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A Muslim (pronounced ) is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "one who submits to God".
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through the prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Muslims maintain that previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or corrupted over time, but consider the Qur'an to be both unaltered and the final revelation from God—Final Testament.
Most Muslims accept as a Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the Shahadah (declaration of faith) which states, "I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God and I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of God." Their religious practices include daily prayers (salat), fasting during Ramadan (sawm), almsgiving (zakat), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.
Currently, the most up-to-date reports from an American think tank and PBS have estimated 1.2 to 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world, or about 20% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion, with 60% in Asia and 20% of Muslims living in the Middle East and North Africa.
Etymology
A
muslim (; or or
moslem) is the
participle of the same verb of which
islām is the
infinitive. A female adherent is a
muslima (). The plural form in Arabic is
muslimūn (), and its feminine equivalent is
muslimāt (). The Arabic form
muslimun is the stem IV
participle of the
triliteral S-L-M "to be whole, intact".
Other words for Muslim
The ordinary word in English is "Muslim", pronounced or . The word is pronounced in Arabic. It is sometimes
transliterated as "Moslem", which is an older spelling. “Submitter” is the English equivalent of the Arabic word “Muslim”.
Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans. 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.
Variant forms of this word are still used by many Indo-European and Turkic languages. These words are similar to the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Bosnian, Persian, Kurdish, and Hindi words for "Muslim".
Meaning
Many scholars, historians and saints have tried to come up with a true definition for Muslim. Some historians have put forward that a Muslim denotes a follower of exclusively of the Qur'an, but Muslims believe that every prophet and their respective followers were Muslim as well. In defining the term, the mystic Ibn Arabi said:
"A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God...Islam means making one's religion and faith God's alone.
The
Qur'an is clear on promulgating that every
prophet preached the same faith, which centered on the worship of
God. Therefore, the Qur'an speaks of anyone who submits themselves to God as being a Muslim, regardless of whether they lived before the
Qur'an was revealed or after. Thus, the
Qur'an narrates the preaching of
Noah:
"But if you turn back, I did not ask of you any reward; my reward is only due from God, and I have been commanded to be of those who have submitted (muslimūn)"
Used to describe earlier prophets in the Qur'an
The
Qur'an describes many
prophets and messengers as well as their respective followers as Muslim:
Adam,
Noah,
Abraham,
Jacob,
Moses and
Jesus and his
apostles are all confirmed as being Muslim by the
Qur'an. The Qur'an states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values, which included praying, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'an, Jesus’ disciples tell Jesus, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we are Muslims (
wa-shahad be anna muslimūn)." In Muslim belief, before the
Qur'an,
God had given the
Torah to
Moses, the
Psalms to
David and the
Gospel to
Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim
prophets.
Demographics
About 13% of Muslims live in
Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, 2% in
Central Asia, 4% in the remaining South East Asian countries, and 15% in
Sub-saharan Africa. Sizable communities are also found in
China and
Russia, and parts of the
Caribbean. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world.
See also
Musulman
Muslim world
Islamic schools and branches
Muslim holidays
Lists of Muslims
References and notes
External links
Islamic directory for Muslims Find Muslim Owned businesses, Masjids (Mosques) and Islamic Centers all over the world.
Muslim Population in Countries with different Alphabets
Category:Religious identity
