Islam and United State Muslims -- A Very Short Introduction

Given the political, social and economic problems glaringly apparent in virtually every other Muslim country, Islam is subjected to negative stereotyping, smear campaigns, hate literature and general bad publicity in the western media.

The MCC is willing to offer expertly researched talks, feature articles, multimedia presentations, and written op-ed articles on Islam, Muslims and related issues. MCC representatives appreciate every opportunity to speak about their community and answer questions on a variety of topics, such as those suggested below.

For further information please contact the MCC at (206) 388-4711, fax (206) 388-4711, or Email mccorg2005@yahoo.com

1.Islam and Muslims

Islam is the religion and faith of about one fifth of the world's population, or, more than 1.2 billion people. Its adherents are called Muslims. Interestingly, only 20% of the world's Muslims are Arabs, but throughout the Arab world approximately 95% of the people are Muslims.

Islam (which means "to submit to the will of God Almighty") is the last in an ancient continuum of God's messages revealed to humanity through chosen Messengers, from Adam to Muhammad -- including Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all).

There are about 1.2M Muslims in this country and half are 75%US-born. About one third trace their origins to the Indian subcontinent, one third from Arab and Middle Eastern countries, and the remaining third are from more than 30 other nations around the globe.

The Faith of Islam

Islam's basic belief is that there is only ONE God, who is unique, incomparable, eternal, absolute, perfect, and without peer or associate.
Other important tenets of Islam are:

* that God is the Creator of all that exists;
* that God sent Messengers to humankind, of whom Muhammad was the last
* that the Qur'an is the Word of God;
* that humans are responsible to God for their actions;
* and that, on Judgment Day, an All-Knowing and Merciful God will judge all humans according to their faith, intentions, and deeds in this life.

3. The Messenger of Islam

Muhammad (peace upon him) was the Prophet and Messenger through whom God sent the last divine revelation to humankind.

Muhammad was born around the year 570 C.E. in the Arabian city of Makkah (traditinally spelled Mecca). In the middle of the city stands an ancient house of worship called the Ka'bah, which is believed to exist from the time of Abraham and his son Ishmael.

Muhammad was orphaned at age six and grew up in the care of relatives. When he was 40 years old, God called him to teach people to worship the One God and revealed to him the text of the Holy Qur'an. But Muhammad faced severe opposition and persecution from the population of Makkah, who believed in multiple pagan deities.

In the early fall of 622, Muhammad and his followers emigrated from Makkah, northward to the town of Yathrib (later renamed al-Madinah, or Medina). This emigration -- historically known as the Hijrah -- marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, because it was in Yathrib that the followers of Muhammad developed a society organized along the teachings of the Qur'an.

In 630 Muhammad peacefully re-entered Makkah, where he cleared the Ka'bah of idols. Two years later, he took ill, and died on June 8, 632 C.E.

The Book of Islam

The Qur'an is the holy book, or scripture, of Islam. It is the Word of God, originally transmitted to Muhammad in Arabic by the Angel Gabriel. But it was always meant for all humanity, not for any exclusive group. At its heart is the teaching of monotheism -- the worship of One God and no others -- but the Qur'an also provides guidance for every part of a believer's life.

There is only one version of the Qur'an, unchanged since Muhammad received it. A number of his followers had carefully memorized each of God's revelations, word for word -- an achievement still common among Muslims today. Muslim scholars regard versions of the Qur'an in other languages to be interpretations or paraphrases, rather than true translations, and in Arabic literature there is no work whose eloquence, clarity and erudition approach that of the Qur'an text.

5. How do Muslims practice their faith?

Islam, in Arabic, means "submission," that is, submission to the will of God. It also means "peace," specifically, the peace one finds through submission to God's will. Muslims accept five primary obligations in life, commonly called the "Five Pillars of Islam." In practice, of course, Muslims can be seen observing all of these to varying degrees, for the responsibility of fulfilling the obligations lies on the shoulders of each individual.
I - The profession of faith (shahadah):

This is a simple statement of the words, "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God."
II - Prayer (salah):

Muslims pray five times a day -- at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening -- facing toward the Ka'bah, which is the House of God, in the Great Mosque at Makkah. They may pray wherever they are when prayer-time arrives, in any clean place, preferably in the company of other Muslims. On Fridays at noon, Muslims pray in congregational mosques, or masjids; this weekly prayer is called the Jumah.
III - Charity: (zakah):

A fixed proportion (2.5%) of a Muslim's net worth -- not just his or her current income -- is prescribed to be donated for the welfare of the community as a whole.
IV - Fasting (sawm):

Every day from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual contact and, even more than at other times, they must also avoid undesirable, or imperfect behaviours.
V - Pilgrimage (Hajj):

The journey to Makkah is obligatory once in a lifetime for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to make it. The hajj proper is made between the eighth and 13th days of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar, and every pilgrim carries out specified rituals at particular times. At any other time of year, Muslims can perform similar prayers and rituals and thus complete the 'Umrah, or "lesser pilgrimage."

ABOUT THE QURAN

Jihad: Waging Peace and Justice

by Prof. Mohamed Elmasry

1. The word Jihad (from the Arabic root Ga-Ha-Da) is a verbal noun meaning exerting an effort, expounding an energy, striving, working to improve, struggling, doing one's best.

From the same Arabic root, there is Majhood (effort), Mojtahed (a person who does his/her best), Ijtehad (Islamic science of deducting Islamic laws from basic sources), Johid (potential or energy as in electrical potential or energy) and Jihad (persuasion as in (29:8), (31:15), (6:109)).

2. Jihad in Islam is waging peace and justice. Jihad is a war against unjust, oppression, exploitation, tyranny, fear, corruption and denying the masses basic human rights (4:75-76) and to establish justice, peace, freedom, especially freedom of religion, security, equity and social justice (2:193).

The tools for launching this war are knowledge, effort, resources, activism, awareness, praying, persuasion, combativeness, advocacy in addition to exercising social, political and military pressures (9:111), (8:60), (9:44-45).

The use of the military option is not ruled out and would be used if and only if it is the only option to stop a greater evil (2:216). The rules of engagement are so strenuous for a given military option to qualify as Jihad. Not every military campaign is a Jihad (2:244).

3. Jihad in Islam is not meant for domination, and not to achieve personal, territorial and/or economical gains and not to exercise power and control. Any type of aggression would make Jihad null and void (2:190-191).

4. One of the most important objectives of Jihad in Islam is to stand for those who are oppressed and/or forced out of their homes just because of their religion (22:39-40).

5. Those who are performing outward Jihad must also spiritually reform themselves by performing (al-jihad al-akbar), an inward personal and more difficult type of Jihad (29:69), (22:78).

This type of Jihad is the internal spiritual and moral struggle which should lead to the victory over the ego. This is an important, necessary, and meritorious type of Jihad. In effect, this type of Jihad is the one which we wage against our lower selves, according to the Prophetic traditions. This personal effort made to overcome the self is considered to be "the greatest Jihad", as mention in a Hadith narrated by Imam Ahmed.

6. It is impossible for Jihad to be performed by an oppressor, a tyrant, a transgressor or an exploiter; it does not matter what that person/government/group calls his/her/its actions. Nor there is Jihad for those who are after personal, tribal and national gains (9:24).

It is precisely in such a context that Jihad meant not to have a negative but a positive meaning both inwardly and outwardly and it is in this sense that Islam has stressed the positive aspect of combativeness; peace belongs to those who are inwardly at peace and outwardly at war with the forces of unjust.

7. Jihad is an unselfish and noble effort for the good of humanity (29:6), involving many sacrifices; money, time, effort, and the ultimate sacrifice of all, life itself. But the rewards of this unselfish and noble act are immense (29:69), (9:41), (4:74), (3:142), (9:16), (9:111), (49:15) and its negligence is costly for humanity (9:38-39), (9:24), (9:81).

8. For political and historical reasons, the word Jihad in the West connotes violence. It is most often translated into English not only as "a holy war," but also a war waged against non-Muslims, a kind of Crusade in reverse.

Today in the West the term Jihad leads people to believe that Muslims are supposedly encouraged to take up arms in order to impose their faith by force, annihilating those who reject it.

This is contrary to the Islamic teachings that it is not for man but for God alone to judge and punish disbelief and that compulsion in religious matters is formally forbidden (2:256). It is regrettable that in Western public opinion, Jihad seems to have retained only the misleading meaning of "holy war."

9. The Qur'an explicitly safeguards the clergy, declaring that God protects non-Muslim places of worship: "Did not God check one set of people by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of God is commemorated in abundant measure."

This prohibition is corroborated and elucidated by the Prophetic tradition which forbids soldiers to do harm to any religious persons, whereas they could logically have been the primary targets if the motive of "holy war" had been religious.

Without putting Western civilization on trial, we should nevertheless mention by way of contrast that several centuries later, the founders of international law in Europe excluded the Muslim "infidels" from the benefits of the law of wars. Yet, the concept of "holy war" remains branded as the expression of the Muslims� religious fanaticism. How ineradicable are the prejudices!

10. Jihad was and still being invoked in Muslim protests against foreign occupation, oppression and exploitation during colonialism, post-colonialism, and neocolonialism, a cause perceived as both just and necessary.

However some Muslims must bear responsibility for the bad name given to Jihad. Today some contemporary governments and groups in Muslim countries make reference to Jihad only in its military meaning, through words and deeds, in order to hide their moral, social and political bankruptcy. In the process they kill the innocent, cause only death and destruction and do not advance the cause of peace and justice. But regrettably they are the ones who show up regularly in the newspapers and on television.

11. Today Muslim�s outlook on Jihad are one of the following: a. All types of Jihad is irrelevant to Muslims today. b. All types of Jihad is justified except these types which involve the use of armed resistance. c. All types of Jihad is very much relevant and needed today, from the inward spiritual struggle against one�s lower self, to activism for peace, justice, social justice,...etc, to armed resistance whenever armed resistance is justified; for example against foreign occupation, oppression, tyranny and unjust.

[Prof. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the MCC Canada Branch.]