Islam
The Meaning of Islam
The word "Islam" means submission. A Muslim is one who submits to God (Allah = the God), to the will of God, and to God's law. The first obligation of the Muslim is to acknowledge Allah and to recognize him as the one and only God, and to acknowledge that Muhammad is his prophet. Anyone, therefore, can be a Muslim; like Christianity, it was a religion that from the beginning sought out and welcomed converts.
The tone of the Koran is highly moralistic, emphasizing ethics and proper behavior. There is very little in it that is theological or abstract, but there is much about diet, charity toward the poor, and various ceremonies. Muslims were to treat one another with justice and mercy, for unity within the faith was paramount. Non-believers were to be given the opportunity to convert, but should they refuse, the Koran recommends holy war (jihad).
The foundation of the faith is the "five pillars": the shahada, or profession of faith; the salat, daily worship consisting of praying five times daily; the sawm, which is the fasting during the month of Ramadan; the zakat, or the giving of alms; and the hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca which every Muslim is supposed to undertake at least once.
The Koran was written in Arabic; in fact, it can fairly be said that the Koran helped create Arabic as a written language. The Koran is not supposed to be translated; or, at least, the faithful are supposed to read the holy book in Arabic, not in translation. Moreover, prayers must be in Arabic. This emphasis on one language created a unity within Islam. Even after the common people learned to pray in their own tongues, Arabic continued to be the only language of the religiously educated, much the same way Latin was in the West, or Greek in the East. An educated Muslim gentleman could go anywhere the the Muslim world, from Spain to India, and find not only a ready welcome but people who spoke a common language and shared a common faith.
Despite bitter political divisions, and even despite religious divisions, Islam was a single cultural entity. Leaders were supposed to at least pretend they were trying to protect and further that unity, or to restore it.