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 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:
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"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 not tell his
followers to worship him but to worship Allah. As the Qur'aan states:
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:
Elsewhere, in the final book of revelation, the
Qur'aan,
Allah also said:
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 clearly states:
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:
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
Hiscommandments, and the denial of polytheism and polytheists.
