The main ideas of Islam

The main ideas of Islam are:

• The profession of faith is the brief to become Muslim recognizing Allah and Muhammad is his prophet formula. In Islam it is often repeated.
• The public prayer on Fridays or individual, five times a day. It is a formal ritual that lasts five to 10 minutes and is preceded by toilets or ablutions.
• The obligatory alms or charity.
• The annual fast of the month of Ramadan, where all food, drik and sex are forbidden fom dawn to dusk. It has great social significante for all strive for the same.
• The pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life is possible.

MUHAMMAD

                    

                    Muhammad was born after his father's death in Mecca, Arabia, around 570. His grandfather and mother both died when he was a child. As a child, he was unable by Arab custom to inherit anything. He was therefore relatively poor until about 595, when a wealthy woman, Khadija, asked him to go to Syria as a steward (protector, manager) of her trading supplies. After the successful accomplishment of the mission, she offered him marriage. She was a rich widow fifteen years his senior. She and Muhammad had four daughters, and several infant sons who died. From this time onward Muhammad was wealthy, but he began to spend time in solitary reflection on the problems of Mecca, where religious principles were being degraded and general unrest was in the city.

During a period of solitude around the year 610, Muhammad heard a voice as he meditated (focused his thoughts in a manner of prayer). The voice said, "You are the Messenger of God" (this being the title more frequently given to him by Muslims than that of prophet). Muhammad later decided he had heard the archangel Gabriel. He also found certain words "in his heart" (that is, his mind) as he meditated. Friends helped to convince him that he was called to convey messages from God to the Arabs as Moses and Jesus Christ had done to the Jews and Christians. He continued to receive such messages from time to time until his death. They were collected into chapters and make up the Koran (Qur’an). The Koran, though sent through Muhammad, is held by Muslims to come from God.