Mahmood
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 9, 2008
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The Meaning of Islam
ISLAM — What does it Mean?
Every religion of the world has been named either after its founder or after the community or nation inwhich it was born. For instance, Christianity takes its name from its prophet Jesus Christ; Buddhism from its founder. Gautama Buddha; Zoroastrianism from its founder Zoroaster; and ▶Judaism thereligion of the Jews from the name of the tribe Judah (of the country of Judea) where it originated.
Thesame is true of all other religions except ▶Islam, which enjoys the unique distinction of having no suchassociation with any particular person or people or country. Nor is it the product of any human mind.
It is a universal religion and its objective is to create and cultivate in man the quality and attitude ofIslam.
Islam, in fact, is an attributive title. Anyone who possesses this attribute, whatever race, community,country or group he belongs to, is a Muslim.
According to the Qur'an▶ (the Holy Book of the Muslims),
~among every people and in all ages there have been good and righteous people who possessed thisattribute — and all of them were and are Muslims.
■ Everyone can see that we live in an orderly universe, where everything is assigned a place in a grandscheme.
The moon, the stars and all the heavenly bodies are knit together in a magnificent system.
They follow unalterable laws and make not even the slightest deviation from their ordained courses.
Similarly, everything in the world, from the minute whirling electron to the mighty nebulae, invariablyfollows its own laws. Matter, energy and life — all obey their laws and grow and change and live and diein accordance with those laws.
Even in the human world the laws of nature are paramount. Man's birth,growth and life are all regulated by a set of biological laws.
He derives sustenance from nature inaccordance with an unalterable law. All the organs of his body from the smallest tissues to the heart and the brain, are governed by the laws prescribed for them.
In short, ours is a law-governed universeand everything in it is following the course that has been ordained for it.
This powerful, all-pervasive law, which governs all that comprises the universe, from the tiniest specksof dust to the magnificent galaxies of the heavens, is the law of God, the Creator and Ruler of theuniverse.
As the whole of creation obeys the law of God, the whole universe, therefore, literally follows the religion of Islam — for Islam signifies nothing but obedience and submission to Allah, the Lord of
the Universe.
The sun, the moon, the earth and all other heavenly bodies are thus 'Muslim'. So are theair, water, heat, stones, trees and animals.
Everything in the universe is 'Muslim' for it obeys God bysubmission to His laws. ▶Even a man who refuses to believe in God, or offers his worship to someone
other than Allah, has necessarily to be a 'Muslim' as far as his existence is concerned.
For his entire life, from the embryonic stage to the body's dissolution into dust after death, everytissue of his muscles and every limb of his body follow the course prescribed by God's law.
→His very tongue, which, on account of his ignorance advocates the denial of God or professes multiple deities, is
in its very nature 'Muslim'.
His head which he want only bows to others besides Allah is born 'Muslim'.
His heart, which, through his lack of true knowledge, cherishes love and reverence for others, is'Muslim' by intuition.
These are all obedient to the Divine Law, and their functions and movements aregoverned by the injunctions of that law alone.
◆Let us now examine the situation from a different angle. Man is so constituted that there are twodistinct spheres of his activity.
•One is the sphere in which he finds himself totally regulated by theDivine Law. Like other creatures, he is completely caught in the grip of the physical laws of nature and is bound to follow them. But there is another sphere of his activity. He has been endowed with reason and intellect. He has the power to think and form judgments, to choose and reject, to approve and
spurn. He is free to adopt whatever course of life he chooses. He can embrace any faith, and live by any
ideology he likes. He may prepare his own code of conduct or accept one formulated by others.
Unlikeother creatures, he has been given freedom of thought, choice and action. In short, man has beenbestowed with free will.
Both these aspects co-exist side by side in man's life.
In the first he, like all other creatures, is a born Muslim, invariably obeying the injunctions of God, andis bound to remain one.
As far as the ◆second aspect is concerned, he is free to become or not to becomea Muslim.
....It is the way a person exercises this freedom, which divides mankind into two groups:-believers and non-believers.
An individual, who chooses to acknowledge his Creator, accepts Him as hisreal Master, honestly and scrupulously submits to His laws and injunctions and follows the code. He hasachieved completeness in his Islam by consciously deciding to obey God in the domain in which he wasendowed with freedom of choice. He is a perfect Muslim: his submission of his entire self to the will ofAllah is Islam and nothing but Islam.
▶He has now consciously submitted to Him Whom he had already been unconsciously obeying.
He has now willingly offered obedience to the Master Whom he already owed obedience to involuntarily.
His knowledge is now real for he has acknowledged the Being Who endowed him with the power to learnand to know.
Now his reason and judgement are set on an even keel — for he has rightly decided toobey the Being Who bestowed upon him the faculty of thinking and judging. His tongue is also truthfulfor it expresses its belief in the Lord who gave it the faculty of speech.
Now the whole of his existence is
an embodiment of truth for, in all spheres of life, he voluntarily as well as involuntarily obeys the lawsof One God — the Lord of the Universe.
★Now he is at peace with the whole universe for he worships Him Whom the whole universe worships. Such a man is God's vice-regent on earth.
The whole world is for him ......and he is for God.
ISLAM — What does it Mean?
Every religion of the world has been named either after its founder or after the community or nation inwhich it was born. For instance, Christianity takes its name from its prophet Jesus Christ; Buddhism from its founder. Gautama Buddha; Zoroastrianism from its founder Zoroaster; and ▶Judaism thereligion of the Jews from the name of the tribe Judah (of the country of Judea) where it originated.
Thesame is true of all other religions except ▶Islam, which enjoys the unique distinction of having no suchassociation with any particular person or people or country. Nor is it the product of any human mind.
It is a universal religion and its objective is to create and cultivate in man the quality and attitude ofIslam.
Islam, in fact, is an attributive title. Anyone who possesses this attribute, whatever race, community,country or group he belongs to, is a Muslim.
According to the Qur'an▶ (the Holy Book of the Muslims),
~among every people and in all ages there have been good and righteous people who possessed thisattribute — and all of them were and are Muslims.
■ Everyone can see that we live in an orderly universe, where everything is assigned a place in a grandscheme.
The moon, the stars and all the heavenly bodies are knit together in a magnificent system.
They follow unalterable laws and make not even the slightest deviation from their ordained courses.
Similarly, everything in the world, from the minute whirling electron to the mighty nebulae, invariablyfollows its own laws. Matter, energy and life — all obey their laws and grow and change and live and diein accordance with those laws.
Even in the human world the laws of nature are paramount. Man's birth,growth and life are all regulated by a set of biological laws.
He derives sustenance from nature inaccordance with an unalterable law. All the organs of his body from the smallest tissues to the heart and the brain, are governed by the laws prescribed for them.
In short, ours is a law-governed universeand everything in it is following the course that has been ordained for it.
This powerful, all-pervasive law, which governs all that comprises the universe, from the tiniest specksof dust to the magnificent galaxies of the heavens, is the law of God, the Creator and Ruler of theuniverse.
As the whole of creation obeys the law of God, the whole universe, therefore, literally follows the religion of Islam — for Islam signifies nothing but obedience and submission to Allah, the Lord of
the Universe.
The sun, the moon, the earth and all other heavenly bodies are thus 'Muslim'. So are theair, water, heat, stones, trees and animals.
Everything in the universe is 'Muslim' for it obeys God bysubmission to His laws. ▶Even a man who refuses to believe in God, or offers his worship to someone
other than Allah, has necessarily to be a 'Muslim' as far as his existence is concerned.
For his entire life, from the embryonic stage to the body's dissolution into dust after death, everytissue of his muscles and every limb of his body follow the course prescribed by God's law.
→His very tongue, which, on account of his ignorance advocates the denial of God or professes multiple deities, is
in its very nature 'Muslim'.
His head which he want only bows to others besides Allah is born 'Muslim'.
His heart, which, through his lack of true knowledge, cherishes love and reverence for others, is'Muslim' by intuition.
These are all obedient to the Divine Law, and their functions and movements aregoverned by the injunctions of that law alone.
◆Let us now examine the situation from a different angle. Man is so constituted that there are twodistinct spheres of his activity.
•One is the sphere in which he finds himself totally regulated by theDivine Law. Like other creatures, he is completely caught in the grip of the physical laws of nature and is bound to follow them. But there is another sphere of his activity. He has been endowed with reason and intellect. He has the power to think and form judgments, to choose and reject, to approve and
spurn. He is free to adopt whatever course of life he chooses. He can embrace any faith, and live by any
ideology he likes. He may prepare his own code of conduct or accept one formulated by others.
Unlikeother creatures, he has been given freedom of thought, choice and action. In short, man has beenbestowed with free will.
Both these aspects co-exist side by side in man's life.
In the first he, like all other creatures, is a born Muslim, invariably obeying the injunctions of God, andis bound to remain one.
As far as the ◆second aspect is concerned, he is free to become or not to becomea Muslim.
....It is the way a person exercises this freedom, which divides mankind into two groups:-believers and non-believers.
An individual, who chooses to acknowledge his Creator, accepts Him as hisreal Master, honestly and scrupulously submits to His laws and injunctions and follows the code. He hasachieved completeness in his Islam by consciously deciding to obey God in the domain in which he wasendowed with freedom of choice. He is a perfect Muslim: his submission of his entire self to the will ofAllah is Islam and nothing but Islam.
▶He has now consciously submitted to Him Whom he had already been unconsciously obeying.
He has now willingly offered obedience to the Master Whom he already owed obedience to involuntarily.
His knowledge is now real for he has acknowledged the Being Who endowed him with the power to learnand to know.
Now his reason and judgement are set on an even keel — for he has rightly decided toobey the Being Who bestowed upon him the faculty of thinking and judging. His tongue is also truthfulfor it expresses its belief in the Lord who gave it the faculty of speech.
Now the whole of his existence is
an embodiment of truth for, in all spheres of life, he voluntarily as well as involuntarily obeys the lawsof One God — the Lord of the Universe.
★Now he is at peace with the whole universe for he worships Him Whom the whole universe worships. Such a man is God's vice-regent on earth.
The whole world is for him ......and he is for God.
