Muslim vs Arabs
As the two words, Muslim and Arabs, are constantly used when talking about the Muslim world, it is very valuable to understand the difference between Muslim and Arabs. The two words Muslim and Arabs are often understood to be interchangeable, but they are not so. They, Muslim and Arabs, have some important differences between them. Arabs are mostly Muslims, but Muslims are not always Arabs. The main difference between Muslim and Arabs is that Arab is a race and Muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam. In other words, a Muslim is a person or an individual that embraced the religion of Islam. An Arab is a person or an individual that occupies the Arabian region for dwelling purposes.
Who are Muslims?
A Muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam. Islam is one of the major religions in the world. Muslims live their lives according to this religion. They pray five times a day. Muslims believe the Quran, their religious book, to be the word of God as it was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Who are Arabs?
The definition of Arab as given by the Oxford dictionary is as follows.
“A member of a Semitic people, originally from the Arabian peninsula and neighbouring territories, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa.”
Arab is a name given according to the place where people come from. It is not connected to a religion. Therefore, an Arab is not necessarily a Muslim.
What is the difference between Muslim and Arabs?
The word Muslim is religion based, whereas the word Arab is region based or ethnicity based. It is very important to note that different languages are used by Muslims because they reside in different parts of the world. Arabs speak Arabic language, which is also spoken by other nationals too.
Muslims hail from many parts of the world whereas Arabs are necessarily from the Middle East regions. Since the Muslims come from different parts of the world, they are in large numbers in terms of population. Compared to the number of Muslims in the world, the Arab population is less. This is again because the Arabs hail from only a particular region of the world.
It is interesting to note that though most Arab citizens follow some sect of Islam there are people who belong to other religions such as Christianity and Jewish. Thus, you come across Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs. The same is applicable even to those that practice the religion of Islam. You can come across an American Muslim and an Arab Muslim too for that matter. Finally, it can be said that Arab is a race and Muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam.
Summary:
Muslim vs Arabs
• A Muslim is an individual that embraces the religion of Islam, whereas an Arab is a person that lives in the Arabian region.
• Muslim is a word that is religion based in usage, whereas Arab is a word that is region based in usage.
• Muslims speak different languages, whereas an Arab uses only the Arabian language.
• Muslims are from different parts of the world whereas Arabs are from the Arab region.
Iran is not an arab country it’s persian 🙂
CORRECTION: Iran is not considered an Arab country, but a Persian one since they do not speak Arabic. It is also not a member of the Arab League.
Iran or persia is not a arab country,people in iran speak “persian” not arabic.
iran located in middle east thats true but it didnt mean that iran will considered as a arab country!!!
I
would like to point out the fact that one may speak Arabic does not necessarily
mean that one is an Arab, that the Iranians are not Arab and neither are the Moroccans/Tunisians
/ Chadians/Sudanese/ Egyptians/Syrians/ Lebanese or any other country for that matter other
than Saudi Arabia and those genetically connected to that people. Many states
may speak Arabic just as many states speak English does not make them English
(part of England) So yes maybe we all have to go back to our roots, and put
history back on the right track. Yes Islam is a Monotheist Religion and can be
found all over the world. But to say that and Arab can follow any faith is basically
incorrect as all Arabs come from Saudi Arabia and belong to what is called the
Salafi sect of Islam.
Arabs are not a pure race, Their grandfather Abraham had sex with the house servant Hagar, and got her pregnant and Had Ishmel, the father of the Arabs. Was Abraham an Arab from the land of Ur? if so then the Arabs could be considered a race, if not then they are a mixed people. As for the Jews Abraham married his own sister and had Isaic, the father of the Jews, and off spring of a brother and sister do not constitute a new race of people. What woud it take to make the Jews a race? If everyone here were Arabs from the begining, then the Jews and Arabs are half brothers, because they had the same grandfather Abraham, but different grand mothers. This is just as confusing as the war between Jews and Arabs. If Abraham had waited on the promise of God for a child, all of this confusion could have been avoided. This is a result of what happens when men do things their way and not God’s way, and now the whole world is suffering because of Abrahams dis-opedence, (bad judgement).
Not all Arabs come from the lineage of Ismail AS.