Dawah centre

Islam reached most of the world's Muslim population through trade, scholarship and gradual conversion over centuries. Arabia, Persia, Central Asia and West Africa all have distinct histories, and forced conversion is explicitly rejected in the Qur'an: "There is no compulsion in religion" (2:256).

The Qur'an addresses Allah as the Lord of all the worlds — "Rabb al-'alamin" — and describes Him as sustaining all creation, believer and disbeliever alike. The Arabic word "Allah" is used by Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians for God.

The Qur'an honours Jesus intensely. He is named "the Messiah", "a Spirit from Him", and "a Word from Him", born miraculously of Maryam, who is named more times in the Qur'an than in the New Testament. Muslims honour him as a prophet and messenger, distinct from belief in his divinity.

This is a claim about practice and culture, not about the sources. The Qur'an names women as recipients of reward and as parties to inheritance and marriage rights; what varies enormously is the legal and cultural environment in which those rights are applied. Each instance deserves a specific answer rather than a slogan.

The Black Stone in the Ka'bah is not worshipped. It is a marker used to align the circuit of tawaf. The Ka'bah itself is the direction of prayer, not an object of worship — Muslims pray toward it, not to it.

Jihad linguistically means to strive or exert effort. The greater jihad in the classical tradition is the inner struggle against one's own desires. Armed conflict is one narrow, heavily conditioned category with strict rules, not the general meaning of the word.