the Meaning of "Islam"

What did Muhammad Mean When He Called his Religion "Islam"?
The Original Meaning of Aslama and its Derivatives

by D.Z.H. Baneth

The sufficient existing explanations of Islam(including some far-fetched):
1. the so-called false prophet;
2. meaning of salvation;
3. covenant between God and man;
4. defiance of death, self-sacrifice(for the sake of God and his prophet).

The root s l m not only in the Qur'an, but also in the Hadith, in Old Arabic poetry and other ancient Arabic sources.

aslama means "to give oneself entirely to God"( Professor Ringgren) , so when you give something to somebody entirely, you give it to him exclusively.
The fundamental change required by Muhammad was the abandonment of polytheism, to serve one god only, the god which they already previously known under the name Allah.
What's the Muhammad conception of polytheism, is that people served other gods in addition to Allah and acknowledged them as partners to him. So the word Islam is a signification that expresses the opposite idea.

Conclusion:
The word from the root s l m, means "belonging to one only" or "exclusive property of one"; "to belong to, or to seve, Allah alone".