Islam and
Islamic Centers
By Mohammad A Chaudhry
Teacher/President
Islamic Center of East Bay
Pittsburg, CA
Once an American columnist
wrote, “No part of the world is more hopelessly
and systematically and stubbornly misunderstood
by us than that complex of religion, culture and
geography known as Islam”. The statement
is true except that Islam in essence and in spirit
certainly is neither complex, nor cumbersome.
In fact, its simplicity and ease-ness are its
hallmarks. Its spiritual content is the same as
that of Judaism and Christianity. The devotees
of all the three religions turn whole-heartedly
to God, and seek inspiration and guidance from
Him. Their dogmatic differences may be deep and
wide; but their focus on the spiritual quest is
the same.
What is Islam? And does Allah (God) exclusively
address the Muslims in the Qur’an are the
two frequently asked questions. Muslims’
Allah is everybody’s God. He is One, and
His Oneness is the lynch-pin of the Islamic faith.
The Qur’an defines Him as, “One, Eternal,
Everlasting, and absolutely Independent. He begets
not and neither is He begotten”. Belief
in the Oneness of God leads to the Oneness of
humanity. God addresses Himself in the Qur’an
as Rab-ul-Al-ameen (God of the Universe), and
not of Muslims alone. He is Beneficent, Loving,
Forgiving and worthy of all praise, and therefore,
He is not violence-loving. For a Muslim, it is
an unpardonable sin to think of God as One who
sanctifies terror and violence on the earth in
His name.
Muslims’ Allah is the same God as was of
Abraham’s, Moses’, Noah’s, Jonah’s,
David’s, Zackary’s and Jesus’.
This God of all mankind, is uniquely Global, and
is completely non-Racial. He speaks in the Qur’an
to the entire human race, and not to the Muslims
alone. Nowhere does God address as Ye, O Muslims,
or Arabs. Even His Prophets have not addressed
their followers with any kind of racial tinge.
Even Christ did not speak to his followers as
Ye, O Christians. He always spoke to them as human
beings, regardless of their race or culture. Similarly
Prophet Muhammad never addressed his followers
as Arabs, or as Muslims. In the minds of these
exalted Messengers of God, such labels as Christians,
Jews, and Muslims as we know never existed. The
Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad are very clear
about the Universality of God for both define
human beings as a single race.. “Ye O children
of Adam, whenever there come to you Apostles from
amongst you, rehearsing my signs unto… those
who are righteous and mend their lives…on
them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”
7:35.
One wrong perception about Prophet Muhammad is
that he repeals all the previous religions. He
did not. He just reiterated what had already been
revealed. He told the Meccans two simple things:
One to believe in the Oneness of God, and second
to strive to create a just society in which the
rich and the poor, the white and the black, the
weak and the strong would live together in peace
and in happiness in a world in which men would
not exploit the women simply because they are
weak and helpless, or usurp the property of the
orphans because they are without protection. Is
it not amazing that Allah arranges the share of
the poor grow like a tree in the riches of the
rich, and shifts the burden to dispense that share
onto the rich. The poverty virtually should have
been non-existent in the Muslim countries, and
violence a story of the past, had the rulers and
the Muslims followed the true spirit and essence
of Islam.
No single book offers solutions to such diverse
and urgent social, moral, psychological and economic
problems as; how to save a failing marriage; how
to operate a business with honor and dignity;
how to improve a society in which all live graciously
with other human beings; how to resist temptations,
appetites, passions and insatiable greed, and
live morally in their midst; how to raise children
with family values by giving them love and warmth
and how to accept their eccentricities; how to
overcome impatience by recognizing it; how to
put up with difficult people without losing ones
dignity; and most importantly how to forget and
forgive and move on in life. The Qur’an
offers solutions to all these. The reason why
Muslims still stand accused of and suffer from
multiple social and economic equalities and moral
depravities is that they recite it, but fail to
recognize their weaknesses, and defer indefinitely
their correction. The Qur’an does not require
people to believe it blindly. Prophet Jesus extolled
the virtues of compassion and humility; Prophet
Muhammad warned people of the danger of false
pride and showmanship which crawl towards us as
imperceptibly as an ant, and are as serious a
sin as Shirk, equating someone with God.
Why Muslims pray five-times in a single day? God
does not need Muslims’ prayers for He is
above all needs. Prayers are a sort of vigilant
reminder of God to man, a kind of safeguard against
indecency and evil, and are a physical demonstration
of true equality, unity and brotherhood, an expression
of man’s thankfulness to God. How can a
Muslim be a lover of violence, a suicidal bomber
when he five times a day puts himself/herself
under deposition with God as Judge, and having
acknowledged the Benevolence and Mercy and the
Universality of the Creator, prays with utmost
humility that he/she be shown the right path,
the path of those who earned His pleasure; and
not the path of those on whom befell His wrath,
and then in a single day he/she turns his/her
face 17 times to the right and 17 times to the
left, uttering the words, “May the Peace
and Blessings of Allah be on you”. Can such
a person then think of harming those on whom he/she
had showered blessings, whether they lived on
the right side or on the left, every day of the
year? Realizing that Muslims might lose the essence
of five-time prayers and make them a mere ritual
of a series of motions, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
told them to pray as if it were their last prayer
on this planet.
On the question of killing innocent people, the
Islamic worldview, based on the Qur’an and
the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is that
life is a Trust, a Gift given to humans by God,
and nobody has the right to take it away. “Nor
kill (or destroy) yourselves; for verily Allah
hath been to you Most Merciful” 4:29. “…
take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except
by way of justice and law: thus doth He command
you, that ye may learn wisdom”. 6:151. Life
is a sacred trust that should be preserved and
kept well. No degree of pain or suffering permits
suicide, not even for political reasons. As a
sublime and lofty standard, the first Caliph,
Abu Bakr while addressing the army immediately
after the death of Prophet Muhammad reminded the
Commander, “Do not kill children, women
or elderly. Allow monks to live peacefully in
their monasteries. Do not cut a tree, or kill
an animal except for food”. Violence often
is the result of a context, not a text, and those
who seek its sanctification, or those who link
it to scriptures need to be watched and corrected.
In Islam, killing of a person is likened to the
killing of humanity.
The urgent need in this mixed-up and messed-up
world of ours is for dialogue between Islam and
the West. In the words of Professor John L. Esposito,
“Those who contrast Islamic civilization
or culture with ‘our’ modern Western
culture conveniently slip into an ‘us and
them’” mentality that…implies
a “static, retrogressive them” and
a “dynamic, progressive us;” Islam
calls the diversity of cultures and humanity as
a mercy of God. Dividing the world into the boxes
of civilizations and labeling them as “civilized
and progressive”, and “barbaric and
violent”, are dangerous trends, warns the
Nobel Laureate Economist, Professor Amartya Sen.
The West should understand Islam, not because
Islam is the next great threat, but because Islam
contains so many ideas and moral values that the
West, for all its rampant secularism, still shares.
Muslims suffer the same problems that have been
long familiar to the West. Science, technology,
medicine, education are shared experiences, and
as such must be shared equitably for the harmony,
peace and betterment of human race, says Professor
John Esposito.
Islamic centers can play a very pivotal role in
promoting this much-needed understanding about
Islam. The Muslims also need to understand the
West, and the Western values, cultures and religions,
and this can happen only when both sides open
their doors and hearts to each other, and the
time has come to do so.
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