1. Allah, the One
True God. (Note that Allah is the
Arabic name for God. Arabic-speaking
Christians also refer to God as "Allah.")
Allah is eternal, neither male nor female, has neither parent nor child,
and nothing else in the universe is in any way similar to Him.
(We call Allah "Him" because in Arabic, as in English, the
masculine is the gender of default. Arabic
has no neuter gender.)
2. Angels.
The angels are pure beings, made of light, who are intelligent but do not
have free will.
3. Scriptures sent by Allah to mankind
via special prophets, called "messengers," God bless them all and
grant them peace. These scriptures were: a book of Abraham, the Torah (given to
Prophet Moses), the Psalms (given to Prophet David), the Gospel (given to
Prophet Jesus), and the Qur'an (given to Prophet Muhammad.)
All of these scriptures originated with
God. The Torah was given in the
form of a physical book; the others were taught to the prophets by the Angel
Gabriel (God bless him and grant him peace.)
Over time, the first four of these
scriptures were changed in oral transmission and translation.
Things were added, edited, and deleted until it became difficult to tell
which parts were of Divine origin and which the result of human editorial
license.
Finally, when the human race had the
infrastructure to preserve a revelation intact, God sent the Holy Qur'an to
Prophet Muhammed (God bless him and grant him peace.) This book has remained
intact and unchanged, in its original language for more than 1400 years.
4. All Muslims believe in Allah's
prophets. Allah so loves mankind,
that when He set Prophet Adam (Allah bless him and grant him peace) and Eve (may
Allah be pleased with her) on the earth, He gave them instructions for taking
care of the planet and of each other. As
these instructions were garbled or lost, Allah sent at least 200,000 prophets,
to every culture in the world.
All Muslims revere all of Allah's
prophets, and do not rank one above the other.
The exceptions are Allah's messengers, mentioned above, who do rank
higher than the other prophets, but are, nevertheless, human beings.
5. Muslims believe in the Day of Judgment
(the Day of Resurrection, as it is most often called in Arabic) when everyone
who has ever lived will be called together to be judged.
6. Muslims believe in fate, that whatever
Allah has decreed will happen.
A person who wishes to
revert to Islam simply repeats the shahadah, the statement of faith:
I testify that there is only one God (Allah), and I testify that Muhammed (peace be upon him) is the messenger of God (Allah.)
People who have been Christian add:
I testify that Jesus (peace
be upon him) is a messenger of God (Allah).
These are called the Five Pillars of Islam:
1. Shahadah: Testifying that there is no deity worthy of worship other than Allah, and that Muhammed (peace be upon him) is a messenger of Allah. (A Muslim does this a minimum of nine times a day, as he or she offers salat.)
2. Salat: Offering formal prayers five times a day.
3. Siyam: Fasting in Ramadan.
4. Zakat: Paying a proportion of one's financial holdings to the poor once a year.
5. Hajj: Performing a pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia, once in one's life, if one is able.
Muslims believe that everything in the universe, except for some people, is naturally in a state of submission to Allah. The planets move in their orbits, molecules break down and recombine, flowers bloom, spread their seed and die, all in exactly the ways Allah decreed for them. "Islam" means this natural state of submission to Allah.
Human beings are born pure, naturally in a state of Islam, or submission to Allah. Islam categorically rejects the concept of original sin, insisting instead on original purity. As humans grow, they lose this state of original purity due to the influence of the society around them and the machinations of the Devil. When a human makes a conscious decision to do his best to return to the pure state to which he was created, he reverts -- or goes back -- to Islam.
Some Muslims prefer to use the term 'convert.' It's a matter of personal taste.
Like the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel, the Qur'an was written by Allah, the One True God. Allah created the five books of guidance for mankind (the first was a shorter book given to Prophet Abraham, Allah bless him and grant him peace) before He created the Earth.
Allah gave the Torah to Prophet Moses (Allah bless him and grant him peace) in the form of a physical book, written on clay tablets. The other four messengers of Allah (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (Allah bless them and grant them peace) received revelation throught the Angel Gabriel (Allah bless him and grant him peace).
Islam is the universal religion, given to all people for all time. Only about 10% of the world's Muslims are Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim (some are Christian and Jewish.) The largest Muslim population is in Indonesia, but there are growing Muslim communities on every continent and in every country in the world.