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Welcome to Exploring
Islam
Peace and
Blessings of God be upon you! You are now standing at the
Gateway of God's Greatest Gift to Man: Islam, which is
the Complete Way of Life as taught to us by all
the Prophets of God.
We request you
to enter this portal, with a free mind and a free heart, looking
for God's Truth. Hopefully, this site will help you to get a
true understanding of Islam, which is the Life of about a
billion and half people inhabiting our planet.
You get
authentic information about Islam here, so that you have the
chance of knowing what Islam really is. Please have the patience
to carefully read the following pages and compare the
information you get here with whatever you had thought about
Islam previously. If required, you can supplement your knowledge
with further reading of the Original Sources of Islam and other
books by scholars who have studied Islam in depth and live in
Islam. If you as an outsider, observe those people who call
themselves Muslims, you may not see much of Islam in them; or
their life may misrepresent Islam, as in the case of the
followers of any religion, for that matter. If you want to study
what Christianity is, you go to the great scholars of
Christianity as well as to the Bible, the Holy Book of
Christianity. So also in the case of Islam, where you need to
get information about it from the most authentic sources. Then
only can you judge Islam as well as Muslims as to how they
really compare with the followers of other religions, or how
they fare in their observance of this Great Religion.
Introduction:
Islam is the
religion decreed for mankind by God*, Who revealed it to His
prophets; and they in turn, taught it to the people around them.
The word, Islam means 'Peace' and also 'Submission to the Will
of God'. From the beginning of mankind on the face of the earth,
revelations came to God’s chosen prophets; and the first prophet
was the first man, Adam and the last Prophet was Prophet
Muhammad, (peace be upon him), through whom the Religion of God
was perfected. And in between, thousands of prophets came to the
peoples who inhabited different lands in different periods of
history. The Holy Qur’an, the Scripture of Muslims, mentions by
name only twenty five of these prophets, of whom the most
important are Abraham (Ibraheem [pbuh]), Moses (Moosa [pbuh]),
Noah (Nooh [pbuh]), Jesus (Eesa [pbuh]) and Muhammad [pbuh].
All these
prophets of God taught basically the same message of Islam to
their people.
The word
“Islam” today is mostly used to refer to the final form of the
Religion of God taught by the last prophet, Muhammad (pbuh). It
is often counted as the latest of the three monotheistic
religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this sense, Islam
emerged in the Arabian peninsula, which we know today as Saudi
Arabia, in 612 C.E. through Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Judaism is
believed to be based on the teachings and the laws of Prophet
Moses, while Christianity is said to take its social and moral
codes from the teachings of Prophet Jesus. All three religions
are believed to have their roots in the teachings of the
patriarch Abraham, who also was a great Prophet of God.
The Holy Qur'an
states in Chapter 2 (verses, 124-130), that God appointed
Abraham an Imam or leader to the people. But when he prayed to
God to bless his children too, God answered that He would bless
only the good among them and not the evil doers. And God took a
covenant from Abraham and his son Ishmael (Isma’eel [pbuh]) to
sanctify the House of God (that is Ka'aba) at Makkah, for those
who come to pray there and compass it around. And Abraham prayed
again to make his children Muslims or people obedient to God;
and also to send among them a Messenger who would rehearse God's
signs to them and instruct them in scripture and wisdom and
purify them.
In answer to
this prayer of Abraham, God sent a Messenger to the Land of
Ka'ba from among Abraham's own children, and he was the Last
Prophet of God, Muhammad (Peace be on him).
And it was
through Muhammad (peace be upon him), that the Guidance of God
for mankind was completed and perfected. Muhammad (peace be on
him) taught the people, the Book of God called the Qur'an, and
instructed them as to how they should lead a life in Submission
to God. The details of the Guidance of God exemplified in the
life of the Prophet, are called the Sunnah or the Example of the
Prophet. The Qur'an and the Sunnah together form the foundation
of Islam; and it is on this foundation that the Great House of
Islam stands. |