Meaning of Islam
Islam is an Arabic word meaning submission, which is to submit totally to God, and worship Him only with no other partner.
Belief in God
First of all, the concept of worship itself needs to be discussed. It is not just to pray, its meaning is much much wider, to worship God is to see Him as our sole Lord, no other lord controlling us, so He is the ONLY one to whom we should be loyal, He is the ONLY One on whom we should rely, He is the ONLY One whom we should fear, He is the ONLY One who judges us and puts rules for us, why? Because He is our Creator, He is the Creator of the Universe and Creator of everything; He is the Mighty, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient. He is the One who created the Universe.
O people! Worship your Lord WHO created you and those before you, so that you may guard against evil. (Holy Quran 2:21)
Prophets of Islam
How did we know that? God sent prophets to us to teach us the right doctrine and to tell us the laws we should follow in our life, and we shall be accounted on this in the Hereafter.
Never think that the beginning of Islam was only with Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), Islam has been the religion God accepted for us since the beginning of creation, God created Adam (Peace be upon him) and Adam was a Muslim, because he really worshipped God only, and began to have a family, all the family were Muslims, and the life went on, then people began to deviate from this meaning and forgot God, began to worship idols. God sent prophets: Noah, Hud, Saleh, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus, Muhammad and many other prophets (Peace be upon them all), the mission of all these prophets was to restore people back to the right way of God. Prophets may have different laws according to different eras and cirumstances, but at the end they have one belief.
And WE sent no Messenger before you but WE revealed to him: `There is no god but I; so worship ME alone.’ (Holy Quran 21:25)
But at the end all these prophets are not gods, they don’t have any divine nature, because Allah is the ONLY God, so when Jews give false concepts on God depicting Him like a human being they are deviating from concept of worshipping God because they are insulting Him. When Christians say that Jesus is God or God’s son, or that God is one in Trinity, they are really deviating from the concept of monotheism. Muslims refuse all these concepts, if someone said that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is our God, he could never be a Muslim Allah is the ONLY one God.
It does not befit a truthful man that ALLAH should give him the Book and Wisdom andProphethood, and then he should say to men, `Be my worshippers instead of ALLAH; but he would say, `Be solely devoted to the Lord because you teach the book and because you study it. 80. Nor does it befit that he should bid you to take angels and Prophets for lords. What! Would he enjoin you to disbelieve after you have submitted to God. (Holy Quran 3:79)
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