By Qullab Jim
Islam is a complete way of life. It is the guidance provided by Allah, the Creator of the universe for all man kind. It covers all the things people do in their lifetime,Islam tells us the purpose of our creation, our final destiny and our place among other creatures.It shows us the best way to conduct our private, social, political, economic, moral and spiritual affairs of life. Islam is an arabic word which means submission and obedience.
Submission is acceptance of Allah’s commands. Allah, another arabic, is a proper name of God. Muslims should the word Allah rather than the word God. Obedience means putting Allah’s commands into practice. submission and obedience to Allah bring peace. .That is why Islam also means peace. A person who accepts the islamic way and acts upon it is a Muslim. Islam is the way of peace and harmony. If we look around, we see that everything including the sun, the moon and the stars, the high hills and the mighty oceans are obeying a Law -the law of Allah. We find no disorder or chaos in them. A superb harmony and and perfect order is evident in the system of nature.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and there has been no change to this rule. The moon and the stars shine at night. Day passes and night comes, so the process goes on. Flowers blossom and trees have green leaves in the spring. Everything has the set and nothing can violet it. have we ever noticed any violation of the law by these objects of nature? No, of course not. Why,? simply because they are made to obey Allah. They have no choice but to obey.
This is why we find eternal peace in the system of nature. But in case of human beings, it is different. Allah has given us the knowledge and will to choose right and wrong. not only this, He has also sent messengers and books for our guidance. Yet He does not force us to obey Him. Why is this so? It is because He want to test us. After this test there will be a day of reward and punishment.
This is the day of Judgement. Those of us who have passed the test will be rewarded with permanent happiness and peace in paradise and those who have failed will suffer a terrible punishment in hell . We can get this reward and escape punishment by obeying and worshiping Allah. We already know that there is peace and harmony among other objects of nature, because those things never disobey Allah.
So if we follow the guidance given to us through prophets and messengers, we are sure to have peace in the world we live in. All human beings by their very nature, like good things and dislike bad ones. For instance everyone of us approves and likes truthfulness and hates falsehood. Even a liar does does not like to be called a liar. Why? because telling lies is a bad thing.
In the same way, helping others, showing kindness, politeness, respect for parents and teachers, honesty and all other forms of good conduct are always liked liked and appreciated. but rudeness, cruelty, falsehood, hurting someone, disobedience to parents and teachers, using bad names and other bad conduct are despised and disliked by everyone. so we can say that human nature likes the right and dislikes the wrong. Right is Ma’ruf and wrong is munkar in the language of the Qur’an.
Human nature also loves peace and hates disorder. Peace is the result of obedience to Allah’s laws and disorder is the outcome of disobedience. Islam establishes this this peace which is part of man’s nature and hence, Islam is called the religion of nature which is in arabic (dinul fitrah). In order to achieve peace in society, Islam urges Muslims to to work together towards what is right and away from what is evil.
This is united effort to root out evil and establish the truth is called Jihad which means to try one’s utmost to see truth prevail and falsehood vanish from the society.
PURPOSE OF HUMAN CREATION
Allah, the Almighty created human beings to do His bidding and to obey his commands. Allah says in the Qur’an: “I have not created Jinn and mankind for any other purpose except to worship me” (51:56). Worship in this verse means total obedience to Allah’s commands. The Quranic word for worship is Ibadah. Everything we do comes under ibadah, if we do them for Allah’s sake. Our purpose in life is to please Allah through worship. worship is the reach success and happiness in the life after death.
MUHAMMADANISM IS A MISNOMER
Islam is sometimes incorrectly called muhammadanism and the Muslims Muhammadans. Other religions have been named after their founder or after the community in which the religion prospered. For example, Christianity has been named after christ, Buddhism after Buddah and Judaism after the tribe of Judas. But Islam has not been named after Muhammad (pbuh). It is the name of Allah’s guidance for mankind revealed through all the prophets, the last of whom was Muhammad (pbuh). so it is wrong to call Islam Muhammadanism and Muslims Muhammadans.
Islam and Muslim are the words of the Qur’an. the Qur’an says: “surely, the way of life acceptable to Allah is Islam” (3:19). Allah also says: “:He named you Muslims before and in this…(22:78). The message of all the Prophets and messengers from Adam (pbuh) down to Muhammad (pbuh) is the same. They asked people to obey Allah and none another. This completion is mentioned in the Qur’an: “This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed my favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your way of life” (5:3). This is what I wanted to share with you Brothers and Sisters in Islam! Till next time May Allah keep you safe !!!!!!!!
From your article:
1. What's wrong for a Muslim whose language is English using the name God intentionally meaning Allah in Arabic language?
2. How can you translate the Arabic word "Ummat Muhammad (PBUH)" in English language if you condemn Muhammadanism, and this word "nahanu atibaau Muhammad" and the prophet himself used to say "Ummati Ummati" and in Arabic books they use "Ummati Muhammadiyah".
Thank you brother Maswan for your good questions.I will start with your first question, brother there is no problem for a non Arabic speaker to mention God intentionally meaning Allah, your intention will remove all the dubious around the usage of both words Allah/God.
To your second question, the word ummah simply means: Nation,People. There is misinterpretation among others when it come to the usage of the words Islam,Muhammedanism and Muhammedans, others use Muhammednism to mean worshiping Muhammed(PBUH) which is not correct, Muslims do not worship Muhammad (PBUH) they worship God (Allah).
When the Prophet (PBUH) used to say 'Ummati' meant my nation and not my servants.So we need to differenciate between being the follower and worshiper of somebody! The word Islam is an Arabic word simply means 'submission' and derives from a word meanning 'peace' in a religious context it means complete submission to the will of God (Allah). Muhammednism is thus a misnomer becouse it suggests that Muslims worship Muhammad (PBUH) rather than God. Allah is also an Arabic name for God which is used by Arab and non Arab Muslims and the Christians alike. Allah (God) is all knowing.
Thank you Brother for your question! Nothing wrong for a Muslim whose language is English using the name God intentionally meaning the word Allah in arabic but it is good for Muslims to use the name Allah this is so for the following reasons:
The oneness of Allah (Tauhid) is the main part of faith in Islam and is beautifully expressed in suratul Ikhlas of the Qur'an as follows : "Say, He is Allah the one,. Allah, the Eternal absolute. None is born of Him, nor is He born. And there is none like Him. (Qur'an 112).
This is the most important Islamic belief. It implies that everything on this earth is from the one and only Creator, Allah who is also the sustainer of the universe and the sore source of its guidance.
So the duty of a Muslim is to declare his faith is that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is Allah's messenger! Am not saying that God is not the name of the Creator only that in other religions and beliefs this name contains alot of confunsions. They use the name God meaning the father, God meaning the son, God meaning the holy spirit and this is called Trinity in their beliefs which is contrary to the Qur'anic chapter above. So to avoid this it is good for Muslims to use the name Allah instead of God to show a clear difference between Islam and other religions and beliefs.
Coming to your second question! Islam is the universal religion to all mankind and is the message of all the Prophets from Adam peace upon him down to Muhammad (pbuh) who is the seal of the prophets sent to mankind. The prophets who were sent by Allah to guide people of different generations brought the same message of islam. So Our prophet Muhammad peace be upon Him did not come with a different message but to deliver and complete the message and mission started by His fellow prophets before Him.
So the religion of Islam was not named after the name of its prophet whose name is Muhammad like other religions. Calling Islam Muhammadanism would prove that Muhammad (pbuh) brought a new religion which is wrong. The word ummah is an arabic word which means people, nation, followers. So the word ummat Muhammad means followers of Muhammad and indeed we are the followers of Muhammad (pbuh) because we are the followers of His teachings.
The prophet who was sent by Allah to guide us to the straight path and and taught us to submit ourselves to the will of Allah and to obey His comandments. And the word nahnu atbau Muhammad means we are the followers of Muhammad and its true that the Prophet (pbuh) used to say ummat ummat which means my people! my people meaning my followers and we see in books written ummat muhammadia meaning followers of the teachings of Prophet Muhammad or people who follow the teachings of Prophets Muhammad (pbuh) .
But this does not mean that Islam is Muhammadanism and Muslims Muhammadans because Muhammad (pbuh) did not come with a new religion but to complete and finalise the message of Allah that was there in the generations of other prophets before Him from our Father Adam down to our last Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon Him!
Thanks for your questions!!!!
The word "ALLAH"
A Comment by : Abu Iman Robert Squires
Assalamu Alaikum,
I would like to strongly concur with your observations about the use of the word "Allah" in English and any other language. Both from my conversion experience in America and my experience doing da'wah here in Kuwait, it is definitely 100% – without a shadow of a doubt – better to use the word "God" when making da'wah to English speaking people.
This alone is enough to open many hearts and minds since many people think that Muslims worship a different God. I've come across some Arab brothers who insist in using only the word "Allah". They somehow think that it implies Tawhid while the word "God" implies the Trinity, etc., etc.
You know, the problem with such people is not their knowledge of Arabic, but their ignorance of English. The mushriks (disbelievers) at the time of the Prophet (saws) used the word Allah, and so do Arabic-speaking Christians. The word itself in no way implies tawhid. The reason it implies tawhid to Muslims is that they're Muslims. Others use this word in ways that are nothing but shirk.
The word God implies tawhid to me because I have the Islamic concept of Him. It's all in the concept, but has nothing to do with the word itself. Also, there are statements in some da'wah pamphlets that say "all prophets since Adam used the word Allah" and that "the word Allah is exactly the same as the Aramaic word Jesus used for God".
The first statement is baseless and can be proved to be logically incorrect from the Quran. The second statement is incorrect, but the words are only similar, but NOT exactly alike. This whole trend of using "Allah" in English seems to come about rather recently.
Most of the translations and writings done back in the 1940's and 1950's used the word "God", which is a perfectly good translation of the word Allah in Arabic. M.M. Pickthall being the main exception, since he seemed to have used "Allah" in all of the translations that I've seen.
The change came, I believe, as a result of Nasserite Arab Nationalism. Many Arabs I know over here still don't know the difference between Islam and Arab Nationalism! They seem more interesting in defending their pride heritage than really spreading the message. But this is in no way limited to Arabs, I've dealt with Pakistanis, Malaysians, Turks and Afghanis that have the same hang-up.
The mentality of some of these brothers almost approaches that of the Bani Isra'il – the "our God vs. your God" mentality! By the way, I've never met an English-speaking convert to Islam (or Spanish-speaking, or French-speaking) who disagreed with me on this point. Most them went through a stage wondering why (some) Muslims insist on using Allah.
I should also add that I know a lot of Muslims that use "God" when speaking English. I find this rather common among most Egyptians that I know. In Morocco, where I visit quite frequently, the also use Dieu when they parlez francais.
Insh'allah, more Muslims will realize this and our da'wah will become more effective. This is a BIG barrier, but many Muslims don't realize it. Many come up with baseless reasons to justify it (for whatever reason). What do we converts know anyway!!! Ha! Another point before I go…some people like to try to draw exact parallels between English and Arabic words which just don't fit.
The word "ilah" in Arabic can be used for a false god or for Allah. (Like when God says (paraphrased) the "ilah" of Ibrahim", and numerous other example.) Anyone who can read the Quran should know this. However, unlike the word "god" in English, which ALWAYS implies a false god. Non-native English speakers sometimes mistakenly believe that "god" and "God" are the same English word, but they are not. They carry completely different meanings. If they doubt this, then they simply don't know how to speak the English language. And to say that the word "Allah" can only be used for the Supreme Almighty Creator is refuted by the Quran itself.
It clearly says (and I paraphrase here rather liberally) that Christians say that "Allah is Jesus". There you have it, applying "Allah" to something that isn't "Allah" right there in the Quran. You see, what people really mean to say is that you SHOULDN'T use "Allah" for anything except the Almighty Creator, but you still CAN. The same thing goes for the word God.
People can use it in the wrong way, but that doesn't make it right. The truth is that this word too should only be used for the Almighty Creator. Remember…God has sent prophets to everyone in their OWN LANGUAGE, i.e. a language that they can understand. How many more people around the world wouldn't be dying on SHIRK if many Muslims woke up and started making da'wah in a way people can understand? Well, I've spoken my peace.
Abu Iman Robert Squires