Dawah in the context of Mustaali

Muhammad (c. 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, military and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed by Muslims to be the Seal of the Prophets, and along with the Quran, his teachings and normative examples form the basis for Islamic religious belief.

According to the traditional account, Muhammad was born in Mecca to the aristocratic Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh. He was the son of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. His father, Abdullah, the son of tribal leader Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, died around the time Muhammad was born. His mother Amina died when he was six, leaving Muhammad an orphan. He was raised under the care of his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and paternal uncle, Abu Talib. In later years, he would periodically seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer. When he was 40, in c. 610, Muhammad reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave and receiving his first revelation from God. In 613, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "submission" (Islām) to God (Allāh) is the right way of life (dīn), and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to other prophets in Islam.

Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (Arabic: عَبْدُ اللهِ بْنُ أَبِي قُحَافَةَ, romanized: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʾAbī Quḥāfa) (c. 573 – 23 August 634), better known by his kunya Abu Bakr, was a senior companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 632 until his death in 634. Abu Bakr was granted the honorific title al-Ṣiddīq (lit. the Veracious) by Muhammad, a designation that continues to be used by Sunni Muslims to this day.

Born to Abu Quhafa and Umm al-Khayr of the Banu Taym, Abu Bakr was among the earliest converts to Islam and propagated dawah to the Mushrikites. He was considered the first Muslim missionary, as several companions of Muhammad converted through Abu Bakr. He accompanied Muhammad on his migration to Medina and became one of his bodyguards. Abu Bakr participated in all of Muhammad's campaigns and served as the first amir al-hajj in 631. In the absence of Muhammad, Abu Bakr led the prayers.

A da'i (Arabic: داعي, romanized: dāʿī, lit. 'inviter, caller', [ˈdæːʕi(ː)]) is generally someone who engages in Dawah, the act of inviting people to Islam.

Dāʿī the inviter or summoner, i.e. the one who invites to true religion, as God says: "And as a summoner unto Allah by His permission, and as a luminous lamp" (33:46).

Conversion to Islam, also known within Islam as reversion, is adopting Islam as a religion or faith. Conversion requires a formal statement of the shahādah, the credo of Islam, whereby the prospective convert must state that "there is none worthy of worship in truth except Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah". Proselytism of the faith is referred to as "dawah", and missionary efforts have been promoted since the dawn of the religion in the 7th century.

The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural (Arab, Persian, Turkish) traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Islam all in one place.

Separating concepts in Islam from concepts specific to Arab culture, or from the language itself, can be difficult. Many Arabic concepts have an Arabic secular meaning as well as an Islamic meaning. One example is the concept of dawah. Arabic, like all languages, contains words whose meanings differ across various contexts.

The Alavi Bohras are a Tayyibi Musta'lavi Isma'ili Shi'i Muslim community from Gujarat, India. In India, during the time of the 18th Fatimid Imam Al-Mustansir Billah around 1093 AD in Egypt, the designated learned people (wulaat) who were sent from Yemen by missionaries (du'aat) under the guidance of the imam established a da'wah in Khambhat (Gujarat, India).

After the division of the Musta'lid community, the Yemenite Da'wah followed their 21st imam, the son of 20th Imam Al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah in the succession of Fatimid Imams of Egypt, At-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim as their Imam of seclusion, and the Bohras are the modern descendants of Tayyibi Da'wah established from Khambhat, Patan and Sidhpur in the 5th century Hijri and also the immigrants from Yemeni Tayyibi Da'wah.