The ummah is the worldwide community of Muslims, bound by one faith across every tribe and people. In Arabic, the word ummah means any group gathered by something shared: a religion, a time or a place. The Prophet ﷺ likened the believers to one body: when one limb complains, the rest rallies to it with sleeplessness and fever.
The word
Ummah, أُمَّة, shares its root, hamza-mim-mim, with umm (mother) and imam (one who is followed). Lisan al-’Arab traces the whole root to one idea, qasd: making for something. Amamtu ilayhi means “I made for him”, and an ummah in religion is a people whose aim is one.
Religion, time or place: that definition is al-Raghib al-Isfahani’s, from his dictionary of the Qur’an. He adds that the bond can come by nature or by choice. It is how he reads Qur’an 6:38, where animals and birds are communities like us, each kind following the way Allah set in it.
How the Qur’an uses it
The word appears about sixty times in the Qur’an; the Quranic Arabic Corpus counts 64, plurals included. Most of those uses, as Abdullah Saeed notes, are not about the community of Muhammad ﷺ.
- A group. Qur’an 28:23 uses it for a crowd of people at the well of Madyan.
- A span of time. The freed prisoner in Surah Yusuf “remembered after a time” (Qur’an 12:45).
- A way or religion. “Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion” (Qur’an 43:22).
- One person. Qur’an 16:120 calls Ibrahim an ummah: for Ibn Kathir, an imam whose example is followed. Al-Raghib says he stood in the place of a whole community in his worship, as Arabs call a man a tribe in himself.
The translation on this site, Sahih International, gives “nation” in 3:110, “community” in 2:143, “leader” in 16:120 and “religion” in 21:92. Read “nation” below as a people gathered by one religion.
What the Qur’an says
Enemies made brothers: 3:103
وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا ۚ وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنْتُمْ أَعْدَاءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا
And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers.
Ibn Kathir reports two views of the rope: Allah’s covenant, or the Qur’an. The enemies, he says, were the Aws and the Khazraj, whose Muslims became the Ansar. Ibn Ishaq, as al-Tabari reports him, put their war at 120 years, until Islam.
Al-Qurtubi says the verse means these two clans and applies to everyone. Ibn Kathir also passes on a scene from Ibn Ishaq. A man who resented their new peace sent someone to remind them of Bu’ath, a battle between the clans, and they nearly fought.
The Prophet ﷺ came and rebuked them for raising the old tribal war cries while he was among them. He recited this verse, and they regretted it, made peace and embraced.
The best ummah, with conditions: 3:110
كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.
Ibn Kathir says whoever in this ummah has these qualities shares in the praise, and whoever lacks them falls short of it. Qatadah, who lived long after Umar, passed on a report he had been told, and al-Tabari records it.
During a Hajj, Umar saw poor conduct among the people and recited this verse. Whoever would be among the ummah it praises, he said, should meet the condition Allah set in it.
A middle ummah: 2:143
وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا
And thus we have made you a just community that you will be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you.
Wasat means the middle, and Ibn Kathir explains it as the best and most excellent. Under this verse, al-Bukhari records a scene from the Day of Resurrection.
Nuh’s people deny that any warner came to them, and Nuh is asked who will testify for him. He answers, “Muhammad and his ummah”, and the Prophet ﷺ tells his listeners: “And you will testify that he conveyed it” (Bukhari 4487, sahih (al-Bukhari)).
The report ends with a gloss, وَالْوَسَطُ الْعَدْلُ: wasat means just. In another narration the Prophet ﷺ recites the verse and says one word himself: “Just” (Bukhari 7349, sahih (al-Bukhari)).
Brothers, peoples and tribes: 49:10 and 49:13
إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَ أَخَوَيْكُمْ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ
The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy.
The verse before it, Qur’an 49:9, orders peace between two groups of believers who fight. Sa’id ibn Jubayr, cited by Ibn Kathir, said it came down after the Aws and the Khazraj, Muslims by then, scuffled with palm branches and sandals.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.
Everyone descends from Adam and Hawwa’, Ibn Kathir explains, so all people are equal in honour by descent. What raises one above another with Allah is taqwa, mindfulness of Him.
One religion, all the prophets: 21:92
إِنَّ هَٰذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُونِ
Indeed this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so worship Me.
Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Sa’id ibn Jubayr and others explained it as “your religion is one religion”. Ibn Kathir reads Qur’an 23:52 the same way: “your religion, O prophets, is one religion”.
What the Prophet ﷺ said
Four short hadith follow, each in both al-Bukhari and Muslim. We translate them ourselves: one common English version has “bricks of a wall” for a word that means a building.
One body
تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ كَمَثَلِ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى عُضْوًا تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ جَسَدِهِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى
You see the believers, in their mercy, love and kindness to one another, like the body: when one limb complains, the rest of the body rallies to it with sleeplessness and fever.
People often quote it as “Muslims are like one body”. The hadith speaks of “the believers”, and compares them to the body. Muslim’s wording, also from al-Nu’man ibn Bashir, is close.
A building
إِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لِلْمُؤْمِنِ كَالْبُنْيَانِ، يَشُدُّ بَعْضُهُ بَعْضًا
The believer to the believer is like a building, each part bracing the other.
In al-Bukhari’s narration, from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, the Prophet ﷺ then interlaced his fingers. Muslim’s has the words alone.
A brother
الْمُسْلِمُ أَخُو الْمُسْلِمِ، لاَ يَظْلِمُهُ وَلاَ يُسْلِمُهُ، وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ كَانَ اللَّهُ فِي حَاجَتِهِ، وَمَنْ فَرَّجَ عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ كُرْبَةً فَرَّجَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرُبَاتِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَمَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
The Muslim is the brother of the Muslim: he does not wrong him, and he does not abandon him [to harm]. Whoever sees to his brother’s need, Allah sees to his need. Whoever relieves a Muslim of a hardship, Allah relieves him of one of the hardships of the Day of Resurrection. And whoever covers [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will cover him on the Day of Resurrection.
Ibn Umar narrated it. Each promise is matched to its deed: a need for a need, a hardship for a hardship, a covering for a covering.
Love for your brother
لا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ
None of you [truly] believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.
Anas ibn Malik narrated it. In Muslim’s narration a narrator was unsure of one word: “for his brother”, or “for his neighbour”.
The ummah today
Pew Research Center’s latest figures, published in June 2025, put the world’s Muslims at about 2.0 billion in 2020. That is 25.6% of all people, roughly one in four. One Muslim in three was under 15, and the median Muslim was 24, against about 31 for the world.
Where we live
Only about one in five of us lives in the Middle East and North Africa. The 2020 split by region:
- Asia and the Pacific: 58.7%, about 1.19 billion
- Middle East and North Africa: 20.5%, about 414 million
- Sub-Saharan Africa: 18.2%, about 369 million
- Europe: 2.2%, about 46 million
- North America: 0.3%, about 5.9 million
A third of all Muslims live in Indonesia (239 million), Pakistan (227 million) and India (213 million, 15% of its people). About eight in ten of us live as part of a religious majority. The rest live as minorities, as in India, Europe and North America.
This week
Take the brother hadith at its word. Think of one Muslim you know who is having a hard week, such as a classmate behind on a deadline or a neighbour who is unwell. Message them today, ask what would help, and do that one thing before next Jumu’ah, without making a show of it.
The Blueprint (coming soon): small personal habits, one action at a time
Read next: How we source and our ground rules
Sources
- Quranic Arabic Corpus, root hamza-mim-mim: occurrence counts and glosses, including 28:23. https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Amm
- Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Qur’an, root alif-mim, via the Arabic Lexicon site. https://arabiclexicon.hawramani.com/%d8%a3%d9%85/?book=33
- Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-’Arab, root hamza-mim-mim, via the Arabic Lexicon site. https://arabiclexicon.hawramani.com/%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%85/
- Abdullah Saeed, “Umma”, Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (Gale), via Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/umma
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Arabic, on quran.com: 2:143, 3:103, 16:120, 21:92, 23:52.
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir, abridged English translation, on quran.com: 3:103, 3:110, 49:10, 49:13.
- Tafsir al-Tabari, Arabic, on quran.com: 3:103 (report 7584, from Ibn Ishaq; report 7586, on Bu’ath), 3:110 (report 7612, from Qatadah).
- Tafsir al-Qurtubi, Arabic, on quran.com: 3:103, 21:92.
- Pew Research Center (Hackett et al.), “Muslim population change”, 9 June 2025: world and regional totals, top countries. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/muslim-population-change/
- Pew Research Center, full report on global religious change from 2010 to 2020 (PDF, 9 June 2025): age, majorities and country tables, pp. 27-29 and 53-56. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/PR_2025.06.09_global-religious-change_report.pdf
Qur’an and hadith on this page
- Qur’an 2:143
- Qur’an 3:103
- Qur’an 3:110
- Qur’an 21:92
- Qur’an 49:10
- Qur’an 49:13
- Bukhari 13, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 481, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 2442, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 4487, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 6011, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Bukhari 7349, sahih (al-Bukhari)
- Muslim 45, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 2580, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 2585, sahih (Muslim)
- Muslim 2586, sahih (Muslim)