WHAT IS ISLAM?

General Introduction to Islam

" Once I asked my students the following question:

"If a foreigner were to come and ask you to explain

all about Islam in ^an hour, what would you do?" This

is how they responded: "That: would be impossible!

He would have to study the principle of the Oneness

of God, commentaries on the Holy Quran - and he'd

have to learn how to recite from the Holy Quran,

study the hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad

(peace be upon him), the system of Islamic law. He'd

also need to delve into problems and issues which

could take him 5 years'

I retorted by saying, "Glory be to God! What

about the simple and uneducated Bedouin who came

to our Prophet and learned all about Islam Just by

staying in his company for a day - or even less? And

didn't those very same Bedouin then carry the message

of Islam to the desert folk, and in turn become their

teachers and guides? Don't you remember how our

Prophet explained our religion in three brief

sentences? He spoke about iman (faith) Islam (the

religion) and ihsan (Man's realisation of his relation to God).

So why is it, then, that we can't explain our religion in an hour in this day and' age?"

So what is Islam - and how does one become a Muslim?

Every creed, whether its basic principles are

based on truth or falsehood, every society, good

or bad, and every political party, regardless of

whether its intentions are noble or not, operates

on certain basic principles and precepts that

define its goal and outline its course of action.

These principles and precepts are put together in

the form of a constitution to guide its members

and followers.

Anyone wishing to become a member of such

an organisation would need to start off by

studying these guidelines. If he finds that they

satisfy both his conscious and subconscious mind,

and believes without any doubt in their validity,

he will decide to Join that organisation and

become one of its members and supporters. From

then on he has to obey the laws laid down in the

constitution and to pay the membership fee. He

also has to prove, in due course, his genuine

commitment to the principles and precepts of the

organisation. This means he has to remind himself

of them constantly and make sure he does nothing

to contradict them. He has to set an example,

through his character and behaviour, of one who

ardently follows and supports those principles.

So we can say that membership to a society

means:

* Knowledge of its system;

* belief in its principles;

* adhering to its regulations;

* conducting oneself in everyday life according

to those principles and regulations.

_

These are accepted conventions which are all

applicable to Islam. Anyone wishing to embrace

Islam has to accept its intellectual principles with

total conviction right from the start. This means

he will have developed the faith within himself.

The principles he has to accept are outlined

briefly as follows:

* This material world is not the be-all and

end-all of existence, and life in this world is only

a part of the eternal life;

* man existed even before he was born and will continue .

to exist after death; he did not create himself but had

been created before he was conscious of his human

existence;

* the inanimate objects around him couldn’t have

created him, as he is a rational being and they are

not;

* everything in this universe has been created

from nothingness by the one God, God the

Almighty;

* God is the only one who grants life and causes

death. It is He who created everything, and if He

wishes. He will destroy and obliterate it;

* Almighty God does not resemble His creation in

any way. He existed before this creation and He is

eternal and has unlimited knowledge;

* He is completely just in a way that cannot be

assessed in human terms;

• it is He who has laid down what we call the

laws of nature,

* He has created everything according to a well-defined

measure before all creation, thus all the phenomena of

activity, inactivity, consistency and inconsistency that we

can observe in both animate and inanimate beings have

been

clearly defined and distinct boundaries have; been set,

* man has been bestowed with the power of

intellect to deal with whatever matters he is

presented with and he has been given the

power of reasoning with which he can make

his own choice and will power to enable him

to achieve what he wants;

* God has created an eternal life beyond this

temporary life, where the doer of good will

be rewarded with a life in paradise and the

wrong doer will be punished and exist in hell.

This God is One. No one else may be

worshipped but Him; no one can take us

nearer to Him to plead on our behalf without

His permission. Thus we should worship

God alone, in all sincerity and purity.

All the material beings that we can

see and feel, have been created by Him.

He has also created unseen beings, some

animate and others inanimate, which we

cannot see. Among the unseen beings

are the angels, who have been created

for absolute good; and then there are the

satans, who have been created as dark

and negative forces. Apart from these

there is a third category of unseen

beings, the jinn, who are divided into

satans and 'good'or'obedient'jinn. And

from amongst human beings. God

selects certain people to whom the

sharia (Divine Law) is revealed, so that

they can guide humanity towards it.

These people are the prophets.

This divine law is contained in all the books

revealed from The heavens. God takes us through

progressive “steps” in each book until the final

book, the Holy Quran. Books that

preceded it were either distorted or got lost and

forgotten. The Holy Quran, however, has

remained intact. The last of these prophets is

Muhammad bin Abdullah, an Arab of the

Qurayshi ttribe. With him there was an end to all

the previous divine messages and religions. There

has been no other prophet since his time.

The Holy Quran is the constitution of Islam.

Whoever endorses the fact that it has been

revealed by God and believes in it completely, is

a mu'min (believer). Iman (faith) in this sense can

only be seen by God because human beings

cannot penetrate into human hearts and know

what is in them. Therefore it is essential, in order

to be accepted in the fold of Islam, that a man

declare his faith by pronouncing two Statements,

namely: "I bear witness that there is no God but

Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the

Prophet of God." The moment he pronounces this

statement of faith he becomes a Muslim and is

entitled to all the rights enjoyed by Muslims; he

also agrees to perform all the duties enjoined upon

him by Islam.

These ibadat (duties) are the prescribed forms of

worship. There are only a few and they are easy to

perform and do not require much effort or

exertion. There are four, as outlined below:

1 - A Muslim has to pray two rak'ats

(prostrations) at dawn, during which time he has

communion with his Lord. He asks Him of His

goodness and seeks refuge in Him from His

punishment. Before making these prostrations, a

Muslim has ,to perform -wudu (ablutions): he

washes his face, hands and feet,

or takes a bath if he is in a state of ritual

impurity.

Besides the dawn prayer, he has to pray at

four other times four rak'ats at midday; four

rak'ats in the afternoon; three rak'ats at sunset;

four rak'ats at night:

These are obligatory prayers, the performing

of which will not, on the whole, take more than

half an hour per day. There is no particular place

or person required for the performance of these

prayers, and it is not necessary for a Muslim to

have an intermediary when he prays, as he prays

directly to his Lord.

2- In a certain month during the year. a

Muslim has t fast. This is known as the period of

Ramadan. Breakfast is eaten before dawn, lunch

is taken after sunset, and during the day all

Muslims abstain from food and water and must

not have sexual intercourse.

Ramadan is a month of self-purification for

every Muslim when he purifies his body and soul.

It is also a month to fulfill the desire to do good

and be generous, and to reflect the brotherhood of

man in the material life.

3 - A Muslim has to give 2.5 % of his

wealth as alms to the poor and needy. He does

this on an annual basis, once his own needs and

those of his family have been met. This financial

support paid by every Muslim comes as a great

source of comfort' and assistance to the poor, the

sick and the needy. It thus helps to alleviate

poverty and establishes a form of social security,

4 - Islam has arranged certain periodical

gatherings for Muslims. They congregate together five times a day to offer prayer. There

need be no disruption of work for anyone

whatever his trade or profession. Those who

miss the congregation can pray at home, though

they will, in fact

deprive themselves of the joyful reward of

praying together in a group.

Then there is the weekly congregation on

Fridays for jum’a prayer. This lasts for less

than an hour, and it is compulsory for all male

Muslims to attend.

Besides the above, there are mass

congregations held twice a year on the occasion

of the two Eids (festivals). Attendance

is not compulsory and they last less

than an hour.

Finally there is the annual world congregation

known as the Haj. It is a kind of mammoth

public gathering, held once a year ina certain

place. This congregation provides guidance in all

aspects: spiritual, physical and intellectual. A

Muslim is expected to attend once in his lifetime,

but only if he is able to do so.

These are the duties and acts of worship

enjoined upon every Muslim

Apart from the above, abstention from

certain modes of behaviour are also deemed as

ibadah (worship). These are actions which any

sensible person would deplore, such as

killing without a valid reason, intruding on the

rights of others, aggressive behaviour, all forms

of injustice, any kind of intoxication which

would affect the brain, adultery, since it destroys

honour and dignity and violates the sanctioned

form of blood relationship. Other forms of

forbidden behaviour include usury, lying,

betrayal and deserting any form of

military service which seeks to glorify the Divine

Writ, making false oaths or producing false

witnesses - and, above all, disobedience to one's

parents or dismissing them and neglecting their

needs.

However, God forgives a Muslim who fails

to carry out

some of his duties and disobeys some of the

Islamic laws but repents and asks for pardon.

On the other hand, a Muslim who does not

repent will be considered as a rebel, who will

be punished in the next world. This

punishment will, however, be only temporary

and will not be equal to that of a non-believer.

As for a Muslim who refuses to

acknowledge any basic Islamic principle or

belief, rejects his duties and Islamic

regulations or denies even the smallest detail

outlined in the Holy Quran, he will be

considered as an apostate deprived of his

Islamic identity. Apostasy is similar to a crime

of high treason, from the Islamic point of

view. Unless a person gives up his unislamic

beliefs and repents, he will be given a death

sentence. Faith has to be accepted in totality

and, therefore, a denial of any aspect is

deemed as a denial of the whole. Therefore,

anyone who accepts 99% of the faith but

denies 1% is considered an infidel.

You may come across Muslims who are nonbelievers.

They can be compared with someone

who joins a political party or a society, attends all

its meetings, pays his subscription - and does

whatever is required of a member, but nonetheless

refuses to accept its principles and remains

unconvinced. It may seem that such a person has

joined the party or society simply to find out

what's going on or to create trouble. Such a

Muslim is a hypocrite - hypocrisy is defined as

"outward profession of faith and concealment o

disbelief. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon

him, used to say that a hypocrite can be

recognised in three ways: failure to keep his

promise, I lying and betraying anyone's trust. A

hypocrite pronounces statements of faith and

performs his religious duties, yet deep and down

he remains unconvinced. Such a person may be

considered a Muslim by the outside world but not

by God, Who knows what is hidden in our hearts

and innermost beings.

In brief, the intellectual principles

of Islam are:

* belief in the angels; * belief in

destiny;

* expression of the statements of faith;

* performance of the obligatory

prayers;

* fasting in the month of Ramadan;

* payment of zakat (alms);

* performance of Haj (pilgrimage) to Mecca once

in a lifetime, if this is possible;

* abstention from everything that is forbidden by

Muslim consensus.

Generally speaking, adhering to the Iman is

more beneficial to us - we feel better and enjoy tremendous rewards. This is why, even though it

may be hard to stick to these laws 100%, we feel

better in ourselves if we follow them.

Our Prophet Muhammad summed up the characteristics of

a true Muslim in an eloquent sentence which states the

essence of faith and action in a nutshell: "You should

worship God as if you can see him." This means we must

strive to be in total awareness of God's presence all the

time.

This is the very essence of Islam - to be Godconscious

in all our actions, whether or not they

are serious. God is watching us constantly and is

aware of our every move. This is why anyone

who is truly God-conscious will obey His laws,

and he will not despair either, knowing that God

is with him all the time. A person who is

strengthened in this way will not need to ask for

help from anyone because he can always ask God

to fulfill his needs. And, if anyone disobeys God's

laws,

As it is in his nature to sin, provided he asks

for forgiviness, God will forgive him.

This is just a brief introduction to Islam and

in to following chapters we shall be looking into

all aspects of faith in detail.

by Syeikh Ali Tantawi- تعريف عام بدين الاسلام