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Islam and Muslim both come from the same Arabic vert “s-l-m”, which means to submit or surrender. “Islam” means the act of submitting to God’s will, whereas “Muslim” identifies the person who submits. This religion, along with Judaism and Christianity, claims a tradition that dates back to Abraham, the father of the great monotheistic tradition who is thought to have lived somewhere between 2100 and 1600 BCE (McClellan, 2012). Islam is strictly monotheistic – belief in one God (Allah). It arose in the 7th century CEO out of the polytheistic Bedouin culture of the Arabian peninsula in the region of Mecca. Mecca is located in western Saudi Arabia about 40 miles inland from the Red Sea. In 610 CE, the Prophet Muhammad at the age of 40 is believed to have received his first revelation from the angel Gabriel in a cave on mount Hira during a time of deep prayer. These revelations continued intermittently over the next 22 years until his death in 632 CE. Since the Prophet Muhammad could not read or write, the angel Gabriel urged him to share his revelations with his companions, who carefully documented them on stone tablets, bones, and data palm leaves. These were eventually brought together into a single text (the Holy Qur’an) that was canonised around 653-656 CE by the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan. The Arabic script in which the present day Qur’an is written (scripta plena) was not fully perfected until the middle of the 9th century (Esack, 2005).
Muslims believe that the Qur’an confirms many of the earlier Biblical scriptures that came before it (Qur’an 5:48). However, those scriptures contained errors, requiring that God reveal this final scripture (39:1-2). Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad was not inspired by God, but was rather a vessel through which God directly transmitted his word to humanity (word for word and without error). In fact, attributing the content of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad is considered to be blasphemous in Islam. Muslims believe that the Qur’an supersedes all previous scriptures and represents God’s final word from now until the end of time: “We sent to you [Muhammad] the Scripture with the truth, confirming the scriptures that came before it, and with final authority over them…” (5:48).
By the end of the Prophet’s life, Islam had spread throughout most of Arabia. During the 30 years after his death, it would spread through war and conquest far beyond the Arabian peninsula. Within 100 years it reached as far west as Spain, as far north and east as China and central Asia, and as far south as North Africa. Along with spread of the religion came Islamic law (shari’ah) and the many health-related beliefs and practices associated with it. Islamic law was then as it is today based on the Qur’an, the sayings and traditions of the Prophet (Hadith), and the practices of the early Muslim community (Sunnah) recorded in the early 8th century by Islamic scholars called “traditionalists.” Four schools of Islamic law arose by the end of the 11th century: the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafi, and the Hanbali (the latter being more conservative in its interpretation). Wahhabi is a small branch off the Hanbali school and considered the most conservative of all Sunni groups.
Around the year 661 CE, war erupted in Iraq-Arabia over who would succeed Muhammad as caliph (or leader) of the Muslim world, causing a split between Sunni and Shia Muslims, one that remains to this day. In the 13th century, Sufi Muslims (a mystical branch of Islam that focuses on purification of the inner self and connecting with God) split off from the Sunni branch. These splits have produced three major groups of Muslims: Sunni, Shia, and Sufi. Most Muslims today are Sunni (85%), followed by Shia (10-13%) and Sufi. Shia Muslims reside primarily in Iran, Iraqi, Pakistan, and Lebanon. The percentage of Muslims who are Sufi is unknown, but Sufis can be either Sunni or Shia, and most currently reside in Turkey and other countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Many Muslims may not consider themselves members of any of these three branches, according to the Pew Research Centre (2012), which found approximately 20% of Muslims indicating that they were simply “Just a Muslim.” Most of the conflict today in the Muslim world is between Sunnis (represented by Saudi Arabia) and Shia (represented by Iran).
Conclusions
This brief history provides an important background that will help the reader appreciate the source of Islamic beliefs and practices, the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East, Southern and Southeast Asia, and Africa, and the division sin the Muslim world today.