Islam is based on the belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God, and belief in an afterlife with the Last Judgment, wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise and the unrighteous will be punished in hell.
The Five Pillars, considered obligatory acts of worship, are the Islamic oath and creed, daily prayers, almsgiving, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Islamic law, sharia, touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment. The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The religion of Islam originated in Mecca in 610 CE. Muslims believe this is when Muhammad received his first revelation. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. Muslim rule expanded outside Arabia under the Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate ruled from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley. In the Islamic Golden Age, specifically during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate, most of the Muslim world experienced a scientific, economic and cultural flourishing. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as a result of Islamic missionary activities (dawah), as well as through conquests, imperialism, and colonialism.

The two main Islamic branches are Sunni Islam (87–90%) and Shia Islam (10–13%). While the Shia–Sunni divide initially arose from disagreements over the succession to Muhammad, they grew to cover a broader dimension, both theologically and juridically. The Sunni canonical hadith collection consists of six books, while the Shia canonical hadith collection consists of four books.

My Icon: A censer with the star and moon.