What are Religions?
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, ethics, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements.
There is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. It is an essentially contested concept. Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacredness, faith, and a supernatural being or beings.
The origin of religious belief is an open question, with possible explanations including awareness of individual death, a sense of community, and dreams. Religions have sacred histories, narratives, and mythologies, preserved in oral traditions, sacred texts, symbols, and holy places, that may attempt to explain the origin of life, the universe, and other phenomena. Religious practice may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities or saints), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, matrimonial and funerary services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, or public service.
There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, though nearly all of them have regionally based, relatively small followings. Four religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism account for over 77% of the world's population, and 92% of the world either follows one of those four religions or identifies as non-religious, meaning that the vast majority of remaining religions account for only 8% of the population combined.
Frequently Asked Questions (1)
| Religions
1.Other religions also teach the existence of God. Is there any difference between their teaching and the Islamic concept of God?
The first major difference is that Islam teaches the absolute one-ness of God, with Whom no one can share in Divinity. No idol or heavenly object, nor any religious or spiritual teacher, can possess some Divine power or attribute.
Secondly, Islam teaches the highest conception of God, and does not accept any limitation to His power and knowledge, while other religions set limits to Him. For instance, Islam rejects the Hindu belief that God is not the Creator of matter and souls but exists alongside them. It also rejects the Christian doctrine that God is unable to forgive sins unless He punishes someone, and so He sent His 'son' to suffer the punishment for the sins of all humanity. Moreover, a son is needed to take the place of the father when the father dies, and clearly this cannot apply if God is perfect.
Thirdly, Islam refutes the idea that any human being, however great, was a 'manifestation' of God on earth, or a Divine incarnate.