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A Muslim, is an adherent of the religion
of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah. Literally, the word means "one who
submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is
the infinitive.[2] Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in
Arabic as Allah. Muslims believe that Islam existed long before Muhammad and
that the religion had evolved with time from the time of Adam until the time of
Muhammad and was completed with the revelation of verse 3 of Surah al-Maeda:
This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you,
and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.
The Qur'an describes many Biblical prophets and messengers as Muslim: Adam, Noah
(Arabic: Nuh), Moses (Arabic: Musa) and Jesus and his apostles. The Qur'an
states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached his
message and upheld his values. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'an, Jesus’
disciples tell Jesus, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we submit
and obey (wa ashahadu bil-muslimuna)."
Most Muslims consider making ritual prayer five times a day a religious duty (fard);
these five prayers are known as fajr, zohar, asr, maghrib and isha. There is
also a special Friday prayer called jumuah. Currently, the number of Muslims is
estimated to be between 1.25 and 1.84 billion
Most Muslims accept as a Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the Tauheed,
which states, "There is no god except God and Muhammad is His Messenger."
Currently, there are an estimated 1.4 billion Muslims, making it the second
largest religion in the world.
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