What Is Islam?

Maulana A. U. Kaleem

Part II: Islam—Synopsis of Religious Preaching

Islam literally means Peace, surrender of one's Will; and to be in amity and concord. The significance of the name of Islam is the attainment of a life of perfect peace and eternal happiness through complete surrender to the Will of God. The Quran--the Holy Book of the Muslims--interprets it to be the religion who teachings are in consonance with human nature. Islam, as the Quran has stated (5:4), is the completion of the religion inaugurated by God in the beginning of the world, on His sending the Quran through the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him. As a child is taught his alphabet, so God taught religion to the world gradually and little by little, by sending His prophets at different times and to different peoples.

When the world reached the stage of understanding that it was ready for the final lesson, He sent the last and complete Book through the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him. This Book not only corrects errors which had found their way into various religions, but preaches the truths which have not been preached before, on account of special circumstances of the society or the early stage of its development. At the same time it gathers together in itself the truths which were contained in any Divine revelation granted to any people for the guidance of men (The Quran, 98:4). Lastly, it meets all the spiritual and moral requirements of an ever-advancing humanity.

This is Islam which is wrongly called Muhammadanism.

According to Islam, the object of man's life is its complete unfoldment. Islam does not support the idea that man is born in sin. It teaches that everyone has within himself the seed of perfect development and it rests solely with a person himself to make or mar his fortune.

Surely, WE have created man in the best make; (The Holy Quran 95:5)

The cardinal doctrine of Islam is the Unity of Godhead. There is none worthy of worship but the One and Only God, Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet. God is free from all defects, Holy and Transcendent. He is All Good, All Mercy and All Power. He has no partner. He neither begets nor is He begotten, because these are the traits of frail and weak humanity. Furthermore, Islam helps us to establish a permanent relationship with God and to realize Him during our earthly life as our Helper in all our affairs and undertakings. This Unity of God is the first and foremost pillar of Islam and every other belief hangs upon it.

Islam requires belief in all the prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius and Zoroaster. We regard them all (and many more not mentioned here) as heavenly teachers born to reform and regenerate man and lead him to God. Adherents of some other religions may consider it an act of piety to use disrespectful words and heap abuse on the prophets of other religions, but if a Muslim were to show the slightest disrespect towards the founder of any faith, he does so at the cost of his own faith. He has to utter the respectful benediction Alaihis-Salam (peace be on him) after mentioning the name of every prophet. Thus Islam establishes peace between all religions.