What Is Islam?

oleh Helmi pada 29 Sep 2005

George Bernard Shaw, born in Dublin in 1856, was a great figure. He was the controversialist, satirist, critic, pundit, wit, intellectual buffoon and dramatist. Because of his all round expertise, commentators brought a new adjective into the English language: Shavian, a term used to embody all his brilliant qualities. Commenting on Islam, George Bernard Shaw in The Genuine Islam said, I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high esteem because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him (Muhammad) - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity.1 The Vertical Concept Islam is a religion of excellence. Excellence in Islam is achieved through iman or faith in Allah. Iman is like a switch in the heart of a Muslim that constantly makes contact with the Most High, that is God. When this contact is made it kindles a light in the heart which becomes brighter as time goes on until it is able to illuminate the whole life of this Muslim. This light will enable a Muslim to see the truth, make the right decisions, possess the right attitude and strive diligently in order to achieve excellence in this world and the hereafter. This is the Vertical Concept of Excellence propounded by Islam. It starts with a vertical contact with The Most High.  After this contact is made and the heart becomes illuminated by the truth, a path becomes visible. This is the Straight Path. It will be treaded by the Muslim in his everyday life in the quest to achieve excellence. This Straight Path is known as Islam. What is Islam? Islam is a way of life and the word Islam is derived from Arabic which means peace and submission or surrender of ones will to the only true God, that is, Allah. One who submits his will to God is termed a Muslim, in Arabic. Submission to the will of God means that one is obliged to follow the principles of Islam including its rules and regulations in every aspect of life, as being ordained by Allah through the Quran and the authentic traditions of Prophet Muhammad. The authentic traditions of Prophet Muhammad are sometimes called the Sunnah. Once man surrenders himself to the will of God, peace will be attained. Among the obligations that a Muslim has to abide is, to service his spiritual and physical being by praying five times a day, fasting in the month of Ramadan, paying alms to the poor and attending the global congregation of Muslims by performing the pilgrimage in Mecca. Through these acts of worship, a Muslim achieves closeness to God, mankind and nature.  The religion of Islam is not named after a person or a group of people, nor was it decided upon by later generations of man, as in the case of Christianity which was named after Jesus Christ, Buddhism after Gautama Buddha, Confucianism after Confucius and Judaism after the tribe of Judah. Islam is the religion which was given to Adam, the first man and the first prophet of God, and it was the religion of all the prophets sent by Allah to mankind. In the Quran, Allah states the following, This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. (Chapter al-Maidah 5:3)  Islam And The Oneness Of God Since the total submission of ones will to God represents the essence of worship, the basic message of Islam is the worship of God alone. God has no son! Worshipping directed to any person, place or thing other than God is forbidden because everything other than God is God’s creation. Islam calls man away from the worship of creation and invites him to worship only his creator because He is the only one deserving of mans worship. Thus, praying to a tree, fire, stone, wood, idols or images of prophets or great men means worshipping the creation and it is tantamount to idolatry although one claims that these objects are only focal points of God’s essence and are not actually God! This concept is being emphasized in the Quran, Say: He is Allah, the One. Allah the eternally besought of all. He begetteth not nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him. (Chapter al-Ikhlas 112:1-4)  In this context, the distinguished Professor Laura Veccia Vaglieri in her Apologia dell Islamismo mentioned, Islam is worthy of gratitude and acknowledgement, because Islam has conquered paganism and the savagery, which accompanies paganism in all its various forms. Islam has liberated the mind and opened the way to the perfect understanding of the cosmos. Islam has purified religious ceremonies and social customs and set them free from the shackles that were causing the decline of humanity and the downfall of the human intellect. Through Islam the mind was released from the chains of paganism, until, finally, humanity realized its own nobility, then, humbled itself before its creator. Also, Islam has broken the shackles of racial and tribal hatred and it has freed the soul from bondage to the wills of others; be they men or hidden forces conjured up by fraudulent priests and fortune-tellers. All spiritual mediators and those seeking to control the wills of other would be removed from their pedestals, when humanity submits in servitude to Allah alone, without ascribing partners to Him.2 It is interesting to note that, the teachings of Hinduism also despised idolatry and instead preached the concept of the Oneness of God. It is declared in the Kenupanishad, One whom no eye can see, on the other hand He sees all eyes, know that He is Brahma. (Kenupanishad 1:3)  It is also mentioned in the Shetash-watar Upanishad, The lord of the Universe is One. (Shetash-watar Upanishad chapter 6 mantra 11)  Islam And Trinity In the Chapter al-Ikhlas 112:1-4 of the Holy Quran, Allah said, Say: He is Allah, the One. Allah the eternally besought of all. Thus there is only one God and as such Islam is against the concept of Trinity.  Acually, the Bible also emphasized the concept of the Oneness of God, as mentioned in Mark, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. (Mark 12:29) In Luke, it is mentioned, For it is written, Thou Shalt Worship The Lord Thy God, And Him Only Shalt Thou Serve. (Luke 4:8)  Jesus preached and emphasized the same concept in a number of statements recorded in the Gospels. He taught, for example, that only those who submitted to the will of God will enter paradise, None of those who call me Lord will enter the kingdom of God, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)  Jesus also pointed out that he himself submitted to the will of God, I cannot do anything of myself. I judge as I hear and my judgement is honest because I am not seeking my own will but the will of Him who sent me. (John 5:30) Christianity has digressed from the concept of the Oneness of God into a vague and mysterious doctrine that was formulated during the fourth century. This doctrine, which continues to be a source of controversy both within and without the Christian religion, is known as the Doctrine of Trinity. Simply put, the Christian Doctrine of Trinity states that, God is the union of three divine persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - in one divine being.  The Doctrine of Trinity was not an idea put forth by Jesus or any other prophet of God. This doctrine, now subscribed to by Christians all over the world, was man-made. While Paul of Tarsus, the man who could rightfully be considered as the true founder of Christianity, did formulate many of its doctrines, that of Trinity was not among them. He did, however, lay the groundwork for such when he put forth the idea of Jesus being a Divine Son. Tertullian, a lawyer and presbyter of the third century Church in Carthage, was the first to use the word Trinity when he put forth the theory that the Son and the Spirit participated in the being of God.  When the controversy over Trinity blew up between two church men from Alexandria, that is, Arius, the deacon, and Athanasius, his bishop, Emperor Constantine stepped into the fray. When negotiation failed to settle the dispute, Constantine called for the first ecumenical council in Church history, to settle the matter once and for all. This council occurred at Nicea in year 325 C.E. and it was there that the Doctrine of Trinity was formulated and it was generally known as the Nicene Creed. In 451 C.E., at the Council of Chalcedon, with the approval of the Pope, the Nicene Creed was set as authoritative. From then on, to speak out against Trinity was considered as blasphemy.3 Reverend William B. Chalfant, commenting on this concept in The Origin of Trinity said, Our study will show that the Trinity is actually of pagan, philosophical ancestry, and was engrafted onto, and accommodated to Christian theology.4 In The Dictionary of the Bible (which bears the Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur, and Imprimi Potest, that is, the official Church seals of approval), it was stated, The Trinity of God is defined by the Church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. That belief as so defined was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief.5 In the Quran, Allah said, They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity, for there is no god except One God. (Chapter al-Maidah 5:73)  Jesus Son Of God?  The Alpha and Omega. In the Book of Revelation 1, verse 8, it is implied that Jesus said the following about himself, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Alpha and Omega are the attributes of God. Thus by making this statement, Jesus, according to the early Christians, claimed that he is divine. However, the above mentioned wording is according to the King James Version. In the Revised Standard Version, biblical scholars corrected the translation and wrote, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. A correction was also made in the New American Bible produced by the Catholics. The translation of that verse has been amended to put it in its correct context as follows, The Lord God says: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. With these corrections, it becomes evident that this was a statement of God and not of Prophet Jesus. Thus the Alpha and Omega are attributes of God and not of Jesus.  The Pre-existence of Christ. Another verse commonly used to support the divinity of Jesus is John 8:58, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. This verse is taken to imply that Jesus existed prior to his appearance on earth. The conclusion drawn from it is that Jesus must be God, since his existence predates his birth on earth. However, the concept of the pre-existence of the prophets, and of man in general, exists in both the Old Testament as well as in the Quran. For example, Jeremiah described himself in The Book of Jeremiah 1:4-5 as follows, Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Prophet Solomon is reported in Proverbs 8:23-27, to have said, Ages ago I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water, Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth; before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there. Moreover, according to Job 38:4 and 21, God addresses Prophet Job as follows, Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding… You Know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! In the Quran, Chapter al-A’raaf, 7:172, God informed that man existed in the spiritual form before the creation of the physical world, When your Lord gathered all of Adam’s descendants (before creation) and made them bear witness for themselves, saying: Am I not your Lord?They all replied: Yes indeed, we bear witness. (That was) so you could not say on the Day of Judgement: We were unaware of this. Consequently, Prophet Jesus statement, Before Abraham was, I am, in John 8:54-58, cannot be used as evidence of his divinity. When Prophet Jesus made this statement, he was purported to have spoken about God’s knowledge of His prophets, which predates the creation of this world.  The Son of God. Another evidence used for Jesus divinity is the application of the title Son of God to Jesus. However, there are numerous places in the Old Testament where this title has been given to others. God called Israel (Prophet Jacob) His son when He instructed Prophet Moses to go to Pharaoh in Exodus 4:22-23, And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me. In 2nd Samuel 8:13-14, God calls Prophet Solomon His son, He (Solomon) shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. God promised to make Prophet David His son in Psalms 89:26-27, He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation,Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. Angels are referred to as sons of God in The Book of Job 1:6, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. However, some claim that what is unique in the case of Jesus, is that he is the only begotten Son of God, while the others are merely sons of God. Begotten son means to be fathered by. However, God is recorded to have said to Prophet David, in Psalms 2:7, I will tell the decree of the Lord: He said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. It should also be noted that nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus actually call himself Son of God. Instead, he is recorded to have repeatedly called himself Son of man (for example in Luke 9:22) innumerable times. And in Luke 4:41, he actually rejected being called Son of God, And demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God! But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. Since the Hebrews believed that God is One, and had neither wife nor children, it is obvious that the expression Son of God merely meant to them Servant of God, that is, one who was close and dear to God, as a son is to a father. Christians who came from Greek or Roman background later misused this term. To them, Son of God signified an incarnation of a god or someone born out of a physical union between male and female gods. When the Church cast aside its Hebrew foundations, it adopted the pagan concept of Son of God, which was entirely different from the Hebrew usage.  Those who claim that Jesus was God, hold that he was not a separate god, but one and the same God incarnate. They draw support for this belief from the Gospel of John, chapter 10 verse 30, in which Jesus is reported to have said, I and the Father are one. Out of context, this verse does imply that Jesus is divine. However, when the Jews accused him of claiming divinity, based on this statement, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? (Refer to Psalms 82:6) Through this clarification, Jesus was explaining that, his statement, I am the Father are one, was a metaphorical language of the prophets which should not be interpreted as ascribing divinity to himself or to other human beings.  Perhaps the most commonly quoted evidence for Jesus divinity is John 1:1&14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth… Actually, these statements were not made by Jesus Christ, nor were they attributed to him by the author of the Gospel of John. Consequently, these verses do not constitute evidence for Jesus divinity, especially considering the doubts held by Christian scholars about the Fourth Gospel, that is, the Gospel of John. The Bible scholars who authored The Five Gospels (Polebridge Press, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1993) said, The two pictures painted by John and the synoptic gospels (i.e., the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke) cannot both be historically accurate… The words attributed to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel are the creation of the evangelist for the most part, and reflect the developed language of John’s Christian community.This statement shows that The Gospel of John (or the Fourth Gospel) differs so radically from the other three Gospels (the Synoptic Gospels) that its authenticity is in doubt. Thus the authenticity of the verse, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth…, is also in doubt. [For more details kindly read The True Message of Jesus Christ (Dar Al Fatah Printing, Publishing and Distribution Co. Llc., Sharjah, U.A.E.) written by Dr. Bilal Philips]  Modern Thoughts On Jesus Christ Today, there are many modern scholars in Christianity who hold that Jesus Christ was not God. In 1977, a group of seven biblical scholars, including leading Anglican theologians and other New Testament scholars, published a book called The Myth of God Incarnate (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1977) which caused a great uproar in the General Synod of the Church of England. In the preface of the book, the editor, John Hick, wrote the following, The writers of this book are convinced that another major theological development is called for in this last part of the twentieth century. The need arises from growing knowledge of Christian origins, and involves a recognition that Jesus was (as he is presented in Acts 2.21) a man approved by God for a special role within the divine purpose, and that the later conception of him as God incarnate, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity living a human life, is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance for us. There is a broad agreement among New Testament scholars that the historical Jesus did not make the claim that he was God. He was never God, or the Son of God, or the Incarnate (in the flesh). The late Archbishop Michael Ramsey, who was himself a New Testament scholar, wrote in Jesus and the Living Past (Oxford University Press, U.K., 1980) that, Jesus did not claim deity for himself. In a major study of the origins of the doctrine of the incarnation, James Dunn, in Christology in the Making (SCM Press, London and Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1980) concludes that, There was no real evidence in the earliest Jesus tradition of what could fairly be called a consciousness of divinity. Most famous among the Church of England bishops who doubt Jesus divinity is the outspoken Reverend Professor David Jenkins, the Bishop of Durham in England, who openly states that Jesus was not God. This was reported in The Economist, April 1, 1989, volume 311, number 7596, page 19.  In The Daily News dated 25th June, 1984, it was reported, London: More than half of England’s Anglican bishops say Christians are not obliged to believe that Jesus Christ was God, according to a survey published today. The poll of 31 of England’s 39 bishops shows that many of them think that Christ’s miracles, the virgin birth and the resurrection might not have happened exactly as described in the Bible. Only 11 of the bishops insisted that Christians must regard Christ as both God and man, while 19 said it was sufficient to regard Jesus as God’s supreme agent. One declined to give a definite opinion. The poll was carried out by London Weekend Televisions weekly religion show, Credo. Islam And Civilization Islam is a comprehensive religion based on the Quran and the authentic traditions of the Prophet. No man-made principles or ideology can be added to Islam as had happened to many religions before. Jean Lheureux in his book Etude sur LIslamisme mentioned, Islam had the power of peacefully conquering souls by the simplicity of its theology, the cleanliness of its dogma and principles, and the definite number of the practices which it demands. In contrast to Christianity which has been undergoing continual transformation since its origin, Islam has been identical with itself. 6 Islam abhors extremism. It detests monkishness the same as it detests excessive materialism. A. Caspar P.B. in his work, Religious Fundamental Themes For a Dialogistic Understanding, wrote, Islam came when mankind had reached the age of reason. It presented itself courageously as a religion which took the middle course, neglecting neither body nor soul by rendering what was due to one and the other. Hence it did not oblige its followers to pursue a life of mortification. It did not prohibit a life of enjoyment. It did not say to any of its followers, Go sell your possession and follow me, as Jesus did.7 Allah mentioned in the Quran, He hath chosen you and hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship. (Chapter al-Haj 22:78)  Islam is more than a system of ethics, prayers, theology and social reform. It is a complete civilization. H.A.R. Gibb in his book, Whither Islam, said, Islam endows its people with a dignity peculiar of its own. Direct access to God makes one of the strongest appeals of Islam. The Muslim with all his sense of superiority has no race complex. The ethics of Islam, its conception of social and personal morality are infinitely higher, infinitely more perfect than the corresponding conception within the Western civilization. Islam has banned human hatred and opened the way for human brotherhood and equality but the Western civilization is still unable to look beyond the narrow horizon of racial and national antagonism. Islam has never known classes and class warfare within its society, but the whole of the European history since the time of Greece and Rome is full of class struggle and social hatred. Islam is indeed much more than a system of theology, it is a complete civilisation.8 Thus, mankind could only achieved true excellence through Islam.