Muhammad and Islam

570 A.D. – 632 A.D.

I.  Muhammad

A.  Successful merchant who began to preach about Islam which means “surrendering to the will of Allah” (God)

B.  Preached that all people should worship Allah, the one true god and treat one another equally.  People should live good lives and resist evil

C.  Created an Islamic state - a government that uses its power to uphold Islam

D.  Created an army to increase the size of his Islamic state = spread of Islam

II.  Islamic Beliefs

A.  Monotheistic = Worship of Allah

B.  Muhammad is not a god only a prophet

C.  Quran is their holy book and is the true word of God.  It explains how Muslims should live their life as well as rules to apply in their daily life

III.  Five Pillars of Faith

A.  Belief – No God but Allah

B.  Prayer – Pray 5 times per day facing toward Makkah (Mecca)

C.  Charity – Give to the poor

D.  Fasting – Not eating at certain hours during holidays such as Ramadan

E.  Pilgrimage – Visit Makkah (Mecca) at least once in their life

IV.  Spread of Islam

A.  Caliphs led Muslims to conquer new lands and spread their faith

B.  Muslims called Sufis traveled preaching and teaching the message of Islam

C.  Merchants who converted to this religion continued to spread Islam’s message as they traveled. 

V.  Split and Struggles of Islam

A.  Islam splits into two different groups – the Shiites and the Sunnies

      1.  Shiites believed that all caliphs should be descendents of Muhammad like the R.G.C.

      2.  Sunnies accepted now caliphs like the Umayyads and Abbasids

      3.  This split causes these two groups to develop different ideas and customs

      4.  Today, many problems among Muslims can be traced back to this split in beliefs.