If you boil Islam down to its basics, it is a religion of rules. By contrast, Christianity is based on God's immense grace. Here is a bit of background on Islam: Islam is the fastest growing of the major world religions. Right now, there are more than 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. Places where Islam is growing rapidly include parts of Europe, Africa and among certain groups in the United States and Canada. Muslim people are coming to Europe and North America from many places in the world to study, set up businesses, take positions of leadership and work in every sector of the economy. They are building places of worship, called mosques (or masjid) and purchasing homes in many neighborhoods. So it is in our own interests to be informed about what our new neighbors are all about.
Islam is basically a religion of teachings and regulations Muslims claim were given by Allah (that's the Arabic word for God) through the Prophet Muhammad. People are expected to surrender to and live by these rules and teachings in order to accomplish Allah's will. The Arabic word Islam is based on the word peace (saalam) and in the form "islam", means surrender or submission. So, when a person submits to Allah and joins Islam, he or she is referred to as a Muslim (a person surrendered to God's will).
As I mentioned, in his visions Muhammad is said to have received inspiration from Allah, which his followers wrote down and stored for safekeeping. The pieces received by Muhammad were compiled into the Islamic scripture, called the Qur'an. Islam insists that to truly understand the Qur'an, it must be recited and studied in Arabic since translation devalues and distorts it.
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