Firman Allah Ta'ala: "Sesungguhnya
manusia itu dalam kerugian - Kecuali orang-orang yang beriman dan beramal
soleh, dan mereka pula berpesan-pesan dengan kebenaran serta berpesan-pesan
dengan sabar” (Surah Al-Asr 103)
"By Time, Indeed, mankind is in loss, Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience."
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A
Paradox? A Miracle ? Or Simply, The Truth: Islam
The fact that Islam. is the
fastest growing religion in the world today, is proof that our Creator has
taken it upon Himself to perfect the Truth that He sent all His prophets and
messengers with -- from Adam (Alaihis Salam) to Muhammad
(Shall-Allahu-Alayhi-wa-Sallam (peace be on him).
Studies conducted in the West
show that the sheer number of new Muslims is changing the demographic profile
of countries all over the world, and not all of them are born into Muslim
families. With some 6 million adherents in the United States, Islam is said to
be the nation’s fastest-growing religion. One expert estimates that 25,000
people a year become Muslims in this country; some clerics say they have seen
conversion rates quadruple since Sept 11.
Ironically for a religion that
is routinely bashed for “subjugating” and “oppressing” its female followers,
the number of female reverts to Islam.outnumber the males 4:1!
The fact that more and more
people are finding their way to Islam., notwithstanding the relentless
propaganda, deliberate misinformation and outright prejudice against it, never
ceases to amaze me.
How do these people navigate in
the darkness to find the light of Islam. in spite of all the obstacles in the
way?
The answer is that our Creator
has granted each one of us a guiding light -- a pure, undefiled innate nature
called the fitrah. Unlike Christians who believe in the doctrine of Original
Sin and assert that each baby is born tainted with the sin of Adam’s
disobedience to God, Muslims believe that every child is born into a state of
purity where it recognizes its Creator and is naturally subservient to His
laws.
In his book The Fundamentals of
Islamic Monotheism, Abu Ameenah Bilaal Philips writes: Just as a child’s body
submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, its soul also
submits naturally to the fact that Allah is its Lord and Creator.
But its
parents try to make it follow their own way and the child is not strong enough
in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its parents. The religion
which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and Allah
does not hold it to account for this religion.
When the child matures in youth
and clear proofs of the falsehood of its religion are brought to it, the adult
must now follow the religion of knowledge and reason. At this point the devils
try their best to encourage him to stay as he is or to go further astray. Evils
are made pleasing to him and he must now live in the midst of a struggle
between his innate pure nature and his desires in order to find the right road.
If he chooses to follow his
innate nature, his fitrah, Allah will help him overcome his desires even though
it may take most of his life to escape, for many people enter Islam. in their
old age.
God Almighty says in
the Holy Quran:
172. And [mention] when your
Lord took from the children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants and
made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], "Am I not your
Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] - lest you
should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this
unaware." (Dan (ingatlah) ketika Tuhanmu mengeluarkan zuriat anak-anak
Adam (turun-temurun) dari (tulang) belakang mereka, dan Ia jadikan mereka saksi
terhadap diri mereka sendiri, (sambil Ia bertanya dengan firmanNya):
"Bukankah Aku tuhan kamu?" Mereka semua menjawab: "Benar
(Engkaulah Tuhan kami), kami menjadi saksi". Yang demikian supaya kamu
tidak berkata pada hari kiamat kelak: "Sesungguhnya kami adalah lalai
(tidak diberi peringatan) tentang (hakikat tauhid) ini".)
Explaining this verse, the
Prophet (Shall-Allahu-Alayhi-wa-Sallam (peace be on him) said: When Allah
created Adam (Alaihis Salam), He took a covenant from him . . . then He
extracted from him all of his descendants who would be born until the end of
the world, generation after generation and spread them out in front of Him in
order to take a covenant from them.
He spoke to them face to face
saying: Am I not your Lord? And they all replied: Yes, we testify to it.
Allah then explained why He had
all of mankind bear witness that He was their Creator and the only true God
worthy of worship. He said: That was in case you (mankind) should say on the
Day of Resurrection, “Surely we were unaware of all this. We had no idea that
You were our God.” [Silsilah Al hadith as Saheh, Narrated by ibn Abbas,
collected by Imam Ahmad]
This is the reason why people
who adopt Islaam are said to revert instead of convert, because they are going
back to their original nature -- the one they were naturally created with --
which is automatically aligned with the Universe, its Creator and His Laws; as
opposed to simply exchanging one set of beliefs for another.
Islamic
Monotheism
“The Christian sect of
Athanasians insistently inculcates the tenet that Christianity is based on a
belief in three gods (Trinity), that a slightest doubt as to this belief will
lead one to immediate perdition; and that a person who wishes to attain
salvation in this world and the next should definitely hold a belief in the
three gods: God, the Son of God, and the Holy Ghost.
An Answer
For Every Question:
“I would always search for
causes and purposes for everything. I would anticipate logical explanations for
them. On the other hand, the explanations provided by priests and other Christian
men of religion did not satisfy me. Most of the time, instead of giving
satisfactory answers to my questions, they would dismiss the matter with
evasive prevarications such as, “We cannot understand these things. They are
divine secrets” and “They are beyond the grasp of the human mind.”
Upon this I decided to study,
on the one hand, Oriental religions, and on the other hand, books written by
famous philosophers. The books written by these philosophers always dealt with
such subjects as protoplasms, atoms, molecules, and particles, and did not even
touch on reflections such as “What becomes of the human soul?” “Where does the
soul go after death?” “How should we discipline our souls in this WORLD?”
Direct
Relationship With One’s Creator:
Now
I realize I can get in direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any
other religion. As one Hindu lady told me, “You don't understand the Hindus. We
believe in one God; we use these objects (idols) to merely concentrate.” What
she was saying was that in order to reach God, one has to create associates,
that are idols for the purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers. [Yusuf
Islam, formerly Cat Stevens]
Universality:
Islam is a religion that
belongs not only to the Arabs but to the entire humanity. This universal
quality presents a sharp contrast with the Judaic religion, whose holy book
always refers to the God of Israel.
Absolute
Equality Before God, Extended Brotherhood:
There were tens of thousands of
pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed
blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same
ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in
America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and
non-white.
America needs to understand
Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race
problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and
even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but
the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I
have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors
together, irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these
words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and
experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously
held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too
difficult for me.
Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who
tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and
new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary
to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent
search for truth.
And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude. [Letter written from Makkah, by Malcolm X]
Purity
Of Prayer:
If
I were asked what impressed me most in the religion of Islam, I would probably
say the prayers, because prayers in Christianity are used wholly in begging God
(through Jesus Christ) to grant worldly favours, whereas in Islam they ar used
to give praise and thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings since He knows
what is necessary for our welfare and grants us what we need without our asking
it. [Cecilia Mahmuda Cannolly, Australian Muslim]
Women’s
Rights And Status:
No
doubt, influenced by the usual condemnation of Islam from Christian pulpits on
the subject, I picked on polygamy. At last I thought I had something; obviously
Western monogamy was an improvement on this old system. I talked of it to my
Muslim friend. He illustrated with the aid of newspaper articles how much true
monogamy there was in England, and convinced me that a limited polygamy was the
answer to the secret unions that are becoming so distressingly common in the
West.
My own common sense could see that, particularly after a war, when women of a certain age group far outnumber men, a percentage of them are destined to remain spinsters. Did God give them life for that? I recollect that on the radio programme known as `Dear Sir' an unmarried English girl had called for lawful polygamy, saying she would prefer a shared married life rather than the loneliness to which she seemed to be destined. In Islam no one is forced into a polygamous marriage, but in a perfect religion, the opportunity must be there to meet those cases where it is necessary. [Mavis B Jolly, UK]
My own common sense could see that, particularly after a war, when women of a certain age group far outnumber men, a percentage of them are destined to remain spinsters. Did God give them life for that? I recollect that on the radio programme known as `Dear Sir' an unmarried English girl had called for lawful polygamy, saying she would prefer a shared married life rather than the loneliness to which she seemed to be destined. In Islam no one is forced into a polygamous marriage, but in a perfect religion, the opportunity must be there to meet those cases where it is necessary. [Mavis B Jolly, UK]
Belief
In the Qur’an As Divine Revelation:
I read as much of the Qur’aan
as I could. I was immersed in it. As I read the verses in English, I repeated
to myself over and over again, this is what I have always thought and believed.
What kind of book was this? Before long I was reading the book and crying, and
reading and crying . . . it was as if something had overtaken me . . . I forgot what
I was looking for in particular, however when I came upon the verses in Surah
Baqarah 122-141 regarding Prophet Ibrahim (Alaihis Salam) I had found my
answer.
I had been searching for
Isma'il (Alaihis Salam), son of Prophet Ibrahim and his wife Hajar, who had
been missing from the Hebrew brothers story. In those verses I found the truth
of religion . . . They say:
135. They say, "Be Jews or
Christians [so] you will be guided." Say, "Rather, [we follow] the
religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth, and he was not of the
polytheists." (Dan mereka (kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani) berkata: "Jadilah
kamu pemeluk ugama Yahudi atau pemeluk ugama Nasrani, nescaya kamu akan
mendapat petunjuk". Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad: "Kami orang-orang
Islam tidak akan menurut apa yang kamu katakan itu) bahkan kami mengikut ugama
Nabi Ibrahim yang tetap di atas dasar Tauhid, dan bukanlah ia dari orang-orang
musyrik").
As I continued to read and cry,
I became intent upon finding someone who could connect me with others who
believed in this book! [K H Abdul Lateef, USA]
The personal example of the
Prophet Muhammad (Shall-Allahu-Alayhi-wa-Sallam (peace be on him):
I became a Muslim despite the remonstrances of my family and the oppressions of the priests of Parsee religion, which had been my religion until that time. I held fast to my religion and resisted against all sorts of threats. Now I love Allah and His last Prophet Muhammad (Shall-Allahu-Alayhi-wa-Sallam (peace be on him) more than my life [Faruq B Karai, Zanzibar]
Islam
With Stands Scrutiny And Encourages Reasoning:
Instead of asking a follower to
believe in its precepts just ”because” or someone asks them to, Islaam
encourages people to think for themselves, reflect on the signs of God in
Creation and within their own selves. Little wonder then that a sizable number
of reverts are thinking people: scientists, astronomers, philosophers, doctors.
As created beings who can
neither grant life nor ward off death, we owe it to ourselves and The One Who
Created Us to discover the Truth, to follow it and to facilitate others to do
the same.
Remember: "Do not let yourself left by the train"
