Islam is a widely-misundertood religion. Those who are unfamiliar with the faith often have misunderstandings about its teachings and practices. Common misconceptions include that Muslims worship a moon-god, that Islam is oppressive against women, or that Islam is a faith that promotes violence. Here we bust these myths and expose the true teachings of Islam. (more…)
The foundation of the Islamic faith is belief in the Unity of God. This means to believe that there is only one Creator and Sustainer of everything in the Universe, and that nothing is divine or worthy of being worshiped except for Him.
The Arabic word for belief is ‘Imaan’. A Muslim must have Imaan. This entails belief in six things:
The last and final prophet that God sent to humanity was the Prophet Muhammad (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). Peace and blessings be upon him.
Muhammad (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) explained, interpreted and lived the teachings of Islam. Allah chose him to reveal His Last Message. He came with complete guidance for mankind. He received the Noble Qur’an from Allah through the Angel Jibril (Gabriel).
The Prophet Muhammad (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) is the greatest of all prophets for many reasons, but mainly because the results of his mission have brought more people into the pure belief in One God than any other prophet.
Even though other religious communities claimed to believe in One God, over time they had corrupted their beliefs by taking their prophets and saints as intercessors with Almighty God.
“There is no God except Allah alone. There is no partner unto Him.
To Him belongs sovereignty and to Him belongs all praise and He has power over all things.”
Very often one will hear the Arabic word “Allah” being used in regards to Islam.
The word “Allaah” is simply the Arabic word for Almighty God, and is the same word used by Arabic speaking Christians and Jews.
The word “Islam” is an Arabic word that means ‘surrender’. In essences this means to accept the power of Allah and follow His Commands. Happiness in this life and success in the life after death can only be obtained by obeying Allah. Islam therefore is “submitting and surrendering your will to Almighty God”. The word comes from the same root as the Arabic word “salaam”, which means to achieve peace – with God, within oneself and peace with the creations of God through willingly submission to God and accepting His guidance.
Unlike the names used for other religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, the name for the religion of Islam was both revealed by God and carries a deep spiritual meaning – only by submitting one’s will to Almighty God can one obtain true peace both in this life and in the life hereafter.
Islam teaches that all religions originally had the same essential message – which was to submit whole-heartedly to the will of God and to worship Him and Him alone. Islam is not only a religion, but a complete ‘way of life’. This means that is shows us how to live all aspects of our lives in the best possible way.