outside reading 1 - tony pasquariello

Islam is one of the most widely practiced religions today, currently second in the world with about 1.4 billion practitioners to only Christianity which has about 2 billion. The word Islam means “submission” or the total surrender of one’s self to God, and the word Muslim means “one who submits (to God). Islam is a monotheistic religion that originated with the teachings of Muhammad. Muslims believe that God exposed the Qur’an to Muhammad and that Muhammad is in fact God’s final prophet. The essential formalities of Islamic religion are considered to be the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The Sunnah is the religious proceedings that we were established by the prophet Muhammad during his 23 years of service. Muslims do not consider Muhammad an originator of a new religion; they believe he was sent by God to restore the original monotheistic beliefs of Moses, Jesus, Abraham and other prophets