Notes on Islam

 

            Islam is one of the most popular religions of the world today, with the other three being Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism. Islam is not regarded as it should be by very many, as one of the great exponents of Divine Wisdom. As a religion, it is often unfairly attacked because it is utterly misunderstood as to the greatness of its Prophet and the nobility of his teachings to the world. There are however hundreds of religious sects that branch out from the four main religions and other religious teachings that existed much earlier than the said four. Without exception, all religious teachings guide human beings to the realization of God, and its attainment, oneness with Him, or enlightenment by means of the holy writings and purification of body, and character and meditation.  Every religion is founded to help man unite his lower vehicles or the material, emotional, and the concrete mind to his true spiritual nature.

 

The Founder

 

            Muhammad was born on 29^th August 570 AD in Mecca of the Quraish clan. A few weeks before his birth his father had died – his father who in the full bloom of his manhood had been given up by his own father as a human sacrifice, and whose wife was saved as it were by a miracle by the mouth of the temple priestess, who bade that the youth be spared. His widowed mother, widowed but a few weeks, gives birth to Muhammad. Within few years she too died and followed her husband to the grave. He grows up in his grandfather’s house a quiet, silent child, loving, gentle, patient, and beloved by all. A few years later, his grandfather died too and his uncle Abu Talib took him to his home where he grows up to manhood. As a young trader of 24 years old, he traveled to Syria where he saw human events and scenes around him. He traveled in Syria for a kinswoman, older than himself, named Khadija. She found Muhammad faithful, frugal, pure, trustworthy and married him, and they became man and wife. They were married for 26 years until his wife died when he reached the age of 50 years old.

 

            After his marriage, come 15 years of thought, of quiet outer life, of terrible inward struggle. When he walks through the streets of Mecca often the children run out and cling around his knees. He has ever a tender word for the child, a caress for the little one, and is known never to break his word. They called him “Al-Amin,” “the trustworthy”. During his 15 years of terrible inward struggle, the future Prophet found himself into the desert cave in solitude, month after month, in meditation, in prayer, in bitter self-doubt and self-questioning, in wondering what is the message that he hears: “In the name of thy Lord, cry.” Who is he that he should cry? What is he to cry? Muhammad in doubt, in anguish, with self-despair of his own power, illiterate, untrained, how shall he trust the inner voice that calls him? Then one night as he lies on the ground in agony, a light shines around him from Heaven, and a glorious form stands before him: “Rise, thou art the Prophet of God; go forth and cry in the name of they Lord.” “What shall I cry?” “Cry,” the Angel says; and then he teaches him of the building of the worlds, and the making of man, teaches him of the unity of God, and of the mystery of the Angels, teaches him of the work that lies before him. He the most solitary of men, with a nation around him, he is to go forth and cry, and cry in the name of his Lord.

 

            He rushed back home, and on the ground at home he falls, and his wife was there and asked her: “What shall I do? Who am I? What am I?” “Nay,” says the faithful wife, “thou art true and faithful, thy word is never broke, men know they character; God does not deceive the faithful; follow the voice then, obey the call.” And the voice of the faithful wife, the first disciple, gives the touch of courage to the human heart that fails before the greatness of the mission, and he stands up, now no longer simply Muhammad, but he Prophet of Arabia, the man who will turn Arabia into a settled state, a mighty power, and whose followers will carry the torch of science and re-light it in Europe where it had died, and found mighty empires, and who will be moved by a devotion to the Founder second to that felt in no other faith. His next disciples are his nearest relatives. That says something for the man. It is easy to gain disciples in a crowd, a crowd who do not know you, a crowd who see you only on the platform, a crowd who hear you only in the set speech, or in answering spoken questions. But to be a Prophet to the wife, and to the daughter, and to the son-in-law, and to the close relatives- that is to be a Prophet indeed, a triumph very very seldom if ever won by someone.

 

            Then comes his first public sermon, preaching of the unity of God, preaching against human sacrifice, preaching against lust, and drunkenness, and foulness of life. Then some more gather round him, touched by the fire that is breathed from his inspired lips. But with the gathering of others round him, fierce persecution breaks out, and tortures horrible, unbearable almost by human flesh and blood. They tear his followers in pieces; they thrust them through with stakes; they put them on the burning sand with faces upturned to the Arabian sun, and with heavy rocks upon their chests; they bid them deny God and His Prophet; and the disciples die murmuring: “There is but one God and Muhammad is His Prophet.” The torturer asked his follower: “Would not you rather that Muhammad were in your place, and you at home?” “As God is my witness, I would not be at home with wife and children and substance, if Muhammad were for that to be pricked by a single thorn.” Such love he inspired in those who died for him.

 

            The persecution grows more terrible and at last his disciples fly in every direction till all are gone but one, and the Prophet, who will not fly, and his uncle, Abu Talib, the Noble, who has never joined him. Abu Talib asked him to give up this hopeless cause but Muhammad the Prophet said: “Nay,” “O my uncle, if they placed the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left, to force me to renounce my work, verily I would not desist therefrom until God made manifest His cause, or I perished in the attempt.”  

 

            The Prophet tried to win few converts among traders visiting Mecca, and the one pledge taken by 6 converts in the hill of Akaba is called “The Pledge of Akaba”. The pledge says: “We will not associate anything with God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor fornication; we will not kill our children; we will abstain from calumny and slander; we will obey the Prophet in everything that is right; and we will be faithful to him in weal and sorrow.” Finally, only one faithful old man, Abu Bakr, and Ali remain with the Prophet, and he resolves to fly. His enemies had cooped him up in the small house, and the assassins tried to reach him, and he escaped by a window. It is the year 622 AD, that men call Hijra, the Hegira, the leaving of Mecca, but the beginning of the Muslim Era. He went to Medina and they welcome him and the disciples begin to crowd around him, and he is made the ruler of the State.

 

            His enemies with big band of followers followed him from Mecca to continue the mission to kill him. He has only a small band of followers to engage in the first battle of his life called “The Battle of Badr.” The Prophet cried aloud: “O Lord! If this little band were to perish, there will be none to offer unto Thee pure worship.” There was a furious struggle; blasts of bitter wind and sand seem to fight for the Muslims. The victory is won, for the forces of the divine power are with him, and he is indeed to be seen by all men as the Prophet of the Lord. The battle was Muhammad first bloodshed – repelling an attack. Now he is no longer a private individual, forgiving all wrongs done to him; he is ruler of a State, general of an army with duties to the followers who trust him.

 

            In one won battle that followed years after, the spoils had been divided, but those who followed him longest were not given anything and there was complaint and anger among them. The Prophet explained:

 

“Ye Ansar. I have learnt the discourse ye hold among yourselves. When I came amongst you, you were wandering in darkness, and the Lord gave you the right direction; you were suffering, and He made you happy; at enmity among yourselves, and He has filled your hearts with brotherly love and concord. Was it not so, tell me?” “Indeed, it is even as thou sayest,” was the reply, “to the Lord and his Prophet belong benevolence and grace,” “Nay, by the Lord,” continued the Prophet, “but ye might have answered, and answered truly, for I would have testified to its truth myself: Thou camest to us reject as an impostor, and we believed in thee; thou camest as a helpless fugitive, and we assisted thee; poor and an outcast, and we gave thee an asylum: comfortless, and we solaced thee.” Ye Ansar, why disturb your hearts because of the things of this life? Are you not satisfied that others should obtain the flocks and the camels, while ye go back to your homes with me in your midst? By Him who holds my life in His Hands, I shall never abandon you. If all mankind went one way and the Ansar another, verily I would join the Ansar. The Lord be favorable unto them and bless them, and their children, children’s children,” They wept, the rough warriors, until their “tears ran down upon their beards,” says the chronicler: “Yea Prophet of God, we are well satisfied with our share.”

 

The Prophet continued his rule for the next ten years until  June 8, 632 AD when he finally left his worn out body to watch over from a higher sphere the religion that he founded and guarded.

 

ESSENTIAL QUALITY OF HIS TEACHINGS

 

Trustworthiness

 

            From childhood, Muhammad had shown a wonderful and admirable quality of trustworthiness as already mentioned earlier when children flock with him because of his unceasing care and love for them, and his trustworthiness as employed by a woman who eventually became his wife He is known not to have broken his word; his followers have complete confidence and trust on him and are willing to die for him.

 

Charity

 

            The Prophet has a wonderful definition of charity when he says:

 

            “Your smiling in your brothers’ face is charity; an exhortation addressed to your fellow-men to do virtuous deeds is equal to almsgiving. Putting a wanderer in the right path is charity; assisting the blind is charity; removing stones and thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity; giving water to the thirsty is charity.”

 

Forgiveness

 

            He commanded to slay the infidels, but he defines the infidels as those who do not follow righteousness. There are two sets of these commands:

 

1.              Slay the infidels

2.              Slay the infidels when he attacks you and will not let you practice your religion.#

 

#Some say that the essence of Jihad, the holy war springs from this command. The present several conceptions of Jihad come possibly from the ignorant followers who often act wrongly, where the Prophet speak the truth. Judge then a religion by its noblest, and not by its worst, and then we shall learn to love each other as brothers, and not have each other as bigots and as fanatics. (Mystically speaking, another says that Jihad is the attempt to control and discipline the lower material selves of man by his true spiritual or higher Self.)

 

It has been authoritatively ruled by Muhammadan jurists that when there is an absolute and a conditioned command, the latter (the conditioned command) must be taken as defining and limiting the former.

 

            Yet, the Prophet also encouraged forgiveness when the infidels desist from opposing Islam* so that the past can be forgiven. He says:

 

            “Invite men unto the way of the Lord by wisdom and mild exhortation; and dispute with them in the most condescending manner, for the Lord well knoweth him who strayeth from His path, and He well knoweth those who are rightly directed. Let there be no violence in religion. If they embrace Islam* they are surely directed; but if they turn their backs, verily unto thee belongeth preaching only.”

 

            In his first won battle, “The victory of Badr,” only two men were executed contrary to the Arab usage during his time. The prisoners were treated with greatest kindness giving them bread and only dates for themselves. The Prophet reiterated that there should be no violence in religion.  He defines the infidels are unjust doers, evil actors, not those merely outside Islam, for we shall see, Islam, in the mouth of the Prophet was not identical with that of his followers. The Prophet encouraged his followers not to quarrel with other religions even though idolatrous. All will appear before God on the last day and God will explain to them their disagreement.

 

Righteousness

 

            This is how he defines righteousness:

 

            “It is not righteousness that you turn your faces in prayer towards the East or the West; but righteousness is of him who believeth in God and the Last Day and the Angels, and the Scriptures, and the Prophets; who giveth money for God’s sake unto his kindred, and unto orphans, and the needy, and the stranger, and those who ask, and for redemption of captives; who is constant at prayer, and giveth alms; and of those who perform their covenant when they have covenanted, and who behave themselves patiently in adversity, and in hardships, and in time of violence.”

 

Humility

 

            One day he was talking to a rich man when a blind man cried aloud: “O Prophet of God, teach me the way to salvation.” Muhammad did not listen, for he was talking to a wealthy man. Again he cried aloud: “O Prophet of God, show me the way to salvation.” The Prophet frowned, and turned aside. On the very next morning, there came a message that for ever remains in Al Quran, as testimony of his honesty and humility. Here is how it   was written:

 

            “The Prophet frowned and turned aside because the blind man came to him; and how dost thou know whether he shall peradventure be cleansed from his sins, or whether he shall be admonished and the admonition shall profit him? The man who is wealthy thou receivest respectfully; whereas it is not be to charged on thee that he is not cleansed: but him who cometh unto thee earnestly seeking his salvation, and who feareth God, dost thou reject. By no means shouldst thou act thus.”

 

Devotion

 

            The Prophet has nurtured among his followers strong devotion in God as evidenced by the petition that is still preserved.

 

            “We adored idols; we lived in unchastity; we ate dead bodies, and spoke abominations; we disregarded every feeling of humanity, and the duties of hospitality and neighborhood; we knew no law but that of the strong; when God raised among us a Man, of whose birth, truthfulness, honesty and purity, we were aware; and he called us to the unity of God; and taught us not to associate anything with him, he forbade us the worship of idols, and enjoined us to speak the truth, to  be faithful to our trusts, to be merciful, and to regard the rights of our neighbors; he forbade us to speak evil of women, or to devour the substance of orphans; he ordered us to fly from vices, and to abstain from evil, to offer prayers, and render alms, to observe the fast. We have believed in him, we have accepted his teachings.”

 

Faith

 

            The Prophet’s first converts were asked to make a pledge, now known as the pledge of Akaba as the proof of their faith with God.

 

            “We will not associate anything with God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor fornication; we will not kill our children; we will abstain from calumnies and slander; we will obey the Prophet in everything that is right; and we will be faithful to him in weal and sorrow.”

 

PHILOSOPHICAL AND MYSTICAL TEACHINGS

 

Islam*

 

            The Al Quran describes God as:

 

            “God, there is no God but He, the living, the self-subsisting; neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to Him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and on earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not comprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both is no burden unto Him. He is the High, the Mighty.”

 

            The Prophet often use the word Islam which means “bowing to surrender.” He often says that there is but one religion, Islam. Islam in the mouth of the Prophet means surrender to the Divine Will**of God; and he calls all holy men of old, men who lived long before his time, followers of Islam. The surrender  to the Divine Will is recognized by every religionist as a duty, and Islam as used by the Prophet, has this inclusive meaning; in this sense every true faith is Islam. This is how Al Quran defines the believer of Islam:

 

            “There is no distinction between Prophets. Every one of the Prophets believed in God, His angels and His scriptures and His apostles. We make no distinction at all between His apostles. We believe in God and that which hath been sent down unto us, and that which was sent down unto Abraham and  Ismail and Isaac and Jacob and other tribes, and that which was delivered to Moses and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord; we make no distinction between any of them. They who believed in God and His apostles and make no distinction between any of them, unto those will we give their reward, and God is gracious and merciful.”

 

** All ancient faiths accept that God manifest Himself through His divine Will, Love, and universal intelligence.

 

Oneness (Unity of God)

 

            This is a teaching of every faith, the faith of the Arabian Prophet. He is taught the unity of God as the King, the Ruler, the Governor, the Supreme Logos. Other faith call God, Eshvara, or the Father. He begetteth not neither is He begotten; and there is not anyone like unto Him. That is the heart of the teaching; that is the supreme message; for every religion has a special word to speak and a special message to deliver.  And as the great word of Hinduism is the universality of the Self, the God who is in all and all men one with Him, so the great word of Islam is the unity of God as Ruler.

 

            In the year following the flight from Mecca, forty five (45) poor men bound themselves together to follow God and His Prophet to live as a community and to observe ascetic practices. It is the seed of Sufism, the mystic side of Islam. They teach those who listen that “all is from God.” There is nothing save God, and that the universe is but a mirror of Him. They teach that there is one perfect beauty and that all that is beautiful is only a ray from Him. They teach there is only one love, the love of God, and all other loves are only loves as they form part of that. They teach that He alone is true Being and that all else is non-being, and that man who is Himself can by illumination rise from non-being to Being and return whence he came. (To the Christian, this is a familiar story in parable about the prodigal son.)

 

            Two poetry of Persia are quoted expressing the unity of God:

 

                        Thou are absolute Being; all else is but a phantasm

                        For in Thy Universe all beings are one.

                        Thy world-captivating Beauty, in order to display its perfections,

                        Appears in thousands of mirrors, but it is one.

                        Although Thy Beauty accompanies all the beautiful,

                        In truth the unique and incomparable Heart-enslaver is one.

 

                                    And again:

 

                        Not-Being is the mirror of absolute Being,

                        Whence is apparent the reflection of God’s splendour.

                        When Not-Being became opposed to Being

                        A reflection thereof was at once produced.

                        That Unity was manifested through this Plurality;

                        One, when you enumerate it, becomes many.

                        Numeration though it has One for its basis,

                        Hath, notwithstanding, never an end.

                        Since Not-Being was in its essence clear,

                        Through it the hidden Treasure became manifest.

                        Repeat the tradition: “I was a hidden Treasure.”

                        That thou mayest plainly behold the hidden mystery.

                        Not-Being is the mirror, the universe is the reflection, and man

                        Is the personality concealed in it like the eye in the reflection.

                        Thou art the eye of the reflection, while He (God) is the light of the eye;

                        By means of that eye the Eye of God beholds itself.

                        The world is a man, and man is a world.

 

Law, Way, and Truth

 

            Sufism teaches man the path to be trodden towards perfection. According to the Awarifu-d-ma’arif, the path is divided into three stages: Shari’at, the Law; Tarikat, the Way; Hakikat, the Truth. These are thus illustrated:  A man asked a Shaikh – spiritual teacher – what were the three stages. He answered: “Go and strike each of the three men you see sitting there.” He went and struck the first; the man leapt to his feet and returned the blow. He struck the second; the man flushed up, made a motion to rise, clenched his fists, but restrained himself. He struck the third; the man took no notice. “The first,” said the Shaikh, is in the Law; the second in the Way; the third in the Truth.”        

 

            The Prophet Muhammad is recognized as the supreme authority, but to tread the Path a Shaikh is necessary, and the Murid, the disciple, must show him the most absolute devotion and submission; he must obey him in everything without reserve or hesitation.        

 

ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ISLAM

 

            Oftentimes, Islam is attacked on the ground that it is fanatically persecuting and not progressive; on the ground that the position of woman in Islam is not such as it should be; on the ground that it does not encourage learning, science and intellectual endeavour. These attacks are not justified by the teachings of the Prophet and are controverted by the services that Islam has rendered to the world. It is true that today Islam does not stand before the world as the exponent of high learning, of great intellectual endeavors, but that is not due to the fault of the teachings but rather to the neglecting of them. Islam has suffered, as all the religions of the world have suffered, because its followers are unworthy of its Founder.

 

Muhammad with 9 wives

 

            The Prophet was accused of having 9 wives after he reached the age of 50 years when at that age passion is dying, and after being faithful for 26 years of married life to his wife until her death. It was written that he did so more to find alliance among his followers and to provide care and protection to women more sorely needed his help.

 

The Al Quran allows men to marry four wives

 

            During the time of the Prophet, the people were plunged into licentiousness of the grossest kind; morality had no existence among them; to command them to observe monogamy would have been useless; only gradual reform was possible. Furthermore, many women were widowed (and less men) because of war and they needed care and protection. With few men around and the urgent need to take care of widowed women, the Prophet allowed men to marry up to 4 wives so long as the man can financially support the wives and all the protection and love needed can be given as the man is giving to his first wife. It was allowed for the reason that women needed care and protection, not to satisfy passion.

 

            It is not monogamy where there is one legal wife, and mistresses out of sight. It is not the true marriage where one man and one woman and all else are evil. But then most men are not yet pure enough for that and in the scales of justice the polygamy guards, shelters, feeds and clothes the wives, may weigh heavier than the prostitution common on others. One religion forbids it but winks at it, provided that no legal-tie exists with more than one.

 

THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM

 

            The Prophet was an unlearned man, as the world counts learning. He calls himself illiterate Prophet but his followers regard Al Quran as a standing miracle, vindicating his claim as a divine Messenger since it is written in the most perfect Arabic. The Prophet places learning in the first rank of the things to be desired; he says:

 

            “Acquire knowledge; for he who acquires it in the way of the Lord performs an act of piety; who speaks of knowledge, praises God; who seeks it adores God; who dispenses instruction in it bestows alms; and who imparts it to its fitting objects performs an act of devotion to God. Knowledge enables its possessor to distinguish what is forbidden from what is not; it lights the way to heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when bereft of friends; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is our ornament in the company of friends; it serves as an armour against our enemies. With knowledge, the servant of God rises to the height of goodness and to a noble position, associates with sovereigns in this world, and attains to the perfection of happiness in the next.”

 

            Again, the Prophet declares:

 

            “The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr.”

 

            And again, the son-in-law of the Prophet, Ali likewise declares:

 

            “The essence of science is the enlightenment of the heart; truth is its principal object; inspiration its guide; reason its acceptor; God its inspirer; the words of man its utterer.”

 

            While this last few centuries things are rapidly changing and they honor scholars very little, the two above mentioned view of the Prophet and the view of his son-in-law Ali had led the philosophy of the Saracens, the science of the Moors reached new height especially after they learned from the Hindu and the Greeks mathematics; they discover equations of the second degree; then the quadratic; then the binomial theorem; they discover the sine and cosine in trigonometry; they make the first telescope; the study the stars; they measure the size of the earth; they make a new architecture; they discover a new music; they teach scientific agriculture; they bring manufactures to the highest pitch of excellence.

 

            After hundred years of silent growth, all these learning were brought by the Moors to Spain and Europe, and made it possible the rebirth of learning in Christendom. Christian Europe crowds to Andalusia to learn from the Muslim teacher the elements of forgotten science; they bring astronomy, they translate the Siddhanta (Buddhism) of India and other books; they write treatises on astronomy, on chemistry, on mathematics.  It was Islam which, in Arabia and Egypt in the colleges of Baghdad and Cairo took up the Neo-platonic heritage, despised and rejected by Christendom as “pagan” after the slaying of Hypatia, and saved its priceless riches to hand them on for the European use. In the middle age, when Europe was under the Christian influence, any form of science is treated as heresy and those that promote scientific studies are banned and persecuted. Science was unknown, astronomy and mathematics had vanished, chemistry had not risen from its Egyptian tomb; knowledge was brought by the conquering Moors. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain ended the long struggle and was one of the causes of the downfall of Spain from her place of pride.

 

            Nor was all this brought to Europe only. India knows the splendid architecture of the Mughals, of whom it was justly said:

 

            “They built like giants, and finished like jewelers.”

 

            That is Islam, that Islam may again embrace it within its pale as it does not embrace it today. When Islam re-completes itself, it will be ready to link itself in brotherly love with other creeds. For the blessed union between the faiths of the world does not lie in the exoteric side, where forms are different and ceremonies are varied, and each suits the idiosyncracies of its people, and speaks of God in its own tongue. The union lies in the spiritual truth, lies in the philosophic ideas, and lies above all in the mysticism whereby man knows himself as God, and seeks to return to Him whence he came. No one is to give up the religion that is dear to him, that has been handed down by generations of his ancestors, that is the center round which cluster the sanctities of home. There is no need for conversion from one religion to another; each is a Ray of the Sun of Truth.

Reference:  The Seven Great Religions by Dr. A. Besant