Islam’s definition, unlike other
great religions of the world, lies in its very name. The word Islam basically
means peace acquired by total submission to the will of Allah (The God).
It’s one of the great monotheistic religions of the world with over a billion
followers. Through birth, migration and conversion, Islam is the fastest
growing religion in the USA and in the world.
Although many people believe that
Islam began in the Arabian Peninsula fourteen hundred years ago, the religion
teaches the exact opposite. The Islamic teachings adhere to the concept that
all prophets – right from Adam to Muhammad – were Muslims. In other words,
Islam started with the creation of mankind. Islam claims that there’ve been
minor changes in some rulings and commandments of the Lord in accordance with
the people’s conditions and civilizations from time to time, but the basic
concept of God has remained the same.
Islam
has five pillars upon which the religion stands. These pillars are practiced by
all Muslims globally. The Islamic five pillars are:
1. Shahada; Declaration of faith – there’s no God worthy of
worship except Allah and Muhammad is his servant and messenger.
2. Salah; Five daily prayers. Glorifications and thanks of
the Lord, supplications and repentance, sending salutations and peace upon the
messenger are incorporated in these prayers.
3. Alms; a system of charity given to the poor to help
eradicate poverty from the world.
4. Fasting Ramadan; Abstaining from food and sex during the
daytime for one month. The fasting reminds the rich of the hunger of the poor and
increases faith and brotherhood within the believers.
5. Hajj; Pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah. Over three
million Muslims meet at the Hajj every year.
Islam also demands its followers to believe in six
pillars of Eman (faith):
1. Allah (The God).
2. His Angels.
3. His books: Torah (given to Moses), Zabur (given to David),
Enjeel (given to Jesus), and Furqan/Quran (given to Muhammad). Peace be upon
them all.
4. His Messengers (From Adam to Muhammad)
5. The Judgment Day.
6. The Destiny. (E.g. Allah knows whatever will happen why they
happen, and which way humans follow, His way or the Satan’s.)
The concept of God in Islam is
such that He is uniquely one. He is called as Allah (The God). When
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was asked as to who is Allah, God Himself gave him the
answer through revelation that reads, “Say: He is Allah, the One
and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He
begetteth not, nor is He begotten; and there is none like unto Him.” (Quran 112:1-4).
Islam teaches that God’s attributes cannot belong to any of his creations and
he doesn’t take any of his creations’ attributes. He transcends time and space
– as he is the creator of both – and He controls what’s happening in the whole
universe.
According to Islam’s philosophy
of religion evolution, mankind and jinn are the only creations which were
granted the free choice to either obey him and granted paradise or disobey him
and be punished. Similarly, as mentioned above religion started as pure
monotheism. As the offspring of Adam and Eve grew larger, they invented other
pagan and polytheistic religions. To guide them back to the right path, Allah
sent messengers with scriptures and miracles.
The main sacred text of Islam is
Al-Quran (the recitation). It’s God’s words. God’s speech in the first person.
The Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in a period of 23 years. A larger
number of the sahaba (the companions of the Prophet) memorized the Quran letter
by letter during the prophet’s life. When the prophet passed away and a number
of those companions also died, the Quran was, then compiled under the
supervision of its memorizers. However some people had notes on animal skins,
bones, and leaves etc. which they considered as Quran. But the committee that
compiled the Quran gathered those notes and burnt them.
To prove its claim of divine
origin, the Quran contains literary challenges. One such challenge reads, “And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from
time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your
witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are
true. ”
(Quran, 2:23). Although some people tried and failed, the challenge has not
been met until today. It’s also
worth mentioning that this book remained exactly as it was revealed to Prophet
Muhammad fourteen centuries ago. Muslims today read one version of the Quran
and there are millions of Muslims – children and adults – who know it by heart.
Muslims believe that this phenomenon is happening because of Allah’s promise to
protect His last book, “We have, without doubt,
sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).” (Quran
15:9).
Besides the Quran, the prophet’s
quotes were documented carefully. The Quran teaches that Prophet Muhammad was
not only given Al-Quran, but also a different revelation. The prophet’s sayings
and daily life activities were documented separately from the Quran and named
hadith – as believed by Muslims that words of Allah should not be mixed with
human words. The Islamic tradition to preserve the authenticity of the hadith
was also amazing. Early scholars of hadith use different criteria to judge the
hadith’s authenticity. For instance, there’s a branch in the science of hadith
known as ilmur-rijal (the biographies of people) to “evaluate the
credibility of narrators.” his/her behavior, memory, morals, intelligence etc.
are included; in addition, the text – known
as matn – is also evaluated through a long list of criteria
(Hamza tzortzis 2012).
Although
Muslims are united and agree on the basic principles of Islam, some political
wars have formed the two main branches of Muslim communities, the Sunnis and
the Shi’ites. Shi’ites are about “10-20% of the world's normative body of Muslims” (Wikipedia). Both
the Sunnis and the Shi’ites have small schools of thoughts with in their
bodies.
Works Cited
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf.
"Quran 112:1-4." The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation &
Commentary. Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf.
"Quran 2:23." The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation & Commentary.
Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf.
"Quran 15:9." The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation & Commentary.
Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Tzortzis, Hamza. "A
Response to Channel 4's "Islam: The Untold Story" Register Now and
Get Started." Hamza Andreas Tzortzis. N.p., Sept. 2012. Web. 10
Apr. 2013. <http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/essays-articles/politics-current-affairs/a-response-to-channel-4s-islam-the-untold-story/>.
Wikipedia contributors.
"Shia Islam." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia, 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
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