majority, and Shiism, which represents between 10 and 15% of the faithful.
Branches of Islam
The main branches of Islam are:
- Sunnism: This is the majority branch of Islam worldwide. Its name comes from the Sunna, the collection of sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, which is almost as valued as the Quran. Unlike the Shia branch, Sunnism considers the first four caliphs of Islam (called orthodox), successors to Muhammad after his death in 632, legitimate because they were chosen from within the Arab tribe of Quraish, the same to which the prophet belonged. Sunnism contains four schools of interpretation of Islamic law: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali.
- Shiism: This is the second most important branch of Islam, and its followers represent between 10 and 15% of the world’s Muslim population. His followers consider the first three orthodox caliphs of the 7th century illegitimate, and only admit the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, as legitimate, as he belonged to Muhammad’s family (he was his cousin and son-in-law, married to his daughter Fatima). It was believed that his descendants should have succeeded the prophet as head of the Muslim community to preserve the family line. The term “Shia” comes from the Arabic word “shia,” meaning party or faction, and was first used to name Ali’s supporters (shiat or Ali) against the Sunni majority. Currently, Shias are the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan.
- Kharijite Islam: This is a minority branch of Islam, currently represented by a moderate branch known as Ibadi (dominant in Oman). Their name means “one who leaves” or “one who withdraws” (Khariji), as its origins stem from a split within Ali’s supporters in 657. Unlike the Shiites and Sunnis, who held orthodox ideas about who should lead the Muslims (a member of Muhammad’s family or a member of his tribe), the Kharijites believed that this should be a free decision of the community, based on the piety and righteousness of the future ruler. Their doctrine is based on the belief that profession of faith is not enough to make someone Muslim, as it must be accompanied by good works, even if it is the caliph or the imam (a religious and sometimes political guide).
- Sufism: This is a mystical movement within Islam, made up of different ascetic and esoteric groups organized into brotherhoods (tariqa) that, in the beginning, were not recognized as part of the official or orthodox body of the religion. It arose as a reaction against the material and legal aspects of mainstream Islam. According to followers of Sufism, Muhammad inaugurated “the path” (tariq) of the spiritual world: a set of methods and rituals of meditation, purification of the heart, and a mystical relationship with God. Thus, it differs from the rest of Islam in that it pursues closeness to God through holiness (walaya).
History of Islam
The origins of Islam date back to the 7th century in the Arabian Peninsula. According to Islamic tradition, it was during this time that the Prophet Muhammad began to spread his religious message among the inhabitants of the region. This region was mainly home to nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes and communities, such as the Bedouins, and small farming populations who occupied the northern oases or the more fertile areas of the south.
These Arab populations had their own polytheistic religions and generally shared a sacred city, Mecca, as a place of worship. They venerated the sacred well of Zamzam and the sanctuary of the Kaaba.
Muhammad was originally from Mecca and, according to religious legend, he had a divine revelation at the age of 40 outside the city, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him on a mountaintop. From then on, he had other revelations and dedicated himself to preaching what he believed to be the ancient and true religion, that of the one God who had spoken to Abraham, Moses, and Jesus before him.
Some powerful merchant clans in Mecca opposed Muhammad and imposed a trade boycott against his clan. As a result, Muhammad lost the protection of his family and left with his followers for Medina in 622. This episode is called the Hijra (migration) by Muslims, and with it begins the Islamic calendar.
Muhammad engaged in a military conflict against the Meccan authorities, which ended in 630 with the city’s surrender to his troops. He subsequently subdued other tribes and cities and unified a large territory of the Arabian Peninsula into a single Muslim state. After his death in 632, that state passed into the hands of his successors, the caliphs, who expanded the Islamic religion and political domination to other lands, including Asia, North Africa, and even the Iberian Peninsula.
During those years, a schism occurred between two branches of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shiites. This schism initially had political characteristics, based on who should legitimately succeed the prophet (a member of their tribe elected by consensus, according to the Sunnis, or a direct relative of Muhammad, according to the Shiites). It later acquired religious connotations that persist to this day.
Between the 7th and 8th centuries, three dynasties ruled the Islamic empire: the orthodox caliphs, the Umayyad caliphs, and the Abbasid caliphs. During the orthodox caliphate, the canonical version of the Muslim sacred text, the Quran, was published.
The third caliphate, the Abbasid, experienced a series of divisions and finally lost its territorial power in the 10th century with the expansion of other Muslim dynasties in the region. Beginning in the 11th century, Muslims clashed with the Christian kingdoms of the West in a series of conflicts known as the Crusades (1096–1291), the main objective of which was control of the Holy Land. In this context, Saladin (1137–1193), the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria, stood out. He expelled the Crusaders from Jerusalem.
The expansion of the great European empires of the 18th and 19th centuries reduced the role of Muslim states as world powers. The last great Muslim empire was the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which emerged between the 13th and 14th centuries. It disintegrated after the First World War (1914–1918), although most of the territories that had been under its rule maintained the predominance of the Muslim religion when they became independent nations.
In the 21st century, Islam is one of the world’s most widely followed religions, spread across different countries (especially in the Middle East and North Africa) and identified with different branches (mostly Sunni Islam). It is also the official religion of several states. Some of its doctrines are interpreted by radical fundamentalist groups, such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (Daesh), as a call to religious violence, which often provokes international condemnation from many Muslim states and citizens around the world.
The Quran
The holy book of Muslims is the Quran, also called the Koran or Koran, which is believed to contain the words of Allah, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic). Its name likely comes from the Arabic word al-qur’an, which means “recitation.”
According to religious tradition, during the Prophet’s lifetime, the words he received from God were transmitted orally and, in some cases, written on physical media, such as parchment. However, it was during the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, between 644 and 656, that the parts transmitted in writing and orally were compiled and standardized, and organized into the official version of 114 suras (a type of chapter divided into verses).
The Quran mentions mythical and religious figures from the Jewish and Christian traditions, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, who are considered prophets of God, that is, Islamic prophets. However, in the Islamic tradition, the last and most important of the prophets is Muhammad, whose life and teachings (called Sunna) are taken as a model and guide for conduct, narrated in texts called hadiths, as the Quran contains very few details about his life.
The Quran focuses on the continuity of Allah’s message through the prophets, the ethical, legal, and religious rules that the faithful must follow, the fight against infidels, and the belief in the final judgment.
It was written in Classical Arabic, the language in which it is usually recited during liturgy, although today it has been translated into countless languages. Translations are considered versions of the original, never equivalent, and are recognized as having purely didactic value, as only the original literally transcribes the words revealed by God. Even so, some faithful consider the earthly Quran to be a partial reproduction of the true Quran, “eternal and uncreated,” which dwells in heaven.
Islamic Beliefs
Islam believes in the existence of one God, Allah, creator, sustainer, and ruler of the universe, who has revealed himself to various prophets since the beginning of time, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Although there are similarities between the Muslim conception of God and that of the other two great monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism, there are also differences.
For example, in Islam, God is one and indivisible, as in Christianity, but it does not share the Christian dogma of the Trinity (that God is one and triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Furthermore, in Islam, God is unrepresentable, and the worship of images or representations is not permitted, while in the mainstream Christian faiths (Catholicism and Orthodoxy), the veneration of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the saints through their images is permitted.
The sacred text of Islam is the Quran, considered the only one that has not been distorted over the years. It posits the existence of angels, spiritual creatures who serve as intermediaries between humanity and the Creator, and who never disobey His commands.
Islam also believes in predestination and that Allah’s will determines everything that happens, whether harmful or beneficial. He is the one who decides the fate of human beings by granting them the ability to do good or evil and testing them throughout their lives.
Another important concept within Islam is jihad, which in Arabic means “effort” or “struggle,” and refers to the effort to follow God’s path and spread His word among the infidels (through persuasion or force). Although a peaceful interpretation of the concept of jihad prevails today, some radicalized movements (sometimes called jihadists) associate it with the military obligation that was part of the early Islamic expansion and therefore interpret it as a call to use violence to impose their own interpretation of Islam on the world.
Finally, Islam believes in an afterlife, as well as in a final judgment before Allah, in which each person will receive from the angels a record of all their earthly actions, both their good deeds and their sins. This will occur on the Day of Resurrection, or Yawn al-Qiyamah, when those who did good will be rewarded with the delights of Paradise and those who did evil will be condemned to the torments of Hell.
Symbol of Islam
Just as Christianity is identified with the cross, the symbol traditionally associated with Islam is the crescent, and especially the crescent and star: a crescent with a star on its concave side.
Its origin dates back to the Greco-Roman period in the city of Byzantium, where it was associated with the Romanized version of the goddess Artemis, Diana the Huntress, who used to wear a crescent moon on her head with the points pointing upward, like horns. The crescent moon with the star began to be used on coins and military insignia.
This symbol passed to the Ottoman Empire, perhaps even before the 15th-century conquest of Constantinople (the capital of the Byzantine Empire), and has since become so closely associated with Islam that today it appears on many flags of Muslim nations, including Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Pakistan, Mauritania, Malaysia, and Azerbaijan.
Rites or “Pillars” of Islam
The five main religious rites and practices of Muslims are known as the “pillars” of Islam:
- The shahada, or profession of faith: This is the basis of belonging to the Muslim faith. It consists of uttering at least once in one’s life, in front of witnesses, the statement that states: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
- Salat, or prayer: This is the ritual prayer that must be performed five times a day: at dawn, at noon, at mid-afternoon, at dusk, and at night, always facing the body toward Mecca. Every Friday at noon, there must be a communal prayer in the mosque.
- Zakat, or obligatory alms: This is a percentage of one’s wealth that the faithful must pay annually to the State in grain, livestock, or money to be distributed among the less fortunate. In modern Muslim states, it is replaced by national taxes and voluntary individual donations to charity, except in countries like Saudi Arabia, which maintain the traditional practice.
- Sawm, or fasting: This is a ritual fast that must be observed during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Adult Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual intercourse from dawn to sunset. The only exceptions are the elderly, women during menstruation or after childbirth, and the sick, although these should, as far as possible, make up for it at another time of the year or by helping others.
- Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca: This is a major pilgrimage to the sacred monuments of Mecca that every Muslim who has the resources and health to do so must perform at least once in their lifetime. Upon entering Mecca, the faithful must attain the state of ihram, or sacredness, wear two clean, seamless garments, and avoid certain activities, such as sexual intercourse. The pilgrimage is celebrated in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah (the last month of the Muslim calendar), and one of its main activities consists of circling the Kaaba sanctuary seven times, within the Great Mosque of Mecca, and in some cases, kissing and touching the Black Stone located at one of its corners.
On the other hand, there is Islamic law, or Sharia. It is considered a divine law that embodies the will of Allah and that every Muslim must respect both in public and private. It contains guidelines for every situation in daily life, including the duty to properly perform ritual practices, legislation on marriage and family, and the prohibition and punishment of practices such as homicide, adultery, alcohol consumption, and gambling.
Depending on a Muslim state’s degree of commitment to Sharia, this law may be practiced to the letter or may merely be the inspiration for modern laws. Currently, only a few countries retain Sharia law as the basis of their entire legal system (for example, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan), while most Muslim countries accept Sharia law’s influence in legislation regarding family and inheritance matters.
Women in Islam
A topic on which much has been written is the role of women within Islam, according to Arabic traditions and the sacred texts of this religion. Islamic law speaks of “complementation” between men and women, for “believers and believing women are allies of one another” (Quran 9:71). However, it also establishes that Allah created women to be respected as mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters, that is, in close connection with the family and domestic spheres.
In this sense, the Quran makes clear the man’s command over his wife, as does the Old Testament of the Bible. Therefore, women’s rights and their opportunities to participate in civil and political life depend on the degree of tolerance, customs, and the level of separation between state and religion in each Islamic country.
Thus, some nations are very strict regarding the role of women in matters such as marriage, divorce, and even dress code. Whether by personal choice or social imposition, women are generally required to cover their hair, torso, limbs, or even their entire body when outside their homes or in the presence of strangers. Likewise, female genital mutilation and child marriage, although tolerated in some places and among some sectors of society in Islam, are not typically Islamic customs.
On the other hand, polygamy is permitted in some nations, especially if the man has sufficient resources to provide each of his wives with a decent life. In return, he is solely responsible for them and must grant them permission to go out, study, or perform certain jobs.
References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, ensuring reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Afsaruddin, A. (2023). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Women. Oxford University Press.
- Blatt, R. (2016). Bible, Quran, Tanakh: Three Readings of the Same God. Turner.
- Filoramo, G., Massenzio, M., Raveri, M., & Scarpi, P. (2000). History of Religions: Criticism.
- Ruthven, M. (2012). Islam: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Schimmel, A., Mahdi, M. S., & Rahman, F. (2024). Islam. Encyclopedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Yassine Bendriss, E. (2013). A Brief History of Islam. Nowtilus.
