Islam
is the Religion of all the Prophets of Allah starting
with Adam and ending with Muhammad. In Arabic Islam means
submission. To believe in the heart and declare with the
tongue: "No one is God except Allah and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah" is how one becomes Muslim.
Utterance with the Two Professions (ashShahadatan) is
required of the person who is not already a Muslim. A
Muslim is a believer and a follower of Islam.
The First Profession (ash-Shahadah), i.e., "No one
is God except Allah" means nothing deserves to be
worshipped except Allah. "Allah" is the name of
the Creator in Arabic which means "The One Who has
the Godhood which is the power to create the entities."
The second Profession, i.e.,
"Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" includes
believing Muhammad was the last of the prophets, he was
truthful in all he told about and conveyed from Allah (as
were all the prophets before him), and the Creator gave
us prophets and messengers (A 'prophet' is a man who
receives the Revelation from Allah and conveys it to the
people. A 'messenger' is a prophet who comes with some
new laws. The prophet who is
not a messenger follows the laws of the messenger who
came before him.
Every messenger is a
prophet, but not every prophet is a messenger.) to guide
us to worship Him correctly. A Muslim must believe in all
the prophets and messengers.
The Two Professions are the essentials of belief in
Islam; they are the foundation of the faith. The analogy
of constructing a building is useful in explaining the
importance of this basic belief. There will be no
building without a concrete foundation. Likewise, there
will be no benefit and fruitful results in the Hereafter
without having the correct belief first.
This analogy illustrates
the need to start from the beginning and build upward;
before one can remain steadfast in the Religion one must
have the
proper belief. Muslims firmly believe only one Creator
exists, His name is Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet
and Messenger. Knowledge and belief in
this are the foundation of the faith, and all Muslims are
united by this basic belief. The Muslim uses the mind as
a guide because the mind and faith go hand-in-hand.
Knowledge is essential since learning gives one strength
and purpose.
The sound intellect and the explicit statements revealed
to Prophet Muhammad affirm the belief in God, His
existence, and His attributes. One must understand that
Allah is not His attributes nor is He other than them.
For example: One can say: "Allah has the attribute
of power" but one cannot say: "Allah is power."
God has no faults or weaknesses. He, the Exalted, is
flawless. His attributes are without flaw and are
unchanging. God does not resemble any of His (Note: The
word 'He' or 'His' when used in reference to Allah must
not be understood to represent gender. Allah created male
and female, and He does not resemble any of His creation.)
creation. Intellectively, if Allah resembled any of His
creation, He would be susceptible to the same things the
creation are susceptible. If He were susceptible, as the
creations are, He would be weak and created--as they are--and
this is impossible. Allah is without shape, without form,
and without limitations. He does not resemble anything
man sees in the universe or anything he can
imagine--since imagination is part of the creation.
Allah exists. Without comparing Allah to the creation one
can use mental evidences to prove the existence of the
Creator. When one sees a building,
one knows there is a builder; when one sees a painting,
one knows there is
a painter; when one sees the creation, one knows there is
a Creator. Allah is the Creator. Allah exists without a
place because He always existed and He created all the
places. Allah existed eternally and place did not, and
Allah exists now as He has been, i.e., without residing
in a place, whether this place is skies, Earth, Paradise,
Hell, or any other place in the six directions. Allah
does not change. Change is a sign of need and need is non-befitting
to attribute to God. Allah is perfect. If something
changes for the bad, it is no longer perfect, and if it
changes for the good, it was not perfect to begin with.
Therefore, Allah does not change. He is not in Heaven. He
is not in everyone. He is not everywhere. He does not
occupy a space now, He never did, and He never will.
Allah exists without a place.
Allah is one; He is indivisible, i.e., He is not a body.
Allah has no partner, no counterpart, no wife, no son.
Intellectively, this is understood because if there were
two partners and one partner willed for one thing to be
and the other partner willed the opposite thing--we know
opposites do not happen simultaneously--so the one who
willed what did not occur is weak. Weakness is non-befitting
to attribute to God; therefore, there is only one God.
For the same reason, the Devil does not have control over
God and evil occurs because Allah willed it. There is a
wisdom behind everything--even if we do not know the
wisdom--Allah knows.
Allah has no beginning to His existence. Anything that
has a beginning is creation. Allah created every
creation, every movement, every rest, every thought,
every intention. To have a beginning is a sign of need,
and Allah is not in need. Allah has no end to His
existence. To have an end is weakness; the Creator is not
weak.
Allah does not need any of His creation. To need
something means to be unable to perform without it, and
this is weakness. The Creator is not weak--it is
impossible to be among His attributes. Allah has the
attribute of power by which He affects the creation. He
makes them exist and He annihilates them.
Allah has the attribute of Will. Whatever Allah willed to
be shall be and whatever Allah did not will to be shall
not be. Both good and evil happen according to God's will.
Allah has the attribute
of knowledge. Allah knows everything: what has happened,
what is happening, and what will happen.
Allah hears all hearable things and Allah sees all
seeable things without organs and without limitations.
Man needs ears and air to transfer sound in order to hear
and light in order to see. Allah does not need any of the
creation. Allah, with His eternal kalam, orders the
obligations, forbids the prohibitions, promises the
reward of Paradise, and threatens the punishment of
Hellfire without instruments, letters, languages, or
sounds.
Allah has the attribute of life because he who is dead
cannot be attributed with knowledge, will, power, and
consequently, cannot create.
Allah's life is not like ours. We need flesh, bones,
blood, and spirit.
Allah created all these; His life is not in need of any
of them.
Allah created all the creation, and this includes the
Religion of Islam--which is the only valid and true
Religion. Islam began among humans with the first man,
Adam, who was the first prophet and messenger, and Islam
continued through many prophets, some of which were also
messengers.
All the prophets and messengers taught "No one is
God except Allah" and to
believe in and follow the prophet and messenger of their
time. All the Prophets taught there is only one God, the
aforementioned attributes of Allah, and the attributes of
the prophets. They called the people to Islam, taught
them how to worship Allah properly, and conveyed what
Allah ordered and what Allah forbid. The prophets had
miracles to support their claim of Prophethood and to
prove to the people what they were teaching was the truth.
Some of the rules changed from one messenger to another
but the belief remained the same. The messengers came
with new laws. For example: at the time of Adam, Muslims
used to pray once per day. They were ordered to pray
twice per day at the time of Prophet ^Isa. Now, according
to the rules of the last Messenger--Prophet Muhammad--Muslims
pray five times per day. In previous laws of the
messengers, Muslims were ordered to pray in specific
places. Now, in the rules revealed to Prophet Muhammad,
Muslims are not required to pray in specific places.
Allah blessed the people with the prophets and messengers
to guide them to obedience and warn them from
disobedience. Muslims must believe in all the prophets
and messengers because Allah blessed them all with
Revelation and
they conveyed this to their people, but now Muslims must
follow the rules of the last Prophet and Messenger,
Prophet Muhammad.
Allah ordered the Messengers to convey the laws, and they
did. They taught by words and example. The prophets were
attributed with truthfulness, trustworthiness, and
intelligence. Consequently, lying, dishonesty, vileness,
stupidity, and dullness were impossible to be among their
attributes. They were also attributed with impeccability
of blasphemy (Blasphemy includes any belief, action, or
saying which belittles Allah, His Books, His Messengers,
His Angels, His Rites, the Ma^alim of His Religion, His
Rules, His Promise, or His Threat.), the great sins (such
as drinking alcohol and unjustful killing), and abject
small sins (such as stealing one grape).
Prophet Muhammad taught his Companions and those
Companions taught their followers and so on until the
knowledge of Islam reached the Muslims of the present day.
The beliefs and teachings were passed from trustworthy
Muslim('Trustworthy' as defined by Islam means the Muslim
who does not commit great sins, small sins in a way that
they will be more than this good deeds, and does not
behave in violation of the behavior of those who have his
status.) to trustworthy Muslim with a chain of reliable
relators back to the Prophet. In Islam it is a great sin
to judge without knowledge. If a Muslim does not know an
answer to an Islamic inquiry he must not give his opinion
or what he thinks the answer might be. Instead, he seeks
the answer from someone more knowledgeable in the
Religion who attained the knowledge in the aforementioned
manner.
Since Allah created Adam, the first man, from soil of
different colors and different textures, and all people
are the descendants of Adam, this accounts for the
various races and temperaments of people. Muslim men and
women around the world of all ages, races, colors,
nationalities, social backgrounds, economic status',
languages, and political affiliations are united by their
belief that there is only one God, His name is Allah, and
Muhammad is His last Prophet and Messenger and by
practicing the same rules of the Religion.
Islam is a belief system as well as a way of life. Only
the Creator knows the limits, the weakness, and the
vulnerability of all His creation, and He has provided
rules for them that are fair and just. Allah knows what
is good for His creation as well as what is harmful; He
knows what is beneficial and what is detrimental.
The foundation of Islam is based upon five matters:
(1) Professing and believing no one is God except Allah
and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah;
(2) Prayer;
(3) Zakah;
(4) Fasting;
(5) Hajj.
The belief in the truth of Islam is the same despite the
color of the skin, whether one is a man or a woman, how
much wealth one might or might not have accumulated,
where one lives, and who one's family and/or friends are.
Prayer, five times each
day, is required by all Muslim mukallaf (Mukallaf in this
context means sane and pubescent.).
Fasting during the month
of Ramadan is an obligation on all Muslims who have
reached puberty and who are physically able to fast. This
helps the Muslim to feel what the poor feel, and in this
way one remembers to care for those less fortunate than
oneself. Fasting also disciplines the Muslim and brings
Muslims together--uniting them by a common, shared
experience. The Hajj, pilgrimage as defined by Islam, is
the journey to the Ka^bah to perform, at a specific
period of the year, certain actions in Makkah and its
vicinity. It is required at least once during the
lifetime of each Muslim mukallaf if he is able. During
Hajj, all Muslims leave their worldly possessions and
perform the same religious obligations in the same way as
those Muslims with them and those Muslims who performed
Hajj before them.
Zakah is paying a certain portion of one's money (Money
in this context includes property, possessions, and
wealth.) to specific types of people with certain
conditions. This provides for the poor Muslims and those
whose needs are not being met within the Muslim community.
Islam also requires a Muslim to be humble and to care
about and to respect one's brother and sister Muslim. It
is not acceptable Islamic behavior to talk about other
Muslims or to cause problems amongst them.
Learning the Obligatory Knowledge of the Religion puts
the Muslim on the road for excellence and self-betterment.
With knowledge, the Muslim differentiates between what is
lawful and what is not, and what is an acceptable, valid
worship and what is not. What differentiates one Muslim
from another is the amount of Islamic knowledge one
attains and applies within one's own life. "The
Essentials of Belief" is an insight into the
Religion of Islam. Believing and uttering 'No one is God
except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah' is
the most important thing any person can do and it is a
condition for the acceptance of the good deeds. The one
who becomes Muslim and stays Muslim will have the
enjoyment of Paradise without end in the Hereafter and
the one who rejects Islam will suffer the torture of
Hellfire without end in the Hereafter. It is certain that
death will come to all of us. The one who is prepared for
the Day of Judgment is the one who knows, accepts, and
applies the essentials of belief, and implements the
teachings of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, in all sincerity to
Allah, the Exalted.
The truth of Islam must be accepted and the Obligatory
Knowledge of Islam must be acquired and taken if it is
from reliable, trustworthy, Islamic sources--irregardless
of whether the teacher is young or old, male or female,
rich or poor, black or white, Arab or American or African
or Indian or Chinese or Spanish or of any other origin.
Allah knows best.
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