Eventually Muhammad's religion of al-Llah was known as islam, the act of existential surrender that each convert was expected to make to God: a muslim is "one who surrenders" his or her whole being to the Creator. At first, however, the believers called their religion tazaqqa. This is an obscure word, which is not easy to translate. By cultivating tazaqqa, Muhammad's converts were to cloak themselves in the virtues of compassion and generosity; they were to use their intelligence to cultivate a caring and responsible spirit, which made them want to give graciously of what they had to all God's creatures. By pondering the mysteries of creation intelligently Muslims would learn to behave kindly and this generous attitude would mean that they acquired a spiritual refinement.
— Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet