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Islam
Islam is not a new religion, but the same truth that God revealed
through all His prophets to every people. For a fifth of the
world's population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of
life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness,
and the majority have nothing to do with the extremely grave
events which have come to be associated with their faith.
Islam
and Muslims
The name of this religion is Islam, the root of which is Silm and
Salam which means peace. Salam may also mean greeting one another
with peace. One of the beautiful names of God is that He is the
Peace. It means more than that: submission to the One God, and to
live in peace with the Creator, within one's self, with other
people and with the environment. Thus, Islam is a total system of
living. A Muslim is supposed to live in peace and harmony with all
these segments; hence, a Muslim is any person anywhere in the
world whose obedience, allegiance, and loyalty are to God, the
Lord of the Universe.
Muslims
and Arabs
The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Muslims are not to be
confused with Arabs. Muslims may be Arabs, Turks, Persians,
Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians, Europeans, Africans,
Americans, Chinese, or other nationalities.
An Arab could be a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew or an atheist. Any
person who adopts the Arabic language is called an Arab. However,
the language of the Qur'an (the Holy Book of Islam) is Arabic.
Muslims all over the world try to learn Arabic so that they may be
able to read the Qur'an and understand its meaning. They pray in
the language of the Qur'an, namely Arabic. Supplications to God
could be in any language.
While there are one billion Muslims in the world there are about
200 million Arabs. Among them, approximately ten percent are not
Muslims. Thus Arab Muslims constitute only about twenty percent of
the Muslim population of the world.
Allah
the One and the Only God
Allah is the name of the One and Only God. Allah has ninety-nine
beautiful names, such as: The Gracious, The Merciful, The
Beneficent, The Creator, The All-Knowing, The All-Wise, The Lord
of the Universe, The First, The Last, and others.
He is the Creator of all human beings. He is the God for the
Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the
atheists, and others. Muslims worship God whose name is Allah.
They put their trust in Him and they seek His help and His
guidance.
Muhammad
(SAW)
Muhammad was chosen by God to deliver His Message of Peace, namely
Islam. He was born in 570 C.E. (Common Era) in Makkah, Arabia. He
was entrusted with the Message of Islam when he was at the age of
forty years. The revelation that he received is called the Qur'an,
while the message is called Islam.
Muhammad is the very last Prophet of God to mankind. He is the
final Messenger of God. His message was and is still to the
Christians, the Jews and the rest of mankind. He was sent to those
religious people to inform them about the true mission of Jesus,
Moses, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham.
Muhammad is considered to be the summation and the culmination of
all the prophets and messengers that came before him. He purified
the previous messages from adulteration and completed the Message
of God for all humanity. He was entrusted with the power of
explaining, interpreting and living the teaching of the Qur'an.
Source
of Islam
The
legal sources of Islam are the Qur'an and the Hadith. The Qur'an
is the exact word of God; its authenticity, originality and
totality are intact. The Hadith is the report of the sayings,
deeds and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet's sayings
and deeds are called Sunnah. The Seerah is the writings of
followers of Muhammad about the life of the Prophet. Hence, it is
the life history of the Prophet Muhammad which provides examples
of daily living for Muslims.
Islam
& Non-Muslims
Muslims
are required to respect all those who are faithful and God
conscious people, namely those who received messages. Christians
and Jews are called People of the Book. Muslims are asked to call
upon the People of the Book for common terms, namely, to worship
One God, and to work together for the solutions of the many
problems in the society.
Christians and Jews lived peacefully with Muslims throughout
centuries in the Middle East and other Asian and African
countries. The second Caliph Umar, did not pray in the church in
Jerusalem so as not to give the Muslims an excuse to take it over.
Christians entrusted the Muslims, and as such the key of the
Church in Jerusalem is still in the hands of the Muslims.
Jews fled from Spain during the Inquisition, and they were
welcomed by the Muslims. They settled in the heart of the Islamic
Caliphate. They enjoyed positions of power and authority.
Throughout the Muslim world, churches, synagogues and missionary
schools were built within the Muslim neighborhoods. These places
were protected by Muslims even during the contemporary crises in
the Middle East.
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