Religion

Islam

is-LAHM

Abrahamic (Monotheistic)

Origin 610 to 632 CE

Islam holds that God is one and without partner, that he has sent prophets to every people, and that his final revelation is the Quran, delivered to Muhammad in Arabia in the seventh century. Muslims regard Muhammad as the last of a prophetic line running through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and the Quran as God's own speech rather than a record of it. Practice is defined more by observable obligation than by creed: the declaration of faith, five daily prayers, almsgiving, the fast of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca, elaborated by centuries of jurisprudence into a law covering worship, commerce and family life. With roughly two billion adherents it is the second largest religion.

History & Origin

Islam traces its origin to the revelations received by the prophet Muhammad in Mecca and Medina in the early seventh century, collected as the Quran.

Facts

Belief

Supreme Being

Allah, God, held to be one and without partner or equal. 2

Theology

Monotheistic: one God 1

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Akl mal al-yatim: consuming the wealth of an orphan. 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Al-tawalli yawm al-zahf: fleeing from the battlefield. 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Qadhf: slandering chaste, believing women with unchastity. 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Qatl al-nafs: killing a soul that Allah has forbidden, except by right. 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Riba: consuming usury or interest. 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Shirk: associating partners with Allah, the first and gravest of the Seven Destructive Sins (as-sab al-mubiqat). 3Sunni Islam

Transgression Categorythe subject's own account

Sihr: magic or sorcery. 3Sunni Islam

Position on Usury

Interest of any kind on a loan is forbidden 4

the subject's own accountRiba, interest on a loan of any rate, is forbidden outright, not only an excessive or exploitative rate. The prohibition reached its complete and final form in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:275-281, after two earlier and progressively stronger stages, and has not been reversed by mainstream Sunni or Shia jurisprudence since.

Usury Position Detailthe subject's own account

The Quran's treatment of riba came in stages rather than all at once. An early Meccan verse, Surah Al-Rum 30:39, contrasted interest unfavorably with charity as moral guidance, without yet imposing a legal ban. After the migration to Medina the tone sharpened: Surah Al-Nisa 4:161 rebukes an earlier community for taking interest despite being forbidden it, and Surah Al-Imran 3:130, revealed after the Battle of Uhud, specifically condemns compounding interest. The final and complete prohibition, covering interest of any kind, came in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:275-281, revealed near the end of the Prophet's life and describing persistence in the practice as tantamount to war against God and His messenger. This is why contemporary Islamic finance avoids interest bearing loans altogether, structuring transactions instead as profit and loss sharing partnerships or cost-plus sales. 4

Position on Marriage

Marriage may licitly be polygynous 5

the subject's own accountQur'an 4:3 permits a man to marry up to four wives at one time, conditioned on his being able to deal justly with each in material terms, spending, clothing and time; 4:129 clarifies that perfect emotional justice between wives is not humanly attainable and so is not the standard. A second condition is financial capability to support each wife.

Marriage Position Detailthe subject's own account

Qur'an 4:3 states: "And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan girls then marry (other) women of your choice, two or three, or four." Classical and contemporary Sunni and Shia jurisprudence alike reads this as permitting, not requiring, a man to be married to up to four wives at one time, on two conditions: material justice between the wives, in spending, clothing, and time, which Qur'an 4:129 immediately qualifies by noting that perfect justice in feeling, as opposed to material treatment, is not humanly possible and so is not what is required; and the financial capacity to support each wife. Monogamy remains the ordinary practice for most Muslims worldwide; the ruling recognizes polygynous marriage as licit rather than mandating it. 5

Position on Sexuality

Same-sex orientation or practice is held to bar full membership or participation 6 5

The four classical Sunni schools of law unanimously hold homosexual acts unlawful. The Shafi'i, Hanbali and the main Maliki position treat the act under or analogous to the hadd penalty for zina, a punishable offense under strict evidentiary conditions (four witnesses or confession); the Maliki school's own stricter reading holds both parties liable regardless of marital status; the Hanafi school leans toward a discretionary ta'zir punishment instead, reasoning the hadd evidentiary bar was not met. All four schools distinguish the act from the attraction itself, which is not held to be sinful.

Sexuality Position Detail

Classical Islamic jurisprudence treats homosexual acts, generally termed liwat in the legal literature, as unlawful across all four Sunni schools, though the schools differ on the exact legal category and punishment. The Shafi'i, Hanbali and main Maliki position hold the punishment mirrors that for zina under the hadd category, a fixed penalty applied only under strict evidentiary conditions such as four eyewitnesses or a clear confession; the Maliki school's own harshest reading holds both parties subject to execution regardless of marital status; the Hanafi school instead leans toward a discretionary punishment, ta'zir, set by a judge rather than a fixed hadd penalty, on the reasoning that the specific evidentiary threshold hadd requires was not met by the available textual evidence. Across all four schools, the same-sex attraction itself is treated as distinct from the act and is not, on its own, held to be sinful; the legal rulings address conduct. 6

Origins

Origin Period

610 to 632 CE 1

Place of Origin

The Hijaz, in western Arabia: Mecca and Medina 1

Founder

Muslims hold Islam to be the restoration of the primordial religion rather than a new founding 1

Founder

The Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632) 1

Form of the Confession

The shahada, the declaration that there is no god but God and Muhammad is His messenger, is Islam's central creed and the first of the five pillars. 2

Practice

Practice Status

Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders 8

the subject's own accountIslamic scripture and teaching are published worldwide and Islam is one of the most extensively documented living religions. One access restriction is enforced rather than merely customary: the city of Mecca and its Grand Mosque are closed to non-Muslims by Saudi law, so participation in the Hajj and in worship there is limited to Muslims by the tradition's own rule and the state that administers it.

Trajectory

Membership Over Time

By 2020, the same Pew study found the global Muslim population had grown 21 percent to 2.0 billion (26 percent of world population), growing twice as fast as the rest of the world's population over the decade, driven by Muslims having more children and a younger average age than members of any other major religion. 11

Membership Over Time

In its January 27, 2011 report, Pew Research Center estimated about 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide as of 2010, 23.4 percent of the estimated 6.9 billion global population, compiled from roughly 1,500 sources across 232 countries and territories. 12

Membership Over Time

Pew's June 2025 update to its global religion modeling revised its own 2010 Muslim estimate upward to 1.7 billion (24 percent of world population), a modest revision of the 2011 report's 1.6 billion figure for the same year, both recorded here side by side rather than one replacing the other. 11

Membership Figure As Of

2010-01-01 11

Membership Figure As Of

2011-01-27 12

Membership Figure As Of

2020-01-01 11

Basis of the Membership Figure

Independent Survey 11

Basis of the Membership Figure

Scholarly or Demographic Estimate 11

Status

Status Today

Living tradition, practised today 1

Reach

Adherents Today

2,000,000,000 7

Corrected from 1.95 billion to 2.0 billion to match this atlas's own cited source (Pew Research Center, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020) and its own Where Muslims Live Now article, both of which already give 2.0 billion for 2020, up from 1.7 billion in 2010.

Adherents Today

Pew Research Center's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020 report puts the global Muslim population at 2.0 billion as of 2020, about 26 percent of the world's population, up from 1.7 billion in 2010 and growing about twice as fast as the world's population as a whole over that decade. 7

Giving

Standing Giving Expectation

Zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, obliges a Muslim whose accumulated wealth exceeds a minimum threshold (nisab) to give 2.5 percent of that qualifying wealth annually. The Quran (9:60) names eight categories of recipients. In several Muslim-majority countries zakat is collected by the state itself rather than left to the individual, giving the obligation a legal as well as a religious force there; elsewhere it is a personal duty of conscience understood to be as central to Islamic practice as prayer and fasting. 9

Standard Rate Expected

Two and a half percent. 9

How the Expectation Is Enforced

Codified Obligation With Consequences 9

Law and State

Establishment Status

Varies by Province 10

Islam is named the state religion by constitution or statute in dozens of countries with differing force: Saudi Arabia's 1992 Basic Law of Governance makes the Quran and Sunna themselves the state's constitution; Malaysia's 1957 Federal Constitution names Islam the religion of the Federation in Article 3 while guaranteeing other faiths free practice; Iran's 1979 constitution establishes Twelver Ja'fari Shia Islam specifically as the official religion in Article 12; and Bangladesh's constitution, amended in 1988, names Islam the state religion in Article 2A while affirming equal status for other religions, so establishment ranges from an exclusive religious constitution to a largely symbolic declaration.

Classification

Kind of Tradition

Abrahamic (Monotheistic) 13

Learn More

What Muslims Hold

Islam is often described as a religion of practice rather than of creed, and the description is fair as far as it goes. What must be believed is short: that God is one, without partner, offspring or image; that he has sent messengers to every nation; that scriptures were given to some of them; that angels exist; that there will be a resurrection and a judgement; and that what happens is subject to God's decree.

The Quran is understood not as a book about revelation but as revelation itself, God's speech in Arabic, received by Muhammad over some twenty-three years and unaltered since. That belief explains the weight placed on the Arabic text, on recitation as a discipline in its own right, and on the reluctance to call a translation a Quran at all. Alongside it stands the hadith, the reports of what Muhammad said, did and permitted, collected and sifted for reliability in the centuries after his death and second only to the Quran as a source of law.

Obligation is organised around five pillars: the declaration that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his messenger; prayer five times daily facing Mecca; the alms levy; the daylight fast of Ramadan; and the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required once of those able to make it. None of this requires a priesthood. There are scholars, judges and prayer leaders, and their authority rests on learning and community recognition rather than on ordination.

Around the pillars grew sharia, less a fixed code than the body of reasoning by which scholars derive God's requirements from the sources, covering worship, diet, commerce, marriage and inheritance. Its interpretation has never been uniform, and the question of who is entitled to interpret it is among the most contested in the modern Muslim world.

Sunni, Shia and the Schools

The division that most defines Islam began as a question of leadership rather than doctrine. Muhammad died in 632 without a succession arrangement his followers all accepted. The majority came to hold that the community's elders had chosen rightly in Abu Bakr and the caliphs who followed him; a minority held that authority belonged to Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and to his descendants. Those positions hardened over generations into the Sunni and Shia traditions, and each reads the same early history very differently.

The killing of Ali's son Husayn at Karbala in 680 gave Shia Islam its central act of commemoration and much of its temper. Shia thought developed the doctrine of the imamate: that a line of divinely guided descendants of Ali carried the authority to interpret revelation. The largest Shia branch, the Twelvers, holds that the twelfth of these entered concealment and will return; the Ismailis and the Zaydis count the line differently. Sunnis, the large majority of Muslims, recognise no such office and locate authority in the consensus of the scholars.

Both traditions produced schools of law. Four survive among Sunnis, the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali, differing on method and detail rather than fundamentals and generally recognising one another as valid; the Shia Jafari school stands alongside them. A Muslim ordinarily follows the school prevailing where he lives.

Cutting across all of it is Sufism, the devotional and mystical current organised into orders around teachers and disciplines of remembrance. For centuries it was the ordinary texture of Muslim piety and a principal agent of the religion's spread in Africa and in South and Southeast Asia. Since the eighteenth century, reform movements arguing for a stripped-down practice drawn directly from Quran and hadith have contested that inheritance, and the argument between them remains one of the live fault lines within Sunni Islam.

Where Muslims Live Now

The common association of Islam with the Arab world understates its reach considerably. Arabs are a minority of Muslims. The largest Muslim populations are in South and Southeast Asia, chiefly Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and the Asia-Pacific region holds more Muslims than the Middle East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa together.

By the Pew Research Center's counts the global Muslim population rose from about 1.7 billion in 2010 to about 2.0 billion in 2020, growing roughly twice as fast as the world's population and moving from 24 to 26 per cent of it. That growth is mainly demographic, a matter of a younger population and higher fertility, rather than of conversion, and it is fastest in sub-Saharan Africa.

Arabic remains the language of prayer everywhere, which gives the religion a textual unity its geography might not suggest. Practice nonetheless varies widely with local custom, legal school and the degree to which the state involves itself in religion. Muslim-majority countries range from the constitutionally secular to those where classical law is enforced by the state, and the proper relationship between religious and political authority is argued over in all of them.

Substantial Muslim minorities live in Western Europe, North America, Russia, China and elsewhere, some through twentieth-century migration and some long-settled and indigenous, and their legal and social circumstances differ sharply from one country to the next.

Spread History

Marker size and shape show how established Islam was there: a small filled dot for an arrival, a larger one for an established or dominant presence, and a hollow, distinct marker where it was suppressed or nearly disappeared, never simply absent.

View the Full Spread Map

Islam Arises in MeccaSaudi Arabia, 610 to 622, Arrived
Islam Is Established at MedinaSaudi Arabia, 622, Established
Islam Reaches PersiaIran, 633 to 651, Established
Islam Reaches SyriaSyria, 634 to 636, Established
Islam Reaches EgyptEgypt, 639 to 642, Established
Islam Reaches China Under the Tang DynastyChina, 651, Arrived
Islam Reaches IberiaSpain, 711 to 718, Arrived
Islam Is Established on the Swahili CoastTanzania, 780 to 1300, Established
Islam Is Established Among the Turkic Peoples of Central AsiaCentral Asia, 892 to 1005, Established
Islam Is Established in the Mali EmpireMali, 1050 to 1337, Established
The Reconquista Suppresses Islam in SpainSpain, 1085 to 1492, Suppressed
Islam Is Extinguished in Sicily After the Norman and Hohenstaufen ConquestItaly, 1189 to 1246, Extinct
Islam Spreads in South Asia Through the Chishti OrderIndia, 1192 to 1236, Established
Islam Becomes the State Religion of the Golden HordeCentral Asian Steppe, 1252 to 1321, Established
The Mongol Sack of Baghdad Ends the Abbasid CaliphateIraq, 1258, Suppressed
Islam Reaches the Indonesian ArchipelagoIndonesia, 1267 to 1500, Arrived
Islam Reaches the Philippines via the Sulu SultanatePhilippines, 1380 to 1390, Arrived
The Ottoman Empire Establishes Islam as Dominant in BulgariaBulgaria, 1396 to 1580, Dominant
Islam Is Established in Bosnia Under Ottoman RuleBosnia and Herzegovina, 1463 to 1600, Established
The Moriscos Are Expelled From SpainSpain, 1492 to 1614, Extinct
The Mughal Empire Establishes Islam as Dominant in North IndiaIndia, 1526 to 1600, Dominant
Sheikh Yusuf's Exile Establishes Islam at the Cape of Good HopeSouth Africa, 1694, Arrived
Ayuba Suleiman Diallo's Enslavement Documents Islam in Colonial MarylandUnited States, 1731, Arrived
The Sokoto Caliphate Spreads Islam Across West AfricaNigeria, 1804 to 1808, Dominant
Islam Reaches the AmericasAmericas, 1900, Arrived
Soviet Rule Suppresses Islam in Central AsiaCentral Asia, 1917 to 1985, Suppressed
Islam Reaches Western Europe Through Postwar Labor MigrationWestern Europe, 1945 to 1980, Arrived
Islam Is Revived in Central Asia After Soviet RuleCentral Asia, 1991, Revived
China Launches Mass Internment of Uyghur Muslims in XinjiangChina, 2017, Suppressed

Within Islam

Denominations

Schools of Theology

Ashari School

Kalam Schools

37 links

Mutazila

Kalam Schools

33 links

In the Texts

Genesis 12:1-3The Holy Bible, American Standard Versioncovenant

Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Abraham (Ibrahim) is honoured in Islam as the first muslim, one who submits.

The Holy Bible, American Standard Version. translated by American Revision Committee.

About This Passage

Quran 1:1-7 (al-Fatiha)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)prayer

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds, the merciful, the compassionate, the ruler of the day of judgment! Thee we serve and Thee we ask for aid. Guide us in the right path, the path of those Thou art gracious to; not of those Thou art wroth with; nor of those who err.

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 112:1-4 (al-Ikhlas)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)the oneness of God

Say, 'He is God alone! God the Eternal! He begets not and is not begotten! Nor is there like unto Him any one!'

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 17:24 (Palmer 17:25)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)family duty

And lower to them the wing of humility out of compassion, and say, 'O Lord! have compassion on them as they brought me up when I was little!'

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 2:255 (Ayat al-Kursi; Palmer 2:256)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)the oneness of God

God, there is no god but He, the living, the self-subsistent. Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep. His is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. Who is it that intercedes with Him save by His permission? He knows what is before them and what behind them, and they comprehend not aught of His knowledge but of what He pleases. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and it tires Him not to guard them both, for He is high and grand.

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 2:256 (Palmer 2:257)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)religious freedom, contested

There is no compulsion in religion; the right way has been distinguished from the wrong, and whoso disbelieves in Taghut and believes in God, he has got hold of the firm handle in which is no breaking off; but God both hears and knows.

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 24:35 (the Light Verse)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)light and guidance

God is the light of the heavens and the earth; His light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp is in a glass, the glass is as though it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil of which would well-nigh give light though no fire touched it,, light upon light!, God guides to His light whom He pleases; and God strikes out parables for men, and God all things doth know.

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 5:32 (Palmer 5:15 numbering)The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)the value of a life

For this cause have we prescribed to the children of Israel that whoso kills a soul, unless it be for another soul or for violence in the land, it is as though he had killed men altogether; but whoso saves one, it is as though he saved men altogether.

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 55:1-9The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)balance and order

The Merciful taught the Qur'an; He created man, taught him plain speech. The sun and the moon have their appointed time; The herbs and the trees adore; And the heavens, He raised them and set the balance, that ye should not be outrageous in the balance; But weigh ye aright, and stint not the balance. And the earth He has set it for living creatures;

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Quran 96:1-5The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9)revelation

READ, in the name of thy Lord! Who created man from congealed blood! Read, for thy Lord is most generous! Who taught the pen! Taught man what he did not know!

The Qur'an (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 6 and 9). translated by E. H. Palmer.

About This Passage

Connections

Showing the first 400 of 1,441 connections.

Affirmation Of

Occasionalism

Ash'ari kalam, the dominant school of Sunni theology, holds occasionalism as a defense of unlimited divine power, developed influentially by Al-Ghazali.

Source Al-Ghazali's Philosophical TheologyFrank Griffel

Also Functions As

Rachel's Tomb

This edge names tradition membership rather than a contested claim in its own right. Rachel's Tomb's own tradition fact already records it as Jewish and Islamic, in full.

Source Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd editionMichael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (eds.)

The Cave of the Patriarchs and the Ibrahimi Mosque

One building, divided since 1994, entered separately as a synagogue and as a mosque under military control.

Source Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town, UNESCO World Heritage ListUNESCO World Heritage Committee

Associated With

Mary

She is the only woman named in the Quran, and is honoured in Islam as the mother of the prophet Isa.

Mauritius

About 17 per cent, largely descended from Gujarati traders and Bihari indentured labourers; the Jummah Mosque in Port Louis is the community's historic centre.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Mediterranean Sea

Brought to the sea's entire southern and eastern rim by the seventh and eighth century Arab conquests

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Morocco

Almost the entire population follows Sunni Islam of the Maliki school, with the king holding the title Commander of the Faithful and the Tijaniyya and Boutchichiya Sufi orders prominent.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Mozambique

About one fifth of the population, concentrated on the northern coast, where Indian Ocean trade brought Islam centuries before Portuguese rule.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Mughal Empire

Muslim Board of Uzbekistan

The official religious administrative body overseeing Islamic affairs in Uzbekistan.

Source Muslim Board of Uzbekistan (institutional record)the holders' own account

National Museum of Afghanistan

The same bowl carries Quranic inscriptions cut into it long after it was made, so one object in this museum sits inside two traditions in sequence rather than one.

Source National Museum of Afghanistan (institutional record)the holders' own account

Netherlands

About 5 per cent of the population, chiefly of Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese origin.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

New York

The Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven in Harlem was Malcolm X's base.

Nigeria

Roughly 45 to 50% Muslim, concentrated in the north.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Nigerian Civil War

Source There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (Achebe)Chinua Achebe

Ninth Crusade

Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

North Macedonia

About 33 per cent of the population, almost entirely within the ethnic Albanian and Turkish communities, with Bektashi tekkes including Arabati Baba at Tetovo.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Nostra Aetate

The declaration speaks with esteem of Muslims, who adore the one God, and urges that past quarrels be set aside.

Source Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 volumesNorman P. Tanner (ed.)

Oman

A majority of citizens follow Ibadi Islam, the only country where it predominates, alongside Sunni and Shia Omani minorities.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Ottoman Empire

The sultans held the guardianship of Mecca and Medina from 1517 and claimed the caliphate, which the Turkish assembly abolished in 1924.

Source Longing for the Lost Caliphate: A Transregional HistoryMona Hassan

Pakistan

About 96% Muslim, roughly 85 to 90% Sunni and 10 to 15% Shia.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Palestine

About 97 to 98% Sunni Muslim.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Partition of India

Muslim communities, chiefly in Punjab and Bengal, were both targets and, in the same reciprocal violence, perpetrators against Hindu and Sikh neighbors during Partition, and Pakistan was created as the partition's Muslim-majority successor state.

Source Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, The Partition of India (2009)Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh

Pehlwani

Muslim pehlwans and their pious disciplines are central to the art's history

Persian Miniature

A courtly art with devotional strands, from Miraj imagery to Sufi poetry illustration

Pesantren

Philippines

About 6 per cent of the population, present since the fourteenth century and concentrated in western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Polygyny

Islamic law permits up to four wives with the condition of just treatment.

Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet)

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Punjabis

Islam is the majority tradition west of the partition border in Punjab.

Source J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India II.3)J. S. Grewal

Qatar

Sunni Islam of a Hanbali and Wahhabi influenced tradition is the state religion, and the state funds the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Rashidun Caliphate

The caliphate that followed Muhammad's death in 632, under which the Quran received its authoritative written form.

Source The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh CenturyHugh Kennedy

Reconquista

Source Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval SpainJoseph F. O'Callaghan

Red Sea

The Quran tells the drowning of Pharaoh, and the sea has carried African pilgrims to Jeddah for the hajj ever since.

Source The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of IslamG. W. Bowersock

Religions for Peace

Source Religions for Peace (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Rohingya

The Rohingya are Sunni Muslim with a strong Sufi devotional layer.

Russian Empire

A Muslim Spiritual Assembly with a state-appointed mufti was established at Orenburg in 1788, making the empire an arbiter of Islamic orthodoxy.

Source For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central AsiaRobert D. Crews

Rwanda

A minority of about two per cent, which grew after 1994 partly because mosques were widely seen to have sheltered people during the genocide.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Safavid Empire

Saudi Arabia

State religion; about 93% Sunni and 5 to 6% Shia, home to Mecca and Medina.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Second Crusade

Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

Second Sudanese Civil War

Source War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in the Sudan (Deng)Francis M. Deng

Semitic

The tradition's liturgical, scriptural or ancestral language belongs to this family.

Semitic Peoples

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Senegal

About 96 per cent of the population, organised through the Tijaniyya centred on Tivaouane and Kaolack and the Mouridiyya centred on Touba.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Seventh Crusade

Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

Sierra Leone

Sikh-Mughal Wars

The Mughal Empire's ruling dynasty and state administration were Islamic; several of the conflict's flashpoints, including both Gurus' executions, are read in the traditional and much of the general literature as acts of religious enforcement by that Islamic state authority against the Sikh faith.

Source J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India II.3)J. S. Grewal

Silat

Many, not all, lineages are explicitly Islamic; spiritual framing varies by school

Singapore

About 15 per cent of the population, chiefly the Malay community served by mosques administered under the Islamic Religious Council.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Sixth Crusade

Source God's War: A New History of the CrusadesChristopher Tyerman

Songhai Empire

State religion of the ruling and scholarly elite, most systematically under Askia Muhammad.

Source Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other Contemporary DocumentsJohn O. Hunwick (translator and editor)

Showing 101 to 150 of 193 in Associated With, page 3 of 4.

Conducted

Dungan Revolt (1862 to 1877)

Source China's Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and SectsMichael Dillon

Maitatsine Risings

Source The Maitatsine Risings in Nigeria 1980 to 85: A Revolt of the DisinheritedElizabeth Isichei

Moplah (Malabar) Rebellion

Source Against Lord and State: Religion and Peasant Uprisings in Malabar, 1836 to 1921K. N. Panikkar

Panthay Rebellion

Source The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856-1873David G. Atwill

The 2019 Sri Lanka Easter Sunday Bombings

Source Final Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Sunday AttacksPresidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Attacks, Government of Sri Lanka

Derived from This

Din-i-Ilahi

Akbar and the great majority of the Din-i-Ilahi's courtier following were formally Muslim; the order layered a personal discipleship and comparative ethic on top of that base rather than replacing it wholesale.

Founded By

Muhammad

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)

Holidays Observed

Friday

Friday (Yawm al-Jumu'ah) is the day of congregational prayer in Islam; the noon Jumu'ah prayer at the mosque is obligatory for Muslim men.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

1. Al-Fatiha

Source Wikidata: 1. Al-Fatiha

10. Yunus

Source Wikidata: 10. Yunus

100. Al-Adiyat

Source Wikidata: 100. Al-Adiyat

101. Al-Qaria

Source Wikidata: 101. Al-Qaria

102. At-Takathur

Source Wikidata: 102. At-Takathur

103. Al-Asr

Source Wikidata: 103. Al-Asr

104. Al-Humaza

Source Wikidata: 104. Al-Humaza

105. Al-Fil

Source Wikidata: 105. Al-Fil

106. Quraysh

Source Wikidata: 106. Quraysh

107. Al-Maun

Source Wikidata: 107. Al-Maun

108. Al-Kawthar

Source Wikidata: 108. Al-Kawthar

109. Al-Kafirun

Source Wikidata: 109. Al-Kafirun

11. Hud

Source Wikidata: 11. Hud

110. An-Nasr

Source Wikidata: 110. An-Nasr

111. Al-Masad

Source Wikidata: 111. Al-Masad

112. Al-Ikhlas

Source Wikidata: 112. Al-Ikhlas

113. Al-Falaq

Source Wikidata: 113. Al-Falaq

114. An-Nas

Source Wikidata: 114. An-Nas

12. Yusuf

Source Wikidata: 12. Yusuf

13. Ar-Rad

Source Wikidata: 13. Ar-Rad

14. Ibrahim

Source Wikidata: 14. Ibrahim

15. Al-Hijr

Source Wikidata: 15. Al-Hijr

16. An-Nahl

Source Wikidata: 16. An-Nahl

17. Al-Isra

Source Wikidata: 17. Al-Isra

18. Al-Kahf

Source Wikidata: 18. Al-Kahf

19. Maryam

Source Wikidata: 19. Maryam

1953 Lahore (Punjab) Anti-Ahmadi Riots

The agitation was organized by Muslim religious parties under an explicitly Islamic banner, demanding Ahmadis be declared outside the fold of Islam by law; this edge connects that organizing identity to the riots without asserting the violence as Islam's own position, since the Munir Report itself found no consensus even among the testifying ulema on the theological question the agitation claimed to settle.

Source Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953Justice Muhammad Munir and Justice M.R. Kayani, Court of Inquiry

2. Al-Baqara

Source Wikidata: 2. Al-Baqara

20. Ta-Ha

Source Wikidata: 20. Ta-Ha

21. Al-Anbiya

Source Wikidata: 21. Al-Anbiya

22. Al-Hajj

Source Wikidata: 22. Al-Hajj

23. Al-Muminun

Source Wikidata: 23. Al-Muminun

24. An-Nur