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Islam
WORDS
•according to =as someone says
•adultery = sex between someone
who is married and someone who is
not their wife or husband
•although =while
•beard = hair that grows around a
man’s chin and cheek
•billion = one thousand million
•choose - chose =decide
•commit = to do, carry out
•cover = to put something over your
face
•create= make
•dress modestly = here: to cover
most of your body with clothes
•expect = you are to do what others
think is right
•follower = someone who helps and
believes in a leader
•forgive =to stop being angry with
someone if they have done something wrong
•gamble =to risk money on the outcome of a game or a race
•including =part of a larger group
•law = a system of rules that a
country has
•message = spoken or written information that you give other people
•most populous =with the biggest
population
•population = the people who live
in a country
•pork = the meat of a pig
•principles =moral rules; what you
think is right or wrong
•punish = to make someone suffer
because they have done something
wrong
•receive = get
•reward = to give someone something because they have done
something good
•salvation = to save a person from
evil
•sin = something that you do that is
against God’s will
•steal = to take something that
belongs to someone else
•universe = all space, the stars and
the planets
1
Islam is the world’s second largest
and fastest growing religion. It has
over 1 billion followers. Today Muslims, the people who follow Islam,
live in every country of the world.
Although Islam began in Arabia, more
than half of the world’s Muslims live
in South and Southeast Asia. The
countries with the largest Muslim
populations are Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh and Pakistan. About one
fourth of all Muslims live in the Middle East and several million live in
the United States.
Principles
of
The 10
most populous
Muslim
countries
pop in
millions
% of
population
Indonesia
207
88
Pakistan
160
97
India
150
13
Bangladesh
124
83
Egypt
70
85
Turkey
68
97
Nigeria
64
45
Iran
64
98
Algeria
32
99
Morocco
32
99
Country
Islam
Muslims believe in only one god, which they
call Allah. Prophets are people who God
chose to speak for him. They believe in
many prophets including Abraham, Moses
and even Jesus Christ, but they do not think
that he is the son of God. Muhammad was
the last and most perfect of Allah’s prophets. He received messages from him and brought them to the people .
The holy book of Islam is the Qur’an or Koran. It is the word of Allah as
he told it to Muhammad. Muslims believe that God created the universe. They also believe that all children are born without sin and that
all people can lead themselves to salvation once God has chosen the way
for them.
Allah always wants to forgive people who have committed sins. Muslims
believe that on the Last Day, when the world comes to an end each person will be rewarded with heaven or punished with hell.
Daily Life, Practises
Muslims are expected to live according to Islamic
law, which is called Sharia, or “God’s Way”. They
are not allowed to steal, lie, commit adultery,
gamble, eat pork or drink alcohol. The Qur’an
also tells men and women to dress modestly. In
some countries a woman must cover her head or
face. Men mostly have a beard because Mohammad also had one.
Islam
WORDS
• afford = to have enough money to pay for
something
• almsgiving = a religious ceremony in
which you give money to the poor
• bow = to bend the top of your body
forward to show respect
• celebration =a party
• community = society and the people in it
• dawn = when the sun rises in the morning
• duty = something that you must do because your religion wants you to
• equal = the same
• face = to look towards
• facility = rooms or buildings that are
used for something
• faith = believe in
• fast = to eat little or no food
• forehead = the part of your face above
your eyes and below your hair
• gown = a long dress that a woman wears
• headscarf = a piece of cloth that women
wear on their heads
• honesty =to be true, not to lie
• huge = very big
• injured = hurt
• kindness =to show someone that you
care about them
• limit =control, regulate
• lunar = about the moon
• mosque = building in which Muslims pray
to God
• muezzin = a man who calls Muslims to
prayer from a mosque
• perform = to act, to do
• pilgrimage = a trip to a holy place for
religious reasons
• pillar = a very important part of a system
or religion
• plain = simple
• pray = to say private words to God
• prayer = words that you say to God
• purify =to remove something that is bad
• respect =to admire somone
• rights = things that you are officially
allowed to do
• robe =a long piece of clothing, like a
dress that you wear for special events
• sacrifice = to kill a person and offer him
or her to God
• sermon =a speech that is part of a
church ceremony in which you talk about
moral values
• shrine = an object in a place that people
go to and pray
• tax = money that you must pay to the
government
• touch =to feel with your hands
• true = real
• verses = lines that are in a religious book
like the Bible or the Qur’an
• vote = to chose a person in an election
• wealth = the money that a person has
• welfare organisation = organisation that
gives help to poor people or those who
have problems
• worshipper = a person who goes to a
mosque or church and prays
2
The status of women is not the same in all Islamic states. Some countries limit the rights of women; in others men and women are equal.
They have a right to vote, to get a good education and to have jobs. Islam also teaches other things like respect for parents, helping the poor,
faith in God, kindness, honesty and hard work.
Five Pillars
of Islam
Every Muslim is expected to perform five duties.
Faith is the most important. Only a person who believes in Allah and
his prophet Muhammad can be called a true
Muslim.
The second duty is prayer. Muslims must pray
five times a day – at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and before going to bed. When
Muslims say these prayers they face the holy
city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. When they say
verses from the Qu’ran they bow, kneel and
touch the ground with their foreheads. On the Islamic holy day, Friday,
Muslims go to a mosque to pray and listen to a sermon. From the tower,
called minaret, a muezzin traditionally calls worshippers to come.
Almsgiving is a way of helping the poor. Muslims have to pay a tax called
zakat to the community once each year. This money is used to help
poorer Muslims, but sometimes it is used to finance holy wars , build facilities for travellers or welfare organisations and build schools . When
Muslims do this they purify their wealth
Every Muslim must fast during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic
calendar. Because Muslims have a lunar calendar, Ramadan takes place
at different times of the year. During this month Muslims must fast from
dawn to sunset. In the evening they may eat a meal and drink something. Sick, injured and very old people do not have to fast. At the end
of the month Muslims break their fasting with a celebration called Id
al-Fitr.
The Qur’an says that Muslims must go
on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once
in their lives if they are strong enough
and can afford it. On this Hajj, they visit
the Kaaba , a holy shrine in the centre of a huge mosque. Men must wear
plain white robes and women must wear
a long white gown and a headscarf.
Pilgrims walk around the Kaaba seven times while praying. It is believed
that at Mecca the prophet Abraham sacrificed his son to God. The Hajj
takes place on the first few days of the twelfth month of the Islamic year
and brings together Muslims from all over the world.
Islam
WORDS
• A.D. = anno Domini = after the birth of
Christ
• appear = to show yourself
• appearance =something new starts to
exist
• archangel = one of the most important
angels in religion
• argue = to have different opinions
• believer = someone who believes in a
religion
• branch = part, section
• break-up =split up, divide
• Byzantine empire = the Greek speaking
Roman empire of the Middle Ages
• century = a hundred years
• charity = giving money and goods to
poor people who need them
• community = society and the people
in it
• convert = when someone changes their
religion
• Crusades = eight wars led by European
kings in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries to get control of the Holy Land
from the Muslims
• defeat = to win against
• division = the splitting up of
• empire = a group of countries that are
ruled by one government or king
• equality = everyone is the same
• extend = to go from one place to
another
• including =a part of something bigger
• Mediterranean = the region between
Europe and Africa
• persuade =to try to make someone do
something
• practise = to follow the rules of a
religion
• preach = to talk about religious things
in public places and in front of many
people
• profit = to make or earn a lot of money
• range =here: many
• rise = come up
• rule = govern
• saying = the words; what someone
famous said
• series = many
• several = many
• spread =to move from one place to
another
• take back = to fight to get back land
that you once owned
• threaten = to say that you will harm
somebody
• truth =true facts about something
• united = join together
• unusual = not normal, not popular
• view = opinion
• wide = big
3
Divisions
of Islam
After the death of Muhammad in 632 believers
argued on who should lead them. This led to the
break-up of Islam into two major branches.
Most Muslims are Sunnites. They are known as
conservatives, follow the sayings of Mohammad,
are tolerant and have a wide range of views.
The smaller group of Muslims are Shiites. Most of
them live in Iran and Iraq. The main idea of this
branch is that the truths of the Qur’an are shown by the Imam who is
the leader of the Islamic community.
History
The history of Islam starts with the birth of Mohammad in 570 A.D. in the
city of Mecca. When he was 40 years old his life changed. The archangel Gabriel appeared to him one night. He told him to spread the word
of God. For more than 20 years the angel appeared to him and gave him
God’s word.
Several years after the first appearance of the archangel, Mohammad
began to preach to the people of Mecca. He talked about equality and
charity; he spoke against money and profits. Mohammad preached that
there was only one god, which was unusual at that time because many
Arabs believed in more than one god. A lot of people including rich ones
threatened him so he left Mecca in 622 and went to Medina .
Mohammad persuaded many people to practice Islam. By the time he
died in 632 most Arabs were united under this new religion.
During the 7th and 8th centuries the Muslim empire extended from the
western Mediterranean to central Asia. Even parts of Spain were ruled
by the Muslims for 700 years. Holy wars called jihads were fought to convert people to Islam.
At about 1000 A.D. the Turks
began to rise to an Islamic
power. They came from Central Asia, defeated the Byzantine Empire and even took
control of Jerusalem. In the
following two centuries the
Christians tried to take back the Holy Land in a series of wars called the
Crusades.
In the 1200s another group of Turks called the Ottomans began a Muslim
empire that ruled over the Middle East, Northern Africa and Southeast
Asia until the 20th century.
Islam
WORDS
•arise - arose= appear, come up
•combine = to put together
•create = make , found
•decade = a period of ten years
•economical =about
business,money, trade etc..
•empire = a group of countries that
are ruled by one government or
king
4
Impact
of Islam
By 800 Islam’s influence had become greater than that of any other
empire in history. Arabic script was
used in many countries. The Arabs
invented algebra and they combined
architecture and art to build beautiful mosques.
•fade = to go away slowly
•government = the people who rule
a country
•however =but
•impact =the effect or influence on
something
•influence =effect
•invent = to make or create something new
•join = to become a member of
•mosque = building in which Muslims pray to God
•radical = against what other people
think or believe
Islam
today
In the early 1900s a new version of Islam arose in the United States. The
group were known as the Black Muslims. The main idea was that all people who were not white should create one nation. Its best known leader
was Malcolm X, a radical Muslim. By the middle of the 1980s its power
faded and many of its members joined other Muslim groups
•script = the letters that a language
uses
•separate =divide, split up
•version = here: type, kind
Economically, Muslims countries are very different. Some are very rich,
like the oil-producing countries of the Middle East; others like Bangladesh belong to the poorest in the world.
In the last few decades Islam has become one of the fastest growing
religions in the world.
Many Muslims see western influence as something bad and in some
countries they have fought against changes. In Iran a revolution in 1979
brought religious leaders to power. In other countries, like Turkey, religion and the state are separated. However, Islam has had and still has
a strong influence on the government as well as on the everyday lives of
people.
Islam
5
Muslim population of
countries in %