Definition of Islam. 1 : the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet. 2 a : the civilization erected upon Islamic faith. b : the group of …

Islam is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root and means "submission" or "total surrender". In a religious context, it means "total surrender to the will of God ". A Muslim ( Arabic: مُسْلِم ), the word for a follower of Islam, is the active participle of the same verb form, and means "submitter (to God)" or "one who surrenders (to God)".

The word “Islam” is often literally translated as “submission,” but upon further linguistic analysis we see a much deeper meaning emerge. The Arabic root of Islam is …

Islam means to achieve peace – peace with God, peace within oneself, and peace with the creations of God – through wholly submitting oneself to God and accepting His guidance. The term Islam derives from the three-letter Arabic root, S (س)- L (ل)- M (م), which generates words with interrelated meanings, including “surrender”, “submission”, “commitment” and “peace”.

The literal and lexical meaning of Islam means submission. Islam comes from the root Arabic letters s-l-m which are the same root letters the word peace (salam) comes from. The term Islam itself does not mean peace, but it implies that one finds peace (salam) through submission (islam). The term Arab is often used interchangeably with Muslim, but this is incorrect.

Islam means “submission to the will of God”; adherents of Islam are called Muslims. The fundamental belief of Islam is “There is only one God, and Muhammad is his prophet .” Muslims are obliged to pray five times a day, to fast in the daytime during the holy month of Ramadan , to abstain from pork and alcohol, and to make gifts to the poor.