K xxiv Encyclopedia of Islam
one God, his angels, his books, his messengers,
and the Last Day (Judgment Day), as well as pre-
determination. Again, Gabriel affirms the correct-
ness of the reply. The Quran mentions iman much
more than Islam, and even though the two words
differ slightly in their root meanings (security
for the first, safety for the second), many Mus-
lim commentators have regarded them as being
nearly synonymous. It likewise uses a related
term, mumin, more that it uses the word muslim.
The aspects of faith Muhammad mentions in his
reply to Gabriel were subsequently elaborated
and debated for centuries by Muslim theologians,
known as the mutakallims, or those who practice
kalam (literally “speech,” but more precisely
translated as “dialectical theology”).
By addressing both Islam and iman, the Hadith
of Gabriel teaches that religious practice and
belief are interrelated aspects of Islamic religion—
one cannot be accomplished without the other.
But the Hadith of Gabriel is not content with only
mentioning these aspects of religion. It introduces
a third—ihsan. When asked about what this is,
Muhammad declares that it calls upon the faith-
ful to be mindful of God’s watchfulness and do
what is good and beautiful (hasan). Ihsan adds a
spiritual or aesthetic aspect to religion, one that is
implicitly connected with its other aspects—prac-
tice and believing.
During the Middle Ages, Christian church
leaders viewed Islam for the most part as idolatry,
or a false religion inspired by Satan. Such preju-
diced views can still be encountered in Christian
circles, unfortunately, although most Christian
leaders today are more likely to want to improve
relations with Muslims through inter-religious
dialogue and cooperation. Modern scholars spe-
cializing in the history and comparison of reli-
gions have thought about Islam from a different
set of perspectives. In Europe, in the 18th and
19th centuries, when religion began to be studied
in terms of the humanities and social sciences
rather than theology, some scholars sought to
exoticize it as an Eastern religion that stood apart
from the West and the religions of Judaism and
Christianity. They thought of it as a religion that
had been tainted by political despotism and irra-
tionality. Others classed it racially, as a “Semitic”
religion, in contrast to the religions of the Indo-
Europeans, which included Christianity. Rather
than calling it Islam, a term used by Muslims
themselves, many scholars in the 19th and 20th
centuries decided to call it Mohammedanism,
incorrectly assuming that Muhammad’s status in
Islam was analogous to that of Jesus Christ in
Christianity or the Buddha in Buddhism. Despite
these missteps, and others, some religious studies
scholars concluded that it was more accurate to
classify Islam together with Judaism and Chris-
tianity as a Western religion, or as monotheistic
one, which recognizes a key belief in Islam (belief
in one God), as well as its historical relationship
with the other two religions. Scholars have even
grouped it with Christianity and Buddhism as a
“world” religion that has extended its reach glob-
ally through missionary work and conversion.
Today many scholars are studying Islam as an
Abrahamic religion, in relationship with Judaism
and Christianity. This designation is based on the
figure of Abraham (Ibrahim), about whom many
stories are told in the Bible’s book of Genesis and
in the Quran. These sacred stories, or myths,
as they are called in religious studies scholar-
ship, also talk about Abraham’s descendants,
whom Jews, Christians, and Muslims regard as
the spiritual ancestors of their communities.
While Muslims link their religion to Ishmael
(Ismail), Abraham’s oldest son through Hagar
(from Egypt), Jews and Christians relate their
religion to Isaac (Ishaq), Abraham’s son through
Sarah. In addition to sharing a sacred genealogy
that connects all three religions with Abraham,
there are other important “family resemblances”
that they share. These include 1) monotheistic
beliefs; 2) beliefs in prophets and supramundane
beings such as angels and saints; 3) possession
of holy books, revealed through prophets, that
serve as the basis for doctrine, worship, ethics,