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Ummah (/ˈʊmə/;[1] Arabic: أُمَّة [ˈʊm.mæ]) is an Arabic word meaning "nation".[citation needed] It is distinguished from shaʻb (شَعْب [ˈʃæʕb], "people"), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, Ummah can be said to be a supra-national polity with a common history.
It is a synonym for ummat al-Islām (أمّةْ الإِسْلَامُ, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective nation of Islamic people.[2] In the Quran, the ummah typically refers to a single group that shares common religious beliefs, specifically those that are the objects of a divine plan of salvation.[3][4] In the context of pan-Islamism and politics, the word ummah can be used to mean the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers (أمة المؤمنين ummat al-muʼminīn).