What is Islam?
One idea sits at the centre of everything: there is one God, and He is worth knowing. Here's the rest, plainly told.
A word that means peace — and surrender
The word Islam comes from the Arabic root s-l-m, which carries two meanings at once: peace and surrender. Put together, Islam is the peace that comes from willingly surrendering your life to God. A Muslim is simply “one who surrenders to God” — the same posture the Bible attributes to Abraham.
Muslims don't see Islam as a new religion that began in 7th-century Arabia. They understand it as the original, repeated message of every prophet God ever sent — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and finally Muhammad, peace be upon them all: worship the one God alone, and live justly.
The heart of it: one God
Islam's central belief is called tawhid — the absolute oneness of God. God has no partners, no parents, no children and no equals. Nothing in creation resembles Him, and no image can capture Him — which is why you'll never find a picture or statue of God (or any prophet) in a mosque.
“Say: He is God, the One. God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, and there is none comparable to Him.”
Quran, Chapter 112
“Allah” is not a different god — it's the Arabic word for God, used by Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians too. Muslims believe they worship the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
The six articles of faith
Ask a Muslim what they believe, and the traditional answer has six parts.
1 One God
The Creator of everything, merciful and just, who alone deserves worship.
2 The angels
Beings of light who carry out God's commands — including Gabriel, who delivered revelation to the prophets.
3 The revealed books
God guided humanity through scriptures, including the Torah of Moses, the Gospel of Jesus, and finally the Quran.
4 The prophets
Thousands of messengers sent to every people — many are familiar names: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad ﷺ.
5 The Day of Judgement
Life is meaningful because it is accountable: every person will answer to God for how they lived.
6 Divine decree
God's knowledge and wisdom encompass all things — nothing happens outside His knowledge, yet humans genuinely choose.
Who are Muslims?
Around 1.8 billion people — roughly one in four humans — are Muslim. Most are not Arab: the largest Muslim populations live in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Muslims are doctors, farmers, teachers, athletes and your neighbours; there is no single Muslim culture, cuisine or dress.
What unites them is the belief and practice you'll find across this site: one God, the Quran, the example of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and the five pillars.
Is Islam connected to Judaism and Christianity?
Deeply. All three faiths trace themselves to Abraham, and Islam regards Jews and Christians as “People of the Book” — communities who received genuine revelation from God. Muslims believe the Quran continues and completes that same story rather than starting a new one. The differences matter, and we don't paper over them — you can read more on the questions page — but the family resemblance is real.
Keep going
The natural next step is the book at the centre of it all — what the Quran is, and what it actually says.