Largest Religions: Islam
Islam is the monotheistic religion that is based on the Quran and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. It is the second largest religion in the world and one of the fastest growing. If it continues to grow at its current pace it will pace Christianity as the largest religion in the world sometime around the middle of the current century. Despite the large number of people who practice Islam the religion is not well understood by those who practice other religions, particularly Christianity, this has a led to a great deal of tension between adherents of the two religions.
Islam is an offshoot of Christianity that came about in the early seventh century. It is based on the teachings of the prophet Muhammad and those of Quran. The Quran is the holy book of Islam and it is considered to be the verbatim word of god. Muhammad is thought to be the last prophet. Islam believes that Abraham, Moses and Jesus are also prophets. However they also believe that the other religions that share the same god, Christianity and Judaism have corrupted god's message over the years. As a result they believe that the Quran is the final unalterable word of god, this does tend to make the religion somewhat inflexible which is a big part of the reason there is tension between Islam and other religions.
The core of the religion are the Five Pillars of Islam, these are the basic concepts of the religion and include obligatory acts for all Muslims. First pillar is the testimony that must be recited under oath that states there is only one god and Muhammad is the true profit. The second pillar is prayer which must be performed five times a day. The third pillar is alms giving; a portion of income must be given to the poor. The fourth pillar is fasting during Ramadan and the fifth is that a pilgrimage to Mecca must be undertaken at least once.
The other big aspect of Islam is Islamic law. Unlike other religions where the rules tend to be limited to things that affect faith and worship in the case of Islamic law it touches on every aspect of life. The result is that the countries that are officially Muslim have little flexibility when it comes to making laws since almost everything is already spelled out for them.
Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East and Northern Africa however in terms of total numbers the most Muslims are in Asia, Indonesia having the largest population. However in most of Asia there are other religions with more adherents. Nevertheless Islam has become quite widespread and is the fastest growing of the major religions, mainly as the result of high population growth in many Islamic countries. The day is coming when Islam will be the largest religion on earth.