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Muslim
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A '''Muslim''' (), , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". ''Muslim'' is the participle of the same verb of which ''Islam'' is the infinitive.[Burns & Ralph, ''World Civilizations'', 5th ed., p. 371] The femininity|feminine form is sometimes used as ''Muslimah'' (), especially in recent years. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements. The well-organised and cohesive community of Muslims who accept the Sunnah as defined within one of the traditional Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi or Hanbali madhabs are the classical Sunni Muslims. Those who fall outside of this fold are the Shia Muslims, though often thinking themselves to be Sunni Muslims.
Muslims believe that there is only one God in Islam|God, translated in Arabic as Allah. Muslims also believe that Islam existed long before Muhammad though it was not called Islam until the revelation of Surah al-Maeda. Muslims believe that this religion had evolved with time from the time of Adam (Bible)|Adam until the time of Muhammad and was completed with the revelation of verse 3 of Surah al-Maeda:''This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion''. The Qur'an describes many Biblical prophets of Islam|prophets and messengers as Muslim: Adam (Bible)|Adam, Noah (Arabic: ''Nuh''), Islamic view of Moses|Moses and Islamic view of Jesus|Jesus and his apostles. The Qur'an states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached his message and upheld his values. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'an, Jesus’ disciples tell Jesus, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we submit and obey (''wa ashahadu bil-muslimūna'')."
Muslims consider making ritual prayer five times a day a religious duty (''fard'') (see the section on Ismāˤīlīs below for exceptions); these five prayers are known as ''fajr'', ''dhuhr'', ''asr|ˤasr'', ''maghrib'' and ''isha'a|ˤishā'''. There is also a special Friday prayer called ''Jumu'ah|jumuˤah''. Currently, the most up to date reports from an American think-tank and Public Broadcasting Service|PBS have estimated 1.2 to 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world, or about 25% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion.[Public Broadcasting Service|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 Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians...'')] With 60% in Asia and 20% of Muslims living in the Middle East and North Africa.Etymology
Arabic ''muslimun'' is the stem IV Arabic grammar#Participle|participle[also known as "infinitive", c.f. Burns & Ralph, ''World Civilizations'', 5th ed., p. 371] 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, ''Islam|Al-Islām'' translates to "faith, piety", and ''Muslim'' to "one who has (religious) faith or piety".
The feminine form of ''muslimun'' is '''muslimatun''' ().
Other words for Muslim
The ordinary word in English is "Muslim", pronounced or . The word is pronounced in Arabic. It is sometimes transliteration|transliterated "Moslem", an older, possibly Persian language|Persian-based spelling, which some regard as offensive.[See for instance the second edition of ''Fowler's Modern English Usage|A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' by Henry Watson Fowler|H. W. Fowler, revised by Ernest Gowers (Oxford, 1965)).] 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.
English writers of the 19th century and earlier sometimes used the words ''Mussulman'', ''Musselman'', ''Musulman'', or ''Mussulmaun'' (plural ''-mans'', rather than ''-men'').
Variant forms of this word are still used by many Indo-European languages|Indo-European and Turkic languages. These words are similar to the French language|French, Spanish language|Spanish, Portuguese language|Portuguese, Italian language|Italian, Russian language|Russian, Turkish language|Turkish, Bosnian language|Bosnian, Persian Language|Persian, Kurdish language|Kurdish, and Hindi languages|Hindi words for "Muslim".
In spite of that, the Polish word for Muslim almost certainly does come directly from the Turkish language|Turkish. While it appears as if it came directly from the Arabic language|Arabic, in "Muzułmanin", the "ł" sound is close to either the English language|English "w", or to the "l" in Allah, when pronounced by the Turkic peoples.
Islam
Most Muslims accept as a Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the ''Shahadah'' (declaration of faith) which states,
Ash-hadu an laa ilaha illa-lah
Wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah
"I bear witness there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah
and I bear witness, Muhammad is His final messenger".
The Amman Message[Teece (2003), p.10]
Muslim and mu'min
[[File:DoctorZakirNaik.jpg|thumb|upright|Zakir Naik is a popular Muslim figurehead. He is the Entrepreneur|founder and President of the Islamic Research Foundation and the first global Islamic television channel, Peace TV.]]
One of the verses in the Qur'an makes a distinction between a ''mu'min'', a believer, and a '''Muslim''':
- ''The Arabs of the desert say, "We believe." (tu/'''Moh'min|min'''u) Say thou: Ye believe not; but rather say, "We profess Islam;" (a'''Islam|slam'''na) for the faith (iman (concept)|al-'''iman'''u) hath not yet found its way into your hearts. But if ye obey God and His Apostle, he will not allow you to lose any of your actions: for God is Indulgent, Merciful (The Koran (Rodwell)|'The Koran 49:14, John Medows Rodwell|Rodwell).
According to the academician Carl Ernst, contemporary usage of the terms "Islam" and "Muslim" for the faith and its adherents is a modern innovation. As shown in the Quranic passage cited above, early Muslims distinguished between the Muslim, who has "submitted" and does the bare minimum required to be considered a part of the community, and the mu'min, the believer, who has given himself or herself to the faith heart and soul. Ernst writes:
- "The Arabic term ''Islam'' itself was of relatively minor importance in classical theologies based on the Qur'an. If one looks at the works of theologians such as the famous al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the key term of religious identity is not ''Islam'' but ''iman (concept)|iman'' (faith), and the one who possesses it is the ''mu'min'' (believer). Faith is one of the major topics of the Qur'an; it is mentioned hundreds of times in the sacred text. In comparison, ''Islam'' is a less common term of secondary importance; it only occurs eight times in the Qur'an. Since, however, the term ''Islam'' had a derivative meaning relating to the community of those who have submitted to God, it has taken on a new political significance, especially in recent history."[Ernst, Carl, ''Following Muhammad'', University of North Carolina Press, 2003, p. 63]
For another term in Islam for a non-Muslim who is a monotheist believer (usually applied historically in a pre-Islamic context), see hanif.
See also
- Allah
- Hadith
- Islam
- Islam by country
- List of Muslims
- Muhammad
- Muslim World
- Mussulman
- Qur'an
- Ramadan
- Sahih Muslim
References and notes
External links
- Muslim Population in Countries with different Alphabets
- Giving Zakath indispensable in completing fasting
- Muslims on Facebook
- Islamic directory for Muslims Find Muslim Owned businesses, Masjids (Mosques) and Islamic Centers all over the world.
- Variety of Islamic Softwares for Muslims Quran, Hadith and Athan (Azan) with Prayer times on Ms Windows and Mobile Phones.
Category:Islam
Category:Muslims|
simple:Islam#The Five Pillars of Islam
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