During Pre-Islamic Arabia, many people would worship idols, which in the Islamic sense is the biggest sin of all. This is because God is transcendent and nothing is like Him. Muhammad the "Seal of Prophets" disapproved this and invited the worshippers to accept Islam however many rejected it. However know tawhid is seen as highly crucial in term of pre-Islamic Arabia at it proves that there is only one true creator therefore proves that the earlier Muslims were correct both in literal and spiritual sense.
Muslims believe in God as being unique and exceptional. They believe God is like which cannot be compressed and limited. As a result The Trinity still caused problems between Muslims and Christians as believe in the Trinity, the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit whereas’ Muslims strongly believe that Allah has no associates. If so it would mean that He would have emotions towards them like a son or wife for whom He would need to be a Finite and would limit His powers. They also believe that if God were three then He would be divided into three different personalities, which in Islam is not possible. The oneness of God cannot be three different elements.
Muslim’s believe that the birth of Jesus was a miracle. He was born of a virgin Maryam, without a father, by Allah’s command .Allah as mentioned is the most powerful and nothing is impossible for his. When he wants something to be done, He only says, ‘Be’ and the command is fulfilled.
Muslims like Ghulam Sarwar back up their beliefs with the fact that Adam was created by Allah without a father or a mother, so why isn’t it possible for Jesus to be born without a father.
Muslims believe in Jesus as a prophet and a servant of Allah but not as the son of Allah. Allah has no associate he is above any such notion. Allah is One and indivisible. In other words Tawhid equals simplicity. There is no idea of a trinity in Islam. A Trinity is clearly a collection of entities (Shirk) it is a sin to say anyone is the son of Allah .
It could be argued that if God is Finite then why is He described in the Quran as Siting on His thorn?. This would limit God and may make Him finite. Different Muslims have different views on this amongst which are the Mu’tazilites they believe that all the descriptions of Allah are non- physical and metaphorical. They totally reject any human attributes of Allah and preserve Allah’s oneness by saying that there are things, which only Allah knows and nothing bad can be said about him. However the Asharites theory is that Allah does have attributes but claims that Allah’s attributes are different to humans. In this way he still preserves the purity and the oneness of Allah. However the traditional orthodox Muslims view point to this is that that Allah can’t be divided into different attributes as this would we would undermine his powers however feel that He has a huge no. Of Names being used to describe the qualities He has demonstrated to the humans through out his messengers. They justify their beliefs with the following revelation of God; Allah says:
"No son did Allah beget, nor is there any god along with Him: (if there were many gods), behold, each god would have taken away what he had created and some would have lorded it over others! Glory to Allah! (He is free) from the (sort of) things they attribute to Him"
Muslims believe God is part of the universe he has created therefore science and the learning will be a discovery of God. He understands and is close to each individual: as described by the Sufis "God it as close to us as our jugular vein". The great mystery of God in the Quran is that He is both transcendent and immanent. He is unique and merciful towards his creation.
Allah has created everything in accordance with His decree, predestination, desire and will, and in due proportion. His determination of the nature of things was established fifty thousand years before He created the Heavens and the earth.” Nothing occurs or takes shape within the heavens or the earth but with His knowledge and by His order”.
A Muslim believes in Qadaa and Qadar, which relates to the ultimate power of Allah. Qadaa and Qadar mean the timeless Knowledge of Allah and His power to plan and execute His plans. Nothing can happen without the will and knowledge of Allah. Allah knows the destiny of every creature , due to all power of Foreknowledge. Everything, which happens, occurs for a reason, which we some times don’t understand.
However Muslims feel that each individual has free will. They believe that even thought Allah knows what option the person will make, He does not force anyone to do anything, as He is the Most Just and merciful. The fact that Allah knows what we are going to do doesn’t affect our freedom of choice. However making the right choice is seen as responsibility. Man does not know what his destiny is this is why he can choose the path he will take.
Sufis claim that we their instincts, our destiny is pre-decided although we don’t yet know it.
By believing in Al- Qadar we testify that Allah is the only true controller of the actions of his universe. It is He who decides what is good and what is bad. It is meaningless to argue whether or not human’s beings have any freedom or not. We decide for ourselves what we will or wouldn’t do.
As said by Ghulam Sarwar “ we are responsible for our own actions. This freedom of action does not clash with the foreknowledge of Allah”.
However some people may argue that why does suffering occur? Why is there evil in the world? Why are their disabled and handicapped people in the world? . Questions like these are very difficult to answer, as we don’t know the causes of them or the consequences. Allah may be testing individual’s beliefs by putting them through hard times like these or keeping people in these conditions to keep the people around them safe.
It is wrong to believe that lucky charms may have power to over come evil doings or they have more power then Allah, this limits the powers of God yet God is limitless, infinite.
Islam refuses to accept the idea of Fatalism, which suggests that people are helpless because Allah allows humans to have conscious minds and the freedom of making choices; Muslims believe our choices will be the results on which we will face our future judgement.
Allah is the almighty, Creator, all-powerful and Merciful. He did not leave humans alone at any time, instead sent down Risalah (prophets) to create the channel of communications between Allah and mankind. Since the beginning of the Creation, Allah has sent down His Guidance for mankind through His selected people like Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus as well as many more.
The main teachings of the Quran concerning Prophets is that they bring God’s message and give the set guidelines to the Muslims in-order for them to follow these and live as Allah wanted them to. Although these messengers received the message from an angel they were all human and subjects of Allah.
All the prophets except Jesus were married and have children. However Muslims believe that the Prophets were sinless once they were called by God and they should all be respected and blessed.
Every Prophet or Messenger before Muhammad, peace be on him, was sent to his own people, but Muhammad, peace be on him, He was sent to all mankind. Allah says, "Blessed is He Who Sent down the Criterion To His Servant, that it May be an admonition to all Creatures" this proves that He is the almighty and cares for His creation. It is believed that the mission of all the prophets was always to re-enforce the human kind to their true creature, God and make them believe in the oneness of Allah.
None of Allah's Messengers or Prophets claimed to be God or a part of God. They all bought down the same message this was ‘Worship Allah and there is no God for you but He’ Although there are only twenty five prophets mentioned in the Quran, according to a saying of Muhammad PBHU there are 124,000 prophets which have been sent down. Adam being the first and Muhammad marking the ‘Seal of prophets’ According to the Quran, each prophet was given God’s message for their generation, but their words were either ignored, forgotten or destroyed, as a result God had to send a new Prophet with the original prophet.
Muhammad is seen as the last prophet (Seal of Prophets) who was sent down the Quran by God as the last source of Guidance. He was born in the tribe of Quraish in Mecca, Arabia in 570 CE and started to preach at the age of 40 years after the first revelation. Like the other prophets his message was to convince different religious believers of the oneness of Allah. Muhammeds mission was to bring the people back to the roots of their religion and giving them a focal point to their beliefs.
Once again Allah sent down guidance’s for his creation but this time to warn them about the consequences they would need to face if they didn’t accept Allah’s oneness and his grace towards them. Allah reminds the people about the life after death and how they will need to justify all their actions.
As well as the prophets and messengers Allah also sent down books of Guidance to ensure the humans new how to live their lives according to the will of Allah and how to make this world a happy and peaceful place to live in. The five well-known books revealed to them are: Sahifa (Scroll) sent to Abrahim, Tawrah (Torah) sent to Moses, Zabur (Psalms) sent to David, Injil (Gospels) sent to Jesus and the Quran sent to Muhammed. For the first four books, Allah sent down the revelation in the most popular language the nation understood but they were all corrupted. However the Quran is still in its original form, as Muhammad received it in such a form that it could never be corrupted. He originally recited it and later during the period of the Rightly Guided Caliphs the third Caliph Uthman codified it.
Muslims believe that Muhammad has restored Islam to what Allah wants it to be, and it can never go wrong therefore no further prophets will be needed.
As Muhammad is considered as the ‘seal of the prophets’ there are some issues surrounding this, such as firstly, Muslims starting to follow Muhammad rather then the Quran, which will be seen as Shirk. This could be due to the importance given to the Hadith and the Sunnah as this was these are the final examples Allah has sent them. Secondly there will be no other beliefs other what are in the Quran. This could cause problems for re-interpretations in the light of the modern world such as the role of women, dress code to a certain extent and other problems, which can be discussed in relation to the secularisation of Muslims.
And finally anyone claiming to have new messages cannot be a Muslim. This causes problems for shias, as they believe in the imams receiving revelation from Allah through the same angel. Muslims such as the Sunni’s have been taught that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets and no further revelation would be sent down to earth via any other person or angel.
Prophecy shows God love, compassion and grace towards His creation. It shows that he is Just and doesn’t want to punish anyone if they were not shown the guidance at all.
Although Allah has sent down guideness through prophets and books, He has given every indivisible the right of freedom. There would have been no point in Allah sending massagers if there were no possibility of making a free will.
Muslims must respect and pay attention to the Divine Guidance God has provided by the Prophets and the revelations they were sent. Allah will judge each individual according to how they used their free will, if they followed the Guidance provided and made the correct choices they will be rewarded and if not then punished on the day of Akhirah (judgement day).
All Muslims believes in Akhirah- (belief in the Final Judgement and life after death). They accept that human life is divided into two sections one on earth with the soul and the body figure created by God and the other the eternal life that follows for the soul only. The eternal life is given far more importance then the life on earth. Muslims consider that life on earth is the test for which they will either be awarded or punished when it ends. ‘Be sure We will test you with something of fear and hunger, but give glad tidings to those who patiently perserve’
Muslims believe that everything do or think is known by our guardian angels, which keep full records on which our judgement will be based. This helps the person bare in mind at all times about whether they are living their life according to the guidelines set by Allah. Part of the belief in Akhirah is the belief that Islam is the complete way of life and not just a religion. The Muslim should always be aware of the their submission to Allah as they will judged on how well they have shown their submission to Allah during their life.
Some people may say if Allah is Merciful, loving and caring then why is the heaven and hell needed? Well, as well as Allah being Merciful and caring He is Fair and Just, He will not allow any one to get away after committing a sin. Allah provided them the guidelines, which they were to follow if they decided to avoid them, and then they only have themselves to blame. Allah sent down Prophet-hood at almost every generation to constantly re-call mankind to accept the oneness of Allah and worship Him as their only true creator, however the message has been corrupted at every stage and people went back to their beliefs like worshiping idols/ natural elements like the sun which was created by God for the benefit of His creation instead His creation refused to accept Him and began worshipping His creations.
God is the most just and will be fare to the people with good deeds by generously rewarded and warmly welcoming them into the heaven He has created. However for the people who have committed sins, they will be fairly punished and sent to hell.
All as mentioned above is the most fair and all-knowing He knows the reasons behind each persons wrongdoing and will be able to judge fairly without being biased.
The Quran has much revelation, which show what the consequences of not following the Divine Guidance will be. It portrays an image of heaven as being a comfortable and a pleasant place whereas hell is described as very hot and discomforting.
The full description of heaven and hell can be found in Surah 56 v 1-56 the Quran indicates that even if a Muslim is put into hell they will be sent to heaven after some time. Only Allah knows the real nature of Heaven and hell, but has describes them in the man’s familiar terms in the Quran.
Over all Allah is the most merciful and compassionate and all knowing. He has firstly created the earth for humanity. As He has the Ability of for knowledge He saw the need of Prophet-hood who He could send down to provide Guidance for His creation. Therefore sent down Divine Guidance through prophets and revelations setting down Rules and Guidelines for the Muslims to follow. The main message Allah sent down to each generation was His oneness and unity.
Although Allah is the most powerful and can pre-destine the future He gave men kind the right to free will. However He already knew what their choice would be and has therefore created rewards and punishments, which will be revealed to them on the day of Judgement.
Bibliography:
Books used:
Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic world page 190.
The Holy Quran Abdullah Yusuf Ali Maryland USA 1989
Holy Quran with English trans Maulana Fateh Mohammed trans Marmaduke Pickthal New Delhi 1997
The Life Of Prophet Muhammed Husayn Haykal, Tran, Ismail Al- Faruqi, Indiana 1976
Introduction to Islam Hamidullah London 1997
The World’s Religion Islam Peter Clarks London 1990
Muslims: Andrew Rippin London 1991
Their religious Beliefs and practices Vol 1
Islam: A students approach Victor W. Watton London 1998
Reference:
Encyclopaedia Of Religion, Islamic Concept Vol 5 (Software on Computer)
On- line Britannica Encyclopaedia
Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic world page 190.
Quran: surah 19 verses 17 – 21.
Islam Beliefs and teachings
Islam Beliefs and teachings author: Ghulam Sarwar p 24
Quran- Soorah Aal' Imraan 3:64
Islam beliefs and teachings by Ghulam Sarwar P-26
Quran Surah 2 v 155, & Islam by Victor W. Watton p 23