Islam is a major world religion founded in Arabia and based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. The Arabic word Islam means to surrender, but as a religious term in the Quran it means to surrender to the will or law of God. All devout Muslims, no matter what race they are, learn to read Arabic so that they can read the Quran in its mother tongue. Muslims also have their own calendar based on the phases of the moon. You do not find racism in Islam because all people are equal in the eyes of Allah. This, along with the Arabic language, unifies Muslims around the world. Islam has flourished in diverse climatic, cultural, and ethnic regions, and although exact statistics are not available, the global Muslim population is estimated to be over 1 billion. In Europe, Islam is the second most widespread religion after Christianity. So how did Islam become so universal? What makes Islam such an important world religion? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To better understand Islam, you must first know something about the Prophet Muhammad. The founder of Islam was Muhammad. The Quran describes Muhammad as the Seal of all Prophets, which means that with him the prophetic function ended. The exact date is unknown, but Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 AD. His father died before he was born and he lost his mother when he was six years old. After this, an uncle raised him. We don't know about his childhood except that he was very reliable and had a good sense of human relationships. For this reason he became known as al-Amin (the trustworthy). Muhammad was forty years old when the angel Gabriel came to him and revealed the Quran to him. He began in 610 to preach the first of a series of revelations granted to him by Allah. The divine messages, received during solitary visits to the desert, continued for the rest of his life. After four years he had converted about 40 people to his ideas, and he then began to preach openly in his hometown of Mecca. Muhammad advocated improving the lives of slaves, women, orphans, and the poor. This quickly angered the rich who dominated Mecca. They persecuted some of Muhammad's weaker followers, and in 615 he ordered 83 families to take refuge in Ethiopia. In 662, after careful consideration, Muhammad asked all his followers to leave Mecca and go to Medina. It is from this event that the Islamic calendar is dated. In Medina, Muhammad soon gained authority, having been recognized as a legislator and prophet. Arab and Jewish opposition to him in Medina was suppressed and the war against Mecca was started. The Arab tribes declared allegiance to him, and Mecca surrendered in 630. Muhammad died suddenly in 632. After his death, his followers compiled everything they believed was the word of God into a document known as the Quran, the sacred Scripture of Islam. The Quran is the final and almost perfect revelation of God. Before Islam became dominant, religion in Arabia was based on idolatry and polytheism. Although they had beliefs about the afterlife, they were not very clear. This made it easy for Islam to convert people who wanted a more structured religion. Religions before Islam did not have any rigid dogma, and idolatry was an important part of worship. The central sanctuary of Mecca once contained approximately 360 idols. Islam has incorporated many of Arabia's native beliefs into its religion. Things like the pilgrimage to Mecca were absorbed, in modified form, into Arab paganism. People had been making pilgrimages to Mecca long before Muhammad brought them Islam and the.