Understand what is Islam and Muslim
Islam is an Arabic word meaning "submission" which means complete surrender, surrender, or obedience, and in religious terms "submission to the will of the Creator".
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The root word of the Arabic word "Islam" is "sal'm", meaning "Islam" comes from the Arabic word "sal'm" and one of the meanings of this word is peace.
Combining these two meanings, the word "Islam" in a religious context would mean "submission to the will of the Creator and attaining peace".
Peace, of course, is achieved by surrendering completely to your Creator, by surrendering to Him completely, or by obeying Him completely.
Man can find true peace only when he surrenders himself to his Creator and lives according to his command. And he will get this peace and this peace in the society.
Islam is obedience and obedience to our Creator. And that is why Islam is called Islam. Of course, that system of life, that religion, which by imitating in our life, man achieves peace in his life and society.
In Arabic, this creator is called Allah. This creator was called God, Ishwar, Dev, etc. in another language.
Who is Muslim?
Once you understand the meaning of the word Islam, it is easy to understand the meaning of the word Muslim. He is a Muslim who imitates Islam. That is, a Muslim who spends his life surrendering to his Creator or surrendering to Him or obeying Him completely, and through him attains peace in his life and society.
The Creator of mankind is not different, but the Creator of the whole human race is one. There is only one God, Allah, Lord, God of the entire human race. He is the one who made all or created all.
Islam is to live according to His will by surrendering to the Creator, or by surrendering to Him or obeying Him. The person following is a Muslim.
Who is not Muslim?
It doesn't matter who a person is born in, what family, or what caste he/she is born in. If he is surrendering to his Creator, surrendering to Him, living his life in obedience to Him, then he is a Muslim and his religion is Islam.
If a person is born in the house of a Muslim, his name will be like that of a Muslim, but he will not surrender to his Creator, if he does not obey, he is not a Muslim.
On the contrary, if a person is not born in a Muslim household, his name is not the same as that of a Muslim, but if that person surrenders to his Creator, surrenders to Him, and lives according to His commandments, then that person is a Muslim and his religion is Islam.
Fundamental or Basic beliefs in Islam
Belief in one God, Belief in the angels, Belief in the prophets, Belief in the divinely revealed books, Belief in the Day of Judgment, and Belief in the divine decree, these are the basic belief of Islam.
So these are the basic pillars of Islam the basic tenets of Islam. We believe in the absolute oneness of God. We believe in angels, Gabriel and Michael, and are different. We believe in all the prophets.
What are the fundamental beliefs in Islam? The most important belief in Islam is we say that God is only one. So if I am going to ask you this question what is the name of God in Arabic? The answer is Allah.
So when we say the word Allah, we are not following a different God. We are following exactly the same God as in the Hebrew language. Language of Jesus what Aramaic language so according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
In that language English, we have the creator. So it doesn't matter, different languages may have different names for God. In Arabic it is Allah does not mean we are following a different god. We have the same creator.
We say he's one, we say he's the creator, we say he's merciful and forgiving. We say he does not have any partners, no father, grandfather, and children. So by god's loving and merciful and guiding nature, we say that god. He created Adam and Eve. There is a story about Adam and Eve.
Story of Adam and Eve
Adam is the very first and the last is prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and then we have chains of prophets, Jesus, Moses, and many more.
According to the Quran Adam and eve, they were given the commandment that, enjoy all the things in paradise but stay away from the specific tree.
There is a slight difference between the biblical story and the Islamic Quranic story. According to the Quran both Adam and eve, they equally made the very first mistake. When we speak about equality, we say equality in Islam starts from the day first. As per Islam the sin of Adam and Eve does not pass down to all of humanity.
We say that as they committed a mistake they pray to god, O God forgive us we committed this mistake and God gave them special inspiration on how to pray.
So they sincerely repented to god, and God says in the Quran that God forgave them. So according to Islam, a child is not born in original sin. They're born in original goodness, with a good heart, with a good mind, clean well.
Once they reach the age of puberty, as they make mistakes that's when they are accounted for.
Messengers of God
So as humanity was increasing all over the world, it says in the Quran that “God appointed messengers and prophets to all the people, to all the nations”. So it says in the Quran chapter 16 verse 46 God appointed messengers to all the people, to all nations.
And their message was one inviting people only to submit to one god, not to worship humans and idols and animals, the creation but only submit to only one God. So submission to one god was the main message that God gave through all the prophets.
So we say that all of these prophets and the messengers we say they came with the message of inviting people to submit to and that submission to one god, we say is Islam. That means every single prophet their message was the message of Islam and the name for a follower of the faith of Islam is Muslim.
So we say that Abraham was a Muslim. So where Moses and David and Jesus and Solomon and Ishmael and Isaac and then Muhammad peace be upon all of them
What the Quran says about Abraham peace be upon him chapter 3 of the Quran verse number 67 says that “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian but he was an upright person”.
What happened was as people were moving away from monotheism and worshipping humans and uh you know idols and other creations. So god appointed messenger and messenger and prophet after prophet to bring these people back again to the fold of monotheism.
So we say that's the reason all of these messengers and prophets were appointed by God to bring them back to Islam back to Monotheism. So god can forgive them, God can have mercy on them, and God can put them into paradise.
Quran the main scripture
The Quran is the main scripture that God has sent as guidance for all of humanity. Sometimes Muslims make a mistake and they say our scripture, what we say that the Quran came for all of humanity.
So the Quran speaks about who is the creator? Who is not? Quran speaks about the purpose of life, Quran says that “the purpose of life is to worship the creator”. And worshiping the creator is not just praying five times a day.
Taking care of the parents is worshiping god, being good to the neighbors is worshipping God, and giving charity to the poor the homeless the needy is worshiping god. So anything good that we do with the right intention is worship. So these are some of the wonderful commandments.
You may say that there are ten major commandments. We say Quran has literally hundreds of commandments. And here is an overview of some of them, refrain from anger, be good to others, do forgive others for their mistakes, and be good to parents, we have not had a topic about parents, just now but let me elaborate on taking care of the mothers.
Mothers in Islam
One time a companion of Muhammad peace be upon him, a follower came to him and asked him an important question, “who should be my love, my admiration, my respect should go first of all the people in the world?” and the prophet said, “your mother”.
The person asked then the follow-up question okay who after the mother prophet said, “Your mother”. The person asks the same question the third time who is next, the prophet said, “Your mother”. The fourth time he asked the question the prophet said, your father”.
That’s mothers in Islam. So that's the respect. So they are wonderful commandments. Here we cannot go over each single one of them. If you read Quran, you'll be amazed to find out the wonderful way that God wants to bring humanity together, respect for parents, and respect for the elders, which we so much need all over the world, especially in this country.
There are 25 messengers of God are mentioned by name in Quran. Moses peace be upon him is the most mentioned prophet in the Quran, 126 times. The second most mentioned prophet in the Quran is Abraham peace be upon him, 69 times.
Jesus is mentioned 25 times. Adam is mentioned 25 times and Muhammad peace be upon him four times by the name Muhammad and one time by the name Ahmed.
If the Quran were coming from the mind of Muhammad peace be upon him why he would elevate some other person who he never met. He would have had himself or his parents or his the Muslims around the time mention more but no this is coming from the creator.
Belief in the divine books
The fourth important belief is we believe in all the divine books that God has sent for humanity's guidance. So we believe in the scrolls the book given to Abraham peace be upon him and to Moses peace be upon him and to David and to Jesus peace be upon him.
But then we say that those books and they came for those people and that time people started to change the books. So then God sent the last and the final book which is the Quran as guidance for all of humanity.
Some amazing thing about the Quran is it says in Quran chapter 15 verse 9, our creator is saying in Quran that, "this book is coming from god and he's going to preserve it, protect it”. So you'll be amazed to find out that there are no less than 15 million people in the world who memorize the whole Quran.
The second aspect of the Quran is that Quran has no less than 500 plus scientific facts mentioned in there. Just imagine, it came in the seventh century, in which there were no microscope, no telescope, no ultrasound, no MRI even then it has facts about science.
The Quran mentions the shape of the earth is round. Quran mentions in chapter 21 verse number 30 that initially the Quran says that all the primordial mass was in one place. Then god split it and then from there all the planets the galaxies were formed.
Quran speaks in chapter 21 verse number 33 about the rotation and the revolution of the bodies the planets and the galaxies. Quran speaks about embryology, physiology, and medicine.
And now our scientists in this day and age are so shocked to find out a book from the seventh century has all of these wonderful scientific facts without any medical knowledge of that time just to show that this is a special book.
Belief in the Day of Judgment
We believe in the Day of Judgment. We say that one day every single person is going to pass away. And then God is going to judge us based upon two important things, the belief that we had and the deeds that we have done.
So it says in the Quran chapter 2 verse number 25 that if a person has the right belief and does good deeds, god is going to guarantee that person eternal paradise.
So in Islam, we don't believe that somebody died for us or you know sacrificed for us. We believe in personal accountability.
So Quran says that all believers do not despair at the mercy of God, which means God is willing to forgive all the sins, and then God gives hope to all of us that he is willing to forgive all the sins.
The only unpardonable sin
There is only one sin god says in chapter four verse number 116 that he's not willing to forgive, that unpardonable sin in Islam is denying the oneness of god or associating partners with God.
Saying that God is god, but then there is another god, this may be human, this may idol, or any other creation has the attributes of God. So that is the only unpardonable sin in Islam.
The hellfire
Islam believes also in the hell fire but we cannot say that these people are going to paradise, these people are going to hell fire. Only god with his fairness and justice is going to decide. But he has given the criteria in the Quran as having the right belief and doing good deeds.
So the main message for us is there can be so many things that you may be witnessing on television channels, social media, etc. All of that is important. God gave us a mind. If we have to learn about certain people, certain faces, and certain cultures, media is not the best source we know.
So if you see something in the media, if you have some doubts come and ask a Muslim scholar. Read the Quran, that's when you can find out what Islam stands for.
Final message
I want to end with this wonderful passage from the Quran this is from surah 49 chapter number 49 of the Quran verse number 13.
The translation goes like this. God is saying “I have created you from a single male and single female and made you into nations and tribes (that you get to not that you may hate and despite and discriminate each other you get to know). Then god is saying that “the best amongst you is the one who is a god-fearing (well-mannered, pious person). Allah is Knowing and Aware."
In this verse the whole of mankind has been addressed to reform it of the great evil that has always been causing universal disruption in the world, that is, the prejudices due to race, color, language, country, and nationality.
So I hope and pray with god's guidance with us all together as brothers and sisters when we follow god's guidance inshallah god willing we can root out racism, anti-Semitism, islamophobia, and discrimination.
And inshallah god willing we can form and make societies with god's guidance. Which are based upon morality, which is based upon unity, which are based upon justice, and which are based upon peace for all.
May God help us all and once we do that not only we can make our country great, we can make the whole of humanity great may god bless us all.
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