Islam beliefs

          Islam means to submit freely to The Commandments and the Will of The One and Only God (Allah). This submission should come from within, from sound belief in and conviction to Allah, with no doubt. 

A Muslim is any male or female person who believes in Allah and the Prophet Muhammad (Peace on him) as His Messenger who then testifies to that belief to witnesses announcing his/her acceptance of Islam as his/her religion. "Muslim' should not be confused with "Arab"; A Muslim is a person who follows the religion of Islam and s/he can be of any race while Arab refers to a race of people. An Arab can choose to be of any religion or belief system be it Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, atheism, or any faith. Arabs make up less than 18% of the Muslim population of the world today, which is estimated to be over one-fifth of the world's population, or more than a billion people.

Islam has two major schools of thought – the Shi’a and the Sunni. The Sunnis believe that the community selected its own leader after Prophet Muhammad’s death whereas the Shi’as believe that the Prophet had appointed ‘Ali, by divine will, to be his successor. Leadership is thus divinely designated. It is to be noted that both the Sunnis and the Shi’as are united in their major beliefs i.e., they believe in the same God, the same book, the same Prophets, and pray in the same direction. The differences are mainly theological and jurisprudential.

In thе rеlіgіоn оf Iѕlаm, bеlіеf іn Allаh is thе single mоѕt іmроrtаnt tenet. Thе Muѕlіm nаmе fоr Gоd is "Allаh," whісh іѕ ѕіmрlу Arаbіс for "the (аl) Gоd (Ilаh)." Muѕlіmѕ bеlіеvе that Muhammad wаѕ Allah's сhіеf ѕеrvаnt and messenger.

It is strictly a monotheistic religion since it restricts worship to the one supreme Lord who is the Originator and Creator of the universe. Peace (the root from which the word Islam is derived) is attained through complete obedience to the commandments of God, for God is the source of all peace. Muslims are those who believe in one God and in Muhammad as the final Prophet of God.