Islam

Years ago I read an English translation of the Qur'an, but today we learned a bit about Islam and it was good to hear it again in light of everything going on in the world.

Just a few things:

• Islam means "submission to God's will"
• Arab refers to the culture, Muslim is the religion, and Islamist is political and a newer term, and it's basically referring to anyone who wants to implement Islam into daily life.
• Of all Muslims, only 19% are Arabs
• Egypt has the largest population of Muslim Arabs
• The 5 pilars of Islam are: 1) Shahada (belief system including there is only one God and Mohammed was the last prophet); 2) Salat (ritual prayers 5x per day); 3) Zakat (charity that everyone should give 2.5% of their annual salary to others); 4) Sawm Ramadan (fasting); and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca where they circle the Kaaba 7 times)
• Muslims believe in the virgin birth of Jesus and that he was a messiah, but that he was not born of God. They also don't believe that the crucifixion happened - that Christ died for 3 days. They don't believe in original sin.
• They believe in all the miracles of Chirst, such as healing and walking on water.
• They believe that your deeds take you to heaven or hell. Prophets won't save you, but they will help you.
• Fatwa is essentially a statement of what is okay behavior as times change.
• Harram is essentially clear cut wrongs, such as killing or stealing.
• Big sins for Muslims include Killing, Dishonoring your parents, Gambling, Drinking Alcohol and not eating Halal.
• Rules of war for Islam I found especially interesting - don't kill unless in self defense, don't pursue fleeing soldiers, don't kill women/children.
• Wahabism is an extreme interpretation of Islam and is considered corrupt by Muslims
• Muslims believe in angels, which have free will and come from light, and Man is born of clay with free will, and Jinn comes from fire with no free will.