Islam:

Around the year 600, the belief arose that came to be called Islam. The people who believed it claimed to be descended from Ishmael (Genesis 21:8-21), Esau (Genesis 25:25 – 27:40), and Keturah (Genesis: 25:1-4).

They said that angels made a tent for Adam after he fell in the garden and was sent away. Seth, the son of Adam, made a stone and clay building, called the Kabba, instead of the tent. Ishmael and Abraham came to the Kabba and strengthened the stone and clay. They also said that when Adam was alive, a stone fell from heaven that was pure white. But when Adam sinned, the stone became black.

Mohammed believed that he had an angelic message to reveal the truths of the Islamic beliefs. He married Chadijah, a rich widow, when he was twenty-five and she was forty years old. They had six children, but only one lived. In 692 Mohammed fled to Medina in his flight that was called the Hegira. In 632 he died from a high fever. I think that is interesting, because, according to his rules as seen below, he is not assured a place in his Paradise since he died of a disease, even though he claimed to be the main prophet of the religion.

He said that everyone must believe in the Islamic beliefs and pay tribute to the Islamic people, or be killed. The non-Islamic people were called Infidels. The Islamic rules are as follows:


1. Believe that Allah is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.
2. Pray five times a day, while facing Mecca.
3. Give alms to the poor.
4. Observe Ramadan, a festival in December during which eating is only permissible at night)
5. Visit a holy site, the most common site was Mecca.
6. Convert peaceably. If someone will not convert, then kill him.
7. The only way to assure that you will go to Paradise is to die in a holy war, called a jihad.


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