A Few Common Misconceptions About Islam.1

Onion-shaped domes, slender minarets, spacious mosques with tall carved marble columns and arches, lined with beautiful mosaic tiles in intricate geometric patterns in blue, white and gold standing proudly on dusty ground amidst verdant palm leaves against a clear blue sky, fountains gurgling with clear sparking water, people in long white robes prostrating themselves in deep bows on the ground facing the direction of Mecca on their little prayer mats or carpets or swaying their bodies around in trance-like dervishes in worship, veiled ladies with black hair and heavily made up eyes in diaphanous sarees in red or orange wriggling their wasp-like waists and shaking their shoulders in snake-like movements to the rhythm of music from tablas and tambourines which seem to repeat themselves in never ending motifs whose end only means the beginning of a new cycle of the same, men with white headkerchief tied around their bearded heads with black braided ropes on horseback or on the backs of swaying camels galloping across arid deserts or semi-deserts with sword held high or rifles jumping up and down on their backs and people in white crowded cave-like taverns chatting or laughing in a haze of alcohol against the unsteady light of oil lamps, clinking tiny carved wine glasses in dull red and cloudy yellow, delivering more nuts, dates and barbecued meat tapas but never pork into their big bulging stomachs, drenched in clouds of smoke puffed out from long burnished yellow copper pipes with small water filters like tiny boxes close to their bottoms, whispering intrigues and plotting secretly against unsuspecting victims from the West. It is also said that conquering Muslims would only give Christian crusaders two choices: to believe in Allah or to die. And of course, Muslims are the kind of people who would blow up trains, hijack airliners to ram against the World Trade Tower or the White House, tie dynamites around their bodies which they would detonate in busy supermarkets or schools. They are the kind of people who simply do not care about human lives, people who would stop at nothing in promoting their own religious beliefs. These are the images and ideas which come up to my mind whenever I think about Muslims until I started attending an introductory course on Islam at the mosque in Tsimshatsui, Kowloon. Islam is nothing of the sort. The majority of them condemn the activities of the terrorists in the strongest terms, just like any other decent Christians or Buddhists would do and it hurts them as much as it does the families of the victims. What then is Islam and what did the prophet Mohamed teach Muslims?

The following is a summary of what I have learned about basic Islamic beliefs:

1. Islam the English version of the Arabic words al-'islām . The word "Islam" is a gerund (verbal noun) derived from three roots "s-l-m" which forms a large class of words relating to ideas or concepts about oneness, wholeness, completion, joining together and bonding and in Islamic religion, it means "voluntary submission to God."

2. Muslims believe in one, unique, incomparable Allah, (equivalent of the Christian "God", and the Jewish "God" of Abraham and Moses. He is called "Tanri" in Turkish and "Khoda" in Persian) ) who has no son nor partner. To Muslims, the word "Allah" can be used to refer only to the one true God and the word "Allah" occurred 2700 times in the Qur'an. Even in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, which is a language closely related to Arabic, God is also referred to as "Allah".  Allah is beyond all comprehension and Muslims are not expected to visualize Allah

3. No one has the right to be worshiped but Allah alone. "Did you then think that We had created you in jest (Note: without purpose) and that you would not be returned to Us (Note: in the Hereafter")? So Allah is exalted, the True King. None has the right to be worshiped but Him..." (Qur'an  23: 115-116)  Every other deity is considered false. He alone has the most magnificent and the most sublime and most perfect attributes. In the Q'uran (the Islamic Bible), this is how Allah describes himself: "He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Self-sufficient One. He begets not, nor was He begotten and there is none like Him." ( Qur'an 112: 1-4)

4. Allah is the Almighty, the Creator, ( Qur'an 35:1) the Sovereign and the Sustainer of everything in the universe. He manages everything and is in need of no one, certainly not his creatures, who themselves must depend on Him for all that they need. He did not fight with one of his angels e.g the Devil as stated in the Jewish bible.

5. Allah is all-knowing (He knows what has happened, what will happen and how it will happen), all-seeing and all-hearing.

6. He has power over all things and is able to do all things. He is almighty.  Nothing occurs in the universe but by His will. Whatever he wills, is. Whatever He does not will, is not and will never be.His will is above the will of all His creatures. "He adds to His creation whatever he wills; for Allah has the power to will anything." (Qur'an  35:1)

7. Allah is far removed from all injustice and tyranny.

8. Allah is all wise in all His actions and decrees.

9. If any one wants something from Allah, he/she can ask Allah directly, without having first to go through the intermediary of any one else, including the priests because God is already very close to us. "We created man--We know the promptings of his soul, and are closer to him than his jugular vein." (Qur'an 51:16") . Jesus is not Allah, nor Allah Jesus. Allah has said in the Qur'an : "
Indeed, they have disbelieved who have said: "Allah is the Messiah
(Jesus), son of Mary." The Messiah said, " Children of Israel, worship
Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever associates partners in worship
with Allah has forbidden Paradise for him and is home is the Fire (or
Hell). For the wrongdoers, there will be no helpers."  (Qur'an 5:72)

10. Despite His power and His knowledge, He is most gracious, most merciful and most beneficent. In one of the sayings of the prophet Muhammad , Allah is more merciful to His creatures than a mother to her child. One of the names he is referred to is "Al Rahmān" meaning "The Compassionate" and another is "Al-Rahim" meaning "The Merciful". Allah will answer our prayers for assistance whenever we call upon him. "When My
servants ask you about Me, say that I am near. I respond to the call of
one who calls, whenever he calls to Me: let them, then, respond to Me
and believe in Me, so that they may be rightly guided." (Qur'an 2: 186) "Why do they not turn to God and ask for forgiveness? God is forgiving and merciful." (Qur'an  5: 74)

11. Allah is not a trinity. Allah is a term with no plural or gender used by Muslims. "Indeed, they disbelieve who say, "Allah is the third of three (in a trinity) when there is no Allah but one Allah. If they desist not from what they say, truly, a painful punishment will befall the disbelievers among them. Would they not rather repent to Allah and ask His forgiveness? For Allah is oft-forgiving, most merciful. The Messiah (Jesus) son of Mary, was no more than a messenger.." Q'uran 5: 73-75). Islam rejects the belief that Allah rested on the seventh day after his creation of the world because Islam believes that God can never be weary nor does he ever need to sleep or rest. Similarly it rejects that Allah has ever taken or incarnated Himself in any human form. Such is belief is regarded as blasphemous.

12. Muslims believe in the existence of angels ("malak"),(meaning "messengers") with wings (two, three or four pairs) (Qur'an  35:1) who act as messengers  whom they regard as honored creatures who worship Allah alone, who have no free will and who obey Him and who act only by His command, whose duties include communicating revelations from God to man, glorifying Him, recording whatever is done by man and taking a person's soul away when he dies and may intercede for man. They believe that it was the angel Gabriel who brought the Q'uran to Muhammad, whom they believe to be the last Messenger and prophet of Allah.

13. Muslims believe that Allah has revealed a number of books to mankind for their guidance through his prophets who are His human messengers. Others of his messengers include Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus. But Allah's final message to man, which is a reconfirmation of His eternal message, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad to whom the angel Gabriel dictated the Qur'an . "Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the last of the prophets..." (Qur'an 33: 40). Allah has guaranteed that the Q'uran is free from corruption or distortion. "Indeed, We have sent down the Q'uran, and surely We will guard it (from corruption) ((Q'uran 15: 9)

14.   Muslims believe in the Day of Judgment when all people will be resurrected for Allah's judgment according to their beliefs and acts. "And those who believe (Note: the belief that "there is no true Allah but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of Allah") and do good deeds, they are the dwellers of Paradise, they dwell therein forever." (Qur'an 2:82) . They believe that those who don't believe in Allah etc. or are not Muslims will lose Paradise forever and will be sent to Hell fire. "And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him and he will be one of the losers in the hereafter" (Qur'an 3: 85) and "Those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief, the earth full of gold would not be accepted from any of them if it were offered as a random. They will have a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers." (Qur'an 3:91) They also believe that those who believe in and follow the teachings of the Torah and the Gospel will enter heaven. "Of only the People of the Book would believe and be mindful of God, We would surely pardon their sins and We would surely admit them into the Gardens of Bliss. If they had observed the Torah and the Gospel and what was revealed to them from their Lord, they would surely have been nourished from above and from below. There are some among them who are on the right course; but there are many among them who do nothing but evil." (Qur'an  5: 66)

15. Muslims believe that our life on earth is just a short stay and that we are here to be tested. "I created the jinn and mankind only so that they might worship me (Qur'an  51:56) and "He (note: Allah) will say, "how many years did you stay on the earth?" They will say: "We stayed a day or part of a day..." (Qur'an 'uran 23: 112-113).

15.  Muslim believe in Al-Qadar (Divine Predestination) which however does not mean that man does not have free will to do what is right or wrong. Because man has free will, he is responsible for his own thoughts and his own actions. What Al-Qadar implies is that: Allah is an omniscient creator: knows everything in the past, present and future; he keeps a record of everything but whatever Allah wills, will happen and whatever He does not will does not happen.

16.  Muslims believe that apart from the Qur'an, there are other secondary sources of their sacred beliefs namely what they call "the sunnah" (what the Prophet Muhammad said, did or approved of) which is comprised of what are called "hadeeths (or hadiths)" , believed to be reliably transmitted reports by the Prophet Muhammad's companions about what he said, did or approved of. Examples of such hadeeths include the following:
   (a) In their love, mercy and kindness of believers to each other, they are like a body such that if any part of it is ill, the whole body shares in its sleeplessness and fever.
   (b) The most perfect believers are those most moral in the way they behave and the best among such believers are those who are best to their wives.
   (c) None of you believe until you love your brother the way you love yourself
   (d) The most Merciful will show mercy to those who show mercy to others on earth.
   (e) Smiling to your brother is a form of charity
   (f)  A good word to others is a form of charity.
   (g) Whoever believes in Allah and in the Last Day (the Day of Judgment) should do good to his neighbor.
   (h) Allah does not judge you according to how you appear and your wealth. He looks at your hearts and looks at your what you did.
   (i)  Pay your worker his wages before his sweat dries.
   (j) A man walking along a path felt very thirsty. Reaching a well, he descended into it, drank his fill and came up. Then he saw a dog with its tongue hanging out, trying to lick mud to quench its thirst. The man said: "This dog is feeling the same thirst that I felt.". So he went down into the well again, filled his shoes with water and gave the dog a drink. So Allah, thanked him and forgave his sins. The Prophet was asked: "Messenger of Allah, are we rewarded for kindness towards animals? He said: "There is a reward for kindness to every living animal or human.

17. The five pillars of Islamic worship are:
     (a) the shahadah (the creed) the words " I testify there are no gods other than God alone and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God", Muslims must repeat this prayer and any one wishing to convert to Islam must recite the same.
     (b) salat or salāh (daily prayers) which must be performed five times a day to focus one's mind on God, express gratitude to God but in practice, it can be very flexible depending on the circumstances. They are recited in Arabic and consists of verses from the Qur'an. It can be done at a smaller private mosque or masjid jāmi (lager collective mosque), which in practice serve not only as places of worship but of study and for meetings.
     (c) zadah or zakāt  (almsgiving) or the giving a fixed portion of accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy and to help spread Islam. It is considered to be a religious obligation and not a voluntary act of charity because one is regarded as a "trustee" for one's wealth from God, (regarded as God's gifts to one) but apart from the obligatory alms giving, one is encouraged to give voluntarily (sadaqah)
     (d) sawm (fasting) during Ramadan, which must last from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan. The purpose of fasting is to encourage a feeling of closeness to God during which Muslims are expected to express gratitude to God, dependence upon Him, atonement for past sins, asking for forgiveness and thinking about those in need. It is not obligatory for certain types of people e.g. pregnant women, the old and sick
     (e) hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime) during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah . Every able-bodied adult who can afford it must do it at least once in his/her lifetime. The ritual includes walking around the Kaaba seven times, touching the black stone if possible and walking or running seven times between Mount Safa and Mount Marvah and symbolically stoning the Devil in Mina. 

With each talk, I learned a little more about Islam and I begin to understand a little more why it has spread around the world.  According to the Wikipedia, there are about 1.3 to 1.57 billions Muslims in the world now with 80-90% of them being Sunnis and about 10-20% Shias (often written in the Western press as "Shiites") with about 13% of them living in Indonesia, 25% in South Asia (Pakistan), 20% in the Middle East, 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa, about 4% in South East Asian countries and about 2% in Central Asia. it is one of the fastest growing religions in the world.