inlightofislam.com

~ The Simple Explanation ~

“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”

I really feel that if someone can understand what the words Islam and Muslim mean, the five pillars of Islam, the six beliefs of Islam and what are the Quran and the Hadiths, they should be able to understand the fundamentals of Islam – really, it is pretty simple. The other complicated stuffs are to score high, but first we have to get a passing score. We Muslims are often after the extra credits, rather than tackling the main questions of Allah’s test to us. Let us stay focused.

Most people think that today’s World’s major religions, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism existed before Islam but it is quite the opposite. God sent messengers from time to time with one unified message to worship God alone but the original message became distorted over time. There were many messengers in the past whose names are not even known since the time of Adam. Adam is the common ground for every religion. Adam was also the first messenger of God. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) was the last of that chain of messengers reestablishing what all the other previous messengers had taught – surrender and submission to one God. Thus Islam is the very original teachings of Adam. Adam would not even know to worship anybody else beside One God, who created him. Oftentimes the details of the religions make people to lose sight of this original belief of Oneness of God. It is important not to lose sight of the fundamentals of the religion and that is why I decided to explain the fundamentals of Islam.

Islam:

Monotheism, submission and surrender to one God, and one God only without associating any partners with Him. God did not begot any children, neither was He begotten. He is the eternal God, the Almighty Allah, and Prophet Muhammad (PHUH*) is His last and the final messenger. These are the core beliefs of the fundamental beliefs of Islam.

*PBUH means May God’s Peace Be Up on Him, in Arabic Sallallahu Alaihe Wa Salam abbreviated SAWS. These abbreviations are used throughout this website.

Muslim:

One, who submits to One God only AND believes that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is His Last Messenger.

The Five Pillars of Islam:

A Muslim must do the following acts:

1. Belief – To believe that “There is no God worthy of worshiping except Allah (God), and Muhammad (SAWS) is His Messenger.”
2. Prayer – Five times a day.
3. Fasting – To fast from dawn to dusk during the lunar month of Ramadan.
4. Charity – To give in charity (zakah) 2.5% of their excess wealth every year.
5. Pilgrimage – To perform Pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime, those, who can afford it.

The Six Fundamental Beliefs of Islam:

A Muslim must believe in the following:

1. One God, Allah (Allah is simply His name)
2. All the previous Prophets of God until Prophet Muhammad (SAWS)
3. All the Holy Scriptures: The Psalms, The Torah, The Bible and The Quran.
   
4. The Angels
5. Destiny – that everything is ordained or preordained by God, He holds the ultimate control
6. The Final Judgment and the Hereafter (Heaven & Hell).

The Quran:

The last and the final revelation of God, the verbatim words of God sent to the whole Mankind through Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) through Angel Gabriel (AS**).

**AS: AS stands for Alaihe Salam, which also means Peace be up on him, Muslims are always to say this to show respect to the Archangel Gabriel when his name is mentioned. He brought revelations from God Almighty to all of the prophets.

The Holy Quran is the ONLY uncorrupted book of God that exists on earth today. Muslims are also required to believe that the previously sent scriptures: The Torah (The Old Testament), The Bible (The New Testament), and The Zabur (Psalm) were also from God (Allah) Almighty, however, as everyone knows, the previously sent scriptures were corrupted. Thus, as Muslims recognize these books as Holy Scriptures from God Almighty, they also acknowledge the corruption of these scriptures. Muslims believe that everything that Quran contains was revealed in the previous scriptures, but The Quran presents the complete scenario without any human distortions. The Holy Quran came in a gradual revelations during a period of 23 years depending on the circumstances. It is extremely important to understand This Holy book of Quran in its context, and not just in the context within the Quran but also in the context of the circumstances of that time with the help of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) sayings, known as Hadiths, and his implementations of the verses that were revealed for the particular situations.

About Preservation Of The Holy Quran:

One of the miracles of The Holy Quran is how it was preserved uncorrupted, God made it easy to remember as God says in the Quran. It is preserved in people’s hearts making it impossible to corrupt the written Quran. There are millions of Muslims today, who memorized the entire book of Quran, word for word, letter for letter. Amongst them are many young children, as young as six to ten years old. It sounds impossible but it is a living fact today. If you read a few verses a few times, they sort of come to you. You need no special skills to memorize the Holy Quran. As God says in the Quran, none can touch it except the purified. You would be able to, Inshallah - God willing, touch it with your heart if you tried, it’s a miracle, truly.

The Challenge Of The Quran:

There is a challenge from God in the Quran that if you do not believe that it is from your Lord, then write one chapter like it, gather all your forces and authorities but no one could do it. This challenge still stands today. The eloquence of the Holy Quran, both linguistically and the expression of the meaning wise, indicates to its Supreme writer, God Almighty. Maybe this challenge is there to increase the faith of the believing hearts from time to time, but it is there. We should not ignore this book. As Quran says, what if this book is indeed from your Lord and you ignored it?

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Muslims must believe that there was a chain of messengers sent by God Almighty and Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) is the last and the final Messenger of God. He was born in the year 570 AD in Mekkah, Saudi Arabia. He was born in a very high-status tribe called Bani Quraish. His father, Abdullah, died a few months before he was born, and his mother, Ameena, died when he was about 5 years old. He was then raised first by his grandfather, Muttalib, and then by his uncle, Abu Talib. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) was illiterate, he could not read or write. He started receiving revelation at the age of 40 until he passed away at the age of 63. His sayings are known as “The Hadiths” and his doings and his implementations of the Hadiths are called “Sunna(t).” Before Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) became a Prophet, he was known as “Al-Amin” or “the Trust-Worthy.” He was very truthful in every aspects of life, and he was well known as an honest man in trades. He had an amazing character that people were drawn to him and that made people to trust him even when they were against his ways of faith and preaching.

Hadiths - The Preservation Process:

Today there are four main sources of Hadiths that Muslims refer to when following them. On top of these four is called the Bukhari Hadith collected by a person named Imam Bukhari. He was from a place called Bukhari near Russia. His ethical honesty, intelligence, memorization skills and pure and hard work contributed to the preservation of each authentic Hadith. The preservation of each of the Hadiths is a story itself. The preservation of Hadiths started during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and was compiled within the 150 years or so after his death. During the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) the scribes to write the verses of the Quran and the scribes to write the verses of the Hadiths were strictly kept separated to avoid mixing of the two because The Holy Quran is strictly the direct words of God, and the Hadiths are the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).

Why Are The Hadiths So Important?:

Because the Holy Quran is really like a Gist. If you read one small sentence, it is like as if you just read a story. So Hadiths are the explanations and the interpretations of the Holy Quran. Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) received directions form God Almighty to explain things. For example, Muslims are required to pray five times a day. And the way to pray is not described in the Quran; it was demonstrated by Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).

Another example is that today, many-a-times, even the Muslims tend to misunderstand some of the verses of the Holy Quran because they read a translation of a verse and it probably sounds harsh or unfriendly towards non-Muslims and they immediately jump to conclusion. But we really need to know the background of why that verse was revealed because those verses were meant for certain bad groups of pagans or non-Muslims at that time under a specific situation. Bad groups and bad people exist in every society. It is inappropriate to associate an entire religion with them. So my advice to the Muslims is be careful before you become pessimistic about any verse of the Quran. It is not possible to understand The Holy Quran and Islam without knowing prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his sayings and without knowing the History.

In Conclusion:

So, Islam means submission and surrender to One God.

Guidance comes only from God. May Allah Almighty guide us and help us to follow the truth. We have to unfold the path to Paradise. Paradise is surrounded by hardships, Hell is surrounded by desires. Don’t follow your desires, rather follow the truth even if it is hard sometimes. We need to overcome our desires and stay focused.

Allah says in the Quran, do not die unless you are in the state of submission, do not die unless you are in the state of Islam. Just because we call ourselves Muslims or Monotheists, it does not mean that we are in the complete state of submission. It seems that we all want status, fame, money and fun. We are taken up by the worldly gains. It is the hereafter that we should be striving for to increase our wealth and status in. We need to establish our five daily prayers and compete to build a bigger house, a grater palace, a taller sky scraper for the hereafter because we cannot escape death, and hereafter is inevitable.

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

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Other Articles:

• Faith - A comparative discussion on Monotheistic religions.

• God's Name(s)  - Why is it important to call Him by His Name(s)?

• The Holy Quran: History, the background, the 7th Century culture, the preservation of the Holy Quran and the overall impact

Prophets and Messengers of God:

• Part 1: Their Names

• Part 2: why should we know about them?

• Part 3: Adam (AS), Seth (AS), Idris (AS), Noah (AS), Hud (AS), Saleh (AS)

• Part 4: Abraham (AS) & Lot (AS)

• Part 5: The descendents of Prophet Abraham (AS) - the saga of Prophet hood

• Part 6: Prophet Job (AS), Prophet Shu’ayb (AS)

• Part 7: Prophet Moses (AS) and Prophet Aaron (AS)

• Part 8: Yusha(AS), Elijah(AS), Elisha(AS), Samuel(AS), David(AS) & Solomon(AS)

• Part 9: Prophet Jonah (AS), Prophet Dhul-Kifl (AS), Prophet Dhul-Qarnayn (AS), Prophet Zakaria (AS) & Prophet John (AS)

• Part 10: Prophet Isa (AS) AKA Jesus Christ

• Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) - Summary Page

• Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) - Part 1 of 5: Up to his call to Prophet Hood in year 610.

•  Hadiths Randomly - Some of Prophet Muhammad(SAWS)'s sayings.

Topics to be posted:

• The Hadiths - Prophet Muhammad (SAWS)'s sayings, and why so important? 

• Islam and Science: Things that were revealed 1400 years ago are merely being discovered though NASA and science.

• Culture, Diversity, Religious Tolerance - To distinguise between culture and God's commandments.

• Hereafter: According to the theology of Islam 

• The names of the chapters in the Quran

• The chronological order of the chapters in the Quran