What is Islam?

Introduction .

The Goal and Motivation for Writing this Book .

This is a very important time for the publishing of clear and

concise material about Islam. Today, Islam is often pictured in a very

unflattering manner in many parts of the world—not much different

than it was in the not-so-distant past. A Western author writing about

the life of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

wrote,

When the war blazed up between Islam and

Christianity, lasting for ages, animosity grew severe

between the two sides; and each side misunderstood

the other one. It should be admitted, however, that

the basic misunderstanding was more on the part of

the westerners than the easterners. In fact,

immediately a fter such violent intellectual disputes

— in which argumentative debaters overloaded

Islam with vices, degradation and abasement

without taking the trouble to study it — mercenary

writers and paid-poets set out to attack the Arabs,

but their attack was a merely f alse, contradictory

accusation.

There is no need to go into details but today such misunderstandings

concerning Islam have continued from all sorts, including some

public and church leaders in the West.

Unfortunately, since many o f the masses are unfamiliar with

Islam beyond what they see in the mass media—which of course

recently has been filled with a terrorist taint—it is not surprising that

such misrepresentations of Islam resonate with the public as a

whole.

The easiest and probably the most productive cure for t his

situation is by reaching out to those people and allowing them to hear

what Islam is truly all about. One must go beyond the hype and get to

the true authentic teachings of the religion. (Unfortunately, it is also a

sad state of affairs that today one must also go beyond the picture that

the Muslims themselves give non-Muslims of Islam. Although, in

general, Christianity o r Judaism is not blamed for t he misdeeds of

Christians or Jews, today Islam is still often blamed for the misdeeds

of Muslims, even when the practices of such Muslims clearly violate

the tenets of Islam.

Unfortunately, today the negative views and

misrepresentations of Islam are not simply an issue of one's personal

religious beliefs. The ramifications have gone far beyond that and

touch upon the security and politics of the world as a whole. Most

harmful though is that as Islam is misunderstood and continually

painted as the “other” and a source of evil, many are closed off to its

beauty and its priceless truths that it has to offer to humankind. In

reality, in these troubled times, there is a great need to turn to the

guidance from God, which is exactly what Islam is all about.

The goal here is not to deal with the misinformation that is

being spread about Islam. The goal here is simply to present what

Islam truly i s, based on the original and universally r ecognized

sources of Islam:The Quran—or, in other words, the book revealed

from Allah (God) to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of

Allah be upon him)—as well as the words and guidance of the

Prophet himself.

See you in the next blog to complete the book.

Sources :-

A book for calling people to Islam in English is the book .

"What is Islam?" by Jamal Zarbouzo.