“Righteous is he who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the Angels and the Scriptures and the Prophets.”
— Qur'an 2:177
Name Means Arabic, "submission"
Adherents 1.6 billion
Place Founded Arabian Peninsula
Date Founded 622 CE
Founder(s) Muhammad
Major Branches Sunni, Shi'a, Sufism
Beliefs One God (Allah in Arabic); the same God revealed (imperfectly) in the Jewish and Christian Bibles
Practices Five Pillars: Faith, Prayer, Alms, Pilgrimage, Fasting. Mosque services on Fridays. Ablutions before prayer. No alcohol or pork. Holidays related to the pilgrimage and fast of Ramadan.
Main Holidays Al-Hijra, Ramadan, 'Id Al-Fitr
Texts Qur'an (sacred text); Hadith (tradition)
Symbols Star and crescent; name of Allah in Arabic; color green; mosque silhouette.
Islam is one of the largest religions in the world, with over 1 billion followers. It is a monotheistic faith based on revelations received by the Prophet Muhammad in 7th-century Saudi Arabia. The Arabic word islam means “submission,” reflecting the faith's central tenet of submitting to the will of God. Followers of Islam are called Muslims.
According to Islamic tradition, the angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet over the course of 20 years, revealing to him many messages from God. Muslims recognize some earlier Judeo-Christian prophets—including Moses and Jesus—as messengers of of the same true God. But in Islam, but Muhammad is the last and greatest of the prophets, whose revelations alone are pure and uncorrupted.
The Prophet dedicated the remainder of his life to spreading a message of monotheism in a polytheistic world. In 622, he fled north to the city of Medina to escape growing persecution. This event marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Eight years later, Muhammad returned to Mecca with an army and conquered the city for Islam. By Muhammad's death, 50 years later, the entire Arabian Peninsula had come under Muslim control.
The sacred text of Islam, the Qur'an, was written in Arabic within 30 years of Muhammad's death. Muslims believe it contains the literal word of God. Also important is the tradition of the sayings and actions of Muhammad and his companions, collected in the Hadith.
Islamic practices center on the Five Pillars of Islam—faith; prayer; fasting; pilgrimage to Mecca; and alms—and include several holidays and rituals as well.
Islam and the Judeo-Christian West have had a challenging relationship for centuries and today's conflicts in the Middle East are religiously charged. Thus a focus on the facts and efforts towards mutual understanding are particularly important when it comes to Islam.
• Books on Islam
Hand-selected books on Islam available for purchase at online bookstores.
• Glossary of Islam
Definitions of terms related to Islam.
• History of Islam
The story of Islam starts with the prophet Muhammad. However, Islam rose in a certain historical and geographical context. What was Arabia like before Muhammad and the rise of the Islamic religion? The Arabian Peninsula was originally the home of nomadic peoples who coped with the desert climate by migrating every season ("Arab" roughly translates as "desert dweller")...
o Caliphate
o Muhammad
o Omayyad Dynasty
o Ottomans
o The Abbasid Caliphate
• Islam Comparison Charts
As a monotheistic faith that originated in the Middle East, Islam has many similarities in belief and practice with Judaism and Christianity...
o Christianity and Islam
o Christianity and Islam and Judaism
o Islam and Zoroastrianism
o Jesus in World Religions
o Shia and Sunni Islam
• Islamic Beliefs
Beliefs are very important in Islam. To be considered a Muslim, one must believe and recite a statement of faith known as the Shahada: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet…
o Afterlife
o Allah
o Creation
o Human Nature
o Mahdi
o Other Religions
o Prophets
o Salvation
o Six Articles of Faith
• Islamic Ethics and Morality
Ethics are the rules or standards that govern moral human behavior. Islamic ethics are based primarily on the Qu'ran, the sacred text of Islam, and the Hadith, an authoritative collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad...
o Homosexuality
o zakat
• Islamic Holidays and Festivals
Islam has relatively few holidays compared to most other religions; nevertheless, sacred days and times are very important to Muslims. When holidays are being observed, it is common for routine social activities, such as work and commerce, to stop temporarily out of respect for the person or event being remembered...
o Al-Hijra
o Ashura
o Calendar
o Eid Al-Adha
o Eid Al-Fitr
o Ramadan
• Islamic Objects
Religious objects, ritual items and other physical things related to Islam.
o Art and Images
o minaret
o minbar
• Islamic Sects and Schools
Islamic sects are not simply "denominations," if that word is understood to mean various valid approaches to the same religion. Members of one Islamic group do not usually recognize members of other groups as fellow Muslims, and open conflict between sects is not uncommon…
o Ahmadiyya
o Shi'a Islam
o Sufism
o Sunni Islam
• Islamic sacred texts
In Islam, there are two main sacred texts: the Quran (also spelled "Koran") and the Hadith (or Hadeeth). These books teach and illustrate Islamic beliefs, values, and practices... full article →
o Hadith
o Qur'an
• Islamic symbols
The primary symbol of Islam is the star and crescent, which is featured on a number of flags in the Middle East. Other symbols include the name of Allah in Arabic script and a mosque silhouette.
o star and crescent
• Muslim rituals and practices
Certain sacred practices and rituals are very important to Muslims. They are a significant way that followers of Islam remember history, express conviction, and grow in devotion...
o hajj
o salat
o sawm
o shahada
• Sacred Places of Islam
Certain places are important in Islamic history, in large part because they were important in the life of Muhammad, and are also important to present-day Muslims...
o Jerusalem and Islam
o Top 50 Muslim Countries
• Timeline of Islam
The history of Islam at a glance.

HOW TO SAVE A DEAD BEDROOM
How do you know if your married sex life has hit the skids? What is the proper number of times a week anyway? Let’s start with some numbers: According to the Kinsey Institute, most married couples in America between the ages of 24-49 have sex about once a week. 26% are doing it 2-3 times per week. And then there are the mythical 3% who are doing it 4 or more times per week. God bless you, gentlemen.
But what about the 23% doing it once a month? Or those couples who haven’t had sex at all in the past year? Welcome to the frozen tundra known as “The Dead Bedroom”.
When you first hear the phrase, it’s enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. If you’re like most married men, you’ve probably experienced a dry spell in your relationship, maybe a couple of weeks, maybe a few months at the worst. But what if that funk became the new normal?
“It started as many deaths do, not with a skidding crash, but little bit by little bit.”
Here’s a redditor who calls himself “Pastanazgul” describing how his married sex life hit the rails and his bedroom went corpse-cold: “Passionate kisses on the way out the door gave way to pecks in the hallway as we made oatmeal for the kid and got her ready for school. Nights cuddled up on the couch with wandering hands gave way to checking homework, checking emails, flipping laundry and working out bills. It was not my fault. It was not hers. Life simply changed. When we got together, we were teenagers and our to-do list for the day consisted of meeting our herb guy, and going to blockbuster. We fucked like rabbits and enjoyed it. We laid naked in bed until late in the afternoon if we wanted to, and we wanted to often. Now, as thirty-somethings, any given Saturday consists of going to the kid’s friends’ birthday party, getting a new AC filter from Home Depot, fixing that downspout that keeps popping a seam every time it rains, making sure we get to the farmers market for the local honey that keeps our daughter’s allergies at bay, and still try to leave time for the dishes, laundry and detritus that accumulates with a mind of it’s own.
We were dead tired. The idea of sex, passion and tenderness seemed like an unimportant distant memory. I wasn’t happy, she wasn’t happy. We were both good, kind people. We deserved to be happy.”
“If you get on well out of bed, half the problems of bed are solved.” – Peter Ustinov
Obviously, when the physical aspect of a relationship goes cold, the effects can be devastating. Usually there is one person in the couple who has the lower libido and one who has the higher. Their reactions are different, and it’s the higher libido person who grows more frustrated and dissatisfied in the relationship. This can lead to depression, anger and even infidelity. Luckily, dead bedrooms can be resurrected. And even if your bedroom isn’t quite dead yet, but is on life support, consider implementing some of these ideas sooner rather than later:
Solution #1: Scheduling Sex
Many of us have a grandiose vision of sex being spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous, passionate, unplanned. And if it is, great. But the fact is, there are many accounts that show using scheduling in your married sex life actually works. Here’s how one couple uses scheduling to thaw the ice: “We pick a mutually agreed upon date and time to have sex, and stay committed to that date. Even if neither of us is feeling particularly horny at that date and time, we go through with it anyways to avoid slacking off and getting lazy about the system. Now I know that this all sounds incredibly unromantic, and believe me, I had the exact same concerns. However, we have yet to have an unpleasant experience with this system. The good thing about scheduling is you don’t have to stick with it forever. It can be a short-term, jump-start technique to get the engines going.
Solution #2: Sex Toys
It’s not a $15 billion dollar industry for nothing. The fact is sex toys work for many couples. And sales are on the rise. Wall street analysts attribute the growth of the industry to the ease and privacy of on-line buying. No longer do you have to drive to the “porn store” to make that embarrassing face-to-face purchase. Nowadays, you can even log on to Amazon.com and buy a Fleshlight. (We’d provide a link below, but then we’d have to deal with some awkward purchase suggestions). According to University of Wisconsin Madison Professor John DeLamater, one of the main reasons for the decline is a lack of novelty. It’s called “habituating” to your partner, and the longer you live with them, the more habituated to their presence you get, and the less attracted to them you become. Sounds depressing, but usually this effect takes 30 years or more to set in. In a dead bedroom, however, habituation may be occurring at a faster rate. And one way for overcoming habituation is increasing novelty through role play and sex toys. If you’ve never used toys in your married sex life, it could be a little intimidating. But when you’re trying to save your relationship, it may be worth trying something literally “out-of-the-box.”

Solution #3: Exercise
There is a proven direct link between sex and exercise. When you exercise, the brain produces endorphins that stimulate the release of sex hormones. These hormones reduce your heart rate, improve digestion, lower cortisol levels and relax the body. Engage in cardiovascular exercise with your partner, and you will find your desire almost doubles. Strength training has benefits too, as it contributes to spikes in testosterone – the hormone of arousal. And finally, there is yoga, which has caught on like wildfire across the country. Focusing your mind and tuning into your senses in a yoga class can work wonders for your sex life – not to mention, improve flexibility for trying new positions. In general, engaging in physical activity improves self-esteem and immunity, helps you manage a healthy weight, and increases stamina and energy – all the ingredients for a healthy libido.
Solution #4: Sex Therapy
Guys don’t usually want to sit on a couch and reveal their intimate thoughts and feelings to a shrink. But sex therapy works. Sometimes having a 3rd person to nudge you both together is all that a couple needs. One famous sex therapist, Dr. Laura Berman, puts her clients through a series of ‘assignments’, like buying a sex toy together, taking a tantra class, even going to a Bounce U type of place and being silly together. Basically shit you would never do own your own. Sure, it’s bound to move any man out of his comfort zone. But if you think you’ve really reached the end of the road, but you aren’t ready to walk away from the relationship, consider giving it a shot with a reputable sex therapist.
Solution #5: Buy A Sponge
What if there was something you could do in your own house, something you may do anyway, something that would magically thaw the chill in your bedroom? Remember Pastanazgul from the beginning of the article? Turns out, he was able to save his dead bedroom using a simple scrub sponge: “I came up with a plan. A daring, throw-caution-to-the-wind plan. A Utah beach in Normandy on June 6th kind of plan. I was going to become a superhuman cleaning machine. I would push my limits of domestic ability. When I came home tired, and all I wanted (and deserved) to do was sit down on the couch, I would resist. I did dishes, flipped laundry, helped with math homework, swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned mirrors, scrubbed toilets. All with the reckless abandon of a crazy person. I’d listen to entire albums in my headphones while I put armies of cleaning crews to shame. I’d bring her her tablet and a glass of wine and make sure she relaxed. Her smile was the reward. I wasn’t looking for sex, or a blow job, or even a hand job. I was looking for her smile. I got it. Soon, my get-home-and-clean routine became second nature. It was just a part of the day. I got faster at it, and things improved. She saw that I was putting in the effort to make her life easier, and I saw her appreciation. Appreciation turned to affection, affection turned to attraction and before I knew it, we were spending time together. Not just in the same room, but together. We talked about things that we hadn’t talked about in years, discussing ideas and opening up to each other. We connected better. We wanted to be around each other, and we craved each other. In conclusion, it turned out that all it took to revive the dead bedroom was persistence and a little elbow grease.
Summary
Marriage isn’t static. Moods and attractions shift all the time. Which means your married sex life is going to have as many ups and downs out of the bedroom as it will in the bedroom. Try using techniques like scheduling, boosting each other’s self esteem, introducing sex toys and contributing on the domestic front to help inject a shot of adrenaline into your relationship. With a little effort and the right methods, experts believe you can jolt any dead bedroom back to life.