Islam

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Religion founded in the Arabian peninsula in the early AD 600s. It emphasizes the ‘oneness of God’ (Arabic tauhid), his omnipotence, beneficence, and inscrutability. Its sacred book is the Koran, which Muslims believe was divinely revealed to Muhammad, the prophet or messenger of Allah (God). There are two main Muslim sects: Sunni and Shiite. Others include Sufism, a mystical movement that originated in the AD 700s. The word Muslim means ‘one who makes his peace with God and Man’.

Beliefs
The fundamental beliefs of Islam are contained in the shahadah (testimony) – ‘I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah’ – which is a constituent part of the adhan (call to worship). Other beliefs central to Islam are the Creation, the Fall of Adam, angels and jinn, qadr (predestination), the Day of Judgement (Arabic Rawmuddin), akhirah (life after death), and the succession of scriptures revealed to the prophets, who include Moses and Isa (Jesus). The perfect, final form of the scriptures is the Koran or Quran or Qur'an (literally ‘reading’). It contains Muhammad's teachings, and was written down about 20 years after his death. It is divided into 114 suwar (chapters, singular sura), each of which is divided into a number of ayat (verses). Roughly speaking, all lands where Arabic is spoken, together with Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Africa as far as the Tropic of Cancer, are solidly Muslim. In the Central Asian republics, there are about 20 million in Uzbekistan, probably 8 million in Kazakhstan, and around 5 million altogether in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Other Muslim populations include China (29 million), the Balkan states (4.5 million), Malaysia (10 million), Indonesia (172 million), the Philippines (3.3 million), and sub-Saharan Africa (about 75 million). Islam is the second-largest religion in the UK, with about a million followers.

The ‘Solomon's Seal’ pentagram was added to distinguish the flag from other plain red Arab banners. Effective date: 17 November 1915. >>