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ABOUT ISLAM
Islam is the Religion
of all the Prophets of Allah starting with Adam and ending with Muhammad.
In Arabic Islam means submission. To believe in the heart and declare with
the tongue: "No one is God except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah" is how one becomes Muslim. Utterance with the Two Professions (ashShahadatan)
is required of the person who is not already a Muslim. A Muslim is a
believer and a follower of Islam.
The First Profession (ash-Shahadah), i.e., "No one is God except Allah"
means nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah. "Allah" is the name
of the Creator in Arabic which means "The One Who has the Godhood which is
the power to create the entities."
The second Profession, i.e., "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" includes
believing Muhammad was the last of the prophets, he was truthful in all he
told about and conveyed from Allah (as were all the prophets before him),
and the Creator gave us prophets and messengers (A 'prophet' is a man who
receives the Revelation from Allah and conveys it to the people. A
'messenger' is a prophet who comes with some new laws. The prophet who is
not a messenger follows the laws of the messenger who came before him.
Every messenger is a prophet, but not every prophet is a messenger.) to
guide us to worship Him correctly. A Muslim must believe in all the
prophets and messengers.
The Two Professions are the essentials of belief in Islam; they are the
foundation of the faith. The analogy of constructing a building is useful
in explaining the importance of this basic belief. There will be no
building without a concrete foundation. Likewise, there will be no benefit
and fruitful results in the Hereafter without having the correct belief
first.
This analogy illustrates the need to start from the beginning and build
upward; before one can remain steadfast in the Religion one must have the
proper belief. Muslims firmly believe only one Creator exists, His name is
Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet and Messenger. Knowledge and belief in
this are the foundation of the faith, and all Muslims are united by this
basic belief. The Muslim uses the mind as a guide because the mind and
faith go hand-in-hand. Knowledge is essential since learning gives one
strength and purpose.
Allah is one; He is indivisible, i.e., He is not a body. Allah has no
partner, no counterpart, no wife, no son. Intellectively, this is
understood because if there were two partners and one partner willed for
one thing to be and the other partner willed the opposite thing--we know
opposites do not happen simultaneously--so the one who willed what did not
occur is weak. Weakness is non-befitting to attribute to God; therefore,
there is only one God. For the same reason, the Devil does not have
control over God and evil occurs because Allah willed it. There is a
wisdom behind everything--even if we do not know the wisdom--Allah knows.
Allah has no beginning to His existence. Anything that has a beginning is
creation. Allah created every creation, every movement, every rest, every
thought, every intention. To have a beginning is a sign of need, and Allah
is not in need. Allah has no end to His existence. To have an end is
weakness; the Creator is not weak.
Allah does not need any of His creation. To need something means to be
unable to perform without it, and this is weakness. The Creator is not
weak--it is impossible to be among His attributes. Allah has the attribute
of power by which He affects the creation. He makes them exist and He
annihilates them.
Allah has the attribute of Will. Whatever Allah willed to be shall be and
whatever Allah did not will to be shall not be. Both good and evil happen
according to God's will.
Allah has the attribute of knowledge. Allah knows everything: what has
happened, what is happening, and what will happen.
Allah hears all hearable things and Allah sees all seeable things without
organs and without limitations. Man needs ears and air to transfer sound
in order to hear and light in order to see. Allah does not need any of the
creation. Allah, with His eternal kalam, orders the obligations, forbids
the prohibitions, promises the reward of Paradise, and threatens the
punishment of Hellfire without instruments, letters, languages, or sounds.
Allah has the attribute of life because he who is dead cannot be
attributed with knowledge, will, power, and consequently, cannot create.
Allah's life is not like ours. We need flesh, bones, blood, and spirit.
Allah created all these; His life is not in need of any of them.
Allah created all the creation, and this includes the Religion of
Islam--which is the only valid and true Religion. Islam began among humans
with the first man, Adam, who was the first prophet and messenger, and
Islam continued through many prophets, some of which were also messengers.
All the prophets and messengers taught "No one is God except Allah" and to
believe in and follow the prophet and messenger of their time. All the
Prophets taught there is only one God, the aforementioned attributes of
Allah, and the attributes of the prophets. They called the people to
Islam, taught them how to worship Allah properly, and conveyed what Allah
ordered and what Allah forbid. The prophets had miracles to support their
claim of Prophethood and to prove to the people what they were teaching
was the truth. Some of the rules changed from one messenger to another but
the belief remained the same. The messengers came with new laws. For
example: at the time of Adam, Muslims used to pray once per day. They were
ordered to pray twice per day at the time of Prophet ^Isa.Now, according
to the rules of the last Messenger--Prophet Muhammad--Muslims pray five
times per day. In previous laws of the messengers, Muslims were ordered to
pray in specific places. Now, in the rules revealed to Prophet Muhammad,
Muslims are not required to pray in specific places.
Allah blessed the people with the prophets and messengers to guide them to
obedience and warn them from disobedience. Muslims must believe in all the
prophets and messengers because Allah blessed them all with Revelation and
they conveyed this to their people, but now Muslims must follow the rules
of the last Prophet and Messenger, Prophet Muhammad.
Allah ordered the Messengers to convey the laws, and they did. They taught
by words and example. The prophets were attributed with truthfulness,
trustworthiness, and intelligence. Consequently, lying, dishonesty,
vileness, stupidity, and dullness were impossible to be among their
attributes. They were also attributed with impeccability of blasphemy
(Blasphemy includes any belief, action, or saying which belittles Allah,
His Books, His Messengers, His Angels, His Rites, the Ma^alim of His
Religion, His Rules, His Promise, or His Threat.), the great sins (such as
drinking alcohol and unjustful killing), and abject small sins (such as
stealing one grape).
Prophet Muhammad taught his Companions and those Companions taught their
followers and so on until the knowledge of Islam reached the Muslims of
the present day. The beliefs and teachings were passed from trustworthy
Muslim('Trustworthy' as defined by Islam means the Muslim who does not
commit great sins, small sins in a way that they will be more than this
good deeds, and does not behave in violation of the behavior of those who
have his status.) to trustworthy Muslim with a chain of reliable relators
back to the Prophet. In Islam it is a great sin to judge without
knowledge. If a Muslim does not know an answer to an Islamic inquiry he
must not give his opinion or what he thinks the answer might be. Instead,
he seeks the answer from someone more knowledgeable in the Religion who
attained the knowledge in the aforementioned manner.
Since Allah created Adam, the first man, from soil of different colors and
different textures, and all people are the descendants of Adam, this
accounts for the various races and temperaments of people. Muslim men and
women around the world of all ages, races, colors, nationalities, social
backgrounds, economic status', languages, and political affiliations are
united by their belief that there is only one God, His name is Allah, and
Muhammad is His last Prophet and Messenger and by practicing the same
rules of the Religion.
Islam is a belief system as well as a way of life. Only the Creator knows
the limits, the weakness, and the vulnerability of all His creation, and
He has provided rules for them that are fair and just. Allah knows what is
good for His creation as well as what is harmful; He knows what is
beneficial and what is detrimental.
The foundation of Islam is based upon five matters:
(1) Professing and believing no one is God except Allah and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah;
(2) Prayer;
(3) Zakah;
(4) Fasting;
(5) Hajj.
The belief in the truth of Islam is the same despite the color of the
skin, whether one is a man or a woman, how much wealth one might or might
not have accumulated, where one lives, and who one's family and/or friends
are.
Prayer, five times each day, is required by all Muslim mukallaf (Mukallaf
in this context means sane and pubescent.).
Fasting during the month of Ramadan is an obligation on all Muslims who
have reached puberty and who are physically able to fast. This helps the
Muslim to feel what the poor feel, and in this way one remembers to care
for those less fortunate than oneself. Fasting also disciplines the Muslim
and brings Muslims together--uniting them by a common, shared experience.
TheHajj, pilgrimage as defined by Islam, is the journey to the Ka^bah to
perform, at a specific period of the year, certain actions in Makkah and
its vicinity. It is required at least once during the lifetime of each
Muslim mukallaf if he is able. During Hajj, all Muslims leave their
worldly possessions and perform the same religious obligations in the same
way as those Muslims with them and those Muslims who performed Hajj before
them.
Zakah is paying a certain portion of one's money (Money in this context
includes property, possessions, and wealth.) to specific types of people
with certain conditions. This provides for the poor Muslims and those
whose needs are not being met within the Muslim community.
Islam also requires a Muslim to be humble and to care about and to respect
one's brother and sister Muslim. It is not acceptable Islamic behavior to
talk about other Muslims or to cause problems amongst them.
Learning the Obligatory Knowledge of the Religion puts the Muslim on the
road for excellence and self-betterment. With knowledge, the Muslim
differentiates between what is lawful and what is not, and what is an
acceptable, valid worship and what is not. What differentiates one Muslim
from another is the amount of Islamic knowledge one attains and applies
within one's own life. "The Essentials of Belief" is an insight into the
Religion of Islam. Believing and uttering 'No one is God except Allah and
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah' is the most important thing any person
can do and it is a condition for the acceptance of the good deeds. The one
who becomes Muslim and stays Muslim will have the enjoyment of Paradise
without end in the Hereafter and the one who rejects Islam will suffer the
torture of Hellfire without end in the Hereafter. It is certain that death
will come to all of us. The one who is prepared for the Day of Judgment is
the one who knows, accepts, and applies the essentials of belief, and
implements the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam,
in all sincerity to Allah, the Exalted.
The truth of Islam must be accepted and the Obligatory Knowledge of Islam
must be acquired and taken if it is from reliable, trustworthy, Islamic
sources--irregardless of whether the teacher is young or old, male or
female, rich or poor, black or white, Arab or American or African or
Indian or Chinese or Spanish or of any other origin.
Allah knows best.
97 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes, and 9 seconds left until Blessed Month of
Ramadan
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