Islam is one of the world's most popular religions for many reasons. Several of these reasons include, but are not limited to its rich history, its architecture, its literature, and most importantly, the richness of its culture. As a result of these, it's no surprise that more than one fifth of the people of the world (1.5 billion) practice Islam. To perfectly understand how Islam became such a great religion, one must look back at the history of Islam; the point at which Islam first came into existence.
Islam began circa 7th century A.D. when a member of a Middle Eastern nomadic tribe named Muhammad fled to his home city of Mecca, where he was harassed for his beliefs to Medina, later to return to Mecca with an army, to crush all of the idols in the Kabbah, and sound the first Muslim prayer. Muhammad start his beliefs because of the claim that the Archangel Gabriel came down to him during meditation and instructed him with the revelation of the Quran. Muhammad also preached that Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian, but that he was a true Muslim and that all Muslims should follow his example and also that of Muhammad in an attempt to lead life as a good Muslim. Muhammad's teachings would serve as an example for Muslims in years to come.
Aside from the beginning of Islam, one would very much be interested in how Islam spread around the world to such an extent. To begin this discussion, one must first look at the five pillars, or religious duties, of Islam. The five pillars of Islam are the belief in one god, the hajj, prayer, fasting, and charity. The so called sixth pillar of Islam, called jihad, was sometimes interpreted to mean that Muslim armies must spread Islam by the sword, or through holy wars. It was in this fashion, that the Muslim conquests were conducted, moving through a lot of the world at several points in time, and attempting.
to convert all infidels to their religion.