Islam

Islam (Arabic “submission”) aligns itself with the monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity and the belief in the prophets whose attestation to the sovereign, ongoing and active purpose of the one God: “We believe in God and that which was revealed to us; in what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes; to Moses and Jesus and the other prophets of the Lord” (Sura 2:135). It is founded upon a succession of religious vision experiences by Muhammad (b. ca. 570 CE), a poor and probably illiterate Arab who struggled through much of the first 40 years of his life. Around 610 CE while meditating in a cave in Mount Hira near Mecca (Saudi Arabia), he receives revelations from the angel Gabriel. The angel “who is powerful and mighty” (Sura 53.5) imparts the “Book” into the heart of Muhammad who is instructed to ‘iqra, “recite” (Al-Quran, “The Recitation”). Through the encounter Muhammad understands himself to be an emissary of God as the last and greatest of the...