Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:12, 15 May 2011

Part of a series on
Islam
Beliefs Oneness of God Angels Revealed Books Prophets Day of Resurrection Predestination
Practices Profession of Faith Prayer Almsgiving Fasting Pilgrimage
Texts Foundations Quran Sunnah (Hadith, Sirah) Tafsir (exegesis) Aqidah (creed) Qisas al-Anbiya ("Stories of the Prophets") Mathnawi (Poems) Fiqh (jurisprudence) Sharia (law)
History Timeline Jahiliyyah Muhammad Ahl al-Bayt Sahabah Rashidun Caliphate Imamate Spread of Islam Succession to Muhammad
Culture and society Academics Animals Art Association football Calendar Children Circumcision Demographics Diaspora Denominations Sunni Shia Economics Education Ethics Exorcism Feminism Festivals Finance Madrasa Moral teachings Mosque Music Mysticism Philosophy Poetry Politics Proselytizing Science Sexuality LGBTQ Slavery Concubinage Social welfare Women
Related topics Apostasy Criticism Muhammad Quran Hadith Arabic language Other religions Islamism Violence terrorism war Islamophobia Jihad Jihadism Salafi jihadism Deobandi jihadism Military laws Glossary
Islam portal
v t e

A Muslim (pronounced /ˈmʊslɨm/) is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "one who submits to God".

Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through the prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Muslims maintain that previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or corrupted over time, but consider the Qur'an to be both unaltered and the final revelation from God—Final Testament.

Most Muslims accept as a Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the Shahadah (declaration of faith) which states, "I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." Their religious practices include daily prayers (salat), fasting during Ramadan (sawm), almsgiving (zakat), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.

Currently, the most up-to-date reports from an American think tank and PBS have estimated 1.2 to 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world, or about 20% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion, with 60% in Asia and 20% of Muslims living in the Middle East and North Africa.

Etymology

A muslim (Template:Lang-ar; /ˈmʊslɨm/ MUUS-lim or /ˈmʌzlɨm/ MUZ-lim or moslem) is the participle of the same verb of which islām is the infinitive. A female adherent is a muslima (Template:Lang-ar). The plural form in Arabic is muslimūn (Template:Lang-ar), and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt (Template:Lang-ar).

Muʾmin (Template:Lang-ar) is another Islamic term frequently referenced in the Qur'an, meaning "believer", and denoting a person that has complete submission to the will of God.

The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M "to be whole, intact". A literal translation would be "one who wants or seeks wholeness", where "wholeness" translates islāmun. In a religious sense, Al-Islām translates to "faith, piety", and Muslim to "one who has (religious) faith or piety".

Other words for Muslim

The ordinary word in English is "Muslim", pronounced /ˈmʊslɪm/ or /ˈmʌzləm/. The word is pronounced [ˈmʊslɪm] in Arabic. It is sometimes transliterated as "Moslem", which is an older spelling. “Submitter” is the English equivalent of the Arabic word “Muslim”.

Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans. Although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God.

Variant forms of this word are still used by many Indo-European and Turkic languages. These words are similar to the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Bosnian, Persian, Kurdish, and Hindi words for "Muslim".

In the Qur'an

Used to describe earlier prophets

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Muslims" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Qur'an describes many prophets and messengers as well as their respective followers as Muslim: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Jesus and his apostles are all confirmed as being Muslim by the Qur'an. The Qur'an states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values, which included praying, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'an, Jesus’ disciples tell Jesus, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we are Muslims (wa-shahad be anna muslimūn)." In Muslim belief, before the Qur'an, God had given the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David and the Gospel to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets.

Demographics

About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, 25% in South Asia, 20% in the Middle East, 2% in Central Asia, 4% in the remaining South East Asian countries, and 15% in Sub-saharan Africa. Sizable communities are also found in China and Russia, and parts of the Caribbean. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world.

See also

• Musulman
• Muslim world
• Islamic schools and branches
• Muslim holidays
• Lists of Muslims

References and notes

1. • Quran 51:56
   • "God". Islam: Empire of Faith. PBS. Retrieved 2010-12-18. For Muslims, God is unique and without equal.
2. "People of the Book". Islam: Empire of Faith. PBS. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
3. See: * Accad (2003): According to Ibn Taymiya, although only some Muslims accept the textual veracity of the entire Bible, most Muslims will grant the veracity of most of it. * Esposito (1998), pp.6,12* Esposito (2002b), pp.4–5* F. E. Peters (2003), p.9* F. Buhl. "Muhammad". Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)* Hava Lazarus-Yafeh. "Tahrif". Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
4. Submission.org, Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version with Arabic Text, Revised Edition IV,ISBN 0972920927, p. x.
5. Hooker, Richard (July 14, 1999). "arkan ad-din the five pillars of religion". United States: Washington State University. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
6. "Religions". The World Factbook. United States: Central Intelligence Agency. 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
7. PBS - Islam Today (Islam, followed by more than a billion people today, is the world's fastest growing religion and will soon be the world's largest. The 1.2 billion Muslims make up approximately one quarter of the world's population, and the Muslim population of the United States now outnumbers that of Episcopalians...)
8. "Mapping the Global Muslim Population". PewForum.org The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, took three years to compile, with census data from 232 countries and territories. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
9. Tom Kington (2008-03-31). "Number of Muslims ahead of Catholics, says Vatican". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
10. "Muslim Population". IslamicPopulation.com. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
11. "Field Listing - Religions". Retrieved 2008-11-17.
12. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Moslem
13. Burns & Ralph, World Civilizations, 5th ed., p. 371
14. also known as "infinitive", c.f. Burns & Ralph, World Civilizations, 5th ed., p. 371
15. "''Reporting Diversity'' guide for journalists" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-03-17.
16. "Who are Submitters and what is Submission?". Masjidtucson.org. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
17. See for instance the second edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler, revised by Ernest Gowers (Oxford, 1965)).
18. ^ Miller, Tracy, ed. (2009). Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population (PDF). Pew Research Center. pp. 8–9, 17–19. Retrieved 2009-10-08. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
19. Esposito, John L. (2002-10-15). What everyone needs to know about Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780195157130. and Esposito, John (2005). Islam : the straight path (Rev. 3rd ed., updated with new epilogue. ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 2, 43. ISBN 9780195182668.

External links

• Islamic directory for Muslims Find Muslim Owned businesses, Masjids (Mosques) and Islamic Centers all over the world.
• Muslim Population in Countries with different Alphabets

• Islam
• Muslims
• Religious identity