# Muslim vs. Islam **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567 "2001-09-24T22:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/1 "2001-09-24T22:07:39Z")
I just read an article about the Islam religion. After reading it, one would conclude that the words **“Islam”** and **“Muslim”** are interchangeable. So what is the difference between “Islam” and “Muslim”? Do they mean the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/2 "2001-09-24T22:16:02Z")
Islam is a religion. A muslim is someone who follows that religion. Analogy: Muslim is to Islam as Christian is to Christianity ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/3 "2001-09-24T22:17:08Z")
**Crafter Man** : Islam = the religion itself. Muslim = a follower of that religion. Simple as that 🙂 . - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/4 "2001-09-24T22:35:41Z")
Thanks. I guess it was sort of a dumb question, but I just never had it explained to me… ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/5 "2001-09-25T02:52:18Z")
Muslim (aka Moslem) is one who submits to Islam. Most of you probably aren’t old enuff to remember but the press would routinely refer to them as Mohammadians (sp?). Which would imply they worshiped Mohammed. Which of course they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/6 "2001-09-25T03:11:14Z")
Most educated people in European-oriented societies were aware that “Mohammedans” were no more likely to worship Mohammed than Lutherans were to worship Luther. However, as the world expanded and more people from Europe, North America, Australia, etc. encountered more Muslims (often through immigration), they became aware that the followers of Islam preferred the term Muslim and the word Mohammedan was generally dropped from use. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/7 "2001-09-25T03:25:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*However, as the world expanded and more people from Europe, North America, Australia, etc. encountered more Muslims (often through immigration), they became aware that the followers of Islam preferred the term Muslim and the word Mohammedan was generally dropped from use. \*\* Over the protest of one H. K. Fowler – but such are the risks faced by a linguistic prosciptivist. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/8 "2001-09-25T05:28:37Z")
I know Islam literally means “submission”; submission to Allah. What I am wondering is, what does the word muslim mean? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/9 "2001-09-25T07:21:10Z")
I never heard of **Muslims** until Clay became Ali and a black Muslim . I had heard of\*\* Moslems\*\*before that however. Sometime since then the term “Moslem” completely disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![pennylane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pennylane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pennylane)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/10 "2001-09-25T09:30:51Z")
**quasar** , the term “muslim” literally means “one who submits”. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/11 "2001-09-25T11:52:27Z")
_Muslim_ vs _Moslem_ simply represents the normal shifts of pronunciation and spelling that occur as different dialects of languages gain or lose ground in the public consciousness when the alphabets are totally different. The same sort of thing has happened with the former royal family of Russia, alternating between the _Romanoffs_ and the _Romanovs_. In Chinese, we have seen _Peiping_, _Peking_, and _Beijing_ all used in the last 100 years. Much earlier, in English, _Muslim_ was rendered as _Musselman_ (although I suspect that that was a really bad, if popular, rendering). ---
**Author:** ![Muslim\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Muslim\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muslim_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/12 "2001-09-25T13:15:57Z")
Both _Islâm_ and _muslim_ derives from the verb _aslama_ ‘to submit, to surrender, to resign oneself, to commit oneself’. This verb is from the triliteral root s-l-m. The basic verb from this root is _salima_, ‘to be safe and sound, be at peace’. The source of the noun _salâm_, ‘peace’. This is why you hear people saying “Islam is peace.” More accurately, it means ‘a commitment to peace’. This is explained by the saying of the Prophet: “A Muslim is one from whose hand and tongue others are safe,” i.e. one who will not harm you, steal from you, or talk bad about you. All these words, anything with the consonants s-l-m, are related to the core meaning of being safe and sound. _Islâm_ is the noun of the verb _aslama_, i.e. the name of the action, ‘submission’. _Muslim_ is the active participle of _aslama_, meaning the one who does that action, ‘submitter’, as **pennylane** correctly stated. Since Semitic languages are verb-based, an active participle like _muslim_ practically has the force of a verb, meaning one who is actively accomplishing that action. There is nothing inherently wrong with the word “mussulman”, although it’s now obsolete in English. It is simply the word for Muslim in the Persian language: _musalmân_. It is altered from the Arabic word with a Persian suffix added. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-vs-islam/83567/13 "2001-09-25T15:24:37Z")
\<\< …than Lutherans were to worship Luther. \>\> I thought they worshiped (Lex) Luthor, Superman’s arch enemy, and thus were Evil. But maybe I’m thinking of the OTHER synod.