Muslim is an Arabic word that literally means ‘One who submits’. People who follow the religion of Islam are called Muslims. A Muslim is one who believes and declares that "there is no god except one God and prophet Muhammad is the last and final messenger of God". This is know as Shahada (Declaration of Faith).
Therefore a Muslim will not deny that there is a Creator, nor associate partners to Allah, since this would be a grave sin, and violation of the basic tenet of the Unity of God (Tawheed).
Muslims live in almost every corner of the world; more than 50 countries have Muslim-majority populations, while many other countries have minority Muslim communities.
Islam is not exclusive to the Middle East. Only 20 percent of the world Muslim population is Arabic-speaking. Countries with the largest Muslim populations include Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and India.
Muslims also vary in their schools of thought and interpretations.
The two major branches of Islam, based largely on differences that arose over who would be Muhammad’s successor, are Sunni and Shia.
Sunnis regard Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, as the fourth and last of the “Rightly Guided Caliphs,” or rightly guided successors to Muhammad. Shias believe that Ali should have been the first caliph and the caliphate should have been passed down only to direct descendants of the Prophet.
Close to ninety percent of the world’s Muslims are Sunnis with concentrations of Shias living in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
There is no one central figure of authority who can claim to speak on behalf of the entire Muslim community. The task of speaking on Muslim issues is often left to mosque leaders, scholars, academics, community activists, and Muslim advocacy groups.
The Qur'an describes a Muslim in many verses. For example Chapter 25 verse 63-68 “The servants of Allah Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility and when the ignorant address them they say ’Peace’; those who spend the night in worship and adoration of their Lord, prostrate and standing; those who say ’Our Lord avert from us the wrath of Hell, for its wrath is indeed an affliction grievous. those who when they spend are neither extravagant nor miserly but hold a just balance between those extremes; those who do not invoke with Allah any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred, except for just cause, nor commit fornication'”
