islam - the religion of submission to god

8/2/2019 Islam - the Religion of Submission to God

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The Religion of Submission to God

Islam is the youngest of the major religions of the world. It is the dominant religion of the third-

world nations of the Middle East and Africa and the second largest of the world's religions with

589,143,400 followers. Muslim philosophy is a blend of Arabic, Jewish, and Christian elements and

one of the simplest and least complicated of the world's religions.

The basic belief of Islam is that there is only one God, Allah, who is the sole and sovereign ruler ofthe universe. Allah has made himself known through other prophets at other times; but his best andfinal revelation was to the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. The central demand of

Muslims (submitters) is submission to the will of Allah.

Pre-Islamic Arab religion was an animistic polytheism. Images to these gods were carved and

cherished and blood sacrifices were made to them. They recognized one supreme high god whom

they called Allah (the God). They venerated a black meteoric stone at Mecca. Legend says the stone

fell from heaven during the time of Adam and Eve and that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba

around it.

Muhammad was born around 570 A. D. at Mecca. His father died before he was born and his

mother died before he was six years old. He was reared by an uncle and had no opportunity for any

kind of formal education. He was an illiterate caravan worker and camel driver. In his travels he met

Christians, Jews, and perhaps Zoroastrians. Around the age of twenty-five he married a wealthy

widow caravan owner, Khadija. During their twenty-five years of marriage she bore him two sons

and four daughters; but only one daughter, Fatima, survived him.

In the years following his marriage he began to go into the hills surrounding Mecca to contemplatethe fate of his people. Muhammad entered a period of spiritual stress. He was concerned about the

idolatry of his people and their fate on the judgment day at the end of the world. As time passed hebecame. agitated with the thought that the Last Day and Last Judgment might be near at hand.According to Muslim tradition he visited a cave near the base of Mt. Hira north of Mecca for days at

a time. Here one night when he was around the age of forty the archangel Gabriel appeared to him.

After a series of revelations extending over many years Muhammad became convinced that there

was only one God, Allah; and that he was the last and the greatest in a series of prophets (28) of this

God--which included Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

Muhammad began to preach but was met with rejection and hostility. His first converts were from

the younger and poorer classes in Mecca. As opposition mounted Muhammad received protection

from his uncle; however, some of his followers took refuge in Abyssinia. In 619 both his wife andhis uncle died. Muhammad tried to move out of Mecca to a nearby town but was rejected.

A fortuitous event took place in 620. Men from Yathrib (Medina) came to seek Muhammad as an

impartial judge to settle disputes within the city. It was 622 before Muhammad could leave Mecca.

A group of assassins had pledged to kill him but finally Muhammad and his friend and successor,

Abu Bakr, escaped to a cave on Mt. Thaur and thence to Medina. The Hijrah (migration) normally

took eleven days but they made it in eight. Muslims date their calendars from the Hijrah (A.H.)

At Medina Muhammad set up a theocracy and directed Muslims to pray toward Jerusalem but when

he was opposed by the Jews he commanded his followers to pray toward Mecca. The final break

with the Jews came when a Jewess, Zainab invited the Prophet and his friends to dinner and fed


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them poisoned lamb. The Jewish tribes were either expelled from Muslim territory or offered the

choice of conversion or death.

Although Muhammad greatly improved the treatment of women, they were still under the rulership

of men. Muslims were allowed four wives if all of them were treated the same. A man could divorce

his wife by repeating three times, "I divorce you." Muhammad, through special dispensation

married eleven wives. When he married his cousin, Zaynab, who had been the wife of his adopted

son, Zayd, he was not criticized so much for taking another man's wife as for marrying a cousinwhich was considered incestuous in the Arab culture.

Muhammad launched military campaigns to consolidate their position. At the battle of Badr in 624

the Muslims defeated the Meccans. In another battle the following year the Muslims lost more men

than the Meccans. A force of 10,000 Meccans attacked Medina in 627 but no decisive battles were

fought and the Meccans withdrew. A peace treaty was worked out which allowed Muslims to make

the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 630 Muhammad entered Mecca with an army of 10,000 men as its

complete conqueror. He went to the Kaaba and destroyed all of the idols and images. With this

symbolic act the Prophet became the sole leader of the Arabian people. At the age of sixty-two in

632 Muhammad led another pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned he gave a farewell message toMuslims and died in the arms of his wife Aishah. His last words were, "Lord grant me pardon! Join

me to the companionship on high! Eternity in Paradise! Pardon! The blessed companionship on

high!" Muhammad was a man of unquestioned religious experience, a man of prayer, one utterly

devoted to the religious ideal as he saw it. He was an attractive leader and an efficient organizer. At

times he was vindictive and autocratic; yet he could say, "There is no compulsion in religion."

Muhammad made no provision for succession. The first four caliphs (deputys) were chosen by

election and are often referred to as the "orthodox caliphs" because they were selected from the

circle of the friends of the Prophet. Alip the last of the orthodox caliphs, had the caliphate usurped

by those who formed the Umayyad dynasty in 661. The Umayyad caliphs ruled from Damascus,Syria from 661 to 750. They were succeeded by the Abbasid dynasty which ruled from Baghdad,

Persia between 750 and 1258. This was the golden age of Islam. The Abbasids were replaced by the

Mamelukan Turks who ruled from Egyp. They were succeeded in the sixteenth century by the

Ottoman Turks who made the caliph title synonymous with that of the sultan of Turkey. When the

Ottoman-Empire was broken up after World War I the caliphate ceased to be.

Islam is not a temple-oriented religion; however, Muhammad decreed that Muslims were required

to pray together at a mosque on Friday. There an iman leads in prayer; the iman is not a priest but a

pious man. The scripture of Islam is the Quran (reading) which is made up of 114 surahs (chapters)

arranged according to the length of the surah. The Quran is the Word of God; it is eternal, absolute,and irrevocable. Muhammad acted only as a stenographer for Allah. Probably no scripture has

influenced its people more than the Quran. It is dutifully read by Muslims and memorized in its

entirety by many. The Quran has twenty-five references to Jesus Christ and represents Jesus as

predicting the coming of the founder of Islam.

What are the pillars of Islam?

There are five major pillars of Islam which are the articles of faith. These pillars are 1) the belief (Iman) inone God and that Muhammad (P) is His messenger, 2) prayer (Salat) which are prescribed five times a day,

3) fasting (Siyam) which is required in the month of Ramadan, 4) charity (Zakat) which is the poor-due on

the wealth of the rich and 5) hajj which is the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime if one can afford it


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physically and financially. All the pillars should be of equal height and strength in a building in order to give

the building its due shape and proportions. It is not possible that one would do hajj without observing fasting

or without practicing regular prayers. Now think of a building which has pillars only. It would not be called

a building. In order to make it a building, it has to have a roof, it has to have walls, it has to have doors and

windows. These things in Islam are the moral codes of Islam such as honesty, truthfulness, steadfastness and

many other human moral qualities. Thus in order to be a Muslim, one should not only be practicing the

pillars of Islam but should also have the highest possible attribute for being a good human being. Only then

the building is completed and looks beautiful.

The Muslim's Beliefs

Unlike other beings, man has the tendency to think that any thing that is organized much have an organizer.

Islam simply applies the same natural logic to the universe and the environment around us which has so

many amazing and well organized inter-related systems that witness of the existence of a powerful creator.

It is in this direction that Muslims believe in an unseen Ultimate Creator, source of all the physical and

spiritual power that exist in the universe. We know about this creator not only through the powerfulevidence of how organized is the universe, but also through a line of prophets, including but not limited to

Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. They came to draw our attention to him so that we may

make the choice to believe by responding to an inner instinct (that is confirmed daily) that all that is

organized must have an organizer and that this universe is the creation of the ultimate organizer: God the

one, the eternal, the creator, the fastest who calculates, the light, the originator, to list only a view of the

names and attributes of the one God as outlined in the Koran (Qur'an).

The first five verses of the Koran represent the Islamic natural approach to believe in the one God:

Read in the name of your Lord who created;

Created man from a clot that clings

Read and your Lord is the most generous;

He who taught by the pen;

Taught man that which he knew not.

Accordingly a Muslim faith is pronounced in the format of admitting the existence and oneness of the

Creator as follows:

I witness there there is no God, but one God

and that Mohammed is his prophet.

(or for that matter one of his prophets, since the Koran states that Mohammed is no more than a prophet, a

lot of prophets have passed before him).

Do Muslims have many sects?

Muslims have no sects. In Islam, there are two major schools of thought, the Shia and the Sunni. Both have

many things in common. They follow the same book - Quran. They follow the same prophet Muhammad

(P). Both offer their prayers five time a day. Both fast in the month of Ramadan. They both go for hajj,

pilgrimage to Mecca. Those who follow Prophet Muhammad (P), in accordance with his sayings and

actions, are called Sunni and those who in addition follow the sayings and views of Ali (Muhammad's son-

in- law), as the rightful successor to Prophet Muhammad (P), are called Shia. Shia means a partisan (party of

Ali) and it started more as a political party to help Ali in his conflict with his political adversaries. Most


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Shias live in Iran and Iraq while the rest of the Muslim world is mostly Sunni. Shias comprise about 16-

percent of the Muslim population.

What is the Islamic Year?

The Islamic year started from the migration (Hijra) of Prophet Muhammad (P) from Mecca to Medina in622 AD. It is a lunar year of 354 days. The first month is called Muharram. 1996 AD is in Islamic year 1416

AH.

What is "Islamic Fundamentalism"?

There is no concept of "Fundamentalism" in Islam. The western media has coined this term to brand those

Muslims who wish to return to the basic fundamental principles of Islam and mould their lives accordingly.

Islam is a religion of moderation and a practicing God fearing Muslim can neither be a fanatic nor an

extremist.

What is Jihad?

The word "Jihad" means struggle, or to be specific, striving in the cause of God. Any struggle done in day-

to-day life to please God can be considered Jihad. One of the highest levels of Jihad is to stand up to a tyrant

and speak a word of truth. Control of the self from wrong doings is also a great Jihad. One of the forms of

Jihad is to take up arms in defense of Islam or a Muslim country when Islam is attacked. This kind of Jihad

has to be declared by the religious leadership or by a Muslim head of state who is following the Quran and

Sunnah

Do Muslims believe in the hereafter?

God is Just and manifest His justice, He established the system of accountability. Those who do good will be

rewarded and those who do wrong will be punished accordingly. Thus, He created Heaven and Hell and

there are admission criteria for both. Muslims believe that the present life is a temporary one. It is a test and

if we pass the test, we will be given a life of permanent pleasure in the company of good people in Heaven.

Who was the Prophet Muhammad? (pbuh)

In brief, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was born in a noble tribe of Mecca in Arabia in the year 570 AD.

His ancestry goes back to Prophet Ishmael (P), son of Prophet Abraham (P). His father died before his birth

and his mother died when he was six. He did not attend a formal school since he was raised first by a nurse

as it was the custom those days, and then by his grandfather and uncle. As a young man, he was known as a

righteous person who used to meditate in a cave. At age 40, he was given the prophethood when the angel,

Gabriel, appeared in the cave. Subsequently, the revelations came over 23 years and were compiled in the

form of a book called the Quran which Muslims consider as the final and the last word of God. The Quran

has been preserved, unchanged, in its original form and confirms the truth in the Torah, the psalms and the

Gospel.

islam - the religion of submission to god

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