The Religion Islam
| The Religion Islam| The Religion Islam What is Islam? The word Islam means submission to the will of God. The religion of Islam is the acceptance of and obedience to the teachings of God which the Muslims—followers of Islam—believe God revealed to his last prophet. Muslims believe that there is only one God. The Arabic word for God is Allah which means, the one and only true God who created the whole universe. According to Muslims, God sent a number of prophets to mankind to teach them how to live according to His law. To the Muslims, Jesus, Moses and Abraham are respected as prophets of God.
Muslims believed in the prophets as messengers of God, but according to their beliefs, God’s final message to man was revealed by the prophet Muhammad. Who is the prophet Muhammad? Muhammad was born in Mecca in the year 570. His father died before he was born and his mother died shortly after. Therefore he was raised by his uncle. Muhammad was raised illiterate. He could not read or write, and remained that way for the rest of his life. As he grew up, he was known to be the truthful, honest, trustworthy, generous, and sincere. Muhammad was very religious, and had long disliked the decadence and idolatry of his society.
Muhammad was claimed to receive his first revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel when he was at the age forty. The revelations continued for twenty-three years, and they are known as the Quran. When Muhammad started preaching the truth which God revealed to him, he and his group of followers suffered persecutions from the non-believers. It got so bad for Muhammad and his followers that in the year 622, God gave them the command to emigrate. They migrated from the city Mecca to the city of Yathrib, which is now called Medina. His journey to Yathrib is called Hijra. This marked the beginning of the Muslims calendar.
Several years later, Muhammad and his followers returned back to Mecca, where they forgave their enemies. The greater part of the Arabian Peninsula had become Muslims and within the century of his death, Islam had spread all over the world. Muhammad died at the age sixty-three. Though he was a man, he was far removed from evil appearances and tried only for the sake of God and his reward. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last prophet of God. They believed that the Holy Quran is God’s last revealed book. The prophet Muhammad claimed that the angel, Gabriel revealed the Quran, which the Muslims call God’s literal word, to him.
Muhammad memorized the prophecy and shared it with his companions, and they then wrote it down in a book called the Quran. Muslims believe that the angel Gabriel met with Muhammad once a year to review the Quran and during the last years of his life, he met with Gabriel twice a year. The Quran was said to be revealed fourteen centuries ago. The Quran is the primary source of every Muslim’s faith and practice. This book deals with all the subjects which concern human beings: wisdom, doctrine, worship, transactions, law, and more, but its basic theme is the relationship between God and his creatures.
This book is known to provide guidance and detailed teaching for society. The Quran was claimed to be revealed to Muhammad in Arabic. What are the Muslims beliefs? Muslims have six main beliefs. The first belief is to believe in God. Muslims believe in one, unique, incomparable God, Who has no son or partner, and that none has the right to be worshipped but Him alone. The second belief is to believe in the Angels. Muslims believe in the existence of the angels and that they are honored creatures. The angels worship God alone, obey Him, and act only by His command.
The third belief of the Muslims is to believe in God’s revealed books. Muslims believe that God revealed books to His messengers as proof for mankind and as guidance for them. Among these books is the Quran, which God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The fourth belief is that the Muslims should believe in the Prophets and the messengers of God. Muslims believe in the prophets and messengers of God, starting with Adam, including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus, but God’s final message to man, a reconfirmation of the eternal message, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
The fifth belief of the Muslims is to believe in the Day of Judgment. Muslims believe in the Day of Judgment which is the day of resurrection, when all people will be resurrected for God’s judgment according to their beliefs and deeds. The last belief of the Muslims is to believe in Al-Qadar. Muslims believe in Al-Qadar, which is divine predestination, but this belief in divine predestination does not mean that human beings do not have free will. Rather, Muslims believe that God has given human beings free will.
This means that they can choose right or wrong and that they are responsible for their choices. The belief in Divine Predestination includes belief in four things: God knows everything. He knows what has happened and what will happen, God has recorded all that has happened and all that will happen, whatever God wills to happen happens, and whatever He wills not to happen does not happen and God is the creator of everything. Muslims believe the Sunnah is the practical example of the Prophet Muhammad and that there are five basic pillars of Islam.
The Five Pillars of Islam are the five obligations that every Muslim must fulfill in order to live a good and responsible life according to Islam. These pillars are the confession of faith, praying five times a day, giving alms to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime for those who are able. The confession of faith must be said with conviction, “La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur rasoolu Allah. ” This means, “There is no true god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is the messenger of God. The testimony of faith is called the Shahada, a simple method which should be said with conviction in order to convert to Islam. This is the most important pillar of Islam. Prayer is the second pillar of Islam which they call it the Salat. Muslims perform five prayers a day. Prayer in Islam is a direct link between the worshipper and God. They are performed at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night and are performed anywhere they please. Before performing a prayer, one must be in a state of purification.
That means they wash their hands all the way up to their elbows, the mouth and the nostrils are rinsed, and he feet are bathe to the ankles. The third pillar of Islam is almsgiving. The Muslims call it giving Zakat. The meaning of the word Zakat means both purification and growth. To give Zarat means giving a specified percentage of certain properties to certain classes of needy people. The fourth pillar of Islam is fasting the month of Ramadan known by Muslims as Sawm. Every year in the month of Ramadan, Muslims spend he ninth month of the Islamic calendar observing a community-wide fast from dawn until sundown, abstaining from food, drinks, and sexual relations. Fasting is a method of spiritual self-purification done by cutting oneself off from the worldly comforts. A person fasting gains true sympathy with those who go hungry, as well as growth in his or her spiritual life. The last pillar of Islam is to pilgrimage to Mecca which the Muslims call it the Hajj. It occurs in the month of Dhul-Hijjah which is the twelfth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
About two million Muslims of every ethnic group, color, social status, and culture gather together in Mecca and stand before the Kabah praising Allah together. This is a ritual that is designed to promote the bonds of Islamic brotherhood and sisterhood by showing that everyone is equal in the eyes of Allah. The Hajjis or pilgrims wear simple white clothes called Ihram. They pray at the Haram mosque in Mecca. In the mosque is the Kabah which they turn to while praying. According to the Muslims, the Kabah is the place of worship which God commanded the Prophets Abraham and his son, Ishmael, to build.
This is where they asked for forgiveness and for what they wish for. Carrying out the Five Pillars demonstrates that the Muslim is putting their faith first, and not just trying to fit it in around their secular lives. What are the families of Islam like? One of the most striking features of Muslim society is the importance attached to the family. The family unit is regarded as the cornerstone of a healthy and balanced society. A harmonious social order is created by the existence of extended families; children are treasured and rarely leave home until the time they marry.
According to the Quran, men and women are equal before God; women are not blamed for violating the “forbidden tree,” nor will their suffering in pregnancy and childbirth a punishment for that act. How women are seen in Islam? Islam sees a woman, whether single or married, as an individual in her own right, with the right to own and dispose of her property and earnings. A marital gift is given by the groom to the bride for her own personal use, and she may keep her own family name rather than adopting her husband’s.
Roles of men and women are complementary and collaborative. Rights and responsibilities of both sexes are equitable and balanced in their totality. How do Muslims treat the elderly? The strain of caring for one’s parents in this most difficult time of their lives is considered an honor and a blessing and an opportunity for great spiritual growth. In Islam, it is not enough that we only pray for our parents, but we should act with limitless compassion, remembering that when we were helpless children, they preferred us to themselves. Mothers are particularly honored.
When Muslim parents reach old age, they are treated mercifully, with kindness and selflessness. In Islam, serving one’s parents is a duty second of prayer, and it is their right to expect it. It is considered despicable to express any irritation when, through no fault of their own, the old become difficult. Today, Islam is the second largest religion in the world with over one billion followers. According to Muslims, Islam is not a new religion, but it is the same truth that God revealed through all His prophets. For a fifth of the world’s population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life.
