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What do we believe? A brief overview of Islam
Islam comes from the root “silm” which means peace. Islam means submission or surrender
oneself to God, being obedient to his commands. It can be conceptualized as unconditional and
doubtless belief of unity of God, and His Divine Existence, summarized by: “There is no
god(deity) but God” (La ilaha illa Allah).
Muslims believe that Islam is the final and complete divine message proclaimed by the last prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him), and it is a trustworthy path leading to God Almighty.
The fruit of Islam is acting/living as if seeing God, and doing everything only for His sake. Thus,
there is no separation of religion from life in any instance, because Islam is to realize God’s presence at
every second of the life.
Islam consists of the eternal message of God Almighty to humanity, the Quran and the previous
scriptures, and the embodied examples of this message, teaching and sayings of Muhammad, upon him be
peace, and other prophets.
Faith without action is regarded as incomprehensible. Physical expression of the belief/faith is its
practice/action. Islam is the union of these two, faith and action, and establishes all aspects of faith and
practice in this life.
Islam addresses those all humanity, urging them to do what is good for both this and the next life
through their own freewill, promising eternal happiness (paradise) to those who heed this call.
All-knowing God, who best knows his creation, show the way to the truth, to good deeds. Since God
know best his creation, all the commandments are uniquely and divinely planned to suit human nature, its
capabilities, goal and tendencies, never neglecting any of its needs or desires. Everything fits its purpose
with His commandments. In this context, commandments of God are regarded as everlasting and not
subject to change. It is important to note that because of God’s compassion towards us, he bestowed on
us these commandments. An important analogy would be the syllabus, and the book that is prescribed to
us at the beginning of the course. We all know how it feels and how it helps us to learn the material when
our professor gives us a clear syllabus at the beginning of the semester. The same way, since God loves us
and have compassion to us, He does not leave us without guides and syllabuses that help us to enjoy this
life and the next.
Living an Islamic life, one benefits from the lawful bounties of this world, while concentrating on
pleasing God. Faithful Muslims, who are conscious of their religion, and whose practices are in line with
the Divine commandments, will be free of everything else but God, serving only to Him. They love, show
sympathy, and deep respect for all created things/beings because of their Creator.
Now, I want to talk how Islam tackles these questions that should be asked by every human being,
very briefly:
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From where and by whose order did you come?
What are your proof, evidence and argument?
What are you doing here?
Where are you going?
According to Islam, the purpose of creation is to worship and to know God and to love Him.
Knowledge of God is experiential, thus constant worship and servitude is the way to know God in this life.
God makes himself known through his art, through everything and every instance that is surrounding us.
This life is considered to be a journey where we are getting many experiential letters that make God
known to us. As we get to know Him more, we love Him more. The more we know Him, the more we love
Him, and the more this journey of life becomes exciting.
According to the Quranic view, all beings in the universe are letters, explaining through their
‘symbolic meaning’ the meaning of another. In another word, they make known the attributes and titles of
that Other. With sickness we come to know the Healer, with hunger we come to know the Sustainer, with
afflictions we come to know the Compassionate, with our wrong doings we come to know the Forgiver,
with our weakness we know the All-powerful, and with our transgressions we come to know the Mighty.
When we look at everything around us from this perspective, life indeed becomes an enjoyable
adventurous quest of the One, and all what is around us becomes special letters and gifts from Him who
we are created to know, love and worship.
On the other hand, materialist philosophy looks into things as ‘nominative’ and give to each thing
power on itself (whereas in Islamic view nothing save God possesses any power). As a result, this
adventurous journey becomes like a struggle of the wolves and a place where the survival of the fittest
law is forced upon us.
The Quranic view does not contradict with science, but on the contrary, it transforms all physical
sciences into knowledge of God and utilizes them towards their true goal, letters to teach us about God.
The Quran is regarded as the expounder or interpreter of the universe, and the universe itself, by
expressing the same meaning in a physical form, is regarded as the embodied Quran. There is no
contradiction between universe laws and Quran laws, since both are written by the same Author, God.
Thus, reflecting on the universe and everything in it, from an ant to a star or a quasar, leads us to know
and love God and to understand the reality of the universe and man, their purposes and functions.
Divine existence and unity, prophethood, revelations, existence of angels, and resurrection of the
dead are logical conclusions of the Quranic view of the universe. They are not abstract facts divorced from
life and reality, that someone has to believe from ‘outside’. In fact, they are living truths that spring
naturally out of existence itself. “The essence of reality” is conceived by the Quran and its teachings on
Divine unity, and from there to the way of reflective thought that combines reason and heart. The
question of where we are going becomes an obvious one. Since true love can only be eternal, The One who
is loved will surely let his lovers love Him forever.
It is important to clarify the meaning of worship and obligations in Islam. Worship does not mean to
constantly pray or be in a mosque or church. On the contrast, most worship in Islam is done while we live
our life. Worship is related to being God-conscious while we are living. Thus, everything; eating, sleeping,
walking, working, studying, doing sports, and even marriage relation are considered worship if all are done
for God’s sake and through the limits that God has put. To make it clear, if while we are eating we reflect
on the bounties of God and if we thank Him for the food he gave us and eat with the purpose of
strengthening us to do the good, or enjoy the food because it is a bounty from God, then the act of eating
becomes worship. On the contrary, if we eat just because we want to and think that the money we earned
brought us the food, then this is not worship. Consequently, there is no separation of life and religion in
Muslim’s life. Life is the realm where Islam is to be practiced.
Muslims do have certain type of worships which is again part of life. For example, Muslims pray in
certain form 5 times a day. These prayers divide the day for a Muslim, and the Muslim has to perform
these prayers on certain hours of the day. Although each of these prayers does not take more than 5 to 10
minutes, a Muslim cannot do all five at once in the morning or evening. Rather he/she has to do it in
certain hours of the day. This helps Muslims to keep their concentration on God in their daily acts and
gives them the ability to transform most of their daily routine into continuous worship. Thus, for a
conscious Muslim, 5 times daily prayers are the most joyful moments of the day. These are the moments
where God gave us an opportunity to transcend time and all other boundaries, and just concentrate on
him and strive to our own ascension towards him. Declaring again and again that we worship Him and ask
help from Him alone, a Muslim finds the needed strength to continue to his/her life wherever they left it
before the prayers.