Islam envisages religion as not just a part of life but as the whole of it. In fact, al-Islam or al-din, as Islam sees itself, is life itself and it incorporates what we do, what we make, what we think and what we feel as well as addresses the question of where we come from and where we are going. That is why the Islamic religion always uses the term al-din as embracing all the facets of human life, leaving nothing outside its dominion. In the traditional Islamic perspective there is nothing secular, nothing outside the realm that is governed by the religion ordained by Allah.

At the same time Islam places extreme emphasis upon the one eternal truth which had been there from the very beginning, that is the truth of tawhid or unity. According to the Qur'an, man testified to the unity of Allah and his Lordship even before the creation of the world. Therefore Islam is not based upon a transient message or particular aspect of the reality of Allah who is the Absolute God, but upon that Absolute Reality itself, that Reality which is characterized more than anything else by its uniqueness and oneness. Islam emphasizes the fact that Allah is al-Ahad, the One, that he neither begets nor is begotten according to the text of the Qur'an, and that He is transcendent vis-a-vis everything.

That is why the central truth of Islam is contained in the shahadah or testimony of Islam, La ilaha illa'Lah, which among many other things means that there is only one Allah; there cannot be a like or partner unto Him. This doctrine is so central to Islam that it is said that Allah will forgive all sins except the sin of shirk, or of taking a partner unto Him.

This unitary conception of the religious message as presented by Islam entails also the whole history of humanity. In a sense Islam was there from the beginning. Adam was a Muslim by the fact that he was the first prophet and that he testified to the oneness of Allah. This oneness was gradually forgotten as it is in the nature of man to forget. But always Allah sent other messengers to renew the message of unity, to bring man back to the awareness of the one. Hence we have a series of prophets who, although they established religions by different names, were in the profoundest sense Muslim. That is why the Qur'an refers to Abraham as musilman hanifan, that is, Muslim and follower of the primordial religion, although he lived millennia before the Prophet of Islam and the advent of the Qur'anic revelation. He is called Muslim by the Qur'an itself to affirm that the idea of a religion based upon unity is not new but is synonymous with the religious history of mankind. There has never been a time when the religion of God, which calls man to the One, has not existed in some place or other. But we have a multiplicity of religions precisely because of the gradual loss of this message and the necessity for its being reconfirmed again and again by successive revelations.

In a sense, therefore, Islam is the religion, which came to bring nothing new but to reassert the truth of tawhid, which always was. It is a universal religion, a primordial religion. It is a return to the basic and primordial pact or mithaq made between man and Allah through which man has been given not only the function of being Allah's servant, al'abd, but also His vicegerent on earth, Khalifat Allah fi'l-ard, bestowed with many gifts and blessings for which he must always remain thankful. One does this by being aware of Allah's Oneness, by bearing testimony to that oneness, and by drawing all the consequences of that Oneness.

From another point of view, Islam is the final religion. Mohammed The prophet of Islam is the khatam al-anbiya, the seal of prophets, and fourteen centuries of human history have proven the validity of Islam's claim to this finality since the death of the prophet, no major religion has appeared upon the surface of the earth, nothing to compare to the religions which preceded Islam such as Christianity, Judaism or Zoroastrianism and the like. There have been religious movements here and there occasionally, or offshoots of two religions meeting each other as they have done in India but there has not appeared a prophet such as the Prophet of Islam and no universal message from heaven such as Islam since the first/seventh century and none will appear until the end of the world. Therefore, Islam is the final religion of the present cycle of human history, it is the last major world religion. By expressing in the most complete, total and perfect manner the doctrine of unity and by applying it to all facets of human life, Islam is in a sense the very perfection of the message of unity. That is why in the last verse of the Qur'an to be revealed, a verse which that the prophet iterated during his farewell address it is said: "This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favor unto you, and have chosen for you as religion a -Islam"(V:4).

Therefore, Islam is on the one hand the primordial religion, the religion that always is, the religion that is in the nature of things, the religion of unity which all prophets came to assert throughout history, and on the other hand it is the final religion, the final seal and link of this long prophetic chain, of what is traditionally said to be the chain of 124,000 prophets all of whom came to bear testimony to the oneness of God. This conception of religion in Islam is extremely important for the understanding of the Islamic religion itself both in itself and in its historical unfolding because most other religions base themselves upon the founder, the messenger, a particular historical event as in Christianity or a particular historic people as in Judaism, whereas Islam bases itself neither on a particular event nor even on a particular messenger a particular people.

It bases itself upon the oneness of the Absolute, Allah, the Absolute Reality, and the primordial nature of man, of all humanity and not a particular people such as the Arabs or Persians or Turks, nor upon a particular event. The basis of Islam is the nature of reality and Islam appeals to what is in the nature of things. It just happens that Allah willed that the last assertion of the truth concerning the nature of reality should come with the advent of the Qur'an. But there had been other affirmations of the unity of Allah before. The supreme reality of Islam contained in the Shahadah, la ilaha illa'Lah was not invented as a result of the Qur'anic revelation which descended upon the prophet in Arabia in the first/seventh century, rather it is an assertion of the truth which has always been, is and will be.

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In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. Praise be to Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) lord of the worlds.

Some people claim that Muslims worship one of the pagan gods of the Arabs. Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala), according to these people, is only the name of that idol chosen by Muhammad as his god out of 360 idols worshipped by pre-Islamic Arabs.

 The best answer to these claims comes from the holy Qur'an, the final word of god almighty. According to the Qur'an, Muslims worship the same almighty God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. They submit to the divine being, the creator of the universe.

Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) is the proper name of god in Arabic. It simply means the one and only god. This name is identical to Elohim, Yahweh, Yahwe or Yahveh in Hebrew and Jehovah which mean god the lord or my lord.(1) thus in these quotations from the Qur'an god will be referred to as Allah - his proper name.

Here is how the Qur'an introduces god, Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala). It refers to the one and only god the almighty, the lord of all creation. These are the words of the Qur'an about god put in plain English for all to read and accept. May Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) open the hearts and minds of people to return to him alone. Only then can they succeed.

Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) is best introduced in the following short chapter of the Qur'an.

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. Say: he is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternally Besought of all, He Begets not, nor was He begotten and there is none equal to Him. ( 112:1-4 )

Confirming the absolute unity of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) the Qur'an says:

Allah! There is no God save him, the Alive, the Eternal; neither slumber nor sleep overtakes him. Unto Him belongs and what is in the earth. Who is he that intercedes with Him except by His leave? He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them; while they encompass nothing of His knowledge save according to his will. His chair contains the heavens and the earth; and He is never weary of preserving them. And He is the Sublime, the Tremendous. ( 2:255 )

The above is the greatest verse in the holy Qur'an. It mentions Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) not less than sixteen times, both in name and through different pronouns referring to him.

The opening chapter of the Qur'an gives more light Concerning Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala). This chapter is called the mother of the book. Although it is a short chapter as it is composed of seven short Verses, it is however, the most precious gem in the Qur'an. Here is a translation of it:

1.in the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful

2.all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds,

3.the Beneficent, the Merciful;

4.Owner of the day of judgement

5.You alone we worship, You alone we ask for help;

6.guide us to the straight path;

7.the path of those whom You have favoured; not those Upon whom is anger, nor those astray.

In one sacred Hadith whose words are the prophet's but whose meaning is a divine inspiration Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) says:

" I have divided prayer between Me and My slave, and unto my slave will be granted what he asks for ".(2) One more verse confirming the oneness of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) is:

And your god is one god; there is no god except he, the beneficent, the merciful.( 2:163 )

The Qur'an's approach to prove the oneness of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) is through drawing our attention to his creation: one example is the following:

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships that run upon the sea with what is useful to mankind, and the water which Allah sends down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and spreading all kinds of beasts therein and the Dispensation of winds and the subservient clouds between Heaven and earth are miracles for those who have sense. ( 2:164 )

Another similar verse occurs in chapter 3:190 where Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) says:

in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the Difference of night and day are miracles for those who have sense; those who remember Allah standing, sitting and Reclining on their sides. They contemplate the creation of Heavens and earth (and say): our lord! You have not created this in vain! Glory be to you. So protect us from the doom of fire.

This verse states clearly the purpose of creation and mentions the fate of people who deviate:

Our lord! He whom you cause to enter the fire, him indeed you have scandalized. And for wrong doers there will be no helpers. Our lord! We have heard a caller unto faith: believe in your lord! So we believed. Therefore our lord! Forgive us our sins and remit from us our evil deeds and make us die along with the righteous. Our lord! And grant us that which you have promised us through your apostles and confound us not on the day of judgement. You never break the promise.( 3:190-194 )

The Qur'an says that these people's prayer was not lost in a wilderness. It was accepted by Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala):

So their lord responded to them: I suffer not the work of any worker among you, male or female, to be lost; for you proceed one from another. Thus those who emigrated and were expelled from their homes, and were hurt for my cause, and fought and were slain, I shall remit their evil deeds from them and I shall welcome them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, a reward from Allah - and with Allah is the fairest of rewards.( 3:195 )

The Qur'an's Logic

Going back to the logic of the Qur'an in portraying Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) we find the following:

Allah has not chosen any son, nor is there with him any god; otherwise each god would have assuredly championed that which he created and some of them would prevail over others. Glorified be Allah above all that they allege. Knower of the invisible and the visible. Exalted be he over all that they ascribe as partners. (23:91-92)

Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) did not create the universe then forgot it or neglected it, but he is in full control of all his creation. Thus he is the over lord, the sovereign. In the words of the Qur'an:

Blessed is he in whose hand is the sovereignty, and he is capable to do all things. Who has created death and life so that he may try you, which of you is best in conduct; and he is the mighty, the forgiving; who has created seven heavens in harmony. You can see no fault in the Beneficent's creation. ( 67:1-3 )

Again in the chapter called (the story) we read:

And your lord