The Reli­gion of Islam

Chap­ter 1 : The Reli­gion of Islam

Islam is the reli­gion that God sent to Muhammad(P) and made it the final and most com­plete reli­gion for His slaves. Islam is an Ara­bic word which means peace, puri­ty, accep­tance and com­mit­ment. As a reli­gion, Islam calls for com­plete accep­tance of and sub­mis­sion to the teach­ings and guid­ance of God.

A Mus­lim is one who freely and will­ing­ly accepts the supreme pow­er of God and strives to orga­nize his life in total accord with the teach­ings of God. He also works for build­ing social insti­tu­tions which reflect the guid­ance of God. ​“Mohamedanism” is a mis­nomer for Islam and offends its very spir­it since the Prophet Muham­mad, peace be upon him, was a mes­sen­ger of God, and not a divine being wor­shipped by Muslims.

Mus­lims use the Ara­bic word ​“Allah for the Eng­lish word ​“God.” The under­stand­ing of Deity in Islam dif­fers from some of the con­no­ta­tions in the Eng­lish word ​“God.” For the con­ve­nience of Eng­lish-speak­ing read­ers, the word ​“God” is used in this arti­cle except when the word ​“All?” is in the quo­ta­tions from the Qur’? The mis­guid­ed claims of Dr. Robert Morey, who says in his book The Islam­ic Inva­sion that ​“All?quot ; is the name of the moon­god can be eas­i­ly dis­proved when one opens the Ara­bic Bible and notice that the equiv­a­lent word for ​“God” in the cor­re­spond­ing Eng­lish trans­la­tion is the word ​“All?quot ;.

Islam is not a new reli­gion or ever claim itself to be as such. It is, in essence, the same mes­sage and guid­ance which God revealed to all His pre­vi­ous messengers.

“Say : ​‘We believe in Allah and that which was revealed to us, and that which was revealed to Abra­ham and Ish­mael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which was giv­en to Moses and Jesus and to the Prophets from their Lord ; we make no dis­tinc­tion between any of them, and to Him we sub­mit.’ ” (Qur’? 3:83)

The mes­sage which was revealed to the Prophet Muham­mad is Islam in its com­pre­hen­sive, com­plete and final form. God per­fect­ed, in this reli­gion, the boun­ties that He bestowed on His slaves, and accepts only Islam from them. God said,

“Muham­mad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Mes­sen­ger of All ? and the Seal of the Prophets.” [33:40]

“This day, I have per­fect­ed your reli­gion for you, com­plet­ed My favor upon you, and have cho­sen Islam for you as your reli­gion.” [5:3]

“Tru­ly, the reli­gion in the Sight of God is Islam.” [3:19]

and :

“And who­ev­er seeks a reli­gion oth­er than Islam, it will nev­er be accept­ed of him, and in the Here­after he will be one of the losers.” [3:85].

God oblig­at­ed all mankind to fol­low Islam, as

“Say (O Muham­mad): ​‘O mankind ! Ver­i­ly, I am sent to you all as the Mes­sen­ger of All ? to Whom belongs the domin­ion of the heav­ens and the earth. There is none who has the right to be wor­shipped but He ; It is He Who gives life and caus­es death. So believe in All?and His Mes­sen­ger (Muham­mad), the Prophet who can nei­ther read nor write, who believes in All?and His Words (this Quran, the Torah and the Gospel), and fol­low him so that you may be guid­ed.’ ” (Qur’an:158).

Abu Hurairah report­ed that the Mes­sen­ger of God said, what trans­lat­ed means, ​“By Whom the soul of Muhammed is in His Hand ! No mem­ber of this nation, no Jew or Chris­t­ian, hears of me and does not believe in what I was sent with, but he will be of the peo­ple of the Fire.” [Sahih Mus­lim].

Believ­ing in the Mes­sen­ger means believ­ing in what was revealed to him, cou­pled with accep­tance and sub­mis­sion ; with­out them the belief is not suf­fi­cient. This is why Abu Tal­ib, the Prophet’s(P) uncle, was not a believ­er in the Mes­sen­ger, although he believed in what he was sent with and con­firmed that Islam was the best reli­gion (but with­out accep­tance or adher­ence to Islam).

Islam con­tains all of what brings ben­e­fit which was also con­tained in pre­vi­ous reli­gions. Islam, how­ev­er, is suit­able for imple­men­ta­tion any­time, any­where and by any nation. God said :

“And We have sent down to you (O Muham­mad) the Book (this Quran) in truth, con­firm­ing the Scrip­ture that came before it and dom­i­nant over it.” (Qur’an 5:48)

The mean­ing of ​“suit­able for imple­men­ta­tion at any­time, any­where and by any nation,” is that Islam only brings ben­e­fit to mankind, when­ev­er and wher­ev­er it is imple­ment­ed. Islam is not under the con­trol, and thus is not to be altered by, any nation liv­ing at any giv­en time at any giv­en place, as some peo­ple would want it to be.

Islam is the reli­gion of truth. It is the reli­gion that God guar­an­teed aid and dom­i­nance for who­ev­er firm­ly adheres by it. He said :

“It is He who has sent His Mes­sen­ger (Muham­mad) with guid­ance and the Reli­gion of Truth (Islam), to make it supe­ri­or over all reli­gions even though the dis­be­liev­ers hate it.” [9:33]

and :

“Allah has promised those among you who believe, and do right­eous, good deeds, that He will cer­tain­ly grant them suc­ces­sion to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He grant­ed it to those before them, and that He will grant them the author­i­ty to prac­tice their reli­gion, which He has cho­sen for them (Islam). And He will sure­ly give them in exchange a safe secu­ri­ty after their fear (pro­vid­ed) they (the believ­ers) wor­ship Me and do not asso­ciate any­thing (in wor­ship) with Me. But who­ev­er dis­be­lieved after this, they are the rebel­lious (dis­obe­di­ent to All?.” [24:55].

Islam con­tains belief and Law. It is a com­plete reli­gion, both in its belief and in its Law. It demands from its fol­low­ers the following :

• Believ­ing in Tauhiyd (One­ness) of God and dis­be­liev­ing in Shirk (poly­the­ism).
• Being truth­ful and not lying.
• Being just, that is to deal com­pa­ra­ble things with equal­i­ty, and aban­don­ing injustice.
• Being hon­est and aban­don­ing treachery.
• Pre­serv­ing one’s promis­es and con­tracts and not break­ing them.
• Being duti­ful­ly good to one’s par­ents and not cut­ting ties of kinship.
• Keep­ing rela­tions with rel­a­tives and not cut­ting them.
• Being good with neigh­bors and not harm­ing them.

In gen­er­al, Islam orders Mus­lims to have the best pos­si­ble con­duct and for­bids all bad behav­ior. It requires Mus­lims to enjoin every right­eous deed and avoid every evil deed. God said :

“Ver­i­ly, God enjoins jus­tice, Al-Ih’san (excel­lence in reli­gion), giv­ing (help) to kith and kin, and for­bids all evil (deeds), Al-Munkar (all that is pro­hib­it­ed) and injus­tice. He admon­ish­es you, that you may take heed.” (Qur’an 16:90].

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