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Islam is a religion and culture with a long history and a rich variety of traditions. This information on the links to the left is not a comprehensive guide to Islam as a whole or in depth. For those with little background in Islam, it provides a quick reference to those aspects that are helpful to know and understand regarding the needs and situations that can arise in universities.
Islam is a monotheistic religion that is 'Abrahamic', that is it traces its origin to God's revelation to Abraham. It considers itself to be part of the series of revelations by God to humanity through the revelations of Judaism and Christianity. Islam declares that God revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was not the founder of a religion he created himself but who was the final prophet.
The name 'Islam' alludes to submission, complete self-giving to God's will.
There are five pillars at the core of Islam, as described in the Sunni tradition, one of the two main branches of Islam. Shi'a Muslims, the other branch, believe in all these too but use a different formula to identify the essentials of the faith. The five pillars of Islam are:
The Islamic creed, or core principles of belief, is called Aqidah. The Sunni generally enumerate six principal articles of Aqidah:
The Shi'a name principles of the religion (Usul al-Din):
They also identify ten practices of the religion (Furu al-Din):