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Islam SpaceTo Be At The safe Side July 08 The Qur'an Miracles Encyclopedia
The Miracle of The Qur'an
June 28 The Noble Qur'an "Alif Laam Raa. A book which we have revealed to you (Muhammad) so that you may lead the people from out of the darknesses into the light by their Lord's leave to the path of the All-Mighty, the Praiseworthy."
About the Prophet MuhammadAbout the Prophet Muhammad
"Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."
[Qur'an 48:29]
Much has been written about the Prophet Muhammad (saas), from indepth biographies by Muslim scholars and non-Muslim researchers to sayings upon sayings of others. Muhammad ibnu Abdillah was born in Mecca in the year 569 CE. He earned his living as a trader and was known by his people as al-amin (the trustworthy one). When Muhammad (saas) reached the age of 40, the angel Gabriel came to him with revelations that established his prophethood. Muhammad (saas) was first ordered to instruct his immediate family on Islam, including his beloved wife Khadija, but eventually it was revealed to him that he should begin delivering the message to all of mankind. In the next 20 years of his life, he communicated the message of Allah to his people, and set an example for how each human being should lead her or his life. This is especially valuable since Muhammad (saas) is the last Prophet of Allah. In the year 632, the year of his death, the Prophet delivered his famous last sermon. Who is Allah?It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used
in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case
with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else
can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its
uniqueness when compared with the word god which can be made plural, gods,
or feminine, goddess. It is interesting to notice that Allah is the
personal name of God in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister
language of Arabic.
The One true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to nothing and nothing is comparable to Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah; the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short chapter of the Quran, which is considered the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112 which reads:
But God is also Just. Hence evildoers and sinners must have their share of punishment and the virtuous, His bounties and favors. Actually God's attribute of Mercy has full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering throughout their lives for His sake and people oppressing and exploiting other people all their lives should not receive similar treatment from their Lord. Expecting similar treatment for them will amount to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the Hereafter and thereby negating all the incentives for a moral and virtuous life in this world. The following Quranic verses are very clear and straightforward in this respect:
"Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?" (68:34-36) Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power or race. He created the human beings as equals. They may distinguish themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only. The concept that God rested in the seventh day of creation, that God wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter against mankind, or that God is incarnate in any human being are considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view. The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God which is the essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly sin which God will never forgive, despite the fact He may forgive all other sins.
[Note that what is meant above applies ONLY to those people who die in a state wherein they are associating others with God. The repentance of those who yet live is acceptable to God if He wills. - MSA of USC]The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created because if he is of the same nature as they are, he will be temporal and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him. If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing outside him causes him to continue to exist, which means that he must be self-sufficient. And if the does not depend on anything for the continuance of his own existence, then this existence can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He is the First and the Last." He is Self-Sufficient or Self-Subsistent or, to use a Quranic term, Al-Qayyum. The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing things into being, He also preserves them and takes them out of existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
"God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth." (39:62, 63)
God's AttributesIf the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then His attributes are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute attributes? Can there be for example, two absolutely powerful Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.The Quran summarizes this argument in the following verses:
"God has not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: For then each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them would have risen up over others." (23:91)
The Oneness of GodThe Quran reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the worshippers of man-made objects, it asks:"Do you worship what you have carved yourself?" (37:95) To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham: "When night outspread over him he saw a star and said, 'This is my Lord.' But when it set he said, 'I love not the setters.' When he saw the moon rising, he said, 'This is my Lord.' But when it set he said, 'If my Lord does not guide me I shall surely be of the people gone astray.' When he saw the sun rising, he said, 'This is my Lord; this is greater.' But when it set he said, 'O my people, surely I quit that which you associate, I have turned my face to Him Who originated the heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not of the idolaters.'" (6:76-79)
The Believer's AttitudeIn order to be a Muslim, i.e., to surrender oneself to God, it is necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief - later on called "Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah" - is not enough. Many of the idolaters knew and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this, but that was not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah one must add tawhid al'uluhiyyah, i.e., one acknowledges the fact that is God alone Who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from worshipping any other thing or being.Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him to deny truth. When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states which result in certain actions. Taken together these mental states and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said, "Faith is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by deeds." Foremost among those mental states is the feeling of gratitude towards God which could be said to be the essence of 'ibada' (worship). The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called 'kafir' which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is ungrateful.' A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers away. The Quran tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes mentioned together in the following verses of the Quran: "He is God; there is no god but He, He is the Knower of the unseen and the visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God, there is no God but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace, the Guardian of Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they associate! He is God the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the earth magnifies Him; He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise." (59:22-24) "There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His throne comprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious." (2:255) "People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say not as to God but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His Messengers, and say not, 'Three.' Refrain; better is it for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him - (He is) above having a son." (4:171) More Informations Click Here June 08 Rethinking the Slogan: “Islam is the Answer for Every Problem” The present Islamic revival, which has captured
the hearts of a large segment of Muslims in our societies, introduced
many slogans into the popular discourse. One of the most famous of
these is “Islam is the answer for every problem”
This statement certainly has a nice ring to it, but its meaning and implications need to be examined carefully and they must be properly clarified. Are we to understand that Islam is like a manual that can be applied directly to solve our political, economic, and social problems? All that we have to do is follow this manual, and all of our goals be realized? Or rather, does it mean that Islam provides us with the broad ethical principles that show us how to live a wholesome life in this world and attain salvation in the Hereafter? As for the specific issues of life, we must wrestle with those issues using our good sense and better judgment – and any one of us will be prone to make mistakes, just like anybody else? What are the areas that Islam provides direct and readily applicable solutions for? What are those issues about which we must turn directly to the Qur’ân and Sunnah to get our answers? What are the areas wherein human expertise must be sought? And where does this leave us with questions of administration, politics, economic policy and the like? To answer these questions, we have to make a distinction between matters wherein Islam provides us with specific answers and where it does not. In some matters, Islam gives us specific, detailed, and elaborate injunctions. These include matters of worship, like how to perform our prayers. There are also some areas in civil law where Islam provides considerable detail, like the laws of inheritance. Then there are other matters – and they are by far the more numerous – where Islam does not provide us with direct and specific answers, but rather leaves to the human intellect the freedom to come up with solutions. In general, this is the case for the matters of our daily lives. The story where the Prophet (peace be upon him) made recommendations about cross- pollinating the date palms and said “You know best about the affairs of your worldly lives” is not far off from what we are saying. Even when we look at the broad principles that Islam gives us – like the principle of justice and the principle of consultation in governance – we find that serious mental effort is needed on our part if we are to translate those principles into a practical, living reality. Consider, for example, at the principle of consultation in government. The scriptures address this principle in general terms. Allah describes the Muslims as people: “…who conduct their affairs by mutual Consultation.” [Sûrah al-Shûrâ: 38] As for the practical application of this principle, the mechanisms of the consultative process, the ways and means of making this principle a reality in our political lives, these are things that Islam does not tell us about. These are matters that are subject to change, depending on the various circumstances of life in different times and places and the ever-changing needs of the people. If we are to move from the experience of an “Islamic awakening” to one of full wakefulness, we are going to have to find real, practical solutions to the real-world problems that we are facing. And if these solutions are going to have to come from our own thinking and problem-solving abilities, we cannot then go and attribute those solution to “Islam” as if the solutions we have come up are decisively what Islam has to say about the problems of our day! Instead, those solutions are the solutions that, for better or for worse, Muslims have come up with do deal with the issues. There is a major distinction between the two statements. If we have two experts, both of whom take the principles of Islam as their point of departure, and we present them with a particular problem to solve, we will not be surprised if each of them comes up with a very different answer. It will also come as no surprise if one of those answers turns out to be very much better than the other. When we weigh the merits of their solutions, we are not judging the Islam of the two experts – we are judging their intellectual abilities. It is not necessary that everyone whose perspective is grounded in the principles of Islam can arrive at a viable solution to the problems of our day. When other people hear us saying “Islam is the answer…” they have the right to ask: “If Islam is the answer, then what is its answer to the failure of the organizations that were founded by ‘Islamists’. If Islam is the answer, then why do we see major efforts being made that are utterly incapable of providing a remedy to the difficult problems that we are going through? Doesn’t Islam provide an answer for those things?” – Or is the problem rather that our human minds are as yet ill-equipped to rise up to the creative challenges that we are being faced with? The have a right to ask: “If Islam is the answer, then why is there so much failure in Muslim societies where Muslims are making concerted efforts? Doesn’t Islam have an answer? Then what is that answer?” Is it right for us to put the blame of our failure on Islam, then? Or should we rather blame the limitations of our own minds, our own lack of creativity and inventiveness? How do we expect to convince the Muslims that Islam will solve the problems in their countries and in the international arena, when what they see with their own eyes is that the Muslims have been unable to provide Islamic alternatives to the acute domestic problems that they are facing? The answer to all of these questions is that the problem lies with our own mental efforts. Islam is innocent of our failures. Islam, as a religion, is not responsible for the consequences of the solutions that we adopt according to our human judgments after it has commanded us to think and work things out for ourselves. Muslims need to wake up and realize that Islam, as a religion, must not be crammed forcibly into matters that it does not specifically address. This is a misuse of Islam, and an injustice to our faith. We need to revise some of our slogans before we bring up another generation to think of Islam as a ready-made manual providing an instant solution for all of our ills. To Get More Informations Click Here June 04 The Role of Colonization on the Political System of the Muslim WorldWhen one looks into current affairs, one cannot help
but to note that the Muslim world is distraught with unrest and
violence. This article will discuss how colonization and Western
interference has played the primary role in forming this state of
affairs.
More than a prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, was the founder of a state. In the era of the Prophet Muhammad and his successors, all Muslims belonged to a single community whose unity was based upon the interconnection of religion and the state, where faith and politics were inseparable. Islam expanded from what is now Saudi Arabia across North Africa, through the Middle East and into Asia and Europe. Historically, Islam has been the religious ideology for the foundation of a variety of Muslim states, including the great Islamic empires: Umayyad (661–750), Abbasid (750–1258), Ottoman (1281– 1924), Safavid (1501–1722), and Mughal (1526–1857). In each of these empires and other sultanate states, Islam was the basis of the state’s legal, political, educational, economic, and social institutions. By the 11th century the Islamic world was under attack by the Turks and the Mongols. They were not conquered by Islam; rather, they entered the Islamic world as conquerors and converted to Islam over the following centuries. Over the last two centuries the Islamic world has been under another transformation from the West. The Europeans who came in the 19th and 20th centuries to militarily colonize the Muslim world did not convert like the Turks and Mongols. For the first time, Muslims were politically subjugated by the European empires of Russia, Holland, Britain, and France. The 20th century was marked by two dominant themes: European colonialism and the Muslim struggle for independence. The legacy of colonialism remains alive today. Colonialism altered the geographical map of the Muslim world. It drew the boundaries and appointed leaders over the Muslim countries. After WWII, the French were in West and North Africa, Lebanon, and Syria; the British in Palestine, Iraq, Arabian Gulf, the Indian Subcontinent, Malaya, and Brunei; and the Dutch in Indonesia. It replaced the educational, legal, and economic institutions and challenged the Muslim faith. Colonial officers and Christian missionaries became the soldiers of European expansion and imperialism. Christianity was seen by the colonialists as inherently superior to Islam and its culture. This attitude can be seen in the statement of Lord Cromer, the British counsel in Cairo from 1883-1907, “…as a social system, Islam has been a complete failure. Islam keeps women in a position of inferiority…it permits slavery…its general tendency is intolerance towards other faiths…” European colonialism replaced Muslim self rule under Islamic Law, which had been in existence from the time of the Prophet Muhammad, by their European lords. The colonialists were modern Crusaders – Christian warriors going out of their way to uproot Islam. The French spoke of their battle of the cross against the crescent. The only difference was that the Europeans came, this time, not with cavalry and swords, but with an army of Christian missionaries and missionary institutions like schools, hospitals, and churches, many of which remain in Muslim countries to this day. The French seized the Jami’ Masjid of Algiers and turned it into the cathedral of Saint-Philippe with the French flag and cross on the minaret, symbolizing Christian domination.[1] The Muslim world’s centuries of long struggle with Western colonial rule was followed by authoritarian regimes installed by European powers. The absence of stable states has led many to ask whether there is something about Islam that is antithetical to civil society and rule of law. The answer to this question lies more in history and politics than in religion. Modern Muslim states are only several decades old and they were carved out by European powers to serve Western interests. In South Asia, the British divided the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, giving portions of the Muslim-majority state of Kashmir to each of them. The conflicts that resulted from these actions have led to the deaths of millions in the communal warfare between Hindus and Muslims, the civil war between East and West Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh, and conflicts in Kashmir over Indian rule that persist to the present day. In the Middle East, the French created modern Lebanon from portions of Syria, and the British set the borders for Iraq and Kuwait and created a new entity called Jordan. They also created a new country called Israel, ousting non-Jewish locals and taking land once belonging to Christians and Muslims and surrendering it to a foreign Jewish authority. Such arbitrary borders fed ethnic, regional, and religious conflicts including the Lebanese Civil War between Christians and Muslims, the occupation of Lebanon by Syria, the Gulf War, which resulted from Saddam Hussein’s claim to Kuwaiti territory, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict which need no further explanation. Political and economic models were borrowed from the West to replace the Islamic political and economic systems after independence from colonial rulers in the mid-twentieth century, creating overcrowded cities lacking social support systems, high unemployment, government corruption, and a growing gap between rich and poor. Rather than leading to a better quality of life, Westernization led to the breakdown of traditional family, religious, and social values. Many Muslims blame Western models of political and economic development as the sources of moral decline and spiritual malaise. Unelected governments, whose leaders are kings, military or ex-military officers, rule the majority of countries in the Muslim world. State power is heavily reliant on security forces, police, and military, and where freedoms of assembly, speech, and press are severely limited. Many Muslim states operate within a culture of authoritarianism that is opposed to civil society and a free press. In addition to influencing those who came to power in emerging modern Muslim nation-states, Europe, and later America, forged close alliances with authoritarian regimes, tolerating or supporting their non democratic ways in exchange for, or to ensure, Western access to oil and other resources. When people ask themselves why the Muslim world is distraught with violence and unrest, the answer can surely be found in the colonial interference, both past and present, in the region. Therefore, any future success depends upon returning to a society which is governed by the principles of the people who live in it, one in which all its affairs are governed by Islam. Footnotes: [1] Some of the early imperialist policies of the colonial powers carried not only economic, but religious and cultural agendas. The French, for example, sought to replace Islamic culture with their own by, among other measures, imposing controls on Islamic courts and suppressing many Muslim institutions. After transforming the Grand Mosque of Algiers into the Cathedral of Saint-Philippe, for example, the archbishop of Algiers announced a missionary plan to “save” Muslims from “the vices of their original religion generative of sloth, divorce, polygamy, theft, agrarian communism, fanaticism and even cannibalism.” Azim A. Nanji, ed., The Muslim Almanac (Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1996), p. 123; Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., A Concise History of the Middle East, 3rd ed. (Boulder, Colo.:Westview Press, 1988), p. 231; John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 50; Fawaz A. Gerges, America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). To Get More Informations Click Here | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Quran and the Sunnah have been the guide of
Muslim political and moral activism throughout the centuries. The example of
how the Prophet Muhammad and his companions led their lives and developed the
first Muslim community serves as a blueprint for an Islamically guided and
socially just state and society.
