Posted on 2007-07-25 08:28
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生活点滴
2006.10.24
由于近期的恐怖袭击事件不断在英国以及世界范围内发生，所以很容易让人们将那些裹着头巾，留着满脸大胡子的，或者是带着黑色面纱的muslims和terrorism 联系起来，目前，英国媒体debate的焦点是whether muslims are threatening freedom of speech in the UK?whether muslims are terrorist ??我一直以来对宗教的知识了解甚少。刚好这几天电视上都在谈论这些，所以抓紧时间恶补一下功课。
Islam is the religion of the Muslims. With 1.2 billion followers, about one fifth of the world's population, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and the second largest after Christianity. Indonesia has the biggest Muslim population of 170 million but Muslims reflect a variety of racial, ethnic and national backgrounds, hailing from across the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa to South-East Asia and China.
'Islam' comes from the Arabic word 'salaam' (也指穆斯林的右手心放到前额的额手礼)meaning 'peace' and 'Muslim' means 'one who submits to God'. The religion teaches that its followers must submit to the will and laws of God to attain true happiness, peace of mind and eternal salvation.
In 622 CE, the Prophet Mohammad founded the present form of Islam in Mecca. Muslims believe that God created Islam at the beginning of time and regard Adam as the first Muslim. Mohammad was the last and most important in a succession of Prophets including Adam, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Muslims do not worship the Prophets as Gods but revere them as messengers who preached that God alone should be worshipped.
Islam descends from the same family tree of faith as Christianity and Judaism, bound by the events of the Old Testament. Like its divine siblings, it believes in one, all-knowing, all-powerful God who is known in Islam by the Arabic name 'Allah'.
At the age of 40, Mohammad retreated into a cave in the Meccan mountains for a period of fasting and contemplation. There, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and revealed divine messages from God over a period of 23 years. The divine revelations were memorised and compiled in the Quran, the sacred book of the Muslims.
Offering a complete way of life, the Quran addresses humanity and provides guidance on all facets of existence including the family, law and order, politics, science, women's rights and the life hereafter. The other basic sources of Mohammad's teachings are the 'hadith' (spoken teachings not recorded in the Quran) and the 'sunnah' (the traditions and practise of Mohammad's life).
During his Farewell Sermon on his final Hajj, Mohammad described the Five Pillars of Islam that all Muslims should perform as a declaration of faith (Shahadah), prayer five times a day (Salah), almsgiving of a fixed annual amount (Zakah), fasting during the holy month of Ramadan (Sawm) and pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). He also stressed the equality of all Muslim believers without barriers of race and class, better treatment of women and outlined his vision of the Ummah, a single Muslim community.
It is a vision annually realised in the global gathering of Muslims for the Hajj.