Islam is the second-largest religion in

the world with over 1.5 billion

followers and like Christianity Islam is

a transnational religion meaning that

there are Muslims living in every

country in the world and there are many

countries that are majority Muslim most

Muslims will think of themselves as

either Shia or Sunni but there is

tremendous diversity even within Shia

Islam and within Sunni Islam that's

often regionally dependent Islam

literally means submission and so

Muslims see themselves as coming to God

with great humility and for Muslims

submitting to God creates a radical

sense of equality the most sacred text

for Muslims is the Holy Quran which most

Muslims believe is the direct Word of

God as revealed to Muhammad through the

angel Gabriel and even though Muslims

hold Christian and Jewish prophetic

lineages as authoritative for Muslims

the most important prophet in the final

prophet is Muhammad Muhammad brought

judeo-christian monotheism to the Arab

people about 1300 years ago one of the

most misunderstood concepts in Islam is

that of jihad which many people

interpret as a holy war but there is

nothing holy about war and what jihad

actually represents is an internal

struggle the battle that's raging in our

own heart and all of our religious

traditions talk about that internal

struggle in that respect jihad isn't

just a Muslim idea but it's a reality of

the human condition in order to

understand what animates Muslim life

it's helpful to think about the five

pillars of Islam which is an aspiration

that most Muslims around the world have

the first pillar is Shahada or the

recitation of faith there is no god but

God and Muhammad is His Prophet the

second pillar is salat or ritual prayer

five times a day facing in the direct

Mecca the holiest of Muslim sites the

third pillar is a zakat or charitable