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Approximately one-fifth on the world's population is Muslim,
concentrated in an area on either side of the equator and stretching
from Morocco in the west to the Philippines
in the east. Islam
means "submission to the will of God'; Muslims are "submitters"
to God's will as it was communicated to the prophet Muhammad
in a series of divine revelations. The Muslim scripture (the
Qur'an) contains these revelations, and it is considered
to be the eternal speech of God.
Muhammad's
call to prophecy occurred in about 610 CE. By the time of his
death in 632 he had established the structure of a new religious
outlook, and he had brought the whole of the Arabian Peninsula
under his sway. Controversy over headship of the Muslim community
led to a major division among the faithful. Those known as the
Shi'ah Muslims advocated a hereditary succession, while
Sunni Muslims (today the large majority) held to a principle
of election.
In
the years immediately after Muhammad's death, Islam spread quickly
throughout the Middle
East. This expansion laid the foundations of
a mighty empire that reached the zenith of its political and
cultural brilliance in the 9th and 10th centuries, under the
caliphs of the 'Abbasid dynasty (who established their
capital in Baghdad). In subsequent waves of expansion,
Islam spread across North Africa and then into Europe, Central
Asia, the Indian
subcontinent, the Indonesian archipelago, and
even farther east. Islam has continued to dominate in the regions
overrun in the early conquests, though the united empire crumbled
and gave way to a series of regional dynasties and, more recently,
to national states.
Religiously
speaking, for Muslims the central human problem is our need
of guidance. History is a repeated process of receiving guidance
through prophecy and then of falling away from it. Muslims
see Muhammad as the last of a great series of prophets that
began with Adam and continued with others such as Abraham,
Moses, David, and Jesus. The full implications of
the divine guidance offered to humanity are worked out in the
Shari'ah, or Islamic law. It stipulates essential obligations
towards God ('ibadat) as well as ethical obligations towards
other people. The most important of the obligations towards
God are the five "pillars" of Islam: the profession of faith,
prayer, alms giving, fasting, and pilgrimage.
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On
two audiotapes - about three hours in length.
Narrator: Ben Kingsley
Author: Dr. Charles Adams
Editor: Professor Walter Harrelson
Publisher: Knowledge Products, Inc.
This
title is part of the Audio Classics Series by
Knowledge Products. Knowledge Products publishes a variety of
audio presentations on the great ideas and events of history.
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