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Islam: Its History, Sects, and Pillars
by Barry Wright
Essay: Islam: Its History, Sects, and Pillars
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second
largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is
believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam
by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to
help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of
Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia.
Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be
considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings
compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code
of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam
shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from
preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of
Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a
glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
Islam has a deep history, beginning with ideas originating before Muhammad and spanning to the present day.
Before Islam, the Bedouin people’s faith contained a belief in supreme beings alongside animism. They also put a
large emphasis on ancestor worship (Swartz 15). Some groups...