This essay about Islam discloses the subject of one of the most popular religions in the world – Islam – and its history. To be precise it is the second most popular faith on the Earth. It gives the first place only to Christianity. Islam has about 1.7 billion followers in more than 120 countries. It is surprisingly enough that Islam is the youngest religion. It appeared only in the VII century AD. It is known to be the official religion in 28 countries. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. They are commonly divided into two denominations: Sunni and Shia. The public worship is traditionally conducted in Arabic. In spite of its youth speaking in terms of religions, Islam has quite interesting and rich history and has elaborated a lot of traditions and the certain acts of worship called “The Pillars of Islam”. Nevertheless, there are a lot stereotypes about this religion, which have appeared in recent time. Unfortunately, for many people the name of “Islam” is inseparable with terrorism. And it is easy to explain: the statistics say that six out of seven terrorist acts were committed by Muslim organizations related with Al-Qaeda. Today we will try to explore this issue. We will dive into the history of Islam and learn some facts about its customs, belief and acts of worship. And, what is even more important, in this Islamic essay we will try to find out whether Islam is a religion of peace or the stereotypes about it are true.

How it all has begun?

Islam appeared in the 7th century in Mecca, where paganism previously had been reigning. Together with Christianity and Judaism it originated from the ancient forms of monotheistic Abrahamic religions. Muhammad is generally considered to be the founder of Islam. He was born in Mecca. Muhammad was a shepherd and was earning his living by caravan trade. In 610 in age of 40 he declared himself a messenger and prophet of the sole God Allah. Then he started to preach the new monotheistic religion, which he named Islam. By the way, the word “Islam” is translated as “obedience” or “devotion to Allah”. In his sermons Muhammad urged people to believe in the sole God, talked about the brotherhood of believers and observance of basic moral rules. After Muhammad’s death the theocratic state named Caliphate was established. Caliphs got the full secular and religious authority.

It is quite interesting to mention in your Christianity vs Islam essay that the Muslims as well as Christians consider Adam and Eve to have been the first people on the Earth. They also rank among their prophets Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. So the Muslims don’t think that Muhammad was the founder of their religion. They just believe him to have been the last prophet (“The Seal of the Prophets”). In their opinion, he restored the true faith. Moreover, the Bible stories about the creation of the world and human, about the Flood and many others are transformed in the sacral Muslim book Quran.

If you are interested in religions and their histories, you can easily order an essay about them or any other subject in our writing service.

The religious Muslim acts of worship

There are five main acts of worship ion Islam. They are called “The Pillars of Islam”. Every follower of this religion is obliged to fulfill them. They have been formed during the lifetime of Muhammad. Among them are:

• Ṣalāt (the prayer which should be committed be every Muslim);
• Zakāt (a form of charity, which consist of 2.5% of person’s income);
• Sawm (the fast which should be observed during Ramadan);
• Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca which should be committed by every follower of Islam at least once in their life);
• Jihad (diligent work on spreading of Islam).

The word “jihad” is translated as “struggle”. This word is mentioned in each essay on Islam and terrorism. Jihad includes five aspects: mental jihad which means inner development on the path to the God; jihad of a sword which means the fight with unbelievers; jihad of the heart which means armed fighting with one’s passions; jihad of the language (which means approving of what’s moral and disapproving of immoral things); jihad of the hand which means disciplinary measures used for criminals). Many people understand the term “jihad” wrongly. They think of jihad only as of jihad of the sword and just ignore other aspects of this concept. Today the armed form of jihad is used by many terrorist organizations in order to justify ideologically their actions. By the way, jihad is the only form of warfare which is permitted by the Muslim law. Nevertheless, there are many peaceful Muslims in the world, who consider the peaceful meaning of jihad to be one of the aspects of their religion.

Another fact about the Muslims is that they divide themselves into two groups: Sunni and Shia. Nonetheless, Islam doesn’t experience the extensive division as other popular religions do.

Islam doesn’t bear with homosexuality, feminism and a lot of other phenomena which are tolerable for the U.S. and Europe. To get more information about the rights of the minorities you may read an essay on gay rights.

Women’s role in Islam

Muslims’ attitude to women is another special trait of Islam. If you want to write women in Islam essay, this information will be definitely beneficial for you. According to the Muslim law the marriage can’t be forced. It means that marriage is impossible without consent of the woman. However, it is not always true in practice. Besides, woman can’t marry non-Muslim man. In the same time, Muslim men are able to marry Christian or Jewish woman. Though this action considered to be reprehensible, it is not prohibited. Islam also allows men to beat their wives, if they disobey. It is fair to say that infringement of women’s right is widespread in Islam countries. For example, 99% of women in Egypt were violated. There is no stated marriage age in Yemen, a quarter of girls get married before they are 15 years old. A lot of women in Muslim countries have undergone female circumcision. In Sudan the stated marriage age is 10 years old. Women’s evidence is twice less important than the evidence of men. In many Islam countries it is quite hard and almost impossible to prove an act of violation. Moreover, raped woman may be blamed in adultery. Without permission of a men woman can’t get married, travel, be treated or receive an education.

Your attitude to Islam absolutely depends on you, but you should remember that each religion as any other phenomenon has both advantages and disadvantages, so you shouldn’t be too radical writing a terrorism and Islam essay, which could be written for you by college paper writing service.