Islam FAQ

• Q1: What is this document ?
• Q2: Why you are writing this document ?
• Q3: What does the word Islam mean, anyway ?
• Q4: What is Islam ?
• Q5: What do you mean by exceptional ?
• Q6: What makes Islam different ?
• Q7: I don't believe in God, I believe in science ?
• Q8: What does Universal mean ?
• Q9: What kind of ethics ?
• Q10: This is not true, you religious people always give a shiny fake images.
• Q11: But I have seen it, it's not like what you are describing!
• Q12: So, which Islam you are describing here ?
• Q13: So, are you a moderate Muslim or an extremist Muslim ? Do you really practice Islam ?
• Q14: Why should I believe you, It's just your word against their word. Maybe they are the true Muslims.
• Q15: How can you be certain about things happened about one and half thousand years ago ?

Introduction

• Q1: What is this document ?
  A: This is an introductory information about Islam, in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). it's intended for non-Muslims or fresh-Muslims. The red "Q:" are the question of the non-Muslim and the green box like this one is the answer.
• Q2: Why you are writing this document ?
  A: "We come to move people from worshiping/obeying creatures, and introduce them to worship the creator, to move them from the injustice of religions and introduce them to the justice of Islam, to move them from the illiberal life, and introduce them to the wide life and Hereafter." This was the answer as summarized by Ribi Bin Amer (ربعي بن عامر) in the conquering of Persia (see what Quran taught us in verses like V5:16, V33:43 and V57:9). This document is just a humble effort to introduce you to Islam. Maybe it help you understand Islam better. The fastest growing religion, for sure one could find several web sites, several Mosques and Islamic centers in almost everywhere.

  The intention behind this document is not to insult nor doubt any other religion (as Islam forbids Insulting the religions of disbelievers/non-Muslims, V6:108). It's just intended to show you the truth "as is". We are commanded by Allah in Quran to use the best words when we argue non-Muslims (refer to V16:125). I tried my best in that, but if you feel offended or think that there is a mistake mentioned here about your religion, please let me know. Some people might feel offended by just mentioning their religion, please don't take it that way, consider your religion as a precious diamond, the only way to prove that it's a real diamond is to scratch it. Let's seek the truth and guidance, let's test what is passed to us. Let's seek the truth. If you believe in God, the creator, pray to him to guide you to the truth.

• Q3: What does the word Islam mean, anyway ?
  A: Islam is derived from the root س ل م which mean (refer the Arabic Tongue Dictionary لسان العرب, one of the most respectable classical Arabic-Arabic dictionaries)

  • peace (as in "السلام عليكم"), the source of peace, the way to peace, which is used to refer to Islam in Quran, verses V5:16 and V2:208.
  • well, proper, upright or perfect ("السليم من العيوب"), which is referred to Islam in Quran as in V5:3 and V6:161.
  • independent or free (as in freedom, having freewill) this aspect is used to refer to Muslims in verse V39:29 in comparison with disbelievers in an analogy, where a Modular Muslim is like a free man ("سالم ليس فيه لأحد شيء") while a polytheist disbeliever is like a single slave owned by many combating bad masters. (according to Tafseer At-Tabari تفسير الطبري, a classic interpretation)
  • deliverance: preservation from loss or danger, "السلامة تعني النجاة" (see V40:41)
  • the advancing way, the way that leads up like a ladder ("السُّلّم الذي يسلمك حيث تريد، طريق الرقي")
  • disclaim or innocence ("البراءة"): it means that Muslims disbelieve in all gods, idols, symbols, icons, dictators, clergymen, ...etc, except the one and only true god (God; the creator, Allah) who have the absolute power and authority and do not pass any portion of it to anyone. There is no intermediaries. We disclaim the right of any thing to ascribe associates to him. (see V2:256)
  • submission, like previous meaning, it means NO submission except to God; the Creator; Allah. (see V2:112 and V4:125)

  Such meaning could be noticed to refer to Islam in several Quran verses. Islam is also called Haneef الدين الحنيف as referring to the religion of Prophet Abraham (aka. Ibrahim إبراهيم, peace be upon him) which mean steady straight and not aberrant. A prophet Muhammad saying "بُعثْتُ بالحنيفية السَّمْحة السَّهْلةِ" indicates that it means permissive, simple and straight.

  The opposites of the word "Islam" or "Muslims" (as used in Quran) are Ignorance/Ignorants الجاهلون, Crime/Criminals المجرمون, injustice/harmdoers الظالمون, Aggression/Aggressors المعتدون, Aberration/Aberrants الضالون, Disbelief/Disbelievers الكافرون, for example { أَفَنَجْعَلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ كَالْمُجْرِمِينَ * مَا لَكُمْ كَيْفَ تَحْكُمُونَ } meaning { What, shall We make those who are Muslims like the wrongdoers [criminals] ? * What is the matter with you then, how do you judge? } (V68:35-36)

• Q4: What is Islam ?
  A: Islam is a set of beliefs عقيدة, a set of legislation شريعة (Islamic law) and a way of life forming an universal ethical values and moral system, culture and civilization. Islam is Monotheism religion, an exceptional religion which is based on disbelieving in all gods except God (the one and only true god, the creator in Judaism and Christianity; unambiguously named Allah)

  Being a Muslim means that one have a determined will not to give up his/her own will to any creature, and a determined will to give up his/her own will to his/her creator (who don't share this power with his creatures).

• Q5: What do you mean by exceptional ?
  A: Religions (including Secular Atheism!) promote a class of people who have authority over people, forming a system of hypocrisy where those having ideas or views closer to this class get rewards, while others get punished. In usual religions this class (clergymen, celebrants, priests, "The Party", ..etc) claims to have some authority given to them by the divinity which gives them more rights than usual people, they use this power to support injustice, dictators and corruption.
  Religions usually promote some good ethics and intentions, but they are used as excuses for injustice as they can be overridden by the powerful class (eg. calling opponents "evil"). that's why Karl Marx call religion "opium" but he forget that no religion is a religion, he just replaced the names (eg. clergymen becomes the communist party, "evil" becomes "imperial" ..etc) which lead to call labor rights "imperial bribery".
• Q6: What makes Islam different ?
  A: We (Muslims) believe in God (the creator; Allah), but we have so many hypocrisy countermeasures. We believe that Allah have the absolute power, we don't have clergymen, we believe that "No man has the power to claim having indisputable unarguable piece of truth" (the last sentence is attributed to Sheikh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية a key Islamic scholar) Yes. we do believe prophets, but even prophets are just messengers (regular humans who have the duty to deliver the message as is, no authority is given to them to override any thing) and there are no more prophets (Muhammad was the last one, the seal). Yes, We do have Muslim scholars, they study all different kind of available knowledge and provide so many different justified answers and views, but Muslims are not obliged to any specific one (yes, Fatwa is not obligatory). More over bases of Islamic science are well-publicized and one can read and decide which view he will follow. Muslim scholars do not have more authority nor power than usual people, they only teach and remind. We do NOT ask them to forgive nor bless us. In deed, we do the opposite, as we know that they are regular humans and they could make mistakes so we ask Allah's mercy and forgiveness for them! When a real Muslim scholar get praised by his students or other people, he reply "May Allah forgive me" or "May Allah for give me for what they don't know and make me better than what they think". It's very common among the most respectable Muslim scholar to receive, accept and welcome criticisms on their views even from there so humble little students.
• Q7: I don't believe in God, I believe in science ?
  A: You are wrong, there is no conflict between science and Islam, actually Islam is consistent with all scientific facts despite that it address so many aspect of universe in details which is in our hands for 1400 years and are still and will continue to be valid and consistent. There is a classic book for Ibn Taimiah ابن تيمية titled درء التعارض which address this issue. On the other hand not believing in God is inconsistent with many scientific facts. see below [Q24].
• Q8: What does Universal mean ?
  A: Islam does not target a specific group. It's for all aware beings, all colors (races), nations, ...etc. with no preferential to any color, nation, gender..etc. It's wrong to think that Islam is the religion of Arabs, more than 80% of Muslims are non-Arabs, only the fifth of Muslims are from Arabic speaking countries (including majority non-Arabs in Arabic speaking countries in north Africa)
• Q9: What kind of ethics ?
  A: The following is small listing of some key Islamic ethics:

  • No creature has authority over people. people have the free choice of their religion, beliefs, views, sayings, deeds,..etc, yet they are responsible before Allah and only before him, on the other hand.
  • Islam forms a classless community (no casting system), where people are equal before Allah, the better are those who have more Taqwa تقوى (virtue, righteousness and piety) in their hearts and only Allah knows that, knows the real intention behind deeds and thus only Allah judges people deeds. No idols,clergymen,theocratic rulers, ...etc.
  • Freeing Slaves, Feeding the poor, helping the needy, supporting weak people (even if they are non-Muslims)
  • Truth telling.
  • Justice even with enemies.
  • Respond to aggression with good deeds so that enemies becomes friends and heritage becomes love.
  • compassion with children and respect for elders.
  • promote women rights, protect them and prevent all tricks practices to take off their rights.
  • promote better education in all useful fields (including mathematics, physics, medicine, ..etc) and getting wisdom even from non-Muslims.

  I suggest you listen to some Quran chapters while you read their translation; I suggest you start with the following short chapters: 90, 92, 104, and 107 and some longer chapters like 25 or 69. { وَيُطْعِمُونَ الطَّعَامَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ مِسْكِيناً وَيَتِيماً وَأَسِيراً * إِنَّمَا نُطْعِمُكُمْ لِوَجْهِ اللَّهِ لَا نُرِيدُ مِنْكُمْ جَزَاءً وَلَا شُكُوراً } meaning { who give food, for the love of Him to the needy, the orphan, and the captive, * (saying): 'We feed you only desirous of the Face of Allah; we seek of you neither recompense nor thanks, } (V76:8-9) Read the following sound Hadith (saying of prophet Muhammad) "يا أيها الناس! أفشوا السلام وأطعموا الطعام وصلوا الأرحام وصلوا بالليل والناس نيام؛ تدخلوا الجنة بسلام" meaning "O People! spread peace, feed the food, be tender with kinswomen and kinsmen, and pray at night while others are sleeping; to enter Paradise peacefully." Read this another sound Hadith "ليس المؤمن الذي يشبع وجاره جائع إلى جنبه." meaning "A believer is not the one who is replete while his neighbor, near by, is hungry" (number 149 in AlSaheha by Al-Albani), notice that neighbor refers also to non-Muslims.

• Q10: This is not true, you religious people always give a shiny fake images.
  A: First, we are not religious, there are no religious Muslims as we call this hypocrisy and bad innovation [something like "heresies" but from completely different perspective]! (Islamic community is classless, no casting) Second, we provide the image of Islam as is, no matter you like it or not, we are obliged to do so this is part of Islam that we tell the truth as is and let people decide {وَقُلِ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَمَنْ شَاءَ فَلْيُؤْمِنْ وَمَنْ شَاءَ فَلْيَكْفُرْ} {Say: 'This is the truth from your Lord. Let whosoever will, believe, and whosoever will, disbelieve it.'} (Quran V18:29) We provide evidences, citations ..etc. the books we read are the same that we show to you, we do NOT have secret books, practices ..etc. Islam is an open well-publicized religion. Almost the entire Islamic literature is available freely on the Internet, there are too many sites.

  While Martin Luther King (with all respect) was still "Having a dream" in the 20th century, Abu Bakir (a companion of prophet Muhammad, the best companion in deed) had dedicated his life and money to free slaves (he used to buy them from disbelievers then directly set them free) more than 1400 years ago, this was even before forming the Islamic state in Medina, and people like Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (who became the second Calif) was calling Belal (a freed black slave, who was among the first Muslims) our Master Belal! Belal (the black Ethiopian), Suhaib (the Roman), Salman (the Persian) all were bothers in Islam.

• Q11: But I have seen it, it's not like what you are describing!
  A: No, it's not what you had seen. There are two possibilities for this. That you judge Islam by judging non-Islamic behaviors eg. practiced by non-Muslims who look to you like the false image promoted by media for Muslims (because of their dress or color, like Sikhs) or practiced by minority odd Muslims who happen to be geographically more close to you or having big media budget or they are the only Muslims who are allowed to be in the media (for example, in America the Nation of Islam group have a very distorted invalid black version of Islam even Malcolm X their official spokesperson was shocked when he visited Mecca in Hajj and met the real Islam, after that he completely changed his violent attitude toward white people, later he was assassinated by the so called The Nation of Islam group, yet the Media still don't address his change to the real Islam, they present the fake false violent black Islam to be the real Islam. Another example, the gloominess of number 13 and visiting tombs of so called "good religious people" are very common in Turkey, even among educated people, media present Turkey as the most modern Islamic country and it's the closest to Europe. One should consider that people there are not allowed to learn Islam or even learn Arabic language. While in the real heart of Islamic nation such superstitions are rare even among the most ignorant nomads. Such superstitions are firmly rejected even if not taken seriously and call such religious beliefs to be bad innovations).

  The other possibility is that you misunderstand the issue, real Muslims do practice or believe in this or that thing that you might think to be bad, but because of bad translation or different backgrounds you misjudge the issue, because you project your previous experience on Islam. You should know that terminology differs, for example, one might translate القدر as destine and establish his judgment on Islam based on what he knows about destine in his religion. As I will describe below we believe in القدر but one should know that we are not fatalists as prophet Muhammad said "القدرية مجوس الأمة" which mean "Fatalists [and anti-fatalists, the other opposite extreme] are [analogous to] Fire worshipers" (which mean that they are not Muslims)

• Q12: So, which Islam you are describing here ?
  A: The standard Islam, the very Islam of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the main stream Islam followed by majority of Muslims (more than 90% of Muslims in the entire world) and the predominant population in heart of Islamic countries (Mecca, Medina, ..etc). We are called Sunni or people of Sunnah and unity أهل السنة والجماعة, which mean that we follow the exact very way of prophet Muhammad, maintaining purity of Islam and protecting from impure bad innovations through a deep study to all different evidences, and we are the unity that accept having different justified views. See below [Q99].
• Q13: So, are you a moderate Muslim or an extremist Muslim ? Do you really practice Islam ?
  A: Mu (Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions), Islam is true/false matter (a predicate), there is no a more or less Islam. One can exactly be a Muslim or non-Muslim.

  On the other hand Imaan الإيمان (level of believing/faith) is a gradual scale. Changing the question to "On what level of Imaan you are ?" won't work. As according to Sunni beliefs عقيدة أهل السنة والجماعة, we don't praise ourselves or anyone before Allah "لا نزكي على الله أحد" as no human (no mater who he is) has the right to judge Imaan of another one, no matter who he is. and We don't grant nor promise Paradise to any one no matter how good he is, also we don't grant nor promise hellfire to any one no matter how bad this one is. (a rephrasing of the following paragraph "ولا نشهد على أهل القبلة بعمل يعمله بجنة ولا نار نرجو للصالح ونخاف عليه ونخاف على المسيء المذنب ونرجو له رحمة الله" from the foundation of Sunnah by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, one of the 4 major scholars ever) as this is one aspect of "لا إله إلا الله".

• Q14: Why should I believe you, It's just your word against their word. Maybe they are the true Muslims.
  A: No, it's our proofs against their falsifications. We have set a firm clear neutral rules to measure how certain a narration or claim is, such rules are quite scientific and not related to specific preconditions.
• Q15: How can you be certain about things happened about one and half thousand years ago ?
  A: There is only one Quran, all hard copies of Quran all over the world are exactly matching each other. Quran is kept as is, both written (hand-written copies in so many museums even in non-Islamic countries) and reading narration chains (including the valid reciting styles; ie. durations of each vowel, silences,..etc.).

  And we have a large set of valid prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) Sunnah (deeds, saying or even accepting silence) taught and narrated by best people ever; the prophet's Companions (Sahaba), such trust is not established for no reason, there are several clear verses in Quran that grant them such place. We do NOT believe that prophet's Companions (Sahaba) are impeccable nor infallible معصومون, but they are reliable عدول ثقات as mentioned in Quran (they accepted to Islam for no rewards in a time when Muslims form no power, they were punished and tortured just for their beliefs, and they had sacrificed their money, families, lives, ..etc.).
  We don't just accept narrations, we have procedural method for measuring reliability and validity of every resource, all invalid narrations are identified and addressed. See below [Q90];