Islam Essay, Research Paper

Human Images of World Religion

Islam

Islam means submission, that is, submission to the will of god, the characteristic attitude of members of our faith.

Muslim is based on the same Arabic root as

Islam and means one who submits to God, that is, a believer

in Islam.

The concept of God in Islam is known as Allah the Supreme Being, the one and only God.

Allah is the same God as that worshipped by the Jews and Christians, and Arabic speaking Christians also use the name when referring to God.

Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world.

Women in Islam

The status of a woman in Islam constitutes no problem. The attitude of the Qur ran and the early Muslims bear witness to the fact that woman is, at least, as vital to life as nab himself, and that she is not inferior to him nor is she one of the lower species. Had it not been for the impact of foreign cultures and the alien influences, this question would have never arisen among the Muslims. The status of woman was taken for granted to be equal to that of man. It was a matter of course, a matter of fact, and no one, then, considered it as a problem at all.

In order to understand what Islam has established for woman, there is no need to deplore her plight in the pre-Islamic era or in the modern would of today. Islam has given woman rights and privileges, which she has never enjoyed under other religious or constitutional systems. This can be understood when the matter is studied as a whole in comparative manner, rather than partially. The rights and responsibilities of a woman are equal to those of a man but they are not necessarily identical with them. Equality and sameness are two quite different things. This difference is understandable because man and woman are not identical but they are created equals. The status of woman in Islam is something unique, something novel, something novel, and something that has no similarity in any other system. If we look to the Eastern communist world or to the democratic nations, we find that women are not really in a happy position. Her status is not enviable. She has to work so hard to live, and sometimes she may be doing the same job that a man does but her wage is less than his is. She enjoys a kind of liberty that in come cases some call libertinism. To get where she would like to be, women struggled hard for decades and gave up many of their natural rights. The tone of Islam brands that women were a seed of evil and a product of the devil.

The Quar an makes it very clear that both Adam and Eve were tempted; they both sinned and God s pardon was granted after they both repented. (Islam in focus)

Marriage in Islam

Marriage is a bond containing rights and duties that each person, male or female, should preserve, protect and fulfill. Both the husband and wife, have certain rights and duties.

Marriage is important because Allah has created men and women as company for one another, and so that they can procreate and live in peace and tranquillity according to the commandments of Allah and directions of His Messenger. Marriage is Sunna. Whosoever keeps away from it is not from me .

Marriage is an act pleasing to Allah because it is in accordance with his commandments that husband and wife love each other make efforts to continue the human race and rear and nurse their children to become true servants of Allah.

Marriage is forbidden to man, according to Hanafi school, if he does not possess the means to maintain his wife and children or if he suffers from and illness, serious enough to affect his wife and progeny. It is not desirable for a man to who possesses no sexual desire at all or who has no love for children or who is sure to be slackened in his religious obligations as a result of marriage. (Professor Abdur Rahman Center for legal Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaire)

Under the Shari ah marriages between men and women standing in a certain relationship to one another are prohibited.

A Muslim must never marry:

1. His mother

2. His step-mother

3. His grandmother (including father s and mother s mothers and all preceding mothers e.g. great grandmothers)

Worship in Islam

Many people including some Muslims misunderstand the concept of worship in Islam. Worship is commonly taken to mean performing ritualistic acts such as prayers, fasting, charity, etc. the limited understanding of worship is only one part of the meaning of worship is Islam. That is why the traditional definition of worship in Islam is comprehensive definition that includes almost everything in the individual activities. Worship is everything that one does or says for pleasure of Allah. This includes rituals as well as beliefs, social activities, and personal contributions to the welfare of one s fellow human beings.

Decent work is considered in Islam a type of worship. Whosoever finds himself at the nightfall tired of his work, God will forgive his sins. Seeking knowledge is one of the highest types of worship.

Worship in Islam, whether ritual or non-ritual, trains the individual in such a way that he loves his Creator most and thereby gains an unyielding will and spirit to wipe out all evil and oppression from the human society and make the word of God dominant in the world.