A-Z of Islam
Dr. Bilal Philips
Allah (God)
Islam is the complete submission and obedience to Allah (God). The name Allah (God) in Islam never refers to Muhammad (pbuh), as many Christians may think; Allah is the personal name of God.
What do Muslims believe about Allah?
1. He is the one God, Who has no partner.
2. Nothing is like Him. He is the Creator, not created, nor a part of His creation.
3. He is All-Powerful, absolutely Just.
4. There is no other entity in the entire universe worthy of worship besides Him.
5. He is First, Last, and Everlasting; He was when nothing was, and will be when nothing else
remains.
6. He is the All-Knowing, and All-Merciful,the Supreme, the Sovereign.
7. It is only He Who is capable of granting life to anything.
8. He sent His Messengers (peace be upon them) to guide all of mankind.
9. He sent Muhammad (pbuh) as the last Prophet and Messenger for all mankind.
10. His book is the Holy Qur'an, the only authentic revealed book in the world that has been
kept without change.
11. Allah knows what is in our hearts.
These are some of the basic guidelines Muslims follow in their knowledge of God:
1. Eliminate any anthropomorphism (human qualities) from their conception of Allah. His attributes are not like
human attributes, despite similar labels or appellations.
2. Have unwavering faith in exactly what Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) described Allah to be, no more, no
less.
3. Eradicate any hope or desire of learning or knowing the modality of His names and attributes.
4. Belief totally in all the names and attributes of Allah; one cannot believe in some and disbelieve the others.
5. One cannot accept the names of Allah without their associated attributes, i.e. one cannot say He is Al-Hayy -
'The Living' and then say that He is without life.
6. Similarity in names (or meanings) does not imply similarity in what is being described (referents). As a robotics
arm differs from a human arm, so the "hand" of Allah is nothing like a human hand, His speech is nothing like human
speech, etc.
7. Certain words are ambiguous or vague in their meanings, and thus may be susceptible to misinterpretation. Only
those meanings that are in accordance with what is specified by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) are acceptable.
Cleanliness
Islam places great emphasis on cleanliness, in both its physical and spiritual aspects. On the physical side, Islam
requires the Muslim to clean his body, his clothes, his house, and the whole community, and he is rewarded by
God for doing so. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, for example:
"Removing any harm from the road is charity (that will be rewarded by Allah)." [Bukhari]
While people generally consider cleanliness a desirable attribute, Islam insists on it , making it an indispensable
fundamental of the faith. A muslim is required to to be pure morally and spiritually as well as physically. Through
the Qur'an and Sunnah Islam requires the sincere believer to sanitize and purify his entire way of life.
In the Qur'an Allah commends those who are accustomed to cleanliness:
"Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean." [2: 22]
In Islam the Arabic term for purity is Taharah. Books of Islamic jurisprudence often contain an entire chapter with
Taharah as a heading.
Allah orders the believer to be tidy in appearance:
"Keep your clothes clean." [74:4]
The Qur'an insists that the believer maintain a constant state of purity:
"Believers! When you prepare for prayer wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; rub your
heads (with water) and (wash) your feet up to the ankles. If you are ritually impure bathe your whole body." [5:
6]
Ritual impurity refers to that resulting from sexual release, menstruation and the first forty days after childbirth.
Muslims also use water, not paper or anything else to after eliminating body wastes.
Prophet Muhammad )pbuh) advised the Muslims to appear neat and tidy in private and in public. Once when
returning home from battle he advised his army:
"You are soon going to meet your brothers, so tidy your saddles and clothes. Be distinguished in the eyes of the
people." [Abu Dawud]
On another occasion he said:
"Don't ever come with your hair and beard disheveled like a devil." [Al-Tirmidhi]
And on another:
"Had I not been afraid of overburdening my community, I would have ordered them to brush their teeth for every
prayer." [Bukhari]
Moral hygiene was not ignored, either, for the Prophet (pbuh) encouraged the muslims to make a special prayer
upon seeing themselves in the mirror:
"Allah, You have endowed me with a good form; likewise bless me with an immaculate character and forbid my
face from touching the Hellfire." [Ahmad]
And modesty in dress, for men as well as for women, assists one in maintaining purity of thought.
Being charitable is a way of purifying one's wealth. A Muslim who does not give charity (Sadaqah) and pay the
required annual Zakah, the 2.5% alms-tax, has in effect contaminated his wealth by hoarding that which rightfully
belongs to others:
"Of their wealth take alms so that you may purify and sanctify them." [9: 103]
All the laws and injunctions given by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) are pure; on the other hand, man-made laws
suffer from the impurities of human bias and other imperfections. Thus any formal law can only be truly just when
it is purified by divine guidance - as elucidated by the Qur'an and the Sunnah - or if it is divinely ordained to begin
with - the Shari'ah.
Muslims Contribution To Science
Astronomy
Muslims have always had a special interest in astronomy. The moon and the sun are of vital importance in the
daily life of every Muslim. By the moon, Muslims determine the beginning and the end of the months in their lunar
calendar. By the sun the Muslims calculate the times for prayer and fasting. It is also by means of astronomy that
Muslims can determine the precise direction of the Qiblah, to face the Ka'bah in Makkah, during prayer. The most
precise solar calendar, superior to the Julian, is the Jilali, devised under the supervision of Umar Khayyam.
The Qur'an contains many references to astronomy.
"The heavens and the earth were ordered rightly, and were made subservient to man, including the sun, the
moon, the stars, and day and night. Every heavenly body moves in an orbit assigned to it by God and never
digresses, making the universe an orderly cosmos whose life and existence, diminution and expansion, are totally
determined by the Creator." [Qur'an 30:22]
These references, and the injunctions to learn, inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. They
integrated the earlier works of the Indians, Persians and Greeks into a new synthesis. Ptolemy's Almagest (the
title as we know it is Arabic) was translated, studied and criticized. Many new stars were discovered, as we see
in their Arabic names - Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran. Astronomical tables were compiled, among them
the Toledan tables, which were used by Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. Also compiled were almanacs -
another Arabic term. Other terms from Arabic are zenith, nadir, albedo, azimuth.
Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of
Genghis Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to
advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration.
Geography
Muslim scholars paid great attention to geography. In fact, the Muslims' great concern for geography originated
with their religion. The Qur'an encourages people to travel throughout the earth to see God's signs and patterns
everywhere. Islam also requires each Muslim to have at least enough knowledge of geography to know the
direction of the Qiblah (the position of the Ka'bah in Makkah) in order to pray five times a day. Muslims were also
used to taking long journeys to conduct trade as well as to make the Hajj and spread their religion. The far-flung
Islamic empire enabled scholar-explorers to compile large amounts of geographical and climatic information from
the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Among the most famous names in the field of geography, even in the West, are Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Batuta,
renowned for their written accounts of their extensive explorations.
In 1166, Al-Idrisi, the well-known Muslim scholar who served the Sicilian court, produced very accurate maps,
including a world map with all the continents and their mountains, rivers and famous cities. Al-Muqdishi was the
first geographer to produce accurate maps in color.
It was, moreover, with the help of Muslim navigators and their inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the
Cape of Good Hope, and Da Gama and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.
Humanity
Seeking knowledge is obligatory in Islam for every Muslim, man and woman. The main sources of Islam, the Qur'an
and the Sunnah (Prophet Muhammad's traditions), encourage Muslims to seek knowledge and be scholars, since
this is the best way for people to know Allah (God), to appreciate His wondrous creations and be thankful for
them. Muslims were therefore eager to seek knowledge, both religious and secular, and within a few years of
Muhammad's mission, a great civilization sprang up and flourished. The outcome is shown in the spread of Islamic
universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo go back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest
existing universities in the world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European universities, such as
Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the familiar academic cap and gown originated at Al-Azhar
University.
Muslims made great advances in many different fields, such as geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics,
medicine, pharmacology, architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic numerals were introduced
to the world by Muslim scholars. The astrolabe, the quadrant, and other navigational devices and maps were
developed by Muslim scholars and played an important role in world progress, most notably in Europe's age of
exploration.
Muslim scholars studied the ancient civilations from Greece and Rome to China and India. The works of Aristotle,
Ptolemy, Euclid and others were translated into Arabic. Muslim scholars and scientists then added their own
creative ideas, discoveries and inventions, and finally transmitted this new knowledge to Europe, leading directly
to the Renaissance. Many scientific and medical treatises, having been translated into Latin, were standard text
and reference books as late as the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mathematics
It is interesting to note that Islam so strongly urges mankind to study and explore the universe. For example, the
Holy Qur'an states:
"We (Allah) will show you (mankind) Our signs/patterns in the horizons/universe and in yourselves until you are
convinced that the revelation is the truth." [Qur'an, 14:53]
This invitation to explore and search made Muslims interested in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and the
other sciences, and they had a very clear and firm understanding of the correspondences among geometry,
mathematics, and astronomy.
The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the
numbers into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown
quantity, i.e. variables like x.
The first great Muslim mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which was further
developed by others, most notably Umar Khayyam. Al-Khawarizmi's work, in Latin translation, brought the Arabic
numerals along with the mathematics to Europe, through Spain. The word "algorithm" is derived from his name.
Muslim mathematicians excelled also in geometry, as can be seen in their graphic arts, and it was the great
Al-Biruni (who excelled also in the fields of natural history, even geology and mineralogy) who established
trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics. Other Muslim mathematicians made significant progress in
number theory.
Medicine
In Islam, the human body is a source of appreciation, as it is created by Almighty Allah (God). How it functions,
how to keep it clean and safe, how to prevent diseases from attacking it or cure those diseases, have been
important issues for Muslims.
Prophet Muhammad himself urged people to "take medicines for your diseases", as people at that time were
reluctant to do so. He also said,
"God created no illness, but established for it a cure, except for old age. When the antidote is applied, the patient
will recover with the permission of God."
This was strong motivation to encourage Muslim scientists to explore, develop, and apply empirical laws. Much
attention was given to medicine and public health care. The first hospital was built in Baghdad in 706 AC. The
Muslims also used camel caravans as mobile hospitals, which moved from place to place.
Since the religion did not forbid it, Muslim scholars used human cadavers to study anatomy and physiology and to
help their students understand how the body functions. This empirical study enabled surgery to develop very
quickly.
Al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, the famous physician and scientist, (d. 932) was one of the greatest
physicians in the world in the Middle Ages. He stressed empirical observation and clinical medicine and was
unrivaled as a diagnostician. He also wrote a treatise on hygiene in hospitals. Khalaf Abul-Qasim Al-Zahrawi was a
very famous surgeon in the eleventh century, known in Europe for his work, Concessio (Kitab al-Tasrif).
Ibn Sina (d. 1037), better known to the West as Avicenna, was perhaps the greatest physician until the modern
era. His famous book, Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, remained a standard textbook even in Europe, for over 700 years. Ibn
Sina's work is still studied and built upon in the East.
Other significant contributions were made in pharmacology, such as Ibn Sina's Kitab al-Shifa' (Book of Healing),
and in public health. Every major city in the Islamic world had a number of excellent hospitals, some of them
teaching hospitals, and many of them were specialized for particular diseases, including mental and emotional. The
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