Islam is the youngest of the great Abrahamic faiths and, with nearly two billion adherents, one of the largest. It sits beside Judaism and Christianity among the major religions the layer describes.
The tradition in brief
Its centre is tawhid, the absolute oneness of God, revealed through the Prophet Muhammad and recorded in the Quran. Practice is anchored by the Five Pillars — the declaration of faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting in Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca — and elaborated across the Sunni and Shia traditions and the many cultures that carry them. Islam frames life as submission, in the sense of trusting alignment, to the will of the one God.
Its place in the map
Islam carries a deep mystical current of its own — Sufism, with its longing for direct union with the Divine — which connects it to the layer's threads of direct connection to the Creator and esoteric knowledge. The map describes the faith as Muslims understand it, and treats it with the respect a living tradition of billions is owed.
Islam is one of humanity's great frameworks of meaning; the map describes it faithfully and honours it, mystical depths and all.