THE RISE OF ISLAM Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

THE RISE OF ISLAM - Term Paper Example 14 Introduction Islam and Christianity are two of the largest and independent religions in the world. They both use technology and modern means of communication in order to preach and propagate. Members of these religious groups are surrounded with all the temptations of material things: technology, gadgets, the internet, fast-paced communication, transportation faster than the speed of sound, and above all money. These things are not evil per se but they should be able to detect temptation because they can be tools of the devil to entice man to sin. Where were these things some centuries ago? Islam was born and grew out of the polytheism practices at the time the prophet Muhammad was beginning to ponder upon his existence. It was also during those times when the prophet was bored of the technology and materialism of the time. Will there emerge another religion in the midst of all these? There are signs of evil hold over the things we take for granted. Is it true that Islam is a sham of Christianity? Let us take a brief history of Islam before we hear the apologist’s responses. This essay is about Islam and Christianity. First of all, Christianity came ahead of Islam and in fact many of the beliefs and principles preached by the prophet Muhammad were taken from the Bible and Christian teachings. ... The explanations that the apologists offered were that Islam was a Christian heretical doctrine, God Judge Islam because of the inadequacy of the church, and Islam was not real but was a wicked sham of Christianity. Background The beginning and growth of Islam is one of the most remarkable religious phenomena in the history of man’s quest to believe in a Supreme Being and to know the meaning of life and religion. It is still considered a young religion with about 1.2 billion followers. Islam is the religion of countries that stretch from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to smaller Muslim communities across the globe.1 At the time before the birth of Islam, Arabia was cut off from neighbouring civilizations. The peninsula was characterized by diverse landscapes and mountain ranges which created different ecosystems. During the birth of Muhammad, much of Arabia was subjected to foreign influences such as political, economic and cultural. Christianity was one of these influence s.2 Muhammad whose official name in the Muslim world is Prophet Muhammad ibn Abd Allah was born in 570AD in Mecca or what is called Saudi Arabia today. He was orphaned at an early age but at a young age he was already searching for the truth of his own existence. He married a rich widow at the age of 25 and it was also at this age that he started to search for God and the meaning of life. He got some answers through dreams. He found solitude as an escape from the demands of city life. He did not like the practice of polytheism at that time, so he would often find refuge in caves. It was believed that the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a dream while he was seeking refuge at Mt. Hira. The angel Gabriel asked him to