Introduction to Islam-1

8/3/2019 Introduction to Islam-1

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Introduction to Islam

Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah


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# Country Muslims

1. Indonesia 13% 188,619,000

2. Pakistan 31% 144,788,000

3. India 131,213,000

4. Bangladesh 118,512,0005. Turkey 67,864,000

6. Iran 67,610,000

7. Egypt 64,647,0008. Nigeria 54,891,000

9. Algeria 31,729,000

10. Morocco 31,642,000


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Ethiopia 29

Morocco 29

Afghanistan 27Iraq 23

Sudan 22Uzbekistan 22

Saudi Arabia 21

Yemen 18

Syria 15

Tanzania 13


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Burkina Faso -

French Colony-Independent

since 1960

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United States 6

Tajikistan 5

Congo 5Libya 5

Turkmenistan 5

Jordan 5Cote D'ivoire

Ivory Coast-Republic of Cote

D'ivore

4


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Defining Islam

Submission (God-Man Dimension)

Peace (Man to Man Relationships)

A phenomenon, an act and not a person,founder or a tribe etc.


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Articles of Faith

Islamic Creed or Shahadah

The Angels

The Prophets

The Scriptures

The Day of Judgment

The Divine Decree


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The Acts of Worship

Shahadah or Ethical Monotheism

Five Daily Prayers

Poor-due

Fasting the month of Ramadan

Pilgrimage or Hajj

Shahadahor Ethical


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Monotheism

The essence of Islamic faith

A unique concept

Human responsibility

Social transformation


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Allah: The Almighty God

The Arabic word for God

Jews original language Hebrew

El (God), Elohim (plural), Elahna (our God)

Jesus mother tongue Aramic

Eloh (God), Elohi (my God)


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The Two Orders of Reality

"Reality is of two generic kinds, God andnon-God; Creator and creature. The firstorder has but one member, Allah (SWT). Healone is God, the Eternal, the Creator, the

Transcendent. "Nothing is like unto Him". Heremains forever absolutely unique anddevoid of partners and associates. Thesecond is the order of space-time, ofexperience, of creation. It includes all

creatures, the world of things, plants andanimals, humans, jinn and angels, heavenand earth, paradise and hell, and all theirbecoming since they came into being.


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The Two Orders

The two orders of Creator and creation areutterly and absolutely disparate as far astheir being, or ontology, as well as theirexperience and careers, are concerned. It is

forever impossible that the one be unitedwith, infused, confused with or diffusedinto the other. Neither can the Creator beontologically transformed so as to becomethe creature, nor can the creaturetranscend and transfigure itself so as tobecome, in any way or sense, the Creator."


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Strict Monotheism

The belief in the Unity, Oneness, Uniquenessand Transcendence of God Almighty is the pivotof al-Qur'an. That is the thread which runsthrough the entire Qur'anic corpus and is the

core of the Qur'anic message. The all Qur'anicconcepts, ideas, and ideologies are woventogether to pinpoint, elaborate, and describe thisvery doctrine of the Oneness, Unity, andTranscendence of God, and to encouragemankind to establish a meaningful and rightrelationship with Him.


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Islamic Creed

The Qur'anic monotheism does not start withmonolatry or with the affirmations of theexistence or Oneness of the Deity. It startsby absolutely negating all concepts, kinds,

ideas, understandings, and illusions ofdivinity or godhead other then the One andthe only Divine. It starts with the Credo ofIslam "La ilaha illa Allah", the shahadah orconfession, which is derived from the Qur'an

itself.


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Meanings of Shahadah

The second part of shahadahcontains animmediate corollary on the mission andprophethood of Muhammad. It says,

"Muhammadun Rasul Allah", "andMuhammad is the messenger of God."


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A Way Out

The Bible's understandings of God had left manyproblems unsolved, as we will have the opportunity tosee in the coming sessions. Contrary to that, theQur'anic understanding of the Almighty has contributedgreatly to work towards providing many of thosesolutions. P. J. Awn observes that "A commitment tomonotheism is nothing new in the history of Westernreligious traditions. The radical monotheism of Islam,however, offers distinctive solutions to the thorny

problems of the nature of God and the relationship offreedom to predestination, of good to evil, and of reasonto revelation. Islam insists on God's absolutetranscendence and perfect unity..."


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A Unique Concept

Therefore the distinctive feature of Islam, asRichard C. Martin observes, is that "Amongthe Western religious traditions, Islam has

most insistently asserted the unity andoneness of God."[i]

[i]Richard C. Martin, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy, 1982,

9


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Absolute Transcendence

It is this notion of the absolute transcendenceand alertness against corporeality,anthropomorphism, or any other kind ofcomparability, that has been reflected into

Islamic art, language, and other aspects of theIslamic civilization and culture.


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Transcendence in Art

"The association of things and sensory images withGod was meticulously avoided by Muslims at all timesand places. Never has any Muslim mosque containedany object associated with divinity. The mosque has

always been an empty building. It walls and ceilingwould be decorated either with verses from the Qur'anor with abstract arabesques. The latter were designsmade of stylized stalk, leaf and flower, deliberately

denaturalized and symmetrically repeated to dispelany suggestion of the creaturely natural as vehicle ofexpression for the divine."

T d i L


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Transcendence in Language

"Transcendence in language was equally wellmaintained by Muslims around the globe,speaking all sorts of languages and dialectsand belonging to all sort of ethnic and cultural

backgrounds. Any God-talk by Muslimsbecame exclusively Qur'an-talk, one adheringscrupulously to the Arabic categories of theQur'an, and to its Arabic terms, its Arabicliterary forms and expressions.... Thus,

empirical language-figures and relations fromthe world are used; but with the unmistakabledenial that they apply to God simpliciter."

Th E f l T hid


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The Essence of al-Tawhid

Al-Tawhid, with all this multiplex emphasis, is notmeant merely to exalt God and chant His glories, orclaim special closeness to Him to enjoy specialprivileges or a sense of superiority over others.None of these elements or claims are implied in theQur'anic understanding of monotheism. Contrary tothat, it is meant to create a proper response in man,the response that will encourage man to work

towards transforming the human society of time andspace in accordance with divine moral laws.

Th E f l T hid


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The Essence of al-Tawhid

The essence of al-Tawhid can be summarized inthe following five terms:

(1) Duality of reality i.e., God and non-God, and God

as normativeness, meaning. the Being whocommands (moral will of God) and whosecommandments are ought-to-be.

(2) Ideationality: meaning that the relationship

between the two orders of reality is ideational innature. Man can understand this relationship easilythrough the faculty of understanding.

E (C ti d)


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Essence (Continued)

(3) Teleology: that the nature of the cosmosis teleological; that is, purposive, serving apurpose of its Creator, and doing so out of

design. Man also has a purpose and that is tobe God's vicegerent on earth.

(4) Capacity of man and malleability of Nature:since the nature of the cosmos is teleological,hence the actualization of the Divine purposemust be possible in space and time.

H R ibilit


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Human Responsibility

(5) Responsibility and Judgment i.e., that manstands responsible to realize the moral will ofGod and change himself, society, andenvironment so as to conform to the divinepattern. To do so is success and to disobey Himis to incur punishment and failure. The forgoingfive principles are self-evident truths. They

constitute the core of al-tawhid and thequintessence of Islam."

M th F f I l


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Man: the Focus of Islam

"For among all these created things "man" is theone to which is attached so great an importance inthe Koran that it attracts at least the same amountof our attention as God. Man, his nature, conduct,

psychology, duties and destiny are, in fact, asmuch the central preoccupation of the Koranicthought as the problem of God Himself. What Godis, says and does, becomes a problem chiefly, if

not exclusively, in connection with the problem ofhow man reacts to it.

H S l ti


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Human Salvation

The Koranic thought as a whole is concernedwith the problem of salvation of humanbeings. If it were not for this problem, theBook would have not been "sent down", asthe Koran itself explicitly and repeatedlyemphasizes. And in this particular sense, theconcept of man is important to such a degree

that it forms the second major pole standingface to face with principal pole, that isconcept of Allah."

H S i t Th Th t


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Human Society: The Theater

Consequently, the Tawhid is directlyconnected with the moral sphere of humanlife. Its essence cannot be achieved without

actualizing its demands of unity anduniversality of truth, unity, equality, andequity among the human race, and all thathas to take place here and now i.e.,practically in the human society.

Ethi f A ti


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Ethic of Action

"Al-Tawhidcommits man to an ethic of action; thatis, to an ethic where worth and un-worth aremeasured by the degree of success the moralsubject achieves in disturbing the flow of space-

time, in his body as well as around him. It does notdeny the ethic of intent where the samemeasurement is made by the level of personalvalues effecting the moral subject's state of

consciousness alone, for the two are notincompatible...."

T f ti f S i t


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Transformation of Society

"Having acquiesced to God alone as his Master,having committed himself, his life and all energies toHis service, and having recognized His Master's willas that which ought to be actualized in space-time,

he must enter the rough and tumble of the marketplace and history and therein bring about thedesired transformation. He cannot lead a monastic,isolationist existence unless it be as an exercise in

self-discipline and self-mastery."

Moralistic Monotheism


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Moralistic Monotheism

This moral function of man, justifieshis creation in God's moral image, in

the best of form, as the vicegerent of

God on earth. Therefore, Islamicunderstanding of monotheism is

moralistic through and through again.

Social Justice


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Social Justice

Ten Commandments

Universal message

Justice is God and God is justice

Human equality and universal brotherhood

Universal human rights

Salvation based on Grace and Actions

Human preparedness

Rest of the Articles


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Rest of the Articles

Angels: the infallible beings

Created before Man and Jinn

Gods agents in the universe

Multiple functions including revelation &recording human deeds

The Prophets


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The Prophets

Infallible human beings

Recipients of Divine revelations

Embodiment of Divine moral will

Conveyers of Divine message

Reformers, preachers, kings etc.

Spiritual bridges between man and God

27 mentioned by name, 24000 in total

The Books


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The Books

Revealed Scriptures

Four known books

Many smaller booklets

Historical additions and deletions

Final Book

Affirmation of all the previous revelations

Language, style, contents, relevance


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Divine Decree


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Divine Decree

Universe Divinely ordained & planned

God is not retired after creating it

Free will & Predestination debate

Gives the believers certainty & confidence

Freedom from fear of anyone or anythingother than God

Meaningfulness & purposefulness of life

Acts of Worship


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Acts of Worship

Rehearsal and training mechanism

Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly crushcourses and field work

Cover personal, collective, corporeal,spiritual, social, economic and universallevels of existence

Refine God to man and man to man relations

Salah


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Salah

Five daily prayers

Supplications vsphysical gestures

Holiness, Humility, humbleness,

accountability, re-assurance, reminder

Equality, brotherhood/sisterhood, networking,socialization, community building etc.

God consciousness (Taqwa)


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Sawm


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Sawm

The month of Ramadan

Self control and discipline

Bodily sacrifice

Feeling for the poor and needy

Iftra, Taraweeh, Zakat al-Fitr

Eid al-Fitr

A month long retreat, human concerns

Hajj


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Hajj

Once in a life time experience

Climax of Islamic devotional acts

An international assembly

An expression of human equality, peacefulco-existence, brotherhood in faith

A rehearsal of the Day of Judgment

Human responsibility & accountability

Summary


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Summary

Submission to the moral will of God Almighty

Peace with Him and through Him with His

creatures. (Hebrew Shalom, Arabic Salam)

Transformation of individual and collective life

in conformity with Divine will

Documents

Introduction to Islam-1