Islam

FOUNDED: Islam began about 1400 years ago in what is now Saudi Arabia.

Started by: THE Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

KEY SCRIPTURE: THE QURAAN, the revealed scripture of Islam, and the Hadith, the teachings, sayings and life of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Adherents: One billion, mostly in the Middle East, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Africa, China and Eastern Europe. According to Guiness

  
Islam, another monotheistic religion, is the second most popular religion in the world with over a billion followers. A Muslim is a follower of Islam. The Arabic word 'Islam' means submission.  This religion began about 600 years after Christianity.  A man named Muhammad, born in 570 CE, believed he was visited by the Archangel Gabriel (believed in Christianity to have told Mary that Jesus was the son of God).  Gabriel told Muhammad the final message of God, which was written down in a book called the Koran (also spelled Qur’an).  The Koran is the Islamic holy book.  Muslims call God “Allah”--the Arabic word for god. 

            The prophet Muhammad is the founder of Islam, and Muslims believe he was the last prophet of Allah—it is believed the first prophet was Adam (Adam and Eve).  A prophet is someone who is believed to have spoken to a God and then repeats God’s message.  There were many prophets before Muhammad including: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Job, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus.  Islam began in modern-day Saudi Arabia in a town called Mecca where Muhammad was born.  Muslims do not think of Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.  Muslims believe that Jews and Christians have distorted the original message of God.