As a Muslim: What I Believe in and Why I Believe It - Essay Example

As a Muslim: What I believe in and why I believe it? As a Muslim, it is one’s first and foremost belief that God (Allah) does exist and He is there to create everything and make everything change and happen. Hence for a Muslim, it is important to believe in One God alone and that is no one but Allah. He cannot talk of Him as to how He looks like yet he can understand what He can do and bring a lot of happenings and changes in this material world. After all, this world has been created by Him and no one else. If a Muslim wants to say anything he feels like towards Allah, it should be in the righteous sense and nothing derogatory. I should say that He is one and there is no one except Him for me. I do not believe in more than one God. There is just one Allah and no one else is there to look after me and the rest of the world. Hence there is no question of any relationship between Gods, because there is only one Allah and no one else. Thinking of having more than one Gods in Islam is forbidden. It is the biggest sin and is called ‘Shirk’. Whosoever does ‘shirk’ will never see the face of Heaven and will straight go to Hell. Adding to the same discussion, Allah has time and again told through his Messenger, the Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) as well as the Holy Quran that He can forgive anyone for his worst possible deeds that he has done in this world but He would never ever forgive a person who does ‘shirk’ and believes in more than one God. Allah’s attitude towards human beings on this planet is one of a kind one. The Holy Quran, the book of Muslims says that He loves you more than 70 times a mother loves her child. Such is the significance of his love and care for the human beings and more so the Muslims scattered at different places of the world. He loves everyone and thus the reason for building up the whole world. His provision of life for one and all is testimony enough that he appreciates human beings and their existence. In the end, he has provided as well as promised food and shelter to each and every human being, thus summing up the whole topic of whether He loves us or otherwise. [Wiechman, 2006] God has directly influenced a lot of things and happenings that have taken place in the past. He has turned the color of the mountains on the request of a prophet to show the non-believers that He exists. His presence is there for one and all to see. He might not be visible but a follower of Islam can feel Him in his heart, mind and soul. God did intervene to make the non-believers realize that the Muslims cannot be taken for granted and that they are on the right path. It is also correct that God keeps intervening in the affairs of the human beings and will continue doing so as He is the supreme commander of the world and He can do whatever He feels like. Whenever someone comes up with his tainted ideology and morals that are against the basic tenets of Islam, He will surely make his presence felt by His actions and words. Allah has intervened at a lot of places within my life. He has made me realize where I have gone wrong from time to time as well as given me the right path through my sub conscious every now and then. With this intervention, I have experienced that God is there and He is there to provide me the correct source which I badly need in times of distress and worry. Every Muslim including me is of the belief that sin does exist. Sin is something which is not liked by Allah. It is not allowed in Islam and is generally not favored by the Holy Book Quran, Sunnah and Allah Himself. The Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has also discussed the topic of sin in detail. Its existence is clear through a Muslim’s feel of guilt after he commits a sin. His conscience makes him feel repented again and again until he does some good to provide solace unto his own self. Evil is defined as something which leads to sin. It is the basis of committing a sin or a bad deed in the first place. It forms the ultimate foundation for doing a whole lot of other sins on the part of a Muslim. Evil does exist even to this day in the society and its different forms are abundant. Satan was once a follower and an angel in Allah’s Heaven. He disobeyed Allah once and was thus thrown out of Heaven. He is the in charge of Hell. Whosoever does bad deeds will go to Hell. Satan forces one’s mind to think bad, come up with negative things and commit sins, forgery, adultery and a whole lot of bad deeds. Allah has mentioned about his existence as well as his bad ways in the Holy Book Quran and the last Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) has asked the followers of the religion of Islam, the Muslims to stay away from the trap of Satan. Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam and is very important on the part of a Muslim. It is not important for Allah but surely is for a follower of Islam. Praying five times a day forms up the essence of following Islam in the truest spirit that is possible. To me, prayer is very important as it will eventually decide as to whether I go to Heaven on the Day of Judgment or land up in Hell. [Khan, 2003] Faith and reason are close to each other. Faith is very important as it basically provides the basis for the belief of God, His Prophet (PBUH), Sunnah and other tenets of Islam. Without believing on these things which are fundamental to Islam, one cannot rationalize the other aspects that are linked up with it. If faith in Islam is there, reason is found out automatically in the light of the teachings of Islam and thus a connection is established as a result. Faith and religion are two sides of a coin. If faith is present in the religion of Islam itself, it forms the total basis of understanding what the religion says. It also pinpoints the different tenets, principles and beliefs of Islam as a result. Moreover, the religion has a lot of bearing courtesy the faith itself. Islam has an inspired text in the form of the Holy Book called Quran. Its nazool took place on the last Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and since then it has formed the real text behind any instruction or deed that is practiced under the umbrella of the religion of Islam. The other inspired texts have included the Hadith, which are books penned down by different scholars of the past after the same had sayings from the Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). The Fatwah (consensus) was done on these sayings so as to check for their authenticity and genuineness. There is the phenomenon of free will within the religion of Islam but then again it is under the code set by the Islamic values, the Holy Book Quran and the Prophet himself. Allah has also dictated as to what is right and what is wrong Himself and has thus detailed on the aspect of practicing free will within the set code of life known as the Zabta-e-Hayat. Having said that, the factors that limit or destroy free will include straying from the already set line of deeds under the umbrella of Islam, not following the tenets of the Holy Book Quran and doing sins day in day out. Islam has detailed us all about the Prophets. There were 124,000 Prophets. The last Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was the dearest one to Allah and his sayings and deeds remain the proverbial torchbearer one for us. I believe in all the Prophets and more so the last one. The Kaalima of Islam also suggests that there is no God but Allah and Mohammad (Peace Be upon Him) is his last Prophet. All the Prophets that have been mentioned in the Holy Book Quran and suggested by the last Prophet himself are authentic and there are no two recollections about them. Reincarnation is something that will only happen in the world hereafter. Everyone has to die and face the Day of Judgment. It is only then that one would be told about his or her future in the light of the deeds committed in this material world through a passage leading towards Heaven and another to Hell. Reincarnation would thus just be for the sake of the final day which will be 50,000 years long and everyone’s fate will be decided then and there. As a Muslim, I do believe in Heaven. It is for those who commit good deeds and teach the message of love, unity and care to brother Muslims as well as people from different religions and nationalities. Heaven and Hell would be decided for a person on the Day of Judgment and one cannot possibly know whilst living and being alive that which way he will go and where he will end up at last. By the term of Heaven, I believe that this would be one place where all the luxuries of life and hereafter would be present. There would be every amenity that a good person could not have in his life. The people who do not share the belief of Islam and are not the followers would not necessarily go towards Hell. It is up to Allah to decide who goes where and no one for sure knows where he lands up. Even a righteous, pious man in the world can end up in Hell if Allah does not like him. Since we are no judge to suggest anything, we do not have much say in the whole discussion. As a Muslim, I also believe that there is a place called Hell. The people who do bad deeds in this world would surely end up there. Every person on the face of this earth has a 50-50 percent chance of either going to Heaven or to Hell. Allah is the sole authority to decide whether one should be the recipient of which place at the very end. Hell is characterized by fire, the Satan as well as all the absurdities and silly things that one cannot even possibly imagine. The people who go to Hell would most definitely have to face all these things and thus as a Muslim, my biggest fear and worry is to stay as far as I can from the doors of Hell and make myself worthy of landing up in Heaven. Faith and morality are attached with each other since the former is within a person who has some ideals and in this case a Muslim has the belief of one God which is Allah and no one else. He believes in Allah and all His tenets, Sunnah, Quran and the last Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). If this person believes that his faith is correct, he will do such acts which will be morally right and acceptable in the eyes of Allah and the teachings as laid down in the Holy Quran and the sayings of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). Morality does not know any beliefs but since it is pretty much individualistic to a person, rest assured we can say that it is within a person and thus his faith has a lot of say in all of his deeds, acts and customs. The nature of this connection between faith and morality is one that connects down deep to an individual level where the person himself decides what is morally and ethically right or wrong and then relates it with the teachings of Islam itself. Social justice and equality has been talked about a lot in the religion of Islam. The Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the Holy Quran have given a lot of emphasis on this subject and hence it is for this reason that faith is closely tied with the subject at hand. One’s faith asks him to follow the social justice that is exercised in the society, the city and the country for that matter. [Ali, Online] It is pretty fundamental to one’s understanding and because of that reason one can fathom the embedded meaning and thus the relationship between the two of them. Thus the connection between the two is one of a close one and quite rightly pinpointed for in the teachings of Islam. Faith and international affairs are something that is also closely tied with each other. Islam has put a lot of emphasis on having good and cordial ties with non-Muslims and it is for this very reason that having good relationships with the non-believers is significant. It is also said that converting a non-Muslim to a Muslim is very highly seen in the eyes of Allah and thus the same is only possible when there is a sense of relationship between the two. In the case of different countries in the world, there needs to be a close and unified relation between the Muslim Ummah and the countries who are not founded on the concept of Islam alone. Sources Wiechman, Denis J Islamic Law: Myths and Realities 2006 Khan, Ali A Theory of Universal Democracy: Beyond the End of History The Hague, Kluwer Law International 2003 Ali, Yusuf Quran Surah-e-Al-Maeda 5:38 URL: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/005.qmt.html Word Count: 2,283 Read More