Islam Is
The Only Truly Universal Religion
Islam is the religion
taught in its fundamentals by all the prophets. It is the
religion which the first human being was instructed to follow. It
is the religion of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and
all other prophets (peace be upon them all) throughout the
existence of human beings.
From the world view of Islam, most of the
world's major religions originated in the pure religion of Islam
itself and only through the teachings being lost, forgotten or
wilfully corrupted have these religions changed. Judaism claims
special status for the Jews as the chosen people - a status which
cannot be acquired except through birth [1] and which makes a Jew superior to any non-Jew
(goyim) whatever their beliefs. Christianity insists that you
must believe in various doctrines which form the foundations of
what is distinctively 'Christian' belief in order to be 'saved'
(i.e. that Jesus (peace be upon him) died to atone for the sins
of Mankind, that Allah is a trinity etc.). This doctrine, the
(Catholic) church itself admits [2], didn't develop until several hundred years after
Christ and so cannot possibly have applied to those before Jesus
nor to his early followers. In contrast to this, Islam has at its
core, a simple message which applies to all human beings before
Muhammad (pbuh) and all after his time:
"...And they say: "None shall
enter paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian."
Those are their (vain) desires. Say: "Produce your
proof if you are truthful." Nay whoever submits his
whole self to Allah and is a doer of good, he will get
his reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear nor
shall they grieve."
Qur'an
2:111-112
The word used in this verse for 'submits'
is 'aslama'. It is from this verb that the word 'Islam' comes as
'the submitting'. Islam is a word that doesn't have any
connection with an area or a particular character from history,
it is the one and only truly universal religion and fittingly it
has a truly universal name:
The word "Islam" means
voluntary submission to the will of Allah
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Rationality
requires belief in God
It is a common perception in the (post?)
Christian world that 'faith' or 'belief' is irrational; that a
matter of faith is one for which there is little or no evidence.
To the Muslim this seems quite absurd. In Islam people who
disbelieve in Allah and in the prophethood of Muhammad can only
do so out of ignorance or out of wilful denial of what is evident
to them as clear as seeing:
Say thou: "This is my way: I do
invite unto Allah on evidence clear as the seeing with one's
eyes, I and whoever follows me: Glory to Allah! and never
will I join gods with Allah!"
Qur'an Surah 12 Verse 108
For the Muslim, belief in Allah forms a
foundational requirement of rationality and belief in Muhammad as
the prophet of Allah follows from applying the rational mind to
the evidence of his mission.
There are many ways in which we may
describe rational thinking. From the world view of Islam there is
good thinking and bad thinking and 'rational' thinking is nothing
more than morally good thinking. Someone who strives to do that
which is right in the way he thinks, who is sincere and avoids
self deception, someone who seeks the truth, avoids biases and
prejudice in his opinions, who seeks knowledge from all available
sources, someone who reflects on what he sees and always looks
for explanations and doesn't accept that things are as they are
simply without any reason, someone who tries to avoid any
contradictions in his understandings, such a person is rational
and such a person is one who seeks to think, learn and decide in
a morally good way.
If someone tries to do what is morally
right they are already acknowledging that there is a moral good
to achieve. Such moral value only exists if existence as a whole
achieves something morally good, i.e. if existence has a purpose.
If you think that existence as a whole has
no purpose and achieves nothing, then it follows that whatever
you do in life achieves exactly nothing as well - your life would
contribute no value to existence.
There is no moral good in doing what your
own desires find good or what your family or nation finds good.
The only way what you do achieves a moral good is if it achieves
something towards the purpose of existence. Every good that can
be achieved is either instrumental to the purpose of existence
and therefore a true moral good or it is false good and worth
nothing.
The core of all value and purpose to
existence is commonly known by the name Allah or God. He is the
ultimate purpose to existence and the achievement of what is
morally good equates to getting closer to Him. Allah is more than
we can ever fully understand but in order to have morally good
thinking it is essential to believe in Allah in some sense
whatever name we use for Him.
It is also essential to reject as having
any hold over us anything or anyone who asserts that a good can
be achieved without it being instrumental to the purpose to
existence. i.e. without it being for the sake of Allah.
A person who has amoral thinking or immoral
thinking acknowledges that there is no inherent value to the way
they think and will see no problem in changing the criteria by
which they decide to accept or reject conclusions. Whatever
definition of rationality could be used there is, for such
people, no reason why they should accept it. If being rational by
some definition leads to conclusions they don't like then they
can just change the definition. In extreme cases there can never
be enough evidence and strong arguments for them to accept a
statement as true, they just continually move the criteria of
what constitutes for them convincing evidence and argument.
Being rational means being a moral
thinker.
Being a moral thinker means believing in Allah.
Only the irrational disbelieve.
To understand more about moral thinking
please read the section on The Sin of Disbelief
in the online book Islam for the Western Mind
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Islam Is
The Natural Religion
Islam is known not only as a rational and
moral way of life prescribed for all of mankind, it is known by
the term 'Din ul-Fitra' or 'the natural religion'. Islam is the
religion designed by the Creator of mankind for the benefit of
mankind and therefore fits human nature perfectly. Being Muslim
is living in harmony with your human nature.
Natural desires are considered as coming
from Allah and put into people for good reason. They don't need
to be repressed but rather simply channelled into the right ways
of being fulfilled. So, for example, in Islam getting married is
considered 'half of the religion' and each act of making love
between a husband and his wife is an act of worship.
When a person is born he/she is purely
natural, free of sin and Muslim. Humans, we are told in the
Qur'an, are made in the best of forms and start life with a huge
plus. It is only in later life that their environments may lead
them to take beliefs or adopt practices that contradict Islam.
Because of our nature, deep down we all
need to find our purpose in life; we all know we have moral
responsibilities and we all know that, if anything ought to be,
then Allah must exist.
This being part of human nature, no one can
claim that their disbelief was the result of ignorance alone.
Disbelief is always, at some level, a conscious and sinful act.
On the day of judgement the conscience of
the disbeliever will be his or her own damning evidence.
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There is no
god except Allah and Muhammad is a messenger of Allah
This is the statement that
qualifies someone as a Muslim. If you are convinced of this at
some point then you are a Muslim.
Formally someone becomes a
Muslim by saying - in front of witnesses - "I witness that
there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is a messenger of
Allah."
To understand this statement
fully some explanation is needed of the word 'god'. A god is
understood to mean anything or anyone who you use to set your
values in life; to determine how you judge a matter as good or
bad and how therefore you live your life. A god is also someone
or something that people try to keep happy so that it may be able
to change their lives and make those people happy. Since every
human being by nature forms value judgements everyone has at
least one god.
What is your god? Is it your
desires? - Is it your work? - Is it fashion? - Is it your family?
- Is it your nation? - Is it your church?
Whatever your gods may be,
becoming a Muslim frees you from the service of them and brings
you to the service of Allah and only Allah.
Believing that Muhammad is the
messenger of Allah flows from believing in the Qur'an.
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