The Five Pillars of Islam are the fundamental principles or duties of the religion. They must be performed by all Muslims.
Mohammed was born in Mecca, in what is now Saudi Arabia, in 570 AD. Muslims believe he was the final prophet sent to the earth by God. When Mohammed was 40 years old, he heard the voice while meditating in a cave. He had been called upon to become God´s messenger and to spread the world of Islam.
Before Islam, the Arabic peoples had many different beliefs and gods. Mohammed taught them that there was only one god, Allah in Arabic. This was not well-received and Mohammed and his fellow-believers were forced to flee from Mecca to Medina, where they founded the first Muslim community in the year 622 AD. After a few years, Mohammed returned to Mecca, having defeated its army, and from these Islam quickly spread to many countries. After Mohammed´s death, people diagreed about who should be their new leader and which path they should follow. Consequently, they split into two main groups, each developing slightly different traditions and interpretations of the religion. The largest group became known as the Sunnis and the smaller group became the Shi´as. Today, about ninety percent of the world´s one-and-a-half bilion Muslims are Sunnis. There are over fifty independent Muslim countries in the world today, the largest, in terms of population, being Indonesia.
The Koran is the Islamic holy book. Throughout his life, Mohammed received messages from God. Unable to read or write, Mohammed learned then by heart before passing them on to other Muslims so they could be written down. After his death in 632 AD, all these written passages were gathered together in one book. The fundamental message of the Koran is that God is the creator of the world and that he controls everything in it. The Koran forbids the use of images of living things, hence there is no physical represantation of God. Images representing the religion are based on geometric shapes and caligraphy.