This will be somewhat of a short post. And no, I have not forgotten about this blog. All of the following are taken verbatim from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam.
- In Islamic theology, Jesus was just a man and not the son of God.
- Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur’an to Muhammad, God’s final prophet, through the angel Gabriel, and regard the Qur’an and the Sunnah (words and deeds of Muhammad) as the fundamental sources of Islam. They do not regard Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. Islamic tradition holds that Jews and Christians distorted the revelations God gave to these prophets by either altering the text, introducing a false interpretation, or both.
- There are between 1 billion and 1.8 billion Muslims, making Islam the second-largest religion in the world, after Christianity.
- Within Islamic jurisprudence, jihad is usually taken to mean military exertion against non-Muslim combatants in the defense or expansion of the Islamic state, the ultimate purpose of which is to universalize Islam. Jihad, the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law, may be declared against apostates, rebels, highway robbers, violent groups, unIslamic leaders or states which refuse to submit to the authority of Islam. Most Muslims today interpret Jihad as only a defensive form of warfare: the external Jihad includes a struggle to make the Islamic societies conform to the Islamic norms of justice.
- For most Shi’as, offensive jihad can only be declared by a divinely appointed leader of the Muslim community, and as such is suspended since Muhammad al-Mahdi’s occultation in 868 AD.
- The Shi’a, who constitute the second-largest branch of Islam, believe in the political and religious leadership of Imams from the progeny of Ali ibn Abi Talib, who according to most Shi’a are in a state of ismah, meaning infallibility.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelvers:
- Twelver Shi’ism is the largest branch of the Shi’a branch of Islam.
- The Twelver Shi’a faith is predominantly found in Iran (90%) , Iraq (65%), Azerbaijan (75%), Lebanon (35%), Kuwait (35%), Turkey (25%), Saudi Arabia (10-15%)[1], Bahrain (80%) and form a large minority in Pakistan (20%) and Afghanistan (18%).
- The twelfth and final Imam is Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed by the Twelvers to be currently alive, and in hiding.
And finally, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Mahdi:
- Twelver Shi’as believe that Mahdi was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as the Occultation) to later emerge with Jesus to fulfill their mission of bringing Justice and Peace to the world.
- Sunni Muslims do not consider the son of Hasan al-Askari to be the Mahdi nor to be in occultation.
- It is said “predictions and lore conscerning the Mahdi abound.” Among them are that the promised Mahdi would be a Caliph of God and that to make a covenant with him is obligatory. He would belong to the House of Muhammad and would be in the line of Imam Hussein. His name would be Muhammad and his family name would be Abul Qasim, his father’s name would be ‘Abdu’llah, and he would appear in Mecca. He would protect the Muslims from destruction and would restore the religion to its original position.
