THE MISUNDERSTOOD FAITH

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

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oday the religion of Islam is followed by an estimated 150 crore of the world’s population. Nevertheless, with every passing day the curiosity to know about Islam is on the rise. These facts notwithstanding, a sizeable majority still go by misunderstood versions of Islam. One such misunderstanding is that Islam is a Religion established by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). However, the fact of the matter, as revealed by the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s own teachings, is that Islam was established right from the time of the first man on earth.

A close examination of the meaning of the Arabic world, Islam, easily reveals this fact. In English, it implies the state of peace that comes through obedience or submission to God. Indeed, to accept that there is a Creator and Sustainer for this universe and to live in obedience to Him is the main requirement of Islam and hence its name. Before Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) many messengers of God had lived in the world. All of them, without any exception, preached and practiced the same principle i.e., the principle of Islam.

The Holy Qur’an says:

‘O Mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, who created you from a single person and from him He created his wife, and from them both He created many men and women. And fear Allah through whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (i.e. kinship). Surely Allah* is ever a Watcher over you.”(The Qur’an 4:1)
(* Allah - means 'the only God who is worthy of worship'. The uniqueness of this word compared to the other words denoting God is that it does not have plural or gender)  

Thus, the way of life followed by the first man was Islam. Starting from him and right up to the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)  all of them taught their people to worship Almighty Allah alone. That is, to worship only the Creator and not His creations. All of them warned their people that worshiping anything other than Almighty God is a grave sin, as this corrupts the concept of Almighty God in human minds and thus leads to many evils in the society like growth of sins, exploitation in the name of God, superstitions, division of humanity into castes and sects etc. The next most important fact that they preached is that the present life is a test and that it was a temporary, passing phase. What follows life in this world is the permanent, the eternal, life in the Hereafter. Whoever lived a life of obedience to God here will enter paradise in the Hereafter. On the other hand, those who have disobeyed Him can only claim hell for their own in the next life.

God’s messengers were sent to people of all nations and languages. All of them preached the same principle in their respective languages. Yet, after the death of those messengers, out of their love towards them, and in order to cherish their memory, people painted and sculpted figures to represent these messengers of the Divine. Gradually this led to people worshipping them, while forgetting that such an act went directly against the very message of these messengers. Even the messengers sent to correct such people were also made objects of worship and veneration by the later generations. The last messenger in this chain of messengers was Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not put forth any new ideas or principles. “Worship only the Creator and Sustainer of this world. Do not associate partners with Him. Abstain from sins like intoxication, usury, adultery, cheating, murder, looting, etc., and help others. Do not break blood relations. Enjoin good. Forbid evil. Do not involve in evil deeds for trivial gains of this temporary world” – these were some of his teachings.  There is nothing new in these teachings. He reminded people of the same message as was preached by his predecessors. He was sent to renew the same Islam and not to establish any new religion. Granted these similarities, significant differences in the outcome of Muhammad’s and his forerunners’ missions are quite discernible. These may be enumerated as follows:

a)   The prophets or messengers of God who were sent earlier to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were worshipped as Gods. But Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was never considered as God by his followers. He himself diligently saw to it that all doors leading to such an act of blasphemy were firmly shut. That is why photographs, paintings, or sculptures depicting his person are non-existent today.

b)  The earlier prophets were sent to specific lands at specific times when communicational developments as seen today had not become a reality.  But Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent as a messenger to the whole world as he is the last and final messenger for mankind even unto the advent of the Last Day.

c)   The holy books revealed through the earlier prophets were twisted or distorted by the later generations. As their validity ceased by those times, today we cannot find their original text in their revealed languages. Those languages are also extinct and not spoken by the people any more. But the Holy Qur’an being the last and final message from the Creator as revealed through Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is available and preserved intact in its original form without the slightest change.  Its language, Arabic, is one of the few international languages today, and is spoken in several countries. Allah says; in the Qur’an:

      ‘Verily We have sent down this Qur’an and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).’ (The Qur’an 15:9)

      This promise is clearly witnessed by the world today.  It is the book that is most recited in its original text. Million of Muslims living around the globe since the pest fourteen centuries down to the present have memorized the whole of the Qur’an and continue to recite its verses during their daily prayers.

e)   The life example of previous prophets are not available in detail today.  As Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent as the last and final messenger he will be the role model for all those who wish to follow Islam and achieve salvation right from the time of his appointment as a prophet till the Last Day.  Hence, his life example – both at the personal and public level – is available in detail today.  They are preserved in the compilation known as the Hadith, or the traditions of the Prophet.

By virtue of these differences it is clear that today whoever wants to follow Islam, i.e., the way shown by the Creator, has the follow the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). God Almighty also makes it clear to mankind in His final revelation that Islam is the only way for salvation.

“Truly, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.” (The Qur’an 3:19)

The fundamental principle that Islam establishes is that it is only God – and none else – who should be worshipped. Ignoring Islam, even if one were to think on purely rational lines, one realizes that this is the most reasonable and beneficial principle for mankind.

Today, all around the world people stand divided in the name of languages, regions, creed, color etc. Each of them tends to believe that they have their own, separate, rightful gods. This belief only serves to establish their segregation and division permanently. Instead, if people were to realize that the Creator and Sustainer for the whole universe is one, the doors open up for a very real acknowledgement of the unity of mankind. Indeed, this unity is quite evident among the people who have accepted the faith of Islam.  Muslims of India, for example, are the people, who at some point or the other in the past, belongs to different creeds and castes. However, today their cohesion as a single community is so complete that none of them now knows the caste their respective ancestors belonged to. Similarly, elsewhere in the world, Islam abolished – at a very practical level – the differentiation of people on the basis of color. This was actively accomplished by lining up the black and the white in the same row, shoulder to shoulder in daily prayer. These reforms in human culture which, even to this day, remain as a distant dream for social movements and activists, have been practically achieved in the house of Islam, thanks to this principle of oneness of God. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) proclaimed:

“There is no superiority for an Arab over the non-Arab, nor for the white man over the black one except in Taqwa (i.e., God-consciousness).’

Besides stressing on the oneness of God, Islam distinguishes the uniqueness of His features. The Holy Qur’an says:

‘Say (O Prophet): Allah is one and the only.  He is absolute.  He neither begets nor was He begotten.  There is none comparable to Him.’ (The Qur’an 112:1-4)

By believing that God is absolute and does not need anything, the exploitation of people in the name of religion is eliminated. By the belief that there is no need for an intercessor to pray to God on one’s behalf, humanity can be saved from the domination of, and exploitation by, any so-called priestly class. By the belief that God does not have any son, daughter, father, mother or wife and that He is not comparable to anyone, Islam closes all the doors of exploitation by people claiming to be God or God’s relatives or heirs.  Further, Islam protects human dignity and self-respect by stopping man from bowing down to any other human being or lesser objects through reinforcing the belief that God is like none of His creations. By clear directives and guidance from the Creator, Islam offers practicable solutions to the problems of the world and, in this regard, stands apart from man-made ideologies. Instead of just doing lip-service to the fight against evils like intoxicants, adultery, robbery etc., it gives practical solutions to eradicate them right from the grass roots level.

While preaching love and compassion for all living things, it equally asks its followers to abstain from being passive spectators of evil and/or the growth of evil in their midst. Thus, Islam offers ideal solutions for the socio-economic and other problems faced by man in all spheres of life.

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