The Arabic word Islam means peace, submission and obedience. The religion of Islam is the complete acceptance of the teachings and guidance of God as revealed to his prophet Muhammad. (PBUH).
A Muslim is one who believes in God and strives for total reorganization of his life according to his revealed guidance and the saying of the Prophet. He also works for the building human society on the same basis. ‘Mohammedanism’ is a misnomer for Islam and offends its very sprits.
The word ‘Allah’ is a proper name of God in Arabic. It is a unique term because it has no plural or feminine gender.
CONTINUITY OF MESSAGE
Islam is not a mew religion. It is in essence, the same message and guidance, which Allah revealed to all Prophets:
Say, we believe in Allah and which has been revealed to Abraham and Ismael and Issac and Jacob and the tribes and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and or other prophets, from their lords. We make no distinctions between any of them and to him we submit. (Quran 3:38).
The message, which was reveled to prophet Mohammad (PBUH), is Islam in its comprehensive, complete and final form.
THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM
There are five pillars of Islam
1. The deceleration of faith: to bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and the Muhammad his Messenger to all Human beings till the day of Judgment. The prophet hood of Muhammad obliges the Muslims to follow his exemplary life as a model.
2. Prayers: Daily prayers are offered five times a day as a duty towards Allah. They strength and enliven the believes in Allah and inspire man to a higher morality. They purify the heart and prevent temptation towards wrong- doing and evils.
3. Fasting the months of Ramadan: The Muslim during the month of Ramadan not only abstain from food, drink, and sexual intercourse from down to sunset, out also from evil intention and desires. It teaches love, sincerity and devotion. It develops a sound social conscience, patience, unselfishness and will power.
4. Zakat: To pay annually 2.5% of one’s net saving on which a year has passed as a religious duty and purifying sum to be spent on poorer sections of the community.
5. Pilgrim to make Makkah: It is to be performed once in a lifetime. If one can afford it financially and physically.
Besides these pillars every action, which is done with the awareness that it fulfills the will of Allah, is also considered an act of worship.
Islam enjoins faith in the Oneness and Sovereignty of Allah. Which makes man aware of the meaningful of the universe and of his place in it? This belief frees him from all fears and superstitions by making him from all fears and superstitions by making him conscious of presence of the almighty Allah and of man’s obligation’s towards him. This faith must be expressed and tested in action. Faith alone is not enough. Belief is one God requires that we look upon all humanity as one family under the universal omnipotence of God the creator and nourishes of all. Islam rejects the idea of a chosen people, making faith in God and good action the only way to heaven. Thus, a direct relationship is established with god, without any intercessor.
MAN: THE FREE AGENT
Man is the highest creation of God. He is equipped with the highest of potentialities. He is left relatively free in his will action and choice. God has shown him a right path and the life of Prophet Mohammad provides a perfect examples. Man’s success and salvation lies in following both. Islam teaches the sanctity of the human personality and confers equal rights upon all without any distinction of race, sex or colors.
The law or God enunciated in the quran and exemplified in the life of the prophet is supreme in all case. It applies equally to the highest and the lowest the price and the peasant, the ruler and the ruled.
QURA’N AND HADITH
The quran is the last revealed word of God and the basic sources of Islamic teaching and laws. The quran deals with the bases of creeds, morality, history of humanity, worship knowledge, wisdom, God man relationship, and human relationship in all aspects. Comprehensive teachings on which, can be built sound system of social justice, economics, politics, legislation, jurisprudence, law and international relations, are important contents of the Holy Quran.
Muhammad (PBUH) himself was an unlettered man who could not read or write. Yet, the Holy Quran was committed to memory and writings by his followers. Under his supervision during his lifetime. The original and complete text of the Quran is available to everybody in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed. Translation of the meaning into many languages is widely used. HADITH, the teachings saying and action of prophet Muhammad, meticulously reported and collected by his devotes companions. Explain and elaborate the Quranic verse.
CONCEPT OF WORSHIP
Islam does not teach or accept mere ritualism. It emphasizes intention and action. To worship God is to known him and love him, to act upon his law in every aspect of life, to enjoins goodness and forbid wrong-doing and oppression, to practice charity and justice and serve him by serving mankind. The Quran presents this concept in the following sublime manner.
It is not righteousness that you turn your faces to the East or the West, but righteous is he who believes in God and the last day and the angles and the book and the prophets: and gives his wealth for love of him to kinsfolk and the orphans and the needy and the way farer and to those who asked and to set slaves free: and observers proper worship and pays the Zakah. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress; such are those who are sincere. Such are the God fearing.
(QURAN 2:177).ISLAMIC WAY OF LIFE
Islam provides definite guidelines for all peoples to follow in all walks of life. The guidance it gives is comprehensive and includes the social, economic, political, moral and spiritual aspects of life. The Quran reminds man of the purpose of his life on the Earth, of his duties and obligations towards himself, his kith and kin, his community his fellow human beings and his creator. Man is given fundamental guidelines about a purposeful life and then he is left with the challenge of human existence before him so that he might put these high ideals into practice. In Islam, man’s life is a wholesome, integrated nit and not a collection of fragmented; competitive parts. The sacred and secular are not separate parts of man : they are united in the nature of being human.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Muhammad (blessing and peace be upon him) was born in the year 570 A.C. in the city of Makkah in Arabia. He came of a noble family; he received the first revelation at the age of forty. As soon as he started preaching Islam, he and his followers were persecuted and had to face severe hardships. He was, therefore commanded by God to migrate to Madinah, another city in Arabia. During a short span of 23 years, he completed his mission of prophet hood and died at the age of 63. He led a perfect life and set an example for the human beings, as his life was the embodiment of the Quranic teachings.
ISLAM RATIONAL APPEAL
Islam in its clear and direct way of expressing truth has a tremendous amount of appeal for any seeker of knowledge. It is a solution for all the problems of life. It is a guide towards a better and complete life glorifying, in all its phases, God, the al-mightily creator and the merciful Nourishes.
ISLAM THE SOLUTION OF MODERN PROBLEMS
The brotherhood of man: A major problems which modern man faces is that of racism. They materially advanced nations can send man to the moon but they cannot stop man from hating and fighting his fellow man. Islam, over the last 1400 years, has shown in practice how racism can be ended. Every year during Hajj, the Islamic miracle of real brotherhood of all races and nations can be seen in action.
The family: The family, which is the basis unit of civilization, is designating in all western countries. Islam’s family system brings into a fine equilibrium the rights of man, wife, children and relatives. Islam nourishes human unselfishness’, generosity and love in a well-organized family system.
UNFRAGMENTED VIEW OF LIFE
Human beings live according to their view of life. The tragedy of secular societies is that they fail to connect the different aspects of life. The secular and the religious, the scientific and the spiritual seem to be in conflict. Islam puts an end to this conflict and brings harmony to man’s vision of life. `
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