Founder:  Muhammad -- "the seal of the prophets"

Socio-Historical Context:

• Early tragedy (Father died a few days after he was born, Mother died when he was six, Grandfather died when he was eight)
• Raised by his uncle
• Made living in the caravan business
• Married to Khadija, a widow who was his elder by 15 years:  "God comforted him [Muhammad] through her, for she made his burden light", Khadija would become Muhammad's first convert
• Made frequent visits to Mount Hira, a cave where he sought solitude
• During these visits, the reality of Allah became increasingly evident -- Allah not as one among many gods, but "the God", One and only, without rival:  "There is no God but Allah"
• Night of Power (610) -- Angel came to Muhammad and instructed him to "proclaim" three times:  "Proclaim in the name of your Lord who created!  Created man from a clot of blood.  Proclaim:  Your Lord is the Most Generous, Who teaches by the pen; Teaches man what he knew not."  (Koran 96:1-3)
• Refusal of the Supernatural:  "God has not sent me to work wonders; He has sent me to preach to you.  My Lord; be praised!  Am I more than a man sent to you as an apostle?"; respect for the natural order of the world; Koran as the only miracle of Islam.
• Reasons for the "Violently Hostile" reaction to Muhammad's message: 1) Uncompromising monotheism threatened polytheistic beliefs and the wealth that was generated by them; 2) Moral teachings threatened licentiousness; 3) Intensely democratic social message challenged an unjust social order riven with class distinctions
• Early followers of Muhammad faced persecution from Meccan authorities

• turning point in world history from Islamic perspective
• the year from which Islamic calendar is dated
• Muhammad travels to Medina, the city of the Prophet, where Muhammad becomes the chief magistrate
• Muhammad's administration as a blend of justice and mercy
• Muhammad brought the five diverging tribes of the city into an unprecedented orderly confederation
• 8 years after Muhammad's migration from Mecca, Medina had conquered the city.
• Muhammad returns to Mecca as victor, dedicates the Ka'ba to Allah, and accepts the mass conversion of the city to Islam
• Muhammad dies 2 years later (632 C.E., or 10 A.H)
• During the next 100 yrs,, Muhammad's follows would conquer Armenia, Persia, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, North Africa, and Spain.
• 733:  Charles Martel defeats Muslims at the Battle of Tours; this ends the spread of Islam in the Western world

• "the standing miracle"
• Muhammad on the Koran:  "Do you ask for a greater miracle than this, O unbelieving people, than to have your language chosen as the language of that incomparable Book, one piece of which puts all your golden poetry to shame?"
• Koran as the earthly facsimile of an Uncreated Koran
• Koran was revealed to Muhammad over 23 years by the Angel Gabriel
• Presents itself as the continuation and culmination of the Old and New Testaments; however, the Koran is free from defects of the Jewish and Christian Bibles:  1) Old/New Testaments only record portions of the Truth; 2) Old/New Testaments were partially corrupted in transmission
• Koran as the final and infallible revelation of God's will:  "This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt."
• Koran is "directly doctrinal and indirectly historical" -- e.g., God speaks in the first person, not in chronological order, scant use of narrative and/or myth

1. God
• Islam's theological innovation was to remove idols from the religious scene and to focus the divine in a single invisible God for everyone
• Muslim's believe that Islam is the only truly monotheistic religion
• Koran presents Allah as one with awe-inspiring power
• Resists all theological anthropomorphism
2. Creation
• World as Allah's deliberate creation
1. Material world is viewed as both real and important
2. Material world is Good
3. Human Self
• Humankind as the foremost of God's creation
• Human nature is viewed as unalterably good
1. Humans are to feel gratitude towards Allah for the gift of life
2. Humans are to surrender to the will of Allah
• Islam affirms the individuality of the soul and the freedom of the will
4. Day of Judgment
• Life as a once-and-for-all choice for which one must give account before Allah
• Soul will go to either the heavens or the hells

1. Shahadah:  "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet"
2. Prayer five times a day
3. Charity
4. Ramadan:  Islam's holy month during which Muslims observe a month-long fast
5. Pilgrimage