Islamic religion was inhabited by the Bedouin Arabs, during the Roman times (Duiker). The Arabs of pre-Islamic times were polytheistic and had a supreme god known as Allah that “presided over the community of spirits” (Duiker). Today we associate the religion with Muhammad; he was born in Mecca and began to travel to nearby hills to mediate in isolation. It was while doing this that he came to believe Allah had revealed himself to Muhammad, and revealed the final revelations to him. These final “revelations” became what was known as the Qur’an (Duiker). Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is monotheistic. However, unlike Christianity, Islam has no claim as to who founded the religion (Duiker). There are many fundamental beliefs of the Islamic faith and the most important is to obey Allah. The five pillars of Islam is believing Muhammad as the prophet of Allah, standard prayer five times a day, observation of Ramadan, fasting until sunset, making a pilgrimage, and if possible making a trip to Mecca at least once in one’s lifetime (Duiker).
Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. His vision was commonly known as Nirvana. This was close to the idea of what Hinduism practiced. Some say Buddhism was the reformation of Hinduism. The faith was to follow the Middle Path, and through this you would achieve Nirvana. It was imperative to have the right knowledge, right purpose, right speech, right conduct, right occupation, right awareness and right meditation (Duiker).