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Religious Studies · Foundations

Islam

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On this page 9 sections
  1. In 30 seconds
  2. Why this matters
  3. The college version
  4. Eli explains
  5. Worked example
  6. Key takeaway
  7. Quick check
  8. Study tools
  9. Sources & references

In 30 seconds

is a global religious tradition that emerged in seventh-century Arabia. Muslims describe the as the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and they date the community from the , his migration with followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. Core beliefs include , the oneness of God, along with angels, prophets, revealed scriptures, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree. Practice centers on the Five Pillars: the profession of faith, daily prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage. Sunni and Shia Muslims and Sufi communities live worldwide.

Why this matters

Islam is one of the world's largest religions, with more than 1.5 billion adherents across every inhabited continent, so describing it accurately matters for anyone studying religion, history, and global culture. Because the tradition is often flattened into a single image, students who learn its internal diversity — Sunni and Shia communities, Sufi practice, and regional variation — are better equipped to read evidence fairly, compare traditions without ranking them, and interpret what they encounter in news, literature, and community life in Muslim-majority and diaspora settings. The same descriptive habits prepare students for later lessons on Judaism and Christianity, the traditions Islam is most often compared with, and on religious diversity more generally.

The college version

Origins: a prophet and a migration

Islam emerged in Arabia in the seventh century CE. Muslims regard Muhammad (c. 570–632 CE), a Meccan who worked in the caravan trade in his youth, as a prophet and messenger of God, not a divine being, and as the final prophet in a line that, in Muslim tradition, includes figures such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. As OpenStax puts it, Muslims follow the teaching of Muhammad, seen only as a prophet and believed to be the messenger of Allah (God). According to the tradition, Muhammad received the Quran, which Muslims describe as the word of God, through the angel Gabriel. The traditional founding event of the community is the hijra: in 622 CE Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina, where his preaching was accepted and the community-state of Islam emerged, as Britannica describes it. BBC Religions notes that Muslims believe Islam has always existed but, for practical purposes, date their religion from the time of Muhammad's migration. The Arabic word Islam is often translated as submission or surrender to God; some glosses also connect it to the Arabic word for peace.

Core beliefs: the six articles of faith

Introductory accounts commonly describe six articles of faith. The first is tawhid, the oneness of God: God is one, with no partner or equal, and the profession of faith affirms that there is no god but God and Muhammad is God's messenger, as Britannica's entry on tawhid explains. The remaining articles are belief in angels, particularly Gabriel, the angel of inspiration through whom the Quran was delivered; the revealed scriptures, above all the Quran along with the sacred books of earlier Jewish and Christian tradition; the prophets and messengers God has sent, of whom Muhammad is regarded as the last; the Day of Judgment, when the dead will be resurrected and judged according to their deeds; and divine decree, also translated as predestination. These articles are a descriptive summary: Muslims hold them in common while interpreting them differently. Wikipedia lists the six as God, angels, revelation, prophets, the Day of Resurrection, and divine predestination; Britannica derives the same beliefs from the profession of faith. The list is a map of shared beliefs, not a uniform formula.

Practice: the Five Pillars

Practice is commonly organized around the Five Pillars, the obligations that, as BBC Religions puts it, every Muslim must satisfy in order to live a good and responsible life. The first pillar is the , the profession of faith, affirming God's oneness and Muhammad as God's messenger. The second is , ritual prayer performed at set times five times each day, often in the mosque, where Friday congregational prayer includes a sermon. The third is , alms or charity given to benefit the poor and needy, described by Britannica as an annual payment used primarily for the poor. The fourth is , fasting during the month of Ramadan. The fifth is , the pilgrimage to Mecca, expected of Muslims who are able at least once in a lifetime. OpenStax summarizes the same five: one God and Muhammad his prophet, daily prayer, helping those in poverty, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca. The Kaaba, the cube-shaped sanctuary in Mecca, is the most sacred site, toward which Muslims face in prayer. The pillars describe shared obligations; how communities practice them varies by region, interpretation, and circumstance.

Texts: the Quran and the Hadith

The Quran is the central scripture of Islam, regarded by Muslims as the verbatim word of God delivered to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel and divided into 114 chapters, or suras. It is the fundamental source of Islamic teaching. Alongside it stands the Sunnah, the example of the Prophet, his words and deeds, which is recorded in compilations known as the , the Arabic word for report. The Hadith are not scripture in the sense the Quran is; they are a corpus of transmitted sayings and traditions about Muhammad, and different communities hold different collections authoritative: Britannica notes six collections especially authoritative for Sunnis and four for the Shia. This lesson describes the Quran in general terms and never quotes from it.

Diversity: Sunni, Shia, and Sufi, across the globe

Islam is not a single uniform community. The majority of Muslims are Sunni. The Shia, the smaller of the two major branches, trace their tradition to a faction known as the 'party of Ali' that, early in Islam's history, supported Ali ibn Abi Talib — cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet and later the fourth caliph — and his descendants as leaders of the community after Muhammad's death; what began as a question of leadership developed into a distinct religious tradition, as Britannica describes. Both branches share the Quran, the pillars, and the core beliefs, and each contains further internal diversity. Sufism is a mystical tradition within Islam in which practitioners seek the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God, often along spiritual paths; Sufi orders have been influential across Muslim societies. Geographically, Islam is the world's second-largest religion, with more than 1.5 billion adherents; Indonesia has the largest Muslim population, and Muslims live throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In daily life, communities gather in mosques, which serve as places of prayer and as important social centers; dietary rules distinguish permitted (halal) from forbidden foods, with pork and alcohol traditionally forbidden; and the year is marked by two major festivals, Eid al-Fitr, which ends the month of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice that coincides with the culmination of the hajj pilgrimage.

Eli, the EliExplains learning guide

Eli explains

The same idea, in plain words

Explain it like I’m 10

Here is a way to hold the whole tradition in one picture. Imagine a language with a shared alphabet. The alphabet — the oneness of God, the Quran as revealed scripture, the Five Pillars, the prophets — is common to nearly every Muslim community. But a shared alphabet does not make one uniform language. Communities arrange the same letters into very different words: some emphasize law and scholarship, some emphasize personal devotion to God, some are shaped by regional customs or by centuries of local history. A Sunni in Indonesia, a Shia in Iran, and a Sufi community in Senegal share the alphabet of Islam while living quite different religious lives. The scholar's job is not to judge which arrangement is right. It is to describe what people believe and do, and to notice both the shared core and the differences.

Picture it like this

The shared core of Islam is like a common alphabet used by many languages. The letters — tawhid, the Quran, the Five Pillars — appear everywhere, but each community composes them into its own sentences: its own prayers, festivals, interpretations, and ways of life, the way different languages use the same script letters in very different words.

Where the picture stops working

The analogy has limits. Letters are neutral tools, but religious beliefs carry deep meaning and are argued over passionately; communities do not merely rearrange neutral symbols, they interpret, debate, and sometimes disagree sharply. And an alphabet is fixed, while Islam has a history: it has changed, spread, and developed new forms over fourteen centuries. The analogy also makes the shared core look identical everywhere, when in fact even central concepts like the oneness of God are understood in varied ways.

Worked example

A student is drafting a short essay on Islam for a comparative-religion course. She begins with the community's founding: in 622 CE Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina, the hijra, from which Muslims for practical purposes date their religion, as BBC Religions explains. She then names the Five Pillars with a one-line description of each — shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, and hajj — and checks her phrasing against Britannica's article, which confirms the five daily prayers, the annual charity payment used primarily for the poor, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. She adds a sentence noting that the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims began as an early question of leadership after Muhammad's death, citing Britannica's account of the 'party of Ali.' She describes the Quran in general terms without quoting it, and closes by naming Sufism, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha. Every factual sentence in her paragraph points back to a source.

Key takeaway

Islam is a diverse global tradition with a shared core — the oneness of God, the Quran, and the Five Pillars — best studied by describing what Muslims believe and do, including the tradition's own internal diversity.

Quick check

3 questions here, of 5 in this lesson’s practice set. Answers stay hidden until you check.

Question 1 of 3foundational

Which list names the five obligations commonly called the Five Pillars of Islam?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Question 2 of 3intermediate

A course calendar notes that a community dates its founding from the year its prophet and followers migrated from Mecca to Medina. Which term and date does this describe?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Question 3 of 3intermediate

How does Britannica describe the origin of the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Practice all 5

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Practice this lesson
Study tools & related lessonsYou’ll learn to · Common mistakes · Easily confused · Key vocabulary · Related

You’ll learn to

  • Define Islam as a diverse global tradition that emerged in seventh-century Arabia, naming the hijra to Medina in 622 CE as its traditional founding event.
  • Describe the six articles of faith as adherents and scholars describe them, including tawhid, the oneness of God.
  • Name the Five Pillars and give a one-line description of each.
  • Distinguish the Quran, the central revealed scripture, from the Hadith, the corpus of sayings and traditions attributed to Muhammad.
  • Explain the historical origin of the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and name Sufism as a mystical tradition within Islam.
  • Apply descriptive categories to daily life in Muslim communities, including prayer, dietary rules, the festivals of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and the mosque.

Common mistakes

  • Treating Islam as a single uniform tradition with one fixed way of believing and practicing.

    Scholars describe internal diversity: Sunni and Shia communities, Sufi paths, and wide regional variation all fall within Islam.

  • Confusing the Quran with the Hadith.

    The Quran is the central revealed scripture; the Hadith are compilations of sayings and deeds attributed to Muhammad, and different communities hold different collections authoritative.

  • Confusing the hijra with the hajj.

    The hijra was Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, the traditional founding event; the hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the Five Pillars.

  • Assuming the Five Pillars are the only practices that matter.

    The pillars are the commonly described core obligations, but daily life also includes dietary rules, festivals such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and the social life of the mosque.

Easily confused

Quran vs. Hadith

The Quran is the revealed scripture Muslims describe as the word of God; the Hadith are compiled sayings and deeds of Muhammad, a different kind of corpus.

Sunni vs. Shia

Sunnis are the majority branch; the Shia trace to the 'party of Ali,' a faction that supported Ali and his descendants after Muhammad's death, a division that began as a question of leadership.

Eid al-Fitr vs. Eid al-Adha

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the month of Ramadan; Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, coincides with the culmination of the hajj pilgrimage.

Key vocabulary

Islam
A global religious tradition that emerged in Arabia in the seventh century CE; the Arabic word is often translated as submission or surrender to God.
Tawhid
The oneness of God, a foundational belief in Islam expressed in the profession of faith.
Quran
The central scripture of Islam, which Muslims describe as the word of God revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.
Hadith
Compilations of the sayings and deeds attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, transmitted in different forms by different communities.
Hijra
The migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, traditionally regarded as the founding event of the Muslim community.
Shahada
The profession of faith affirming God's oneness and Muhammad as God's messenger, counted as the first of the Five Pillars.
Salat
Ritual prayer performed at set times, traditionally five times a day, often in the mosque.
Zakat
Alms or charity given to benefit the poor and needy, counted among the Five Pillars.
Sawm
Fasting, especially during the month of Ramadan, counted among the Five Pillars.
Hajj
The pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims who are able are expected to undertake once in a lifetime.

Sources & references

  1. 15.2 World Religions — Introduction to Sociology 3e — OpenStax, Rice University
  2. Religions: Islam (with 'Islam at a glance' and 'Five Pillars of Islam') — BBC Religions
  3. Islam (religion) — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  4. Tawhid — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  5. Sufism — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  6. Eid al-Fitr — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  7. Eid al-Adha — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  8. Shi'ite — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  9. Islam (resources on Islamic traditions) — Harvard Pluralism Project
  10. Islam (encyclopedia article) — Wikipedia
  11. Halal — Wikipedia
  12. Muhammad (encyclopedia article) — Wikipedia

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Researched 2026-08-21

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