THE RELIGION OF ISLAM
The first thing that one should know and clearly
understand about Islam is what the word "Islam"
itself means. The religion of Islam is not named
after a person as in the case of Christianity which
was named after Jesus Christ, Buddhism after Gotama
Buddha, Confucianism after Confucius, and Marxism
after Karl Marx. Nor was it named after a tribe
like Judaism after the tribe of Judah and Hinduism
after the Hindus. Islam is the true religion of
"Allah" and as such, its name represents
the central principle of Allah's "God's"
religion; the total submission to the will of Allah
"God". The Arabic word "Islam"
means the submission or surrender of one's will
to the only true god worthy of worship "Allah"
and anyone who does so is termed a "Muslim",
The word also implies "peace" which is
the natural consequence of total submission to the
will of Allah. Hence, it was not a new religion
brought by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) I in Arabia in
the seventh century, but only the true religion
of Allah re-expressed in its final form.
Islam is the religion which was given to Adam,
the first man and the first prophet of Allah, and
it was the religion of all the prophets sent by
Allah to mankind. The name of God's religion lslam
was not decided upon by later generations of man.
It was chosen by Allah Himself and clearly mentioned
in His final revelation to man. In the final book
of divine revelation, the Qur'aan, Allah states
the following:
"This day have I perfected your religion for
you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen
for you Islam as your religion". (Soorah Al-Maa'idah
5:3)
"If anyone desires a religion other than Islam
(submission to Allah (God) never will It be accepted
of Him" (Soorah Aal'imraan 3:85)
"Abraham was not a Jew nor Christian; but
an upright Muslim."(Soorah Aal'imraan 3:67)
Nowhere in the Bible will you find Allah saying
to Prophet Moses' people or their descendants that
their religion is Judaism, nor to the followers
of Christ that their religion is Christianity. In
fact, Christ was not even his name, nor was it Jesus!
The name "Christ" comes from the Greek
word Christos which means the annointed. That is,
Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew title
"Messiah". The name "Jesus"
on the other hand, is a latinized version of the
Hebrew name Esau.
For simplicity's sake, I will however continue
to refer to Prophet Esau (PBUH) as Jesus. As for
his religion, it was what he called his followers
to. Like the prophets before him, he called the
people to surrender their will to the will of Allah;
(which is Islam) and he warned them to stay away
from the false gods of human imagination.
According to the New Testament, he taught his followers
to pray as follows: "Yours will be done on
earth as it is in Heaven".
THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM
Since the total submission of one's will to Allah
represents the essence of worship, the basic message
of Allah's divine religion, Islam is the worship
of Allah alone and the avoidance of worship directed
to any person, place or thing other than Allah.Since
everything other than Allah, the Creator of all
things, is Allah's creation; it may be said that
Islam, in essence calls man away from the worship
of creation and invites him to worship only its
Creator. He is the only one deserving man's worship
as it is only by His will that prayers are answered.
If man prays to a tree and his prayers are answered,
it was not the tree which answered his prayers but
Allah who allowed the circumstances prayed for to
take place. One might say, "That is obvious,"
however, to tree-worshippers it might not be. Similarly,
prayers to Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna, to Saint Christopher,
or Saint Jude or even to Muhammad, are not answered
by them but are answered by Allah. Jesus did nottell
his followers to worship him but to worship Allah.
As the Qur'aan states:
"And behold Allah will say: "O Jesus
the son of Mary Did you say to men, Worship me and
my mother as gods besides Allah He will say-"Glory
to you I could never say what I had no right (to
say')" (Soorah Al-Maa'idah- 5:116)
Nor did he worship himself when he worshipped but
rather he worshipped Allah. This basic principle
is enshrined in the opening chapter of the Qur'aan,
known as Soorah Al-Faatihah, verse 4:
"You alone do we worship and from you alone
do we seek help".
Elsewhere, in the final book of revelation, the
Qur'aan, Allah also said:
"And your Lord says:"Call on Me and I
will answer your (prayer)" (Soorsh Mu'min 40:60)
It is worth noting that the basic message of Islam
is that Allah and His creation are distinctly different
entities. Neither is Allah His creation or a part
of it, nor is His creation Him or a part of Him.
This might seem obvious, but, man's worship of
creation instead of the Creator is to a large degree
based on ignorance of this concept. It is the belief
that the essence of Allah is everywhere in His creation
or that His divine being is or was present in some
aspects of His creation, which has provided justification
for the worship of creation though such worship
maybecalled the worship of Allah through his creation.
How ever, the message of Islam as brought by the
prophets of Allah is to worship only Allah and to
avoid the worship of his creation either directly
or indirectly. In the Our'aan Allah clearlystates:
"For We assuredly sent amongst every people
a prophet,(with the command) worship meand avoid
false gods " (Soorsh Al-Nahl 16:36)
When the idol worshipper is questioned as to why
he or she bows down to idols created by men, the
invariable reply is that they are not actually worshipping
the stone image, but Allah who is present within
it. They claim that the stone idol is only a focal
point for Allah's essence and is not in itself Allah!
One who has accepted the concept of the presence
of God's being within His creation in any way will
be obliged to accept this argument of idolatry.
Whereas, one who understands the basic message of
Islam and its implications would never concede to
idolatry no matter how it is rationalized. Those
who have claimed divinity for themselves down through
the ages have often based their claims on the mistaken
belief that Allah is present in man. They merely
had to assert that although Allah according to their
false beliefs, is in all of us, He is more present
in them than in the rest of us. Hence, they claim,
we should submit our will to them and worship them
as they are either God in person or God concentrated
within the person.
Similarly, those who have asserted the godhood
of others after their passing have found fertile
ground among those who accept the false belief of
God's presence in man. One who has grasped the basic
message of Islam and its implications could never
agree to worship another human being under any circumstances.
God's religion in essence is a clear call to the
worship of the Creator and the rejection of creation-worship
in any form. This is the meaning of the motto of
Islam:
"Laa Elaaha lllallaah" (There is no god
but Allah)
Its repetition automatically brings one within
the fold of Islam and sincere belief in it guarantees
one Paradise.
Thus, the final Prophet of Islam is reported to
have said, "Any one who says: There is no god
but Allah and dies holding that (belief) will enter
paradise".(Reported by Abu Dharr and collected
by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).
It consists in the submission to Allah as one God,
yielding to Him by obeying His commandments, and
the denial of polytheism and polytheists.
