The Encyclopedia of World Religions

222 S Islam

The peoples of Islam

friends for the first time, rather than a people talked about in the news. But tensions remain high, espe cially in the wake of the Iraq War and acts of ter rorism attributed to Islamic extremists. BELIEFS The basic beliefs of Islam are expressed in a state ment that all Muslims profess: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Messenger ( Rasul ).” Islam maintains that God is absolutely one, without a second, neither begetting nor begotten. Thus, it strongly rejects the Christian notion of the TRINITY . Islam also maintains an absolute distinc tion between the creator and creation. To confuse creation and creator is to commit the fundamen tal SIN of idolatry, that is, the association of other things with God ( see IMAGES , ICONS , IDOLS IN RELI

GION ). Muslims believe that Christians commit this sin when they claim that J ESUS was God incarnate ( see INCARNATION ). So do people who place any goal above following the will of God, such as the pur suit of wealth. Muslims believe that God has everywhere revealed himself to his creation in some form. They also believe that prophets in a line beginning with A DAM and including such figures as A BRAHAM , M OSES , and Jesus have disclosed special revela tions from God. Muslims call the communities that follow these revelations “People of the Book.” But through the activity of Shaytan (more commonly known in North America as S ATAN ), these revela tions were misunderstood. With Muhammad, the line of God’s prophets comes to a climax, and God’s revelation to human beings is complete. This