What do Muslims believe?

No nutshell that I know of would be big enough. It is an enormous subject and worthy of detailed study.

Here’s a short time line to get you started.

And Here’s an article on the many sects.

There is no god but الله (The God), and محمد (Muhammed) is his prophet.

Like its big brother Judaism, Islam defined itself from the beginning through aggressive monotheism in opposition to the polytheism that was prevalent in the area in which it emerged.

They believe in pleasant gardens and beautiful architecture. See Naghshe Jahan Square, Isfahan

Devout conservative Muslims believe in following an almost endless list of rules, to be observed every day. One of the most problematic rules, is that Islam cannot be criticized. Another rule is the death sentence for Muslims wanting to give up their faith.

Moderate Muslims manage to ignore or reinterpret many of the problematic rules and they believe in progress and tolerance. Some even believe that Islam needs a reformation.

In many ways it is similar to Christianity.

Some main differences, I feel, stem from the different images of the the primary role models, Mohammed and Christ.

Mohammed was a worldly leader while Christ was more of a spiritual leader. As such, Mohammed was far more involved in things like making laws, politics and, for instance, war. On top Mohammed during his life time started to codify his religion in a book.

That combined with the lack of a truly formalized, central, church has more or less frozen Islam. It is a highly dispersed DIY religion that has a low entry level, but is extremely resilient to change. Because Quran is written in Arabic, and there are no true ‘church’ guidelines, it is easily high jacked for political purposes especially in non-Arab countries. Like Christianity was in the past as well, when masses were in Latin and no one could read the bible for themselves.

Islam is a far more comprehensive lifestyle than Christianity. Yet… As stated above, it is far more complex and diverse than to allow a fully concisive nutshell that would do it right.

@whitenoise – Islam was a legalistic religion from its very beginning, while Christianity wasn’t. This changed with establishing the papacy.