ISLAM

10 Pages 2466 Words

The first thing that one should know and understand about Islam is what the world “Islam” means. The religion of Islam is not named after a person as in the case of Christianity which named after Jesus Christ, Buddhism after Gotama Buddha, and Confucianism after Confucius and Hinduism after the Hindus. Islam is the religion of “Allah” (God). “The Arabic word “Islam” means the submission or surrender of one’s will to the only true god worthy of worship “Allah” and anyone who does so is termed a “Muslim”, the word also implies “peace””. The name of God’s religion Islam was not decided upon by later generations of man. It was chosen by Allah Himself and clearly mentioned in His final revelation to man. Islam is the world’s second most popular religion. It began 1400 years ago in Arabia, but swiftly become a world faith, and now has around 1,200 million adherents. There are between 1.2 and 1.6 million Muslims in the UK, about 600,000 of who are active in the faith. Those who are not active still regard being a Muslim as an important part of their identity.
Islam was the religion of the first couple, Adam and Eve. It was also the religion of messengers of God like Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The real meaning of their message was the same. Islam teaches that “believe and obey one true God and obey his messengers”. Jesus (peace be upon him) was the second last prophet of God. He foretold the coming of the last Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). While the message of the earlier messengers, including Jesus was limited, but the message of Prophet Mohammad is universal and will remain so till the end of this world. Belief in Islam means belief in One God, belief in all of God’s messengers, belief in all the books sent down to His Prophets. These books include Torah and Gospel (not the Bible), belief in the existence of angels, and belief in the Day of Judgment and Life after Death, heaven and hell...