استغفروا ربكم إنه كان غفارا يرسل السماء عليكم مدرارا ويمددكم بأموال وبنين ويجعل لكم جنات ويجعل لكم أنهارا 'Mohonlah ampun kepada Tuhanmu, -sesungguhnya Dia adalah Maha Pengampun-, niscaya Dia akan mengirimkan hujan kepadamu dengan lebat,dan membanyakkan harta dan anak-anakmu, dan mengadakan untukmu kebun-kebun dan mengadakan (pula di dalamnya) untukmu sungai-sungai.
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
