Islam: The Essentials (Pelican Books)

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God reveals in the Qur’an at least ninety-nine names for Himself. The most frequent of these are “ar-rahman” (the merciful) and “ar-raheem” (the compassionate). All chapters except one in the Qur’an begin with the verse, “In the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate.” Both “ar-rahman” and “ar-raheem” stem from the root r-h-m, which approximates what we might refer to as “unconditional tender love and care.” The idea of testifying or bearing witness indicates that the shahadah is not so much simply a belief as it is an active and constant devotion in which the intellect, heart and limbs are all involved in realizing and actualizing the testimony of faith. Salah – Establishing Prayer God has determined the result of everything in one’s life such as provisions, health, lifespan, and afterlife. God’s will cannot be altered by anyone or anything. God’s decree is that human beings be given free choice in certain matters and no choice in other matters. Free will is God’s Will - meaning no one can choose independently of God allowing them to. Human beings do possess the free will to choose how they act and live within the limits set by the divine decree, thus they are responsible for all their choices. There have been many cases in High courts and the supreme court, where the court invalidated the instant triple talaaq. In Shamim Ara V. State of U.P, the court observed that:

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Muslims turn to God five times a day in prayer, seeking God’s guidance and mercy, and seeking to become a person of God-consciousness (taqwa). One way of being a person of God-consciousness is to perpetually seek to please God through compassion, charity, and good deeds. In the Qur’an, God encourages believers to feed and clothe the poor (2:267, 76:8-9, 3:92, etc.), speak to people politely (73:10), be compassionate towards one’s parents (46: 15), and greet others with the word, “peace!” (44:89). Why is God called “Allah”? Islam’s pure monotheism partly means that all matters of the universe happen with the full knowledge of God and His power and Will to decree them. The testimony serves as a formal entrance into the religion as it emphasizes the central message of Islam which is to worship and serve God alone following in the footsteps of Muhammad as the confirming, clarifying and culminating Messenger of God. The statement is also recited in the daily formal prayers ( salah) and invoked frequently as a spiritual invocation. The shahadah is a statement of conviction in the heart proclaimed on the tongue by a believer bearing witness to the reality of one God and accepting Muhammad as the final Messenger of God:To preserve the accuracy and sanctity of the revelations as the Prophet Muhammad received them, the Qur’an is only considered the Qur’an if it is in Arabic. Thus, anytime the Qur’an is used for ritual worship purposes like prayer it should be in Arabic. The intricacies of Arabic grammar and richness of meanings are often lost in translation. But translations do exist in English and many other languages and are very helpful for non-Arabic speaking Muslims or curious souls (although one should always be wary of inaccurate translations such as N.J. Dawood’s Penguin translation or the Noble Qur’an translated by Mohsin Khan). There is a high level of literary value in the Qur’an that becomes lost in accurate, yet awkwardly stilted translations. Often even non-Arabic speakers who hear recitations of the Qur’an are impressed and moved by its beautiful and enchanting rhyme and rhythm, and many non-Muslim Arabic speakers recognize the level of mastery in the language of the Qur’an. The hadith (pl., ahadith) are formal narrations or reports of the doings and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad based on the memory of his closest family and companions. Hadith are the second most important source of religious guidance for Muslims and often studied alongside the Qur’an. the hadith include what the Prophet Muhammad did, what he said, and what he gave tacit approval to by watching his Companions do or say something without correcting it. The Prophet was not only a messenger conveying God’s message, but also a model to be followed in spiritual and ethical life from the manners of praying, eating and talking to the ethics of business, marriage and war. The Prophet is not considered divine or worthy of worship in anyway. It is his example that is exemplary for Muslims who seek to apply the Qur’an. He is referred to as “the walking Qur’an.” Hadith conveyed just by one person (such as an intimate companion or one of the wives of the Prophet) may still be considered authentic depending on content and context of the hadith.

Absolute Essentials of Islam (Hanafi) - SeekersGuidance Absolute Essentials of Islam (Hanafi) - SeekersGuidance

In the study of world religions, you will usually find that Islam as we know it today to be listed as one of the newest religions and certainly the youngest of the so-called Abrahamic Faiths (after Judaism and Christianity). From a purely historical perspective, there is good reason for this. The Prophet Muhammad, who history sees as the founder of Islam, is a relatively more recent figure (d.632) which makes Islam, from this perspective, only 1,448 years old. From the perspective of sacred history, however, as Muslims would understand it from their reading of the Qur’anic worldview, Islam is the oldest religion even predating the creation of human beings. Muslims view Islam as the primordial religion of the universe. If this sounds too metaphysical, simply consider the meaning of Islam – willing surrender to and harmony with God’s Will, meaning divine teachings and preferences. The notions of Muta marriage can be evidently seen in our country. In India, temporary marriage is not recognized, although there exists few who contract Muta marriage but such marriages are not enforceable in court. Hyderabad is considered to be the epicentre of the practice where marriage can be instituted for time span as short as one or two days. In a Hyderabad case it was held that there is no difference between muta for an unspecified period and a muta for life; a permanent nikah marriage for life can be contracted by the use of word muta also; specification of the period for which a muta marriage is contracted alone makes a marriage a temporary marriage for the period specified. Mutual rights of inheritance between husband and wife are established. That is to say, after the death of the husband, the wife is entitled to inherit the husband’s properties and after the wife’s death, husband may also inherit her properties.There is a noted shift in content between verses revealed earlier in Mecca (which typically appear midway to the end of the Qur’an) where the Prophet and his followers faced persecution and those revealed later on in Medina (which typically appear toward the beginning to midway of the Qur’an) when the Muslims became an organized established community ( ummah). Early Meccan verses focus on the Oneness of God, patience as a response to hardship, the importance of doing good works, condemnation of evil practices, such as female infanticide, in society, and an emphasis on the afterlife as the eternal life with vivid descriptions of heaven and hell. The marriage being void ab initio creates no rights or obligations and the children born out of such marriage are illegitimate. A marriage forbidden by the rules of blood relationship, affinity or fosterage is void. Similarly, a marriage with the wife of another or a divorced wife during iddah period is also void. Irregular (Fasid) The Qur’an is the primary religious text of Islam. Muslims consider the Qur’an to be the precise, unchanged Word of God and God’s final testament to humanity. The Qur’an was conveyed to the Prophet Muhammad via the arch angel Gabriel, who then conveyed it purely without adulteration to the masses. It has been preserved since through memorization, recitation and in the written form. This is what Muslims believe about the Qur’an.