Muslim

Muslim practice weaves devotion with daily conduct. Prayer orients life around God’s remembrance; Friday congregational worship (jumuʿa) joins sermon and communal prayer. Ramadan frames a month of fasting, night prayers (tarāwīḥ), Qur’an recitation, and charity culminating in Eid al-Fiṭr; Eid al-Aḍḥā links to Abrahamic sacrifice and the ḥajj. Many observe dietary laws (ḥalāl), modesty, and financial ethics that avoid usury while encouraging fair trade and charity. Family and community are nurtured through marriage contracts, care for elders, and hospitality. Learning is central: from early madrasas to modern universities, Muslims have engaged theology, law, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and the arts. Aesthetic traditions—calligraphy, geometric design, architecture, devotional poetry—express reverence without figural emphasis in sacred spaces. Diversity marks global Islam: Sunnis follow schools like Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī; Shīʿa communities include Twelvers, Ismailis, and Zaydis; Sufi orders guide spiritual discipline and service. Contemporary Muslims address questions of gender equity, minority rights, migration, ecology, digital life, and bioethics, drawing on the maqāṣid al-sharīʿa (the law’s higher objectives: protection of faith, life, intellect, lineage, and property). Islamic finance experiments with risk-sharing and asset-backed models; scholars issue context-sensitive opinions (fatwas) on medical decisions, end-of-life care, and technology. Interfaith initiatives cultivate common ground with Jews, Christians, and others on justice and the common good. While extremist readings attract headlines, mainstream scholarship and communities emphasize mercy, rule of law, and civic virtue. For many believers, Islam remains a living path: daily remembrance, ethical work, and community service that seek God’s pleasure and human flourishing.