INTRODUCTION OF ISLAM

 The Prophet Muhammad was born as a wealthy man in Mecca, in the central Arabian Peninsula, and his mother died at the age of 7, and he was raised by his grandfather and uncle. At the age of 25, he married Hadija, the widow of a wealthy man, and once worked as a carpenter in Syria and other places.

At that time, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula were religiously showing a complex aspect of belief in various natural gods and spirits, and socially, due to the rapid development of the commercial economy, there were many sides effects and conflicting factors.

In this situation, he continued to contemplate and meditate with deep doubts about his existing life. At the age of 40, in 610, he received a revelation from Allah, the angel Gabriel. The Qur'an is the record of the revelations received from Allah at this time.

However, due to the oppression of the scores tribe, the leader of Mecca with a strong conservative tradition, the propagation did not achieve great results, and in September 622, it moved to Medina, 400 km north of Mecca. This journey to Medina is called ‘Hejra’ in Islam, and it is the origin of the Islamic calendar.

The first Ummah (denominational) was formed by gathering the immigrant Muhaharun (Kyo) and local collaborators, which was strengthened and later developed into an Islamic State. He died in Medina in June 632, who unified the vast Arabian region into one organization for the first time in history.

Islam, which insisted on perfect equality before God from the beginning, emphasizes brotherhood and connects spiritual life with secular life, defining not only human relationships to God but also social and other human relationships as a strong communal character.

This dual nature of the community actively engaged in the holy war jihad to realize the will of God and achieved remarkable success, and within a century after the death of the prophet, a great empire was built from Spain to Central Asia to Asia Minor.

In this process, the number of converts to Muslims increased rapidly, partly because the Shinto community, Umma, recognized absolute equality, but publicly discriminated against those who adhered to other religions, such as charging a head tax.

A second, much more popular expansion of Islam was followed by the Muslim mystic Sufis after the 12th century. They played a decisive role in spreading Islam mainly in Central Asia, Turkey, Sahara and Africa, and Southeast Asia.

In addition, Muslim merchants have been instrumental in the conversion of peoples from  the eastern coast of India and Indonesia, Malaysia, and China to long-distance trade. Islam gave a sense of unity to a large region of many races and cultures by incorporating political, economic, and social internal differences into a single religious community.

In particular, it played a role as a bridge between the world culture of the eastern and western continents in world history, and created the conditions for the arrival of the Renaissance era by excellently preserving the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome during the dark ages of medieval Europe. However, after modern times, it failed to cope with the power of Western imperialism, which gradually led to conflicts among religious, political, and social institutions.

In particular, there was a lot of friction between the Western elite and adherents of religious traditions due to the modernization of the Islamic community and maintaining the political independence obtained from the colonial suzerainty countries in the second half of the 20th century.

Currently, Islam has a number of problems to be solved, but it is still exerting vitality as a belief system. They created the ideology of pan-Arabism to unite all Islamic countries, and are still exerting great influence on the international community.

The basic belief of Islam begins with the confession of faith that “there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet”. Also, the Qur'an nailed it, saying, "Those who stop believing and do not practice them cannot be Muslims." In this way, the Islamic belief that emphasizes practice is generally summarized in the seven gods and the five elements (five elements).

The Seven Gods are the beliefs in Allah, the angels, the scriptures, the apostles, the afterlife, the eternal life, and the resurrection. Refers to the practice. First of all, if we look at belief, absolute belief in Allah, the one God, forms the basis, and the core is the Jeongmyeonggwan belief that Allah is the master of all life and death and the confession of faith that there is one God and that Muhammad is an apostle of God. After Adam in the Old Testament, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jesus, and Muhammad are all regarded as prophets and apostles of God.

Thus, Muslims revere Jesus as God's Apostle, but do not recognize the concept of Jesus' divinity, cross, and resurrection as in Christianity. The paradox is also denied. Muhammad's high level of completion has reached the level of completion of the evaluation version and has reached the level of perfection with a high level of completion.        

There are five main obligations following this belief. First, we confirm that we are servants of God through our confession of faith. Second, worship is held five times a day, facing Mecca, and group worship is held at noon on Friday. Third, they donate 2.5% of their income as tax, which is used for the poor as well as the basics of national finance.

Fourth, through fasting, adult Muslims practice abstinence from sunrise to sunset every year during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, by suppressing all instinctive behaviors such as food, drink, tobacco, and sexual activity. When the month of Ramadan ends and a new month arrives, they wear colorful costumes and go out to the streets to have a grand festival.

Fifth, as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, everyone is obligated to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime around December 9th in the Islamic calendar. This practice of a life of perfect equality before God is common to vast regions of the world and to various peoples. In addition, drinking, adultery, pork, usury, and lying are strictly prohibited by Muslim rules.

 On the other hand, polygamy, which may be considered strange by modern standards, seems to be an institutional device to relieve widows and orphans that have been excessively caused by frequent wars in Islam. The most important things in the Islamic community are the Qur'an and the Hadith, the words and deeds of the prophets, but due to continued territorial expansion, it was not possible to lead the Islamic community by itself.