February 7 - Submission

February 7 – Submission

In 610 AD a man’s life was changed by conversations he had with the angel Gabriel. These conversations made up the Koran and Muhammad’s teachings started a new religion.

He preached a message of the one true God, asserting that idols and religions based on many gods were false. It didn’t take long for those that were making money off sales of idols to become furious with him and decide that he needed to die. He fled with many of his followers, but after building a large following returned to Mecca. The followers were called Muslims which simply means ‘those who submit to Allah.’ The name Islam means ‘submission.’

After he died, Islam continued and his followers grew in great number. They conquered Arabia, Syria and North Africa and in 638 AD they took over Jerusalem and by 711 AD they had conquered Portugal and Spain.

These people knew what they were doing. They allowed religious freedoms, but with restrictions. Christians were allowed to continue worshiping Christ, but had to wear distinct clothing and heavy crosses. They also were required to pay higher taxes. Because they believed that the Old Testament was holy, they were protected.

North African Christians had been rejected by the Eastern church because of their one-nature
theology. Many of these willingly transformed their churches into mosques.

Islam would grow into a powerful religion because they were so open. Scholarship, art, music, education thrived under early Islamic leading while the rest of Europe began to face the dark ages. We’ll see how this happened a little later.