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In the narratives of the Qurʾān the first female of the human species is neither created from a bone of the first man, Adam, nor considered to have singular culpability for disobedience of the commands of God, although the traditions of Islam have sometimes reverted to the interpretations more commonly associated with Jewish and Christian views of original woman. The twin themes of creation and the fall are generally linked in the Qurʾānic passages in which the creation of Adam is narrated. The female partner of Adam is never mentioned by name, although…

This entry deals with Qurʾānic narratives about men and women in relation to the afterlife, specifically the Garden(s) of Paradise and the Fire(s) of Hell, and how those narratives often were changed, recast, and reinterpreted in the early centuries of Islam as traditions developed and were informed by the contexts in which Islam found itself the ruling faith. Much popular Islamic lore portrays the afterlife as the habitation of glorious abodes of paradise where all is comfort, bliss (including sexual), and tranquility. In these stories there often see…

Belief in God and a corresponding system of religious beliefs. No concept in the Qurʾān is more basic to the understanding of God's revelation through the prophet Muḥammad than faith. As the core of the truly good or moral life, faith is generally understood to encompass both affirmation and response. According to the qurʾānic perspective, nothing of virtue (q.v.) is conceivable which does not arise directly from faith in the being and revelations of God (see revelation and inspiration ). Such faith as it is articulated in the Qurʾān in its most basic sense means acknowled…

Doctrine about the final things to come at the end of time. Two of the earliest and most important messages given to the prophet Muḥammad (q.v.), prominent in the Meccan revelations (see chronology and the qurʾān ), were about the oneness of God and the accountability of human beings at the last day ( yawm al-qiyāma, lit. the day of resurrection; see god and his attributes; last judgment; resurrection). These two message were so integrally linked that the Qurʾān in many places suggests that faith in God isfaith in the yawm al-qiyāma, the time when all will be resurrected and held acco…

Islam is the monotheistic, revealed religion founded by the prophet Muḥammad. From its original home in the Arabian Peninsula, Islam spread over the Near East, North Africa, central Asia, India, and Indonesia, and it is still winning new adherents in Africa and around the world. In a.d. 2000 approximately 1.2 billion people are Muslims, some 20 percent of the world population. The countries that are home to the largest numbers of Muslims are Pakistan (150 million), India and Indonesia (120 million each), Bangladesh (110 million), Iran (75…