Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What is Islam?

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I begin by praising Allah and ask for His forgiveness and I take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and the accursed Satan. Whom so ever Allah guides, there is none to misguide and who so ever Allah leaves to go astray, there is none to guide.
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Acknowledgment

In the following short post, will be discussing about what is Islam. It’s intended for non Muslims to have a better understanding of it. Nevertheless, it’s also for those Muslims who are trying to gain knowledge.

May you reap the benefits from this short post. Ameen...

SO WHAT REALLY IS ISLAM?

To begin with, let’s have an understanding what the word Islam itself really means. It’s an Arabic word which is derived from the word salam which means peace". If you’re aware, the Muslims greet each other by saying, “As-SALAM- mu’alaikum” which means, peace be upon you.

“Islam” is also a verb from the root “aslama” which means, “to surrender; submit; obey; sincerity”. Apart from being a verb, it’s also a noun, a name which refers to the true monotheistic religion of God. In short, what “Islam” means in a religious context, is to acquire peace by submitting totally in obedience with sincerity to the Will of God Almighty.

Islam is not a new religion – this is a common misconception. It is the same monotheistic religion that was revealed to other previous prophets like Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (peace be upon them all). Each prophet came for a specific time and people. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was honored to be last and seal of all the prophets. The Final revelation came to him and this is known as the Qur'an.

Whosoever Islams (to submit oneself to the Will of God), would make them Islam-ers - in English we would add-er at the back of the word to denote the one performing the action or verb. But of course in Arabic, we don’t say Islam-er. Instead, the prefix mu is added at the front of the verb and thus it’s mu + “islam and that’s how we got the word Muslim. Therefore, Muslims even existed before the Quran or Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

- Credits to Syeikh Yusuf Estes
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If there's any error, I'm open for rectification. None is perfect as perfection only belongs to Allah (God Almighty). All good things come from Allah and all the bad things are from my side and the side of Satan the accursed.
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