Avaliable as a PDF document here http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam101.pdf

Islam 101 is meant to help people become better educated about the fundamentals of Islam and to help the more knowledgeable better convey the facts to others. Similarly, my book and documentary are meant to serve as concise explanations of the major moving parts of Islam and their implications for Western society. Islam 101 is a condensation of the book and documentary with the aim of lending clarity to the public understanding of Islam and of exposing the inadequacy of prevailing views. All should feel free to distribute and/or reproduce it.

Table of Contents

1) The Basics

a) The Five Pillars of Islam

b) The Quran — the Book of Allah

c) The Sunnah — the “Way” of the Prophet Muhammad

1. Battle of Badr
2. Battle of Uhud
3. Battle of Medina
4. Conquest of Mecca

d) Sharia Law

2) Jihad and Dhimmitude

1. What does “jihad” mean?
2. Muslim Scholar Hasan Al-Banna on jihad
3. Dar al-Islam and dar al-harb: the House of Islam and the House of War
   i) Taqiyya — Religious Deception
4. Jihad Through History
   i) The First Major Wave of Jihad: the Arabs, 622-750 AD
   ii) The Second Major Wave of Jihad: the Turks, 1071-1683 AD
5. The Dhimma
6. Jihad in the Modern Era

3) Conclusion

4) Frequently Asked Questions

1. What about the Crusades?
2. If Islam is violent, why are so many Muslims peaceful?
3. What about the violent passages in the Bible?
4. Could an Islamic “Reformation” pacify Islam?
5. What about the history of Western colonialism in the Islamic world?
6. How can a violent political ideology be the second-largest and fastest-growing religion on earth?
7. Is it fair to paint all Islamic schools of thought as violent?
8. What about the great achievements of Islamic civilization?

5) Glossary of Terms

6) Further Resources

1. The Basics

a. The Five Pillars of Islam

The five pillars of Islam constitute the most basic tenets of the religion. They are:

1. Faith (iman) in the oneness of Allah and the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad (indicated by the declaration [the Shahadah] that, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”).
2. Keeping of the five scheduled daily prayers (salah).
3. Almsgiving (zakat).
4. Fasting (sawm).
5. Pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca for those who are able.

The five pillars in and of themselves do not tell us a lot about the faith or what a Muslim is supposed to believe or how he should act. The second through fifth pillars — prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage — are aspects shared by many religions. The finality of the prophethood of Muhammad, however, is unique to Islam. To understand Islam and what it means to be a Muslim, we must come to understand Muhammad as well as the revelations given through him by Allah, which make up the Quran.

b. The Quran — the Book of Allah

According to Islamic teaching, the Quran came down as a series of revelations from Allah through the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, who then dictated it to his followers. Muhammad’s companions memorized fragments of the Quran and wrote them down on whatever was at hand, which were later compiled into book form under the rule of the third Caliph, Uthman, some years after Muhammad’s death.

The Quran is about as long as the Christian New Testament. It comprises 114 suras (not to be confused with the Sira, which refers to the life of the Prophet) of varying lengths, which may be considered chapters. According to Islamic doctrine, it was around 610 AD in a cave near the city of Mecca (now in southwest Saudi Arabia) that Muhammad received the first revelation from Allah by way of the Archangel Gabriel. The revelation merely commanded Muhammad to “recite” or “read” (Sura 96); the words he was instructed to utter were not his own but Allah’s. Over the next twelve or so years in Mecca, other revelations came to Muhammad that constituted a message to the inhabitants of the city to forsake their pagan ways and turn in worship to the one Allah.