Encyclopedia of Islam

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, 

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