ISLAM AND MUSLIMS
The Arabic word "Islam" means peace, submission, and obedience.
The religion of Islam consists of the complete acceptance of the
teachings and guidance of God as revealed to His Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH).
A Muslim is one who believes in God and strives for the total
reorganization of one's life according to the guidance revealed by
God-the Qur'an-and sayings of the Prophet. A Muslim also works to
create a human society on the same basis. "Muhammadanism" is a
misnomer for Islam and offends its very spirit, for it implies that
Muslims have deified and worship Muhammad, as the Christians did
with Jesus Christ. This practice is condemned in the Qur'an and is
totally foreign to the Islamic belief structure.
The word "Allah" is the proper name of God in Arabic. It is a unique
term and has no plural or feminine forms.
CONTINUITY OF MESSAGE
Islam is not a new religion, but a re-presentation of the same
message and guidance that Allah revealed to all of His prophets. In
Qur'an (3:3), we read:
Say, we believe in Allah and that which has been revealed to
us, and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and
Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which was given to
Moses and Jesus and to other Prophets, from their Lord. We
make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we
submit.
The message revealed to Prophet Muhammad is Islam in its
comprehensive, complete, and final form.MAN: THE FREE AGENT
Man is the highest creation of God. He has the most potential of any
part of Gods creation and is left relatively free in his will, actions,
and choice. God has revealed the right path, and the life of Prophet
Muhammad provides a perfect example. Man's success and salvation
lie in following both. Islam teaches the sanctity of the person and
confers equal rights upon all regardless of race, gender, color, or
other external differences. The law of God, as enunciated in the
Qur'an and exemplified in the life of the Prophet is supreme in all
cases. It applies equally to the highest and the lowest, the prince and
the peasant, the ruler and the ruled .
THE QUR'AN AND HADITH
The Qur'an is the last revealed word of God and the basic source of
Islamic teachings and laws. It deals with the foundations of creeds,
morality, the history of humanity, worship, knowledge, wisdom, the
relationship of God to man and man to God, and all aspects of
interpersonal relationships. Its comprehensive teachings are meant
to be used to construct sound systems of social justice, economics,
politics, legislation, junsprudence, law, and international relations,
and represent important sections of the Qur'an.
Muhammad (PBUH) could not read or write. This did not represent
an obstacle, for the Qur'an was committed to memory and writing by
his followers during his lifetime and under his supervision. The
original and complete text of the Qur'an is available to everybody in
Arabic, the language in which it was revealed. Translations of the
meaning into many languages are widely used. The hadith, a term
which covers the literature dealing with the Prophet's teachings,
sayings, and actions, was reported and collected with great care by
his devoted companions. Its main function is to explain and elaborate
the Qur'anic verses.
CONCEPT OF WORSHIP
Islam does not teach or accept mere ritualism, but rather emphasizes
intention and action. To worship God is to know and to love Him, to
obey His law in every aspect of life, to enjoin goodness and forbid
wrong-doing and oppression, to practice charity and justice, and
toserve Him by serving mankind. The Qur'an presents this concept in
the following sublime manner:
It is not righteousness that you turn your faces to the East or
the West, but righteous is he who believes in God and the Last
Day and the Angels and the Books and the Prophets; and gives
his wealth for love of Him to kinsfolk and to orphans and the
needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask; and to set slaves
free; and observes proper worship and pays the Zakat. And
those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the
patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress, such are
