THE WISE, BEAUTIFUL & LOVING TEACHINGS OF ISLAM
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST COMPASSIONATE, THE MOST MERCIFUL.
MAY THE PEACE, COMPASSION & GRACE OF GOD BE UPON YOU!
This is a small effort to try to present the wise, beautiful and loving teachings of Islam to counter the negative perceptions of Islam brought about by the behaviour of certain Muslims who portray Islam as being intolerant, full of hatred, unjust, backward and oppressive (especially to women and to non-Muslims).
Islam as practised by the Taliban and ISIS, and even by majority populations of some Muslim countries does not seem to be the religion coming from The Most Compassionate God. These "Muslims" insult, harm and even kill anyone who disagrees with them, including other Muslims. They are intolerant of non-Muslims and always find fault with them. They limit or ban women from getting education, and impose their strict and narrow interpretations of Islam upon others. When they are in power, they are unfair and unjust towards the non-Muslims, deny their rights to practise their religions in peace, often forcing them to convert to Islam, and deny their equitable rights to the assistance and privileges accorded to Muslim citizens.
All these give the wrong picture about what Islam is. Many non-Muslims thus have a perverted view of Islam. I hope this article can help rectify this, and the non-Muslims can have a better idea of what Islam really is.
Note that Muslims believe the Qur'an to be entirely the verbatim Word of God. The sayings (and records of his deeds pertinent to the religious practices) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)* are recorded separately in the Hadiths. The religious examples he practised in his exemplary life is called the Sunnah.
*PBUH = Peace be upon him.
WHAT IS ISLAM?
In Part 1; WHAT IS ISLAM, I had explained that:
1. Islam is a religion (Way of Life) formulated, revealed, proclaimed and named by God (Allah) in the Qur'an. It is not a man-made religion, but made by God.
2. It is the only religion chosen and approved by God.
3. It was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who was the chosen Messenger to convey, teach and exemplify this Way of Life. His explanations and actions illustrating these teachings are recorded in the Hadiths, and his exemplary life is called the Sunnah (for the Muslims to emulate as much as is possible and practical).
4. Islam, if understood and practised correctly, will bring peace, harmony and prosperity to the believers (Muslims), their families, communities and nations.
5. However, because many Muslims do not fully understand or correctly practise the true teachings of Islam, we seldom see these expected results. Often there is so much difference between what Islam teaches, and how the Muslims behave.
You can read WHAT IS ISLAM here: https://dramirfaridisahak.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-wise-beautiful-loving-teachings-of.html
Therefore to understand and appreciate the real Islam, let us look at some of its wise, beautiful and loving teachings.
My favourites are:
1. The Absolute Oneness of God
2. God (Allah) is Most Compassionate, Most Merciful and Most Loving
3. Justice in Islam = Justice with Wisdom & Compassion for All
4. The Honour and Dignity given to Women
5. The Command to be Loving, Merciful & Kind to All of Humanity and All of Creation.
1. THE ABSOLUTE ONENESS OF GOD
2. GOD (ALLAH) IS
MOST COMPASSIONATE, MOST MERCIFUL & MOST LOVING
3. JUSTICE IN ISLAM =
JUSTICE WITH WISDOM & COMPASSION FOR ALL.
The purpose of Islam is to guide humanity towards a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous co-existence. For that to be possible, there must first be a harmonious order in the personal life, families and communities. Thus the human being needs a just set of guidelines to live by so that nobody is deprived of his rights, or disadvantaged. Everything must be fair and equitable so that there is no discontent that can start trouble that can snowball to bigger disputes.
Of course there will be bad people who deliberately go against the just rules. There must also be just ways to contain, admonish and punish them, to prevent their mischief from causing more disharmony and breaking down the society. But they also must not be over-punished.
Then there are those who transgress out of desperation. For example, sometimes the poor and the destitute steal food for their families, otherwise they would starve. The rules must be applied with full consideration of the circumstances. In fact, in such cases, it is the community that is at fault for not taking care of the poor among them!
Hence Justice, applied with wisdom and compassion, is the core of Islamic sharia (rules, regulations and laws).
He was a Harvard Law Professor, first President of the Harvard Law Society and founder of the Harvard International Law Journal. He was so impressed with the pronouncements and laws on justice in the Qur'an that he concluded its author can only be GOD (and certainly not an illiterate man somewhere in the desert of Arabia). He said that the law on inheritance in the Qur'an is superior in justice to all other similar laws, yet it was delivered in only a few verses while some of the other inheritance laws formulated by others took volumes of books to be properly understood. Thus he converted to Islam at age 52 and took the Muslim name Farooq Abdul Haq.
To those who do not understand Islam fully, including many Muslims, Islam seems to be a male chauvinistic religion. Many Muslims unfortunately perpetuate this wrong image by their practice of making women as second-class members of their families. Worse still, in some Muslim communities the cultures that discriminate heavily against women dominate their practices, above and over what Islam actually teaches. Thus people wrongly surmise that what they practice is part of Islam. Genital mutilations, honour killings, prohibition of women from getting educated are some of the non-Islamic practices rampant in some Muslim communities.
Islam puts women on a pedestal. They are to be treated and protected as honoured members of the family and the society. While the father is the head of the family in terms of providing sustenance, accommodation, security and education, it is the mother who has the highest right to obedience by her children. While a husband is the leader, protector and provider for the wife, she is to be pampered as his queen and not become his servant. While the sons are expected to become independent and help provide for the family soonest as they mature, the daughters remain the responsibility of the father (and mature brothers) until they get married.
So you can see that there is much bias in favour of women, and not the opposite as in seen in many Muslim communities.
The image of Muslim women has been smeared for many centuries by Western bias. The most classic is the depiction of the covered Muslim women as being a sign of oppression, while the similar cover of the Christian nun is regarded as a sign of modesty, chastity and dignity.
THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN ISLAM
Islam gave women many rights unheard of in the Western world until the last 2 centuries. Islam emancipated women when the largely Christian West was still holding women in bondage. Unfortunately, the wrong practices of Muslim men made it seem that Islam is backward in terms of women's rights.
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