ISLAM

A Portrait Dr. Ghulam Haider Aasi Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the History of Religions, American Islamic College, Chicago; Trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions

Islam Islam is the proper name of religion which Allah, the Alone God, revealed to mankind through the series of human messengers -- prophets in human history and completed in His final revelation of Al-Quran al-Karim, Kalam-Allah (the speech of God) sent down upon the Prophet Muhammad (570-632 C.E.) Salla-Allahu alayhi wa Sallam ("may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him"; this blessing on the names of honored prophets is sometimes abbreviated in print to SAAWS or SA). Within history, Islam is embodied in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah (the sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad) in its final and eternal form.

The term "Islam" derives from the root letters s.l.m. (Ar. Sin, Lam, Mim) which means "to be in peace," "to be secure," and "to be integral whole." Hence, Islam means one's conscious submission to the Will, Law, and Guidance of Allah, the Almighty Alone God, and thus to be in peace with one's own self, with all creatures, and with the Creator and Originator of all that exists. One who consciously surrenders one's whole being to God and commits oneself to pattern one's life on the divine guidance communicated and exemplified by the human messengers-prophets sent by God is called a "Muslim." The Qur'an describes Islam in two ways: 1) as the primordial or natural religion ( religio naturalis) of the innate nature with which Allah created mankind (Q. 30:30), and 2) as the religion which was completed and consummated in the Qur'an, the final and definitive Divine Writ from Allah.

Allah, the Exalted Almighty Alone God, declares in the Qur'an that all the universe and creation surrenders to Him either willingly or unwillingly and that all must return to him (Q. 3:83). Whereas the universe surrenders to God's law by its innate nature and is endowed with order, humankind obeys the guidance of God through its divinely endowed moral choice and free will.

Glorify the name of your Sustainer, the All-Highest, Who creates all that exists, then forms it in its best mold, determines its nature with the proper measure and guides it towards its fulfillment. (Q. 87:1-3; tr. by M. Asad)

Allah created humanity, endowed them with an innate awareness of Him, empowered them with faculties of reason and cognition, and made them to inherit the earth, testing their free choice of good and evil by their obedience to or denial of Allah's universal guidance. Qur'an unequivocally declares the unity, uniqueness, and universality of Allah, the unity and equality of all mankind, the universality of His guidance to all mankind through the human messengers-prophets, and the unity and indivisibility of the Truth. Allah created Adam, the first human being, made him and his progeny inheritors of the earth (Khalifat-Allah fi al.Ard), and endowed them with the requisite faculties to be His trustees on earth. His messengers-prophets, starting with Adam and culminating in the Prophet Muhammad (SAAWS), conveyed and exemplified His guidance to their communities.

Historical Establishment

Muslims believe in the historical crystalization and establishment of Islam within the religious experience of the Prophet Muhammad (SAAWS). He actualized the Will of God as embodied in the Qur'an by his beautiful model, the Sunnah, and raised a society of true Muslims. His Companions, rightly guided Caliphs and Imams, carried out his tradition, transmitted it to the following generations and established it in history.

The Prophet Muhammad (SAAWS) was born at Makkah (Mecca) in what is now Saudi Arabia in 570 C.E. From a very young age he came to be known as Al-Amin, the honest and trustworthy. At the age of twenty-five he married a righteous widow, Khadijah, who was fifteen years his senior. When he was in his forties, he was called upon by Allah to deliver His final guidance and message, the Qur'an, to mankind and to bring about the Ummah Muslimah, the community of submitters to Allah. The Prophet Muhammad received the first revelation sent down upon him through the agency of angel]ibrail (Gabriel) while he was meditating in the cave of Hira'. It reads in translation as follows:

Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created. Created man out of a germ cell. Read, for thy Sustainer is the Most-Bountiful One. Who has taught man the use of the pen. Taught man what he did not know. Nay, verily, man becomes grossly overweening whenever he believes himself to be self-sufficient: for, behold, unto thy Sustainer all must return. (Q. 96:1-8; tr. by M. Asad)

In Makkah, the Prophet Muhammad called upon the Arab idolaters of his time to believe in One Alone God, Allah (Tawhid), and not to ascribe divinity to aught beside Allah. As a result of the scathing criticism of the Qur'an against idolatry and its various forms of Associationism (shirk) the Makkan oligarchy turned to persecuting Muhammad and his followers. It became so harsh and harrying that the Prophet was commanded to migrate along with his Makkan followers to Yathrib.

This emigration of the Prophet Muhammad and his Makkan Muslims who since then were designated Muhajirun (migrants in the Cause of Allah) in 622 C.E. marked a watershed point in the history of mankind. The Muslims' religious calendar, known as Hijri, is based on this most meaningful and significant event. The city of Yathrib since then came to be known as Madinah (abbreviated from Madinat al-Nabi, city of the Prophet) and it was here that the Prophet was able to establish Ummah Muslimah, the religio-moral and sociopolitical community of Muslims commonly known as the Islamic city-state of Madinah.

Within a decade this nascent and model Muslim community was successful in establishing Islam in the whole of the Arabian Peninsula; in addition, the Prophet sent missions to all the surrounding rulers and empires including both the superpowers of the time, the Persian Sasanid and the Byzantian Roman Christian empires. Just months before his death, the Prophet Muhammad addressed all mankind during his Farewell Pilgrimage to Ka'bah in Makkah and made the eternal message of Allah universally known and established. Some of the salient parts of this historic address are the following:

O, mankind, listen to what I say: I do not know whether I will meet you ever at this place after this year. O, mankind, verily your lives, your honor, and your property are inviolable and sacred like this day and this month until you meet your Sustainer. You will definitely meet your Sustainer and He will ask you of your deeds ... Whoever is entrusted with any trust, he must return the trust fully. Verily, all usury is abolished but you have your capital. Wrong not and you shall not be wronged. Allah has decreed that there is to be no usury ... You have rights over your women and they have rights over you ... Listen and understand, O, mankind, I am leaving with you the Divine writ, the Qur'an and the Sunnah of His Prophet. If you stick to it you will never go astray. This is a selfevident fact. You must know every Muslim is a brother to another Muslim. All Muslims constitute one brotherhood. One is only permitted to take from a brother what he gives willingly, so wrong not yourselves. O, Allah, be witness I have conveyed. (Ibn Hisham, Sirat al-Rasul)

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 10 H/632 C.E., the Ummah was first led by the four rightly guided Caliphs (10-40 H/632-661 C.E.), followed by the dynastic rulers. Both the historical spread of Islam and unprecedented expansion of Muslim rule through all the continents known at the time, within less than a century after the death of the Prophet, changed not only the map of the world but also transformed the destiny of human history and world civilization. By 711 C.E., Islam had crossed Gibraltar in the west, Caucasus in the north, and Sudan in the south, and reached India and China in the east. Muslim Caliphantes ruled most of the world, from Al-Andalus, Spain (711-1492 C.E.) to Asia and Africa, at the period when Europe and the West were still in their Dark and Middle Ages. Islam made lasting contributions to human civilization and transformed ancient regional civilizations into a world civilization. The so-called Western civilization would never have emerged had there not been the integrating Islamic civilization across the European Dark and Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

This pax Islamica, however, was never immune from internal disintegration or from external repulsions and reconquests. The Christian reconquest of Spain, the Inquisition, and the Crusades set a course of histotical conflict between the West and the Muslim world of which European colonialism and Western neo-impetialism have been the historical corollaries. Despite all these geopolitical changes and socioeconomic conflicts, Islam continued to spread, gaining adherents in all parts of the world. Today, Muslims total over a billion and their geographical spread is throughout all the continents. The historic spread of Islam has never been due to its early conquests alone; rather, its appeals are the egalitarian bonding of all believers into universal brotherhood (Ummah) and providing them with the spititual truth of God-consciousness (Tawhid and Taqwa) that transforms their lives to be meaningful and purposeful.

Main Sources

For Muslims the essential sources for all aspects of life are:

A. The Qur'an. Muslims believe in the Qur'an as verbatim revelation from Allah, sent down upon Muhammad through the agency of the angel Gabriel during Muhammad's prophethood, 610-632 C.E. The whole Qur'an was sent down upon the Prophet piecemeal, was memorized, written and publicly transmitted upon its revelation. Its uniqueness as an inimitable miracle and the eternally definitive words of God, its histotical preservation, regular and authentic transmission, and dissemination are essential beliefs of Islam. It comprises 114 surahs (chapters) which are designated as Makkan or Madinan according to the place of their descent upon Muhammad.

B. Sunnah and Hadith. The second universal source of Islam is the Sunnah which comprises sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. Their reportage in narration is called Hadith. Six collections are recognized as authentic by the Sunni Muslims; the Shi'ah recognize Al-Kulini's collection, entitled "Al-Kafi," as earliest and authentic.

C. Ijma. Sunni Muslims believe in the consensus of the Muslim scholars and the community as the third source of Islamic law whereas the Shi'ah take the teachings and interpretations of the Imams as binding.

D. Ijtihad. This names the total effort of a religious scholar to discover both the intent of the Islamic law and the correct answer to a new problem in light of the first two material sources called Nass (divine text), through a well-defined systematic procedure of Qiyas (analogical deduction).

Beliefs and Observances

A. Articles of Faith (Arkan at lman)

Muslims believe in six articles of faith which are derived from revealed sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah. (Q. 2:285; 4:136, 150-152)

i. Belief in One Alone God, Allah. He is Unique, Infinite, Transcendent, Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. "Nothing is like unto Him" (Q. 42:11). He Alone is worthy of worship. All else is His creature and servant. He is Unique both in his essence (Dhat) and in His attributes (Sifat). "His are the beautiful names (99 beautiful names described in the Qur'an) and all that is in the heavens and the earth glorify Him. ..." (Q. 59:24; 7:180; 17:110; 20:8)
 
ii. Belief in the eternal life of Hereafter (Al-Akhirah). Muslims believe in the end of the world, in Resurrection, in the resurrection of whole person after death (al-Ba'th), in the Day of Judgment (Yawm al-Hisab ) and in eternal Hell and Paradise.
 
iii. Belief in angels. Muslims believe in angels as creatures of Allah, eternally busy in His service, glorification, and praise: " ...they never disobey God what he commanded them to do and do what they are ordered." (Q. 66:6; 16:50)
 
iv. Belief in Revelations from God, commonly I known as belief in the Books from God. Muslims believe that Allah revealed His messages and guidance to different messengers at different times and places. These include the scrolls of Abraham, the Torah to Moses, Psalms to David, Injil to Jesus, culminating in the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad.
 
v. Belief in human messengers -- prophets of God. Muslims believe that Allah chose certain human beings as His prophets and messengers to convey His guidance and to exemplify it for their people. All peoples have a prophet from among themselves who conveyed the guidance and norms of God to them in their own language. Muslims believe that the series of prophets starts with Adam and includes Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, and culminates in Muhammad, who is the Seal of the office of Prophethood. The office of Prophethood is indivisible. May God's blessing and peace be with all of them. (Q. 10:47,14:4, 16:36, 21:25, 28:59, 33:40)
 
vi. Belief in the Decree and Plan of God. Muslims believe that all happens, good or evil, with the decree of God and nothing can fail His Plan (Qada wa Qadar).

B. Pillars of Islam (Arkan al Islam)

i. Shahadah: The statement of faith. A person becomes a Muslim when out of one's own will and conviction one bears witness to the fact that there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger (and final prophet and servant).
 
ii. Salat: Every male and female adult Muslim is obliged to offer five daily worship-prayers. (Q. 4:103, 2:177)
 
iii. Sawm: Fasting during the whole month of Ramadan, the ninth month of Muslims' lunar calendar and abstaining from food, drink, sex, and all sorts of idle and immoral acts from dawn to sunset. (Q.2:183-187)
 
iv. Zakat: Sharing wealth. Every Muslim who has his savings for a year is obligated to pay a fixed portion of it to the needy, the poor, and those who are under debt. Wealth sharing purifies the giver's wealth from greed and stinginess and reconciles the hearts of the recipients. (Q. 9:60)
 
v. Hajj: Pilgrimage. All Muslims who can afford the journey to Ka'bah, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, both physically and financially, are obliged to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime; it is usually made during the first ten days of the last month of the Muslim Hijri Calendar, Dhu-al. Hijjah. Pilgrimage at other times is called "Umrah." (Q. 2:189-179,3:97)

Schools of Law

With the developing needs of the Muslim Ummah, the expansion of the Muslim empire, and changing situations, there arose a need to derive laws from the revealed sources and to develop a systematic method for doing so. Though there were many legal opinions in the beginning, by the end of third century Hijrah, four schools of law were recognized as orthodox among the Sunni Muslims: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali. Among the Shi'ah, two became prominent: Ja'fariyah of the Twelver Shi'ahs of Iran and Zaydiyah (Fivers) of Yemen.

Theological Schools

At its earliest stage Muslim theological speculation emerged in response to internal political differences. The murder of Uthman (d. 656 C.E.), the third Caliph, and subsequent civil wars raised important issues, including: Who is a true believer ? What is the nature of faith (Iman) and its relation to Islam (submission to God's law) ? What qualifies a person both to be the leader and member of a truly believing Community? Variant responses to these questions split the Ummah first into different political views and groups, then resulted in sects:

A. Khawarij. The first explicit political and theological schism was of the Khawarij (Secessionists) who called for extreme piety and idealistic egalitarianism. They fought against all claimants of political rule. Some even rejected the need for any governing institution. Their pursuit of a pure society later led them to fanaticism and violence. Continuous rebellion against every government and ever-increasing internal dissension and disunity almost eliminated their role and existence. Those who survived took refuge in the rugged mountains of North Africa and Yemen.
 
B. Shi'ah. The second major schism represented, in its earliest phase, primarily a sociopolitical critique against the rulers; later it became a permanent sect or branch of Islam. The name "Shi'ah" was given to the partisans of 'Ali (d. 661 C.E.), the son-in-law of the Prophet, the fourth tightly guided Caliph of the Sunnis and the first Imam of the Shi'ah. They developed the doctrine of Imamah over and against the Sunni Khilafah. According to this view, the legitimate successor of the Prophet was 'Ali, their first Imam, whose succession then continued in his descendants who are thus political and religious leaders. These Imams are divinely inspired, infallible, and authoritative interpreters of the Qur'an. Later, debating the legitimacy of different Imams, Shi'ism split into numerous sects. Their main branches are

i. Ithna 'Ash'ariyyah (Twelvers) believe in the twelve Imams and hold that a son, Muhammad al-Muntazar, was born to the eleventh Imam, Hassan al-Askari (d. 874) but went into concealment until he will reappear at the proper time to set the whole world in order. They subscribe to the legal school Ja'fariyyah, have been established in Iran since the Safvid period (1501), and are the largest branch of Shi'ah.
 
ii. Zaydiyah consider Zayd b. Ali (d. 740), the second grandson of Husayn, to be the fifth and final Imam. Zaydiyah follow the Zaydi school of Islamic law and are closer to Sunnis. They established themselves in Yemen.
 
iii. Isma'iliyah take Ismail's (d. 760) son Muhammad as the impending Mahdi. They split into many off shoots such as Fatimids, Qaramitah, Druz, Nizaris, and Agha Khanis, continuing to present times.

C. Sunnis. The majority of Muslims -- more than 90 percent of all Muslims in the world -- identify themselves with the term Ahl-al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah, or People of the Tradition and the Community, commonly known as Sunni in distinction to nonorthodox sects and groups. Among them, two main theological schools and dispositions became permanent. In their classical terms, these are known as Mu'tazilah and Ash'ariyah. The first tendency represents rationalist philosophical theology while the second emphasizes the absolute primacy and total sufficiency of the revealed texts, the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Contemporary Movements

Most of the revivalist or reform movements -- pejoratively called fundamentalist or neo-fundamentalist groups in the West -- derive their thought and arguments from Ash'ariyah and its sister traditional theologies.

Feasts and Festivals

Muslims observe a lunar calendar of 354 days. The two most important religious feasts celebrated by all, everywhere, are the two Ids:

A. Id al-Adha, the feast of Sacrifice and Hajj, is celebrated on the tenth of Dhu al-Hijjah, the twelfth month. Congregational worship prayer is offered in the open or in big mosques. Every household slaughters an animal, and meat of sacrifices is shared and distributed.
 
B. Id al-Fitr is celebrated on the first day of Shawwa, the tenth month, to give thanks for completion of the fasting of Ramadan and asking God's forgiveness. Id-Salat is offered in congregation in the open or in big mosques. On both Ids, charity is given, gifts are exchanged, open houses are maintained, visits are made to friends, neighbors, relatives, and even to graveyards. Generosity, hospitality, and caring are hallmarks of these feasts.
 
C. In addition to the two Ids there are other optional small holidays or historical celebrations such as fasting on the tenth of the first month, vigil on Laylat al-Qadr, popularly on the twenty-seventh night of the fasting month of Ramadan, celebrating the birthday of the Prophet (Mawlid al-Nabi) on the twelfth of the third month and on the first Muharram, as the Hijri new year day, etc. Shi'ah particularly commemorate the martyrdom of Husain (d. 680), the grandson of the Prophet, during the first ten days of Muharram.

Sufism

One of the most enduring contributions of Islam to human spirituality is its mystical tradition and dimension generally known as Sufism, more correctly called Tasawwuf. It is unfortunate that, more often than not, Islam has been perceived as a political, legalistic, orthopraxic, and this-worldly religion due to its distinctive emphasis on the Transcendence and complete otherness of Unique and Alone God. The historical fact, however, is that it is the Islamic spiritual reality rather than Muslim imperium or an Islamic state which made Islam a universal religion. This stream of spiritual experience has been carried on by Sufis who have been the mystics and scholars of traditional Islam up to the present. Sufism sees the essence of the human in his being "of God, in the world" rather than "of the world, for God." It sees humans innately bound with God due to the primordial covenant of their souls witnessing to the fact of God's lordship. (Q. 7:172)

It is human forgetfulness of God and absorption in the material world that makes them alienated from their essence (Q. 59:18-19). Hence, to gain one's real self is to be in constant remembrance of God (Dhikr; Q. 13:28) and to detach oneself from the transitory material world. True submission (Islam) is to make one's heart, not just head, the real throne of God where God manifests Himself both as Transcendent and Immanent. Realizing such presence of God requires one to experience the absolute love of God, by dying in Him and living in Him. Out of their religious experiences, Sufis derived the doctrines of Fana (dying in God or annihilation of the human self and attributes in God) and Baqa (living with God and acquiring divine attributes). They systematically developed and explained the different stations and states through which every genuine mystic has to tread on the path of spiritual experience of reality. While the primary requirement for a Muslim is to abide by the rules and regulation of the Islamic law and rituals (Shari'ah), that observance does not guarantee the spiritual experience of God and His vision.

By devoting and pledging oneself to God through the experienced guide, one can tread the path of spiritual reality (Tariqah). Within the variety of these religious-spiritual experiences, the mystics of Islam introduced their orders and provided institutions where adepts lead initiates to the experience of spiritual reality.

Islam and Other Religious Traditions

No other religious scripture addresses the issue of the religious diversity of mankind as directly as the Qur'an. It emphasizes the unity and universality of One Alone God, unity and equality of mankind, unity of the Truth and universality of God's guidance to all mankind through human messengers-prophets, starting from Adam and culminating in the Prophet Muhammad, who is the final messenger and the mercy to all the worlds (Rahmatan lil' alamin, Q. 21:107; 7:158; 34:28; 33:40). The Qur'an declares that God created all mankind as one religio-moral community (Ummah wahidah). It was humanity's exercise of freedom of will and claim of self-sufficiency (Q. 96:6-7) that led to differentiation and to deviation from the innate nature. Then God, out of His universal grace, raised among them messengers who conveyed God's guidance to them in their own languages (Q. 16:36; cf: 35:23-25; 23:44; 10:47; 14:4 and more).

Whereas each community ought to have accepted the universality of God's messages and believed in His messengers-prophets, their mutual jealousy and attempts to appropriate God's favor turned them instead to splitting the one and true religion of God and dividing into sects and mutually exclusive communities (Q. 23:51-53; 21:92-94; 30:30-32). Yet even this religious diversity with different symbols and rituals is categorized by the Qur'an as God-willed reality so long as it does not fall into the worship of false deities (idolatry) and does not deny universal fundamental principles of truth and morality. (Q.10:19; 11:117-119; 16:93; 42:8)

All mankind were once one single community; (then they began to differ) whereupon God raised up the prophets as heralds of glad tidings and as warners, and through them bestowed revelation from on high, setting forth the truth, so that it might decide between people with regard to all on which they had come to hold divergent views. Yet none other than the selfsame people who had been granted this (revelation) began, out of mutual jealousy, to disagree about its meaning after all evidence of the truth had come unto them. But God guided the believers unto the truth about which, by His leave, they had disagreed: for God guides onto a straight way him that wills (to be guided). (Q. 2:213; tr. by M. Asad)

And unto thee (O Prophet) have We vouchsafed this divine writ, setting forth the truth, confirming the truth of whatever there still remains of earlier revelations and determining what is true therein. Judge, then, between the followers of earlier revelation in accordance with what God has bestowed from on high, and do not follow their errant views, forsaking the truth that has come unto thee. Unto every one of you have We appointed a (different) law and way of life. And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community: but (He willed it otherwise) in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed unto you. Vie then with one another in doing good works! Unto God you all must return; and then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. (Q. 5:48; tr. by M. Asad)

Qur'an rejects any claim of appropriating God's truth or favor. No person, race, or nation is chosen of God. Any claim on God's unilateral covenant or saving grace by any atonement is vehemently rejected by the Qur'an. For God all humans are equal. What characterizes one as noble is one's God-consciousness (Taqwa) and carrying out His norms of universal ethics.

O' mankind, Behold, We have created you all from a male and a female and have made you into tribes and nations so that you might come to recognize one another as (interdependent and equal), verily noblest of you before God is one who is most conscious of Him, verily, God is all knowing, all aware. (Q. 49:13; tr. by M.Asad)

Islam abolished and condemns all forms of racial, tribal, or national prejudices that cause one to stand by one's own people in an unjust cause over and against truth and justice. (Q. 5:2,8)

The Qur'an reconfirms the fact of earlier revelations from God and hence it gives to the adherents of Torah and Injil, Jews and Christians, the appellation of "Ahl-al-Kitab," the people of the revealed scriptures. Though the Qur'an explicitly identifies the Jews and Christians as Ahl-al-Kitab, the term in its general import and implicit Qur'anic allusions extends to all religious traditions which might concur with identifying their religious sources as derived from one and the same Divine source. Thus the Prophet also included Zoroastrians in this category. With the spread of Muslim rule over Asia, India, and Africa, some Muslim jurists later included both Hindus and Buddhists in the category of Ahl-al-Dhimma which, by extension, absorbed all non-Muslims who chose to be the subjects of the Muslim rule.

Islam does not identify people in terms of political, geographical, ethnic, racial, or national entities; rather, it categorizes them in terms of their religio-moral commitments and religious traditions. As Professor Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, the Founder-Director of International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur, maintains:

We Muslims not only tolerated non-Muslims but also opened our doors of lands and houses even, our hearts and minds to make them feel at home amongst us.

But what made Muslims the pioneers of religious coexistence was their recognition of non-Muslims as legal citizens based on rules derived from the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. And it was on these grounds that Muslims worked out the detailed legal rights and duties of non-Muslims vis-a-vis the Muslims as a part of Islamic law. Muslims were the first to recognize non-Muslims as religio licita, providing them legal religio-cultural autonomy. Every Muslim government or leader is obliged by the Prophetic command to safeguard the rights of non-Muslims with special care (Dhimmat-Allah wa Rasulihi).

The Qur'an categorically prohibits coercion in matters of religion, be it by sheer force or implicit deceptive ways. Muslims are obliged to call mankind toward submission to God by wisdom, good example, and sincere exhortation, not in argument, but with kind manner (Q. 2:257; 16:125). Such imperatives of the Qur'an provide Muslims with a clear call to humanity; Muslims repeat and try to live by the following guidelines in their interreligious dialogues and cooperations:

Say, O followers of earlier revelation, come unto that tenet which we and you hold in common that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, and that we shall not take human beings for our lords beside God.. (Q. 3:64; tr. by M. Asad)

Cooperation, Peace, Justice, and Virtue

The main objective of every venture of interreligious dialogue and cooperation is to bring about justice, order, and peace in the world. Cooperation in furthering virtue and justice and in ending evil and aggression is among the most distinctive imperatives of the Qur'an. (Q. 5:2 & 8)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, all praise and thanks are due to Allah. I am also grateful to American Islamic College, both to its administration and community, for providing me with the time and facilities to work for the Parliament. For the preparation of this article, I am extremely thankful to International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur; to its Founder-Director, Dr. Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas; and to all its members for providing me with time and facilities. Special thanks are due to Ms. Nor Azimah for her typing. Most of all, my heartfelt gratitude is due to my wife, Zubaida and to my children: Humaira, Sumaira, Irfan, Rummanah, and Salman. Without their continuous support and unceasing sacrifices I would have never been able to make contributions to these good causes. Finally, I acknowledge Joel Beversluis, the Editor of this Sourcebook, whose constant encouragement and unceasing forbearance brought this to publication. May God Almighty bless all!

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Islam in North America Dr. Aminah B. McCloud Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University, Chicago

Islam first came to North America on the souls and tongues of African traders, and then in the hearts of many African slaves. Islam comes in a more noticeable garb with immigrants in the late 19th century and with a string of influence beginning with the 20th century. There is no monolithic Islamic expression among Muslims in America since it has all the diversity of the Muslim world. By 1960 Islam was definitely an American religion with its own institutions and several generations of indigenous Muslims. Muslim children could attend Muslim schools through the high school level in almost every major city in America by 1960. Since the 1960s the Muslim presence in the public space is also evident in the spread of the domed masajid and Arabic calligraphy signs.

The study of Islam in America is important for a variety of reasons. It is the fastest growing religion in America. Its basic practices and beliefs are obviously different from American Protestant Christianity. Since Muslims act in concert with other Americans in a wide assortment of tasks such as the practice of medicine, industry, education, and even celebrations, some knowledge of those differences is crucial. To handle the needs of their community and to promote an understanding of Islam, Muslims have formed dozens of organizations -- professional, social, and educational. In spite of these efforts, dialogue between Muslims and other religious communities has been sparse. While there are numerous texts on Muslim-Christian relations, there are almost no texts on encounters within the American context. It is only recently that Islam has come to be seen as a legitimate part of the American religious landscape by scholars, and most of this has come through a media focus.

In America, Muslims struggle to enact the obligations of their faith. The obligation to pray five times daily (salat) at certain times can be problematic in the American workplace or school. Often Muslims encounter the American resistance to the notion of prayer as an intimate part of one's self-understanding. In the workplace, Muslims often trade breaks and/or lunchtimes to meet the obligations of daily prayer and the congregational prayer on Fridays (Jum'ah).

The workplace can also provide challenging social encounters with regard to dress, lifestyles, holidays, and professionalism. Most Muslim women have met numerous obstacles with reference to dress and their head scarves, while some Muslim men have the same problems with the length or presence of their beards. Muslim reluctance to participate in social gatherings where the main activities are drinking and dancing has led to difficulties. Differences have often led initially to hostility, later followed by understanding and in some cases accommodation. The celebration of holidays remains an issue since Islamic celebration days appear on very few calendars; most often, Muslims must take vacation or sick days in order to participate in the festivities. On Christian holidays, however, Muslims are forced to observe closed offices and the cessation of work.

Fasting (sawm) also provides some difficulty for the Muslim in America. The Islamic fast is one of abstinence from food, drink, and certain behaviors from sunrise to sunset for thirty days. Alertness of mind and the ability to carry out tasks is somewhat compromised during the first few days of the fast, which can make the American workload difficult. Whether the Muslim is a student or a physician, this is indeed challenging. The other part of the tradition during this month of fasting where the believer tries to make extra prayers nightly in the masjid also puts a strain on the Muslim who has to be at work at 8 A.M. the next morning. Students often experience the most challenge in the public school systems where they maybe questioned as to the legitimacy of this religious obligation.

Muslims fulfill the obligations of the giving of charity in several ways. Zakat (the formal giving of a specified amount of charity ) is given to the local community for distribution to those in need at the end of the month of fasting. The more informal, day-to-day charitable response to misfortune or to assist in a positive venture is carried out on a person-to- person basis in and across communities.

Muslims in America have taken their diversity and in many ways have welded these cultural differences into one face of Islam. All communities are open for prayer and participation in social activities to everyone. Efforts in business and education express the variety of ethnicities and their social concerns. Muslims in America, without regard to ethnicity, remain tied to all parts of the Muslim world. Political issues emerging abroad have profound effects on Muslims in America at many levels. In many cases these communities are highlighted and sometimes maligned for political and religious differences. This is currently the fueling force for the necessity of dialogue.

The largest single contingent of Muslims in America is African American. At least seventeen different communities evidence choices of Islamic philosophy and Islamic responses to American racism and theo-centricity. As indigenous Americans and as ex-slaves, their move into the Islamic worldview has often been challenged as inauthentic. There remains an ongoing suspicion that these choices for Islam by up to four generations of African Americans continue to be a protest against the abuses of Christianity. While this may have been a primary impetus decades ago, it has long ceased to hold weight in current spiritual understandings and experience. African American Muslims, alongside their brothers and sisters from the Muslim world, have developed the necessary institutions and businesses for community in America.

The real need now is for greater attention to Islam in its American context. There is a critical need for awareness of the American Muslim position on American affairs as well as for dialogue on issues and concerns.

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The Golden Words of a Sufi Sheikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Author of many books and pamphlets on the Sufi tradition; considered by many to have been a 20th-century saint

My son! This is a hadith of the Rasulullah (Sal.) about Islam:

Brothers in Islam! You who are Iman-Islam! You must not see differences between yourselves and your neighbors. You must not discriminate against any religion. You must not oppress or harm any man, no matter what religion or race he may be. Islam is one and Allah is one; just as we in Islam see Allah as one, we must see all mankind as one.

All the prophets brought the words of Allah, and all the words they brought are true. Allah sent His messages through each of the prophets, and they brought His commandments step by step. In the revelations contained in the Qur'an, Allah has given the entirety of His teaching. The Qur'an is the ultimate and final teaching, showing everything in its fullness.

All the children of Adam (AS) are brothers and sisters. They are not different. Although they may stand on different steps of the teachings brought by the prophets in their respective times, you must not discriminate against any of them. You must not harass their places of worship, their bodies, or their hearts. You must protect them as you would protect your own life.

To comfort the hunger of your neighbor, no matter who he is or what religion he belongs to, is Islam. When someone dies, to join together and give him a decent burial is Islam. To realize the pain and suffering of others and offer your hands in assistance, helping to alleviate their suffering, is Islam.

To see division is not Islam. To see other men as different is not Islam. In this world and the next, there must be no prejudice in our hearts, for all will come together on the Day of Reckoning and the Day of Judgment. All of us will come together in heaven. Therefore, we must not see any differences or create any divisions here. Where Allah does not see a difference, we must not see a difference. We must not despise anyone whom Allah loves -- and Allah loves everyone. He belongs equally to everyone, just as Islam belongs equally to everyone. Islam is unity, not division.

Hurting another is not Islam. Failing to comfort the hunger of your neighbor is not Islam. The purity of Islam is to avoid hurting others; you must regard others as you regard yourself. You must accept Allah's word totally. There must be no discrimination in your heart against the children of Islam.

You who are Islam must understand what is halal and what is haram, what is permissible and what is forbidden. You must understand that there is only One worthy of worship. You must understand Qiyamah, the Day of Reckoning, and the Day of Judgment.

To understand this world and the next world is Islam. Because Islam is the wealth of grace, you must use that grace to wash and comfort the hearts of others. To truly understand this and see all lives as your own life, without any differences, is the way of Islam. To see your neighbor as yourself, to heal the suffering of others, to share food from the same plate in harmony and peace, to live unified in food and in prayer, in happiness and in sorrow, is the way of Islam. To live separated and divided is not Islam. You must reflect on this.

O you who have faith! Do not compare anything to Allah. Do not hold anything equal to Allah. Do not make distinctions between men; king and beggar must be equal in your sight. There must be no difference between rich and poor. No one is rejected by Islam. Islam is one. You must realize this.

This is what the Rasulullah (Sal.) has said. He has given countless hadith with his divine lips of grace, from the flower of his divine mouth, his mouth of faith, his mouth of Allah's grace, and his mouth of Allah's divine knowledge. O you who have received the wealth of faith! May you understand and act with the clarity of these teachings.
-from The Golden Words of a Sufi Sheikh, by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Copyright @ 1981 Fellowship Press, Philadelphia.

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Islam in the World Today SITUATIONS OF MINORITY CONFLICT AND THE UMMAH'S RESPONSIBILITIES Syed z. Abedin Director of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and London, U.K. (Deceased)

Introduction

The world situation with respect to Muslim minority communities around the globe is getting more complex day by day. No respite appears to be in sight. We at the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs have, at the momen,t no propositions either. In any case, we do not see ourselves as problem solvers. Most cases of conflict in present times that involve Muslims are of a political nature and their solution calls for political initiatives on the part of governments.

What we can do and have been doing over the past ten years, in our capacity as an independent research institute, is to formulate the right questions and to provide an accurate and objective database for possible answers. This helps to clarify the issues. And if there is will on the part of the contending parties, the Institute's input could facilitate the search for solutions.

One reason perhaps why viable solutions have not been forthcoming is that nobody is asking the right questions.

As is well known, there are at least half a dozen situations in various corners of the globe where Muslims are presently engaged in a desperate struggle. Imminent or potential conflict situations are many times this number.

Now in all these situations, live or latent, major or minor, the Ummah is urged to intervene. These calls for active intervention are made not only by those minority Muslims who are immediately affected but also by various constituents within the Ummah. Thus the pressure on the Ummah is both domestic and foreign, internal and external.

The Ummah is thus faced with a dilemma. The dilemma consists in that even if there were consensual will on issues of minority conflict on the part of all constituent members, resources are not inexhaustible. There is no way in which the Ummah could wage a determined, aggressive, and successful campaign on all fronts where Muslims are presently engaged in conflict with others.

Let us not forget that even the United States not too long ago had to solicit material and manpower resources of over two dozen countries of the world in order to wage a successful campaign on one single front.

To make matters more complicated upholders of the Islamic cause inside the Ummah insist on making each occasion of conflict anywhere in the world, in which any number of Muslims are involved, a test case for the Ummah's Islamic commitment and its consciousness of accountability before God Almighty.

The Ummah has therefore before it two options: it could either choose to plunge into every quarrel anywhere in the world where Muslims in any number feel that they are being thwarted from getting whatever they want, and in consequence cease to be a credible world power; or it has to face the wrath of its own people, who see in the lack of alacrity on the part of the Ummah a sign of betrayal of Islam.

Verbal Jihad

The Ummah's record in the past indicates that to save face it has opted for a third alternative, which, for want of a better term, may be described as a verbal jihad. Every now and then, when the domestic pressures build up, various spokesmen of the Ummah come forward with passionate statements directed at the offending parties.

In these events, the statements could have constituted a clever, strategic compromise between the two options noted above. But these statements, pliable though they are, end up adding further fuel to a fire that should not have been started in the first place: they alienate the non-Muslims concerned from all the constituents of the Ummah (even from the faith they profess), and raise false hopes of Ummah support among the Muslim minorities. This leads to tragic consequences.

The Ummah Concept

One possible way of resolving this dilemma could be to look at the Ummah as representing not a political but primarily a religious and spiritual concept. Realistically speaking, in present times there appears to be no other way of giving viable meaning to this concept. For, if the Ummah is projected as a political entity, then there is in truth no Ummah. There are indeed 50 or more sovereign Muslim states, but they are nation states, each with its own national goals and interests, but no Ummah.

If on the other hand the term Ummah is accepted as primarily reflecting a religious and spiritual concept, then in all situations of conflict the questions to ask would be, Is this a religious conflict (i.e., are Muslims being victimized because of their religion)? Are their rights to freedom of worship, belief, practice, and propagation being denied?

If the consensus among the constituents of the Ummah is that, yes, it is a religious conflict, then without doubt every effort should be made to resolve it to Muslim satisfaction.

But if our investigation reveals that the real cause of the conflict is not religious but ethnic, national, economic, strategic, or political and that religion is being used merely as a pretext, then like all secular conflicts it should be amenable to negotiations, accommodation, and compromise. The Ummah's responsibility would then be to use its good offices to facilitate such a resolution.

However, it is important to remember that the procedures adopted for doing so by the Ummah would be markedly different from those adopted in the case of a religious conflict. The hellfire and brimstone strategies most often employed in religious conflicts in our time are not likely to pay much in dividends in political conflicts.

Unfortunately, this important distinction has not always been maintained by even responsible spokesmen of the Ummah.

Furthermore, it has also to be considered that if a conflict is truly a religious conflict, then in all good conscience it has to be conducted as one. We cannot claim commitment to a cause and then go on to pursue the cause oblivious to its value limitations. Islam is not a racial, national, or ethnic concept. We are Muslims not because we all have kinship or language ties, or live in the same territory, or dress in the same way, or prefer the same cuisine. We are Muslims because we together believe in certain common values. These values color (or should color) everything we do. So that without being told who we are, anybody looking at us, from our appearance and behavior, could determine that these must be followers of the faith of Islam.

In Islam there is no concept of total war. In any case, we as a people were not raised to conquer the world for God. God is capable of doing so Himself. Didn't He say in the Qur'an that if He had wanted to He could have made the whole world Muslim? But He did not (Qur'an 10:99). We were raised in order to be a witness (a model) unto what a God-conscious life of total surrender to His will is supposed to be lived like and look like.

Revenge or Reconciliation?

In a situation of conflict between two groups, one Muslim and the other non-Muslim, in particular in the case of actual or potential conflict between Muslim minorities and non-Muslim majorities, the crucial question to determine at the very outset is: Is the primary concern of the Ummah to put a nation or a community or a religion in the dock before the international community, i.e., to determine culpability first?

Or, is it to provide urgent relief to the suffering millions engaged in conflict?

It should never be forgotten that however cheap Muslim life may have become in our time, causing its wanton loss for self-titillation or communal ego-boosting is still a cardinal sin.

It is also perhaps instructive to note here that however cynical and polarized, religiously or nationally, the world may have become, the conscience of the world community is still alive and well. Indeed, some of the most damaging indictments of government policies toward their Muslim minorities have come not from Muslims but from non-Muslims, both indigenous and foreign.

And Herein Lies Our Hope

Let us build on this hope. Let not the forces of hatred and fanaticism drown our Islamic good sense. Let some people among us plumb the depths and resources of our moral and Islamic being and come up with ways of understanding and resolution.

Who knows what non-Muslim powers may also be waiting for such an opening? After all, they also well realize that, considering the present international order, the minorities that reside within their jurisdiction cannot be just wished away. In fact, looked at from the perspective of history, non-Muslim states such as Russia, China, India, and Bulgaria, which contain significant Muslim minorities, would not be what they are today if their national life had not been interwoven by the multiple and many-hued contributions of their minority constituents.

The people of conscience in these countries have given and are giving expression to their sense of outrage at the violation of human and civil rights perpetrated in these societies. Perhaps these people are also wishing for such a gesture on our part. They have already done their human duty. It is now our turn.

Let us put aside, for awhile at least, our sense of umbrage as Muslims and take our Islamic courage in hand and be the first to break this impasse, this standoff between communities and states, between the governors and the governed.

Let the world community know that we come, not to condemn nor to aggravate an already sensitive and explosive situation, but that we desire only to understand and ameliorate. Whether it be Russia or China or India or the Philippines or Bulgaria or Cyprus or Burma, let the world know that we come, more in sorrow than in anger, to help find a workable arrangement that would put a stop to the bloodletting and the suffering and the humiliation and the loss of honor and dignity. And to help lift the burdens and the shackles that have oppressed the victims, and equally, the conscience of the perpetrators.

Is this too much to ask?