What is the significance of ummah

Though the terms of the Hudaybiyyah treaty may have been unfavorable to the Muslims of Medina, the Quran declared it a clear victory. Muslim historians suggest that the treaty mobilized the contact between the Meccan pagans and the Muslims of Medina.

The treaty demonstrated that the Quraysh recognized Muhammad as their equal and Islam as a rising power. After eight years of warring with Mecca and finally conquering the city in CE, Muhammad united Arabia into a single Islamic state. Upon his arrival in Medina, Muhammad unified the tribes by drafting the Constitution of Medina, which was a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Medina, including Muslims, Jews, Christians, and pagans.

This constitution instituted rights and responsibilities and united the different Medina communities into the first Islamic state, the Ummah. An important feature of the Constitution of Medina is the redefinition of ties between Muslims. It set faith relationships above blood ties and emphasized individual responsibility. This contrasts with the norms of pre-Islamic Arabia, which was a thoroughly tribal society. This was an important event in the development of the small group of Muslims in Medina to the larger Muslim community and empire.

While praying in the Masjid al-Qiblatain in Medina in CE, Muhammad received revelations that he should be facing Mecca rather than Jerusalem during prayer. Muhammad adjusted to the new direction, and his companions praying with him followed his lead, beginning the tradition of facing Mecca during prayer. The Masjid al-Qiblatain, where Muhammad established the new Qibla, or direction of prayer: Muhammad received revelations that he should face Mecca, rather than Jerusalem, in CE.

Economically uprooted by their Meccan persecutors and with no available profession, the Muslim migrants turned to raiding Meccan caravans.

This response to persecution and effort to provide sustenance for Muslim families initiated armed conflict between the Muslims and the pagan Quraysh of Mecca. In March , Muhammad led three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the caravan at Badr, but a Meccan force intervened and the Battle of Badr commenced.

Although outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans. Muhammad and his followers saw the victory as confirmation of their faith, and Muhammad said the victory was assisted by an invisible host of angels.

To maintain economic prosperity, the Meccans needed to restore their prestige after their defeat at Badr. Abu Sufyan, the leader of the ruling Quraysh tribe, gathered an army of 3, men and set out for an attack on Medina. When the battle seemed close to a decisive Muslim victory, the Muslim archers left their assigned posts to raid the Meccan camp.

Meccan war veteran Khalid ibn al-Walid led a surprise attack, which killed many Muslims and injured Muhammad. The Meccans did not pursue the Muslims further, but marched back to Mecca declaring victory.

For the Muslims, the battle was a significant setback. According to the Quran, the loss at Uhud was partly a punishment and partly a test for steadfastness. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10, Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad took over the city with little bloodshed.

Most Meccans converted to Islam. Muhammad declared an amnesty for past offenses, except for ten men and women who had mocked and made fun of him in songs and verses. Some of these people were later pardoned. Muhammad destroyed the pagan idols in the Kaaba and then sent his followers out to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia. The Banu Hawazin were old enemies of the Meccans. They were joined by the Banu Thaqif, who adopted an anti-Meccan policy due to the decline of the prestige of Meccans.

Muhammad defeated the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes in the Battle of Hunayn. At the end of the 10th year after the migration to Medina, Muhammad performed his first truly Islamic pilgrimage, thereby teaching his followers the rules governing the various ceremonies of the annual Great Pilgrimage.

In , a few months after returning to Medina from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time Muhammad died, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity. The ritual sacrifice ends the hajj and starts the festival of the sacrifice, 'id al-adha.

The festivals of breaking fast 'id al-fitr at the end of Ramadan and ' id al-adha are the two major Islamic festivals celebrated by Muslims all over the world. During the pilgrimage most Muslims visit Medina, where the tomb of the Prophet is located, before returning to their homes. If the pilgrimage rituals are performed at any time of the year other than the designated time for hajj, the ritual is called umra. Although umra is considered a virtuous act, it does not absolve the person from the obligation of hajj.

Most pilgrims perform one or more umras before or after the hajj proper. Many Muslims pilgrims also travel to Jerusalem, which is the third sacred city for Islam.

Muslims believe Muhammad was carried to Jerusalem in a vision. The Dome of the Rock houses the stone from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven and Allah in a night journey.

Some Muslims perform pilgrimages to the Dome of the Rock and to other shrines where revered religious figures are buried. Some of these shrines are important primarily to the local populations, whereas others draw Muslims from distant regions. There are no standard prescribed rituals for these pilgrimages nor are they treated as obligatory acts of worship.

Jihad Many polemical descriptions of Islam have focused critically on the Islamic concept of jihad. Jihad, considered the sixth pillar of Islam by some Muslims, has been understood to mean holy war in these descriptions.

However, the word in Arabic means "to struggle" or "to exhaust one's effort," in order to please God. Within the faith of Islam, this effort can be individual or collective, and it can apply to leading a virtuous life; helping other Muslims through charity, education, or other means; preaching Islam; and fighting to defend Muslims. Western media of the 20th century continue to focus on the militant interpretations of the concept of jihad, whereas most Muslims do not.

The Mosque Of all Muslim institutions, the mosque is the most important place for the public expression of Islamic religiosity and communal identity. A mosque is a physical manifestation of the public presence of Muslims and serves as a point of convergence for Islamic social and intellectual activity. The Arabic word for mosque is masjid , which means a "place of prostration" before God. Mosques are mentioned in the Qur'an, and the earliest model for a mosque was the residence that the prophet Muhammad built when he moved to Medina.

This first mosque was an enclosure marked as a special place of worship. A small part of the mosque was sectioned off to house the Prophet and his family, and the remaining space was left open as a place for Muslims to pray.

Although later mosques developed into complex architectural structures built in diverse styles, the one requirement of all mosques continues to be based on the earliest model: a designation of space for the purpose of prayer. The early mosque served an equally important function that thousands of mosques continue to serve today: The mosque is a place where Muslims foster a collective identity through prayer and attend to their common concerns.

A Muslim city typically has numerous mosques but only a few congregational or Friday mosques where the obligatory Friday noon prayers are performed. As Islam spread outside Arabia, Islamic architecture was influenced by the various architectural styles of the conquered lands, and both simple and monumental mosques of striking beauty were built in cities of the Islamic world.

Despite the borrowings from diverse civilizations, certain common features became characteristic of most mosques and thus serve to distinguish them from the sacred spaces of other religions and cultures. The most important characteristic of a mosque is that it should be oriented toward Mecca.

One or more niches mihrab on one of the walls of the mosque often serve as indicators of this direction, called qibla. When the imam leads the prayers he usually faces one of these niches. Next to the mihrab, a pulpit minbar is often provided for the delivery of sermons khutba. Many mosques also have separate areas for performing ritual ablution, and separate sections for women.

In many mosques, several rows of columns are used to mark the way for worshipers to line up behind the imam during prayer. Mosques usually have one or more minarets, or towers, from which the muezzin calls Muslims to prayer five times a day.

In addition to their functional use, these minarets have become distinguishing elements of mosque architecture. In large mosques in particular, minarets have the effect of tempering the enormity and magnificence of the domed structure by conveying to the viewer the elevation of divinity above the pretensions of human grandeur. Most mosques also have a dome, and the line connecting the center of the dome to the niche is supposed to point toward Mecca. Throughout the world there are many mosques that are not actually directed toward Mecca, but such misalignment is due to inaccurate methods for determining the direction of Mecca and does not imply a disregard for this requirement.

The mosque is not a self-contained unit, nor is it a symbolic microcosm of the universe, as are some places of worship in other religions. Rather, the mosque is always built as a connection with Mecca, the ultimate home of Muslim worship that metaphorically forms the center of all mosques. See Islamic Art and Architecture. The God of Islam Islamic doctrine emphasizes the oneness, uniqueness, transcendence, and utter otherness of God.

As such, God is different from anything that the human senses can perceive or that the human mind can imagine.

The God of Islam encompasses all creation, but no mind can fully encompass or grasp him. God, however, is manifest through his creation, and through reflection humankind can easily discern the wisdom and power behind the creation of the world. Because of God's oneness and his transcendence of human experience and knowledge, Islamic law forbids representations of God, the prophets, and among some Muslims, human beings in general.

As a result of this belief, Islamic art came to excel in a variety of decorative patterns including leaf shapes later stylized as arabesques, and Arabic script. In modern times the restrictions on creating images of people have been considerably relaxed, but any attitude of worship toward images and icons is strictly forbidden in Islam. Islamic Monotheism Before Islam, many Arabs believed in a supreme, all-powerful God responsible for creation; however, they also believed in lesser gods.

With the coming of Islam, the Arab concept of God was purged of elements of polytheism and turned into a qualitatively different concept of uncompromising belief in one God, or monotheism. The status of the Arabs before Islam is considered to be one of ignorance of God, or jahiliyya , and Islamic sources insist that Islam brought about a complete break from Arab concepts of God and a radical transformation in Arab belief about God.

Islamic doctrine maintains that Islam's monotheism continues that of Judaism and Christianity. However, the Qur'an and Islamic traditions stress the distinctions between Islam and later forms of the two other monotheistic religions. According to Islamic belief, both Moses and Jesus, like others before them, were prophets commissioned by God to preach the essential and eternal message of Islam.

The legal codes introduced by these two prophets, the Ten Commandments and the Christian Gospels, took different forms than the Qur'an, but according to Islamic understanding, at the level of doctrine they are the same teaching. The recipients of scriptures are called the people of the book or the "scriptured" people.

Like the Jews and the Christians before them, the Muslims became scriptured when God revealed his word to them through a prophet: God revealed the Qur'an to the prophet Muhammad, commanding him to preach it to his people and later to all humanity. Although Muslims believe that the original messages of Judaism and Christianity were given by God, they also believe that Jews and Christians eventually distorted them.

The self-perceived mission of Islam, therefore, has been to restore what Muslims believe is the original monotheistic teaching and to supplant the older legal codes of the Hebrew and Christian traditions with a newer Islamic code of law that corresponds to the evolving conditions of human societies. Thus, for example, Islamic traditions maintain that Jesus was a prophet whose revealed book was the Christian New Testament, and that later Christians distorted the original scripture and inserted into it the claim that Jesus was the son of God.

Or to take another example, Muslims maintain that the strict laws communicated by Moses in the Hebrew Bible were appropriate for their time. Later, however, Jesus introduced a code of behavior that stressed spirituality rather than ritual and law. According to Muslim belief, God sent Muhammad with the last and perfect legal code that balances the spiritual teachings with the law, and thus supplants the Jewish and Christian codes. According to the teachings of Islam, the Islamic code, called Sharia , is the final code, one that will continue to address the needs of humanity in its most developed stages, for all time.

The Qur'an mentions 28 pre-Islamic prophets and messengers, and Islamic traditions maintain that God has sent tens of thousands of prophets to various peoples since the beginning of creation. Some of the Qur'anic prophets are familiar from the Hebrew Bible, but others are not mentioned in the Bible and seem to be prophetic figures from pre-Islamic Arabia. For the Muslim then, Islamic history unfolds a divine scheme from the beginning of creation to the end of time.

Creation itself is the realization of God's will in history. Humans are created to worship God, and human history is punctuated with prophets who guarantee that the world is never devoid of knowledge and proper worship of God.

The sending of prophets is itself understood within Islam as an act of mercy. God, the creator and sustainer, never abandons his creations, always providing human beings with the guidance they need for their salvation in this world and a world to come after this one. God is just, and his justice requires informing people, through prophets, of how to act and what to believe before he holds them accountable for their actions and beliefs.

However, once people receive the teachings of prophets and messengers, God's justice also means that he will punish those who do wrong or do not believe and will reward those who do right and do believe.

Despite the primacy of justice as an essential attribute of God, Muslims believe that God's most fundamental attribute is mercy. Humanity's Relationship to God According to Islamic belief, in addition to sending prophets, God manifests his mercy in the dedication of all creation to the service of humankind. Islamic traditions maintain that God brought the world into being for the benefit of his creatures. His mercy toward humanity is further manifested in the privileged status God gave to humans.

According to the Qur'an and later traditions, God appointed humankind as his vice regents caliphs on earth, thus entrusting them with the grave responsibility of fulfilling his scheme for creation. The Islamic concept of a privileged position for humanity departs from the early Jewish and Christian interpretations of the fall from Paradise that underlie the Christian doctrine of original sin.

In the biblical account, Adam and Eve fall from Paradise as a result of disobeying God's prohibition, and all of humanity is cast out of Paradise as punishment. Christian theologians developed the doctrine that humankind is born with this sin of their first parents still on their souls, based upon this reading of the story.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ came to redeem humans from this original sin so that humankind can return to God at the end of time.

In contrast, the Qur'an maintains that after their initial disobedience, Adam and Eve repented and were forgiven by God. Consequently Muslims believe that the descent by Adam and Eve to earth from Paradise was not a fall, but an honor bestowed on them by God. Adam and his progeny were appointed as God's messengers and vice regents, and were entrusted by God with the guardianship of the earth.

Angels The nature of humankind's relationship to God can also be seen clearly by comparing it with that of angels. According to Islamic tradition, angels were created from light.

An angel is an immortal being that commits no sins and serves as a guardian, a recorder of deeds, and a link between God and humanity. The angel Gabriel , for example, communicated God's message to the prophet Muhammad. In contrast to humans, angels are incapable of unbelief and, with the exception of Satan , always obey God.

Despite these traits, Islamic doctrine holds that humans are superior to angels. According to Islamic traditions, God entrusted humans and not angels with the guardianship of the earth and commanded the angels to prostrate themselves to Adam. Satan, together with the other angels, questioned God's appointment of fallible humans to the honorable position of viceregency.

Being an ardent monotheist, Satan disobeyed God and refused to prostrate himself before anyone but God. For this sin, Satan was doomed to lead human beings astray until the end of the world. According to the Qur'an, God informed the angels that he had endowed humans with a knowledge angels could not acquire. Islamic Theology For centuries Muslim theologians have debated the subjects of justice and mercy as well as God's other attributes.

Initially, Islamic theology developed in the context of controversial debates with Christians and Jews. As their articulations of the basic doctrines of Islam became more complex, Muslim theologians soon turned to debating different interpretations of the Qur'an among themselves, developing the foundations of Islamic theology. Recurring debates among Islamic scholars over the nature of God have continued to refine the Islamic concepts of God's otherness and Islamic monotheism.

For example, some theologians interpreted Qur'anic attributions of traits such as hearing and seeing to God metaphorically to avoid comparing God to created beings. Another controversial theological debate focused on the question of free will and predestination. One group of Muslim theologians maintained that because God is just, he creates only good, and therefore only humans can create evil.

Otherwise, this group argued, God's punishment of humans would be unjust because he himself created their evil deeds. This particular view was rejected by other Muslim theologians on the grounds that it limits the scope of God's creation, when the Qur'an clearly states that God is the sole creator of everything that exists in the world. Another controversial issue was the question of whether the Qur'an was eternal or created in time.

Theologians who were devoted to the concept of God's oneness maintained that the Qur'an must have been created in time, or else there would be something as eternal as God. This view was rejected by others because the Qur'an, the ultimate authority in Islam, states in many places and in unambiguous terms that it is the eternal word of God.

Many other theological controversies occupied Muslim thinkers for the first few centuries of Islam, but by the 10th century the views of Islamic theologian al-Ashari and his followers, known as Asharites, prevailed and were adopted by most Muslims. The way this school resolved the question of free will was to argue that no human act could occur if God does not will it, and that God's knowledge encompasses all that was, is, or will be. This view also maintains that it is God's will to create the power in humans to make free choices.

God is therefore just to hold humans accountable for their actions. The views of al-Ashari and his school gradually became dominant in Sunni, or orthodox, Islam, and they still prevail among most Muslims. The tendency of the Sunnis , however, has been to tolerate and accommodate minor differences of opinion and to emphasize the consensus of the community in matters of doctrine.

As is the case with any religious group, ordinary Muslims have not always been concerned with detailed theological controversies. For ordinary Muslims the central belief of Islam is in the oneness of God and in his prophets and messengers, culminating in Muhammad. Thus Muslims believe in the scriptures that God sent through these messengers, particularly the truth and content of the Qur'an.

Whatever their specific religious practices, most Muslims believe in angels, the Day of Judgment, heaven, paradise, and hell. Muhammad was born around the year and was orphaned at an early age. He was eventually raised by his uncle, who had religious prominence within the main Quraysh tribe of Mecca but was of modest financial means.

At age 25, Muhammad married Khadija, a well-to-do, year-old woman. At age 40, during a retreat in the hills outside Mecca, Muhammad had his first experience of Islam. New Word List Word List. Save This Word! We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

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Please enter your Username and e-mail address then click on the Send Password button. You will receive a new password shortly. Use this new password to access the site. The Concept of Ummah in Islam Rating:. Description: The definition of Ummah and its role in the advancement of humankind.

Poor Best Rate it. And God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Scriptures in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed…" Quran "To every Ummah was sent a messenger…" Quran Prophet Muhammad was sent to nurture an Ummah for the benefit of humanity, one designed to include all of humankind.

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