Islam represents a universal monotheistic religion widespread in the Muslim world. Consisting of the Sunni and Shia movements, Islam traces back to the seventh century of our era when Prophet Mohammad’s first revelation took place (Salvatore et al., 2018). Islamic historians single out the High Caliphate era, the Early and then Later Middle periods, and the Modernity marked by the rise of Europe’s religious influence (Salvatore et al., 2018). Islam’s Contemporary era, starting in the last century, involves modernist Islamic movements.
The followers of the Islamic religion share various beliefs and attitudes to the world’s phenomena to live rightfully. As the religion is monotheistic, Muslims believe that there is only one God or Allah and treat the Quran, Islam’s holy book, as the most accurate representation of Allah’s will and directions for humanity (Oskooii et al., 2021). Similar to Christians, Muslims reject the notion of total death and support the idea of the afterlife and the judgment day on which Allah will decide individuals’ fate (Oskooii et al., 2021). Other prominent beliefs include angels’ and prophets’ existence and Allah’s omniscient nature. In terms of attitudes, despite negative stereotypes concerning hostility, Muslims condemn wrongdoing and respect peace, fairness, family values, and traditional gender roles.
The Muslim population engages in a variety of practices to follow Allah’s directions. Some Muslim-majority countries abide by the Sharia law, applying it to constitutional matters, family issues, penalty allocation for crime, or other fields (Oskooii et al., 2021; Salvatore et al., 2018). Engaging in prayer at home or in mosques, a few times a day permeates Muslims’ religious routines and sometimes goes in conflict with work schedules in non-Muslim-majority countries (Oskooii et al., 2021). Muslims also implement a set of dietary guidelines that specify non-halal or inappropriate food, including pork, alcohol, and inappropriately slaughtered animals (Husseini de Araújo et al., 2021). Overall, Muslims’ religiously informed practices cover different aspects of daily life.
References
Husseini de Araújo, S., Hamid, S. C., & Do Rego, A. G. (2021). Urban food environments and cultural adequacy: The (dis)assemblage of urban halal food environments in Muslim minority contexts. Food, Culture & Society, 1-18.
Oskooii, K. A., Dana, K., & Barreto, M. A. (2021). Beyond generalized ethnocentrism: Islam-specific beliefs and prejudice toward Muslim Americans. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 9(3), 538-565.
Salvatore, A., Arnason, J. P., Tottoli, R., & Rahimi, B. (2018). Introduction: The formation and transformations of the Islamic ecumene. In A. Salvatore et al. (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell history of Islam (pp. 1-36). John Wiley & Sons.