INTRODUCTION
There is only one origin to Whom, equally, all must return. Life thus
becomes a journey, and its measure of happiness and success is the
closeness or distance to our Creator. Rather than a religion, Islam is a way
of life with its guidance charting the coordinates of the map by which the return journey to where we came from can successfully be accomplished. The present booklet intends to be a traveller's handbook for those who like to know where they are and where they are going.
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
We perceive life through our senses and experience. As such we live in
the moment, but the intellect bestowed upon us compels us to link
together events, search out the past, and project the future. We know
ourselves to be mortal: we have not always been around and are sure
to die. Yet something inside us refuses the notion that we are just a
temporary blip in the vastness of time.
Darwin’s theory of evolution gained currency in Europe because it
helped justify colonial expansion and exploitation. It replaced the
answerability of mankind to the higher authority of God with the
notion of natural selection, which was free of moral constraints, and
the idea of the survival of the fittest justified the use of force in
subjugating so-called primitive civilisations. Darwin’s highly flawed
and speculative theory became the myth of our time, a secular variety
of religious dogma to explain away all the mysteries of life. The
mathematics of chance does not permit the development of higher life
forms by random mutation processes in the time space available. As
original creation is not a repeatable event, the theory can never be
empirically proven and cannot lay any claim to greater scientific
validity than the creationist explanations of how life on earth first
started. We start our exploration of Islam’s outlook on life with its
account of creation, because this contains the basic moral principles Islam teaches and wants us to adhere to.
IN SEARCH OF HUMAN POTENTIAL
According to the Qur’an, the revelation communicated through the
prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), God created the heavens
(multiple universes) and the earth with a purpose and allocated the earth as the place for human habitation. Humanity was not the first creation of intelligent life; angels, created from pure light, and jinn, spirits created from the element of fire, preceded man. In fact, the Creator announces his plan to them prior to creating the prototype of man, Adam (peace be upon him):
“When your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am going to place a
representative on earth’, they said, ‘Are you going to place
someone there who will do mischief and spill blood, whilst we (already) sing your praise and glorify you?’ He said, ‘I know what
you don’t know.’ And He taught Adam all the names and then presented (things) to the angels and said: ‘tell me the names of these if you are right.’ They said: ‘Glory be to you, we have no
knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the Knowledgeable and Wise.’ He said: ‘Oh Adam, tell them their
names.’ And when he told them their names, He said: ‘Did I not tell
you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth and that I know what you let on and what you hide?’
Qur’an, Surah 2 – Al-Baqarah – ayah 30-33.
The key difference between the knowledge given to the angels and
that given to man is that the angels only know what they have been
taught, whereas Adam (peace be upon him) was taught all the names,
in other words, he was given the power of creative thought and speech, being able to conquer unknown environments in his mind and give a name to things he never encountered before. The news of this in many ways superior creation did not go down too well with the angels, for man’s abilities can also be used to do great harm to his fellow creatures and the world in which he lives. Nonetheless, the angels, readily submitted and bowed down to Adam (peace be upon him), but Iblis (the devil), a jinn put in charge of
the angels, refused. His objection, however, was not one of principle, but governed by pride, scoffing at the humble origins of man who was created from base material, the soil of the earth, when he, Iblis was of a purer, better substance, fire. This original racism,
judging others by their make-up and origins rather than their potential, is the prime cause of strife and competition between people today. The devil was reprimanded for his attitude and stripped of his position of honour. He bargained for time to prove that man, on whose account he became rejected, was not worthy of the privilege. He was given until the Day of Judgment to try and
seduce people from the path designed for them by God, and those whom he would manage to lead astray would go down with him. Thus, the devil becomes the enemy of man, rather than the rival of God as in other religious traditions. Adam (peace be upon him) was given paradise to live in, a place free of
want, and for companionship was given a partner from his own makeup, Eve. The complete bliss of paradise was tainted by only one small prohibition: a tree, the fruit of which Adam (peace be upon him) and
Eve must not eat. Given the abundance of fruit available, this minor restriction should not have mattered much, but the devil succeeded in arousing the couple’s ambition, telling them that God only forbade them from eating this fruit to prevent them from becoming angel-like and eternal. The fruit had the opposite effect, however, and made them aware of their nakedness and vulnerability, and as punishment they are sent as mere mortals to live on earth, toiling in hardship to survive. It is said that above God’s throne it is written that His mercy overcomes His anger, and in true keeping with that Adam (peace be
upon him) and Eve were forgiven and provided with guidance which, if
followed, should help them find their way back into paradise. Life on earth then becomes the temporary examination room where the intentions of each and every human being are being tested, whether they follow the guidance which helps them fulfil their true potential of living up to the spirit of God in them as His representatives on earth, or whether they follow the devil into obeying their base desires which betray their humble material make-up. Through religious observance and prayer man can thus rise from an animal-like existence to a level of worthiness above that of the angels. Rather than having evolved from an animal, the animal existence is the fallen state of man when he gives up on searching for and fulfilling his potential as a spiritual being.
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD – THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Islamic tradition states that the fear of God is the crown of all
knowledge. Just as a chair knows nothing about the carpenter, we are unable to understand or perceive God through our senses. Before the physical creation of each and every one of us, however, He gathered all the souls of the descendants of Adam (peace be upon him) and
reminded them of their duty to remember Him as their Lord. To help us remember, He sent His guidance through His messengers. We know God as He describes Himself. The name He takes is Allah, which is more than just “God” in Arabic. “God” – just as the Arabic word
“llah” can be put in the plural or change gender; there can be gods and
goddesses. Allah, on the other hand, is unique; He has no equal and He shares His name with none else. He was called Allah in the old scriptures, too, in the cousin languages of Arabic, like Hebrew and Aramaic. Readers of Bible translations still find the words Eli (Allah) and Elohim (Allahumm, meaning “o Allah”). Besides His name He is known
through His attributes, which in the Qur’an are also called the most
beautiful names of Allah. These attributes tell us more about our Creator, and whilst some are exclusive to Him alone, others are qualities we can aspire to: He is the Just, and we can be just, He is the Merciful, and we can be merciful, He is the Generous, and we can be generous. The tradition that whoever remembers all the ninety-nine names of Allah will definitely enter paradise means that if we apply the knowledge we have about Allah in our daily lives, our lives will be filled with virtue and crowned with success and reward. The scope of this booklet is not vast enough to ponder about each of the ninety-nine names. Suffice to say that each of them contains an important truth about life, just as Allah is the ultimate Truth, and from these names derive the guiding principles of Islamic philosophy. The way Allah deals with us, His dependent creation, has a bearing on how we ought to treat each other and the rest of His creation. The link between Creator and created is a direct one that nobody can interfere with. The Creator knows his creatures, He is constantly aware of them, He attends to their needs and listens to their prayers. There is no need for special intermediaries, because He is approachable by everybody, and this equality in our relationship to Him liberates us from being subservient to anybody else, making humanity in the Islamic point of view a community of free people, irrespective of race, heritage, or status. For a Muslim, it is an honour to be a devoted slave of Allah, because his master is the Lord of all the worlds, and none can compete with him. This gives a Muslim his strength and dignity which no-one can take from him.
THE ROLE OF THE MESSENGER
Whereas we need no intercessors to present our prayers to Allah, who
is All-Hearing, He is not of this world and does not speak to us directly.
Instead of approaching each of His creatures individually with a
personalised message, He has chosen messengers of impeccable
character to bring His universal message to all of us. The task of these
messengers was both to bring the message and to guide by personal
example. They would always practice what they preached. In English,
the term prophet is frequently used to describe these people, as part of
their job was to warn of the consequences of non-compliance with the
instructions of Allah, and this telling of future events or prophecies
became a key characteristic in the perception of people. Whilst the
messengers were given insights not usually available to other people
and were often given miracles in support of their authenticity, it is
important to understand that they were not superhuman. If Allah
wanted to equip them in this way, He could have sent angels, but for
the messengers to be followed, their life example had to be
comprehendible; they had to be like everybody else in many respects,
so that all who encountered their message would feel that they had the
capability of trying to walk in their footsteps. For this reason,
messengers were always chosen from amongst their own people,
speaking their own language.
Since the days of Adam (peace be upon him), the universal content of
the message itself remained unchanged: that there is only one God, Allah, that all depend on Him alone, that righteous conduct was the route to success in His eyes, and that He would judge everybody’s deeds on the Day of Reckoning. As mankind evolved through various stages, however, the detailed set of rules accompanying this general message equally evolved. Each messenger, in addition to calling his people to the undivided worship of Allah alone, addressed the major sins and injustices of his time and was such a social reformer by divine command. Given the many generations of humans on this planet, spread across the vastness of the globe, the number of messengers sent for their guidance and betterment is too great for all their stories to have been preserved. The Qur’an mentions only a select number of them by
name and tells in detail about their mission, where their example continues to provide beneficial admonition and guidance for us. Messengers were sent to all kinds of communities, but many of those whose stories are preserved for us were sent to the Children of Israel whom Allah had favoured amongst the nations for many generations. Each messenger takes his place in a long chain of such emissaries, and finally, when the time was right, Allah sent a final messenger to all mankind to revive, confirm and seal His message for the remaining generations of mankind. This messenger was Muhammad, (peace be
upon him). Once mankind had reached a stage of development which
could guarantee that the message brought by him, the Qur’an, would
be preserved unchanged and its content would remain valid for all times to come, there will be no further new messenger after him. The messengers mentioned by name in the Qur’an are Adam, Idris, Nuh (Noah), Hud, Salih, Lut (Lot), Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqub (Jacob), Yusuf, (Joseph), Shu’ayb (Jethro), Ayyub (Job), Musa (Moses), Harun (Aaron), Dawud (David), Sulayman (Solomon), Yunus (Jonah), Ilyas (Elijah), Al-Yasa (Elisha), Zu-l-Kifl, Zakariya (Zechariah), Yahya (John), Isa (Jesus), and Muhammad,
(peace be with them all).
THE LIFE AND MESSAGE OF MUHAMMAD
Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born in Makkah in Arabia in 570
as an orphan, for his father Abdullah died several weeks before his birth. When he was six, his mother died, too, and he was looked after for two years by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and then, after his death, by his uncle Abu Talib, whom he helped with his trade caravans. His integrity soon earned him the nickname “al-Amin”, the Trustworthy. At the age of 25 he worked for the trading business of a wealthy widow, Khadijah who, impressed with his character, proposed marriage. In spite of her being 40 at the time, Muhammad (peace be
upon him) accepted, and she remained his life companion for 25
years, and they had six children together. After her death he married a young girl, Aisha (may Allah be peace with her), who became an
important teacher and narrator of ahadith (sayings of the prophet), as well as several war widows and divorcees, either to provide them with shelter or to forge political alliances between competing tribes. In turn for the kindness shown to him as a youth, he looked after Ali, the son of his uncle Abu Talib, and he freed and adopted a young slave boy, Zayd bin Haritha, into his household. His family’s testimony is that of a caring husband and father who, although busy with the affairs of the community, helped with the household chores wherever he could. Disliking the idolatrous and frivolous practices of his compatriots in
Makkah, Muhammad (peace be upon him) often retreated to a cave in
mount Hira outside the town, and it was there, at the age of 40, that he received the first revelation. These revelations continued for 23 years until the end of the life of Muhammad (peace be upon him), and they
are collected in the Qur’an, the Muslims’ holy book.
Muslims follow the life example of Muhammad (peace be upon him),
Allah’s messenger, because – unlike so many rulers before and after him – he meticulously observed and followed himself what he preached to others and demonstrated that Islam, as revealed by Allah, is not some esoteric, aloof philosophy, but a practical guidance, applicable to all people, at all times, and in all areas of life. Amongst the most beautiful aspects of Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) own life is
how perfectly he managed to balance the various demands of public and private life, neglecting neither for the sake of the other. Through his personality and the powerful guidance contained in the Qur’an he
managed to unite the quarrelling tribes of the Arabian peninsula and lead them to being a major and flourishing civilisation within his own lifetime, putting the then dominant Persian and East Roman empires in the shade. Islam soon spread globally and took the cultural lead,
advancing science and humanity, giving birth to the European enlightenment, and again, today, providing a much needed spiritual, social, and philosophical ideology for over a billion people, counterbalancing the excess materialism of the prevalent consumerism in the modern world.
THE QUR’AN – A LIVING MIRACLE
The Qur’an is no ordinary book of fact or fiction. It is a living
communication to humankind by our Creator, intended as a guidance for life, akin to an instruction manual or a travel guide. It helps us find our way, but it does not do the travelling for us. There were numerous revelations prior to the Qur’an, and fragments of those scriptures are
still available today, like the Psalms of David (the Zabur of Daud), the Torah (Taurat, the book given to Moses/Musa), or the original gospel of Jesus (the Injil of Isa). However, none of those were recorded in writing at the time of their revelation, and in the process of oral narration, codification and translation, they underwent plenty of alterations and large parts were lost forever. The Qur’an, on the other hand, was preserved in writing each time as and when it was revealed. The Qur’an is in Arabic, a Semitic language with an immaculately
preserved syntactical structure, which has led many people to claim that it is not only the language of the people Muhammad (peace be upon him)
– was sent to as a messenger, but the original language of mankind.
Because the Qur’an, once revealed, codified the Arabic language, it has
remained virtually unchanged, and the classical Arabic of the Qur’an is
still easy to comprehend for a speaker of modern Arabic. Furthermore, the Qur’an uses a fairly simple language which permits readers of all
educational backgrounds to feel comfortable and take from it. Nonetheless, a deeper study reveals several layers of meaning in each Ayah (verse, literally: sign) of the Qur’an, so that the same sentence,
whilst fitting well within its context, also imparts knowledge and information about numerous other issues, personal, social, metaphysic, and so on. Because of this inimical style, which in addition has undeniable poetic qualities, the Qur’an contains the challenge that
nobody, even with the most advanced help systems available, can ever produce a single Surah (chapter) like it. Those who have tried have failed
utterly for yet another reason: The Qur’an was not written, edited, and
eventually published as is the case with other books. It was revealed portion for portion over a period of 23 years. Each sentence or passage related to a particular event at the time and made sense to the people who heard it for the first time. However, the verses were assigned a particular order by Muhammad (peace be upon him), following the
instructions of the angel of revelation, Gabriel (Jibril), and this order is not chronological, yet anybody who reads the Qur’an today, with its verses in
a totally different order than the one in which they were originally revealed, still finds that the sequence makes perfect sense. So there is the challenge: Write a book made up of contemporary comments over a period of more than two decades, re-arrange them continuously all along until you end up with a whole book which has a flowing narrative and is well interconnected. It can’t be done. To complement the miracle, the Qur’an contains knowledge of the
past and the future which was not available at the time of its revelation. For example, it mentions that the body of the pharaoh of the Exodus would be preserved as a sign for future generations, yet it was mummified one and a half millennia before Muhammad (peace be
upon him) on a different continent and not discovered until one and a
half millennia afterwards. The Qur’an also contains most accurate
scientific descriptions of the embryonic stages of human development in the womb or of the orbital movements of planets, all of which was undiscovered for many more centuries to come. In fact, the scientific encouragement of the Qur’an, which resulted in the flourishing
Muslim rule over Andalusia in Spain until eradicated by the Inquisition, gave birth to the age of enlightenment in Europe which eventually succeeded in spite of the Roman Church’s opposition. The social and political concepts of the Qur’an were equally advanced: It
liberated women from being in the possession of men to being full members of society with property rights and the right to choose their own husbands, and Surah at-Taubah (Repentance) contains the first
ever constitution of a state, in this case the city state of Madinah, half a
millennium before King John, for example, granted limited rights to his subjects in Magna Carta. The concepts contained in the Qur’an are so
revolutionary that it is not surprising that the Islamic faith conquered
the ancient world in the shortest possible space of time, putting in the shade the great, but corrupt Persian and East Roman Empires, and once again, as these Qur’anic truths are being re-discovered, these
ideals provide a balanced and increasingly attractive alternative to the failed ideologies of communism and capitalism. For people brought up in a Christian or secular tradition, the concept of verbal revelation, that God speaks to man through an angel, is a difficult one. Christianity only concedes that there may be divine inspiration, which makes revelation not much different from intuition. However, the concept of verbal revelation was generally accepted prior to the establishment of the Christian Church. God spoke to Moses and dictated the Ten Commandments. He also told him that there would be raised amongst his brethren (that is the Ishmaelites or Arabs who are the brothers of the Israelites or Hebrews) a prophet like him (that is one who will receive such revelation and be a law-giver). This prophet must undoubtedly be Muhammad (peace be upon him),
for Jesus only came to confirm the law, not to change it.
THE CENTRALITY OF THE AFTERLIFE
The key to Islam’s success in this world is that it aims at the next. This
long-term view prevents the adherents of Islam to get caught up in the
meaningless nitty-gritty of everyday life, setting their aims high and spurned on by an ideal rather than being weighed down by mundane events. For a Muslim, life after death is a certainty, not a possibility. Our existence on earth is temporary, however long we might live: we enter it involuntarily and leave it involuntarily. What we can achieve during our lifespan is limited, and we can take none of our material acquisitions with us. Life becomes meaningless unless the soul lives on. A believer thus sees the material life as an intermediate stage on a greater journey. It is a test or an examination, for when we return to Allah, our Maker, we will be judged on the basis of how we conducted ourselves during our lifetime. When we begin our life’s journey, we are fully equipped by our Creator with the sensual, physical, and mental resources at our disposal, but we need to gradually learn to find our way around in this new environment. As a child grows up it discovers the self, and the demands and desires of the self lead to a life of lust and greed unless moderated by obligations and responsibilities. We learn that others also have similar demands on us as we have on them.
Islam’s teaching reminds us that we cannot repay Allah for His favours,
but we can share them with others whenever they are in need of them. Service of Allah thus becomes service of the common good. The
Qur’an calls its own message a reminder. It reminds us of the bliss of
paradise which we had to leave in order to exist on earth. It reminds us that this innocent state can be obtained once more by willingly giving up any selfishness we find in ourselves. Ultimately, we will have to leave everything behind anyway, even our own body, so there is little point in becoming obsessed with worldly accumulations nor the attempt to make our physical appearance last forever. We are more than our physical shell. We are our ideals, our beliefs, our deeds. The wealth we acquire in our lives is merely a tool to help us achieve our ideals. That’s why a Muslim is prepared to sacrifice his wealth for the sake of his ideals and is even willing to die for his belief rather than live on betraying it. Islam teaches that all souls were created long before their physical presence on earth, and that all shall be raised on the Last Day and brought before Allah for judgment. We were told of the test of life when all the souls were gathered initially, and depending on our eagerness or weariness to put ourselves through it, Allah has adjusted the tribulations of life to what we can manage. He says in the Qur’an
that no soul is burdened beyond its capacity. Some die in early
childhood to save them from what they could not have handled. Life is
like an examination room where people enter at different levels. Those
who sit the advanced papers might have to stay on longer, and
certainly their tasks are more difficult. In the end, as long as we try our
best, we will get a mark. On the other hand, if we deny that there is a
test and waste our time off-task, we will not be graded. Imagine a car
exhibition; it would be boring if all the cars on show would be the same
latest model. There will be small and large, fast and slow, luxurious and
basic cars in a good exhibition, and a superb car is only recognised as
such in comparison to a lesser, or different model. Each and every one
of us is equipped with different capabilities. None is worthless. But in
the end, you would only buy a car, if it drives. A posh car without an
engine will be abandoned in favour of a basic car fit for the job. Equally,
in this exhibition of life, whilst we find out more about ourselves by
comparing with others, ultimately only those with faith in Him will be
accepted by Allah, and the rest will be discarded. The strong believer is
better than the weak one, but a weak believer is better than a strong
person without faith.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Allah does not accept that people, whom He has made and equipped,
should in turn deny Him and His very existence. The religion with
Allah has always been “Islam”, the voluntary surrender to Him by
which man achieves peace with Allah, himself, and his surroundings. Yet, people have frequently altered this one true religion to suit their own needs. Humans have little patience with what they don’t understand, and often they try to bring the divine down to earth, making images of God and trying to explain His existence and workings in human terms. The fact remains, however, that whilst Allah knows all about us, we know little about Him other than what He has made known to us. The creature can never understand the Creator.
Islam upholds the freedom of belief, and the Qur’an clearly states that
there should be no compulsion in religion. A person’s belief is between him and God. However, Islam is more than a belief system, it is a
religious, moral, social, political, economic ideology, and for that reason it will restrict practices of other faiths where they threaten to undermine its social order and the well-being of its citizens. Certain religious practices, like human sacrifice, for example, will never be permitted, even though adherents of a particular religion may think them justified. Other practices might only be permitted in the privacy of people’s homes or places of worship. Islam would not tolerate the public display of idols,
as these are an insult to Allah, the only God and Creator. Principally, Islam distinguishes two categories of other religions: those
of a monotheistic tradition (known as the people of the book, because their religion is based on earlier revealed scriptures), and the polytheists. The public worship of the people of the book, like Jews and Christians, is safeguarded in an Islamic society, and their places of
worship are protected. Even though Christianity has moved away from the original monotheistic teachings of Jesus, followed Paul in abandoning the laws of the Old Testament, and introduced the Trinity, which became Church doctrine some three centuries after Jesus, Muslims are not permitted to desecrate the crosses which form part of Christian religious expression. The Qur’an denies that Jesus died on
the cross, Islam does not have a concept of original sin nor the need for its redemption by an innocent, and calling Jesus the son of God is considered blasphemous – nonetheless these matters are
