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Islam: Religions
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In the first place, Islam is an unflinchingly monotheistic faith. Even the readily-accepted notion that God could have a son (Christ) runs counter to this explicit monotheism. Like the Hebrew god, Allah is invisible, without material form; Allah is omnipotent, wrathful on occasion, yet eternally merciful. Like the God of the Genesis account, Allah has created the natural world and endowed humans with life among a world of divinely-created things. This human creature is regarded as free and individual; and the belief that individuality is good is shared among the Semitic faiths. The religions concur too on the presence and the nature of the soul, which lives on after the body has perished.
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Like two other religions today, Judaism and Christianity, Islam is thought to be an Abrahamic religion, because the three religions are believed to have been started by Abraham. In all three religions, Abraham is one of God's earliest messengers. Islam is now the second largest religion in the world with about 1 and a half billion followers. It is ... the fastest growing religion in the world.
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Islam, one of the world's great monotheistic religions, has Saudi Arabia as its heartland. The followers of Islam, called Muslims, believe in God - in Arabic, Allah - and that Muhammad is His Prophet. Today, the worldwide community of Muslims, which embraces the people of many races and cultures, numbers well over one billion.
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The Rise of Islam - Muhamed, a prophet astute in statecraft and military strategy and an inspired statesman, changed the history and destiny of Arabia and of much of the world. He was born about 570 to the Banu Hashim family, reputable merchants in the tribe of Quraysh in Mecca. According to tradition, he was a penniless orphan who married Khadija, the widow of a rich merchant, somewhat older than himself. He probably engaged in trade, and is said by some to have had responsibilities in connection with the Ka'aba stone. When he was about forty years old he began preaching a new religion, eventually meeting the opposition of Meccan oligarchy. Initally, Muhammad made few converts and many enemies.
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The Sira gives a dynamic picture of how Islam enters a culture. When Mohammed started preaching in Mecca, he did not encounter animosity. Islam was first portrayed as a logical continuation of the native Arabic religions. Then Islam claimed to be a “brother religion” to Judaism. Next it became not just a better religion but the best, and all of the other religions were wrong. Islam was publicly confrontational, attacking every aspect of the host culture.
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Although the two religions share some terminology and even some theology (monotheism, for instance), Islam is fundamentally different from Christianity. Islam is a works-oriented religion, while Christian faith is based on salvation by grace through faith as a result of the shed blood of Christ. In Islam, if God wants to forgive sin, He simply says, "It is forgiven." Christianity recognizes the necessity of the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin. (Hebrews 9:22)
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