World: The Rise and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty
(Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2005); Kanan
Makiya, Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Yitzhak
Nakash, The Shiis of Iraq (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1994); Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq
(London: Penguin Books, 1992); Vali Nasr, The Shia
Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2006).
Isa See jesus.
islah See renewal and reform movements.
Islam
The name for the second-largest religion in the
world after Christianity, Islam is a word formed
from the Arabic consonants s-l-m. It is related to
the Arabic word for “peace,” salam, which is one
of the 99 most beautiful names oF god and also
a cognate of the Hebrew word shalom. One of
the names for paradise in Arabic is Dar al-Salam,
House of Peace. Using these consonants to form
the verbal noun islam creates the meaning “to
enter into a state of peace,” which is convention-
ally translated into English as “surrender” or
“submission.” The word muslim is an active par-
ticiple based on the same word; hence, a Muslim
is literally “one who enters a state of peace,” “one
who surrenders,” or “one who submits.” Islam,
therefore, is an action that brings two parties
into a peaceful relationship, the one who sur-
renders and the one to whom one surrenders. In
most contexts, it describes a relationship between
humans and one sovereign God, but it can also
describe a relationship between all creation and
the divine creator. According to Islamic teachings,
surrender to God leads to eternal salvation.
Unlike names of other major religions such
as Hinduism and Buddhism, which were coined
by Western scholars in the 18th and 19th centu-
ries, Islam has been used by Muslims as a name
for their own religion since the early centuries of
their history. The term occurs seven times in the
qUran in passages usually dated to the Medinan
period of mUhammad’s career (between 622 and
632), when he and his followers increasingly had
to differentiate their religious beliefs and practices
from those associated with others, especially Jews,
Christians, and polytheists. The most well-known
verse where Islam occurs in the Quran is Q 5:3:Today those who have disbelieved in your reli-
gion [din] are miserable, so do not fear them.
Fear me. Today I have perfected your religion
for you, bestowed my grace upon you, and
chosen Islam for you as your religion.These words were accompanied by com-
mandments concerning dietary laws, haJJ rituals,
and relations with people of other religions. They
indicate that toward the end of Muhammad’s life,
probably when he performed the farewell pil-
grimage (ca. 632), Islam was being represented
as a set of specific religious practices legislated
by God. These practices placed Muslims in jux-
taposition to those who practiced disbelief, the
kafirs.
The idea of submission to God through out-
ward actions was linked in the Quran not only to
fearing God but also having Faith (iman). Indeed,
the Arabic words for faith-belief (iman) and
believer (mumin) and related terms occur much
more frequently in the Quran than the words
islam and muslim. Iman alone occurs 44 times, and
the term for believers (muminun-muminin) occurs
179 times. The meanings of these words some-
times overlap in quranic usage, but in the hadith
they become more distinguishable. In the Hadith
of gabriel, for example, islam was expressly iden-
tified with the Five pillars (testimony of faith,
prayer, almsgiving, Fasting, and hajj), while iman
was identified with belief in God, angels, holy
books, prophets, and JUdgment day. The specifics
of Islam as practice were subsequently developedK 372 Isa