ABC's of ISLAM

By Shafeeq A. Qaasim

January,25,1993

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim-In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the

Most Merciful, we will continue with our book review of "Towards

Understanding Islam", by Abul Ala Mawdudi. To all our readers we send

the greetings-As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatu, may the

peace, the mercy, and the blessings of Allah be upon you. Ash hadu allaa

ilaaha ill Allah, Ash hadu anna Muhammadar Rasuulullah. I bear witness

that there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah, I bear witness that

Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (PBUH, born 570 A.D.) is the Messenger of Allah.

In review, Al-Islam means "the submission to do the Will of Allah". Allah is Almighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, and all in creation. The name "Allah" is the Arabic term for the Divine Supreme Being. It incorporates All of the Divine names of the Creator. A Muslim is one who submits his will to do the Will of Allah. It also means "one who is oriented to Peace". The Holy Qur'an is the Last Testament or Revelation of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) over 1400 years ago. Allah Almighty has taken upon Himself the duty of preserving the Qur'an for ever in its entirety, as He says: "We have without doubt sent

down the Message, and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption)." (Qur'an 15:9) [Editor Notes: The purity of the Qur'an through fourteen

centuries is a foretaste of the eternal care with which Allah's Truth is

guarded through all ages. All of mankinds' corruptions, inventions, and

growth by accumulation passes away, but Allah's pure and holy Truth will

never suffer eclipse even though the whole world mocked at it and were

bent on hidding or destroying it.]

The Need to Believe in Life After Death (Part 3)

We now continue with part 3 of the fifth article of Islamic Faith, the belief in life after death.(See the previous issue for the first two parts.) A man who has a view of success or failure in this world alone will be concerned with the immediate benefits and ills. He will not prepare to undertake any act if he has no hope of gaining thereby some worldly interest, nor will he be keen to avoid any wrong act if it is not injurious to his interests in this world.

But a man who believes in the next world as well, and is convinced of the final consequences of his acts, will look on all worldly gains and losses as temporary and transitory and will not put his eternal bliss at stake for a passing gain. He will look on things in their wider perspective and always keep the permanent benefit or harm in view. He will do good, however costly it may be to him in terms of worldly gains, or however injurious it may be to his immediate interests; and he will avoid the wrong, however tempting it may look. He will judge things from the viewpoint of their eternal consequences and not according to his whims and weaknesses.

Thus their is a radical difference between the beliefs, approaches and lives of the two persons. One's idea of a good act is limited to whether in this brief temporary life it will bring gain in the shape of money, property, public applause and similar other things which gave him position, power, reputation and worldly happiness. Such things become his objectives in life. Fulfilment of his own wishes and self-aggrandizement becomes the be all and end-all of his life. And he does not draw back even from the cruel and unjust means to achieve his ends. Similarly, his conceptions of a wrong act is one which may involve a risk or injury to his interests in this world, such as loss of property, life, harming of health, blackening of reputation or some other unpleasant consequence.

In contrast to this man, the believer's concept of good and evil will be quite different. To him all that pleases Allah is good and all that invokes His displeasure and wrath is evil. A good act, according to him, will remain good even if it brings no benefit to him in this world, or even entails loss of some worldly possessions, or injury to his personal interest. He will be confident that Allah will reward him in the eternal life and will be the real success. Similarly, he will not fall prey to evil deeds merely for some worldly gain, for he knows that even if he escapes punishment in his short worldly life, in the end he will be the loser because he will not be able to escape punishment from the court of Allah. He does not believe in the relativity of morals, but sticks to the absolute standards revealed by Allah, and lives according to them irrespective of gain or injury in this world.

Man cannot be a Muslim without belief in the Day of Judgement. To be a Muslim is a very great thing; the fact is that one cannot even become a good person without this belief. Denial of the Day of Judgement degrades man from humanity to a place even lower than that of the lowest of animals. We will discuss why this is so in the next issue, insha-Allah!

Is Jesus Really God? (Part 5)

5. No one is greater than Allah and no one can direct Him... but

Jesus acknowledged someone greater than himself whose will was

distinct from his own.

Perhaps the clearest indication we have that Jesus and God are not equal, and therefore not one and the same, comes again from the mouth of Jesus himself, who said in St. John 14:28,"My father is greater than I." In Luke 22:42, he says "not my will but thine be done." In St. John 5:30, "I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me." That Jesus would admit that he did not come into the world on his own initiative in St. John 8:42 "Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, ye would love me; for I proceed forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me." This proves that Jesus was directed to come, and acknowledge a being as greater than himself, and that he would negate his own will in yielding to and affirming the will of another is clear proof that Jesus is not the Supreme One and therefore Jesus is not God.