intoduction to ISLAM cont…

part1

===== Human Rights =====

Islam has been from its inception very concerned with issues of human rights. Privacy, freedom, dignity and equality are guaranteed in Islam. The holy Qur’an states clearly:

“There is no compulsion in religion.”

#bokoharam watch out!

And there are no reliable reports to confirm the old accusations that when the Muslim armies were expanding into Asia, Africa and Europe the people were put to the sword if they failed to convert to Islam. The best proof is that not only did the Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Hindus in those areas not perish or otherwise disappear, they actually flourished as protected minority communities, and many individuals rose to prominent positions in the arts, sciences, even in government.

The lives,property and privacy of all citizens in an Islamic state are considered sacred, whether or not the person is Muslim. Non-Muslims have freedom of worship and the practice of their religions, including their own family law and religious courts. They are obliged to pay a different tax (Jizyah) instead of the Zakah, and the state is obligated to provide both protection and government services. Before the modern era it was extremely rare to find a state or government anywhere in the world that was as solicitors of its minorities and their civil rights as the Islamic states.

In no other religion did women receive such a degree of legal and moral equality and personal respect. Moreover, racism and tribalism are incompatible with Islam, for the Qur’an speaks of human equality in the following terms:

“Mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may come to know one another. Truly, the most honoured of you in God’s sight is the greatest of you in piety.”

===== Jesus =====

Islam honors all the prophets who were sent to mankind. Muslims respect all prophets in general, but Jesus in particular, because he was one of the prophets who foretold the coming of Muhammad. Muslims, too, await the second coming of Jesus. They consider him one of the greatest of Allah’s prophets to mankind. A Muslim does not refer to him simply as “Jesus,” but normally adds the phrase “peace be upon him” as a sign of respect.

No other religion in the world respects and dignifies Jesus as Islam does. The Qur’an confirms his virgin birth (a chapter of the Qur’an is
entitled “Mary”), and Mary is considered to have been one of the purest women in all creation. The Qur’an describes Jesus’ birth as follows:

“Behold!’ the Angel said, God has chosen you, and purified you, and chosen you above the women of all nations. Mary, God gives you good news of a word from Him, whose name shall be the Messiah, Jesus
son of Mary, honoured in this world and in the Hereafter, and one of those brought near to God. He shall speak to the people from his
cradle and in maturity, and he shall be of the righteous. She said:
“My Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me?’ He said: “Even so; God creates what He will. When He decrees a thing, He says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is.” [3:42-47]

Muslims believe that Jesus was born immaculately, and through the same power which had brought Eve to life and Adam into being without a
father or a mother.

“Truly, the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, and then said to him, ‘Be!’ and he was.”
[3:59]

During his prophetic mission, Jesus performed many miracles. The Qur’an tells us that he said:

“I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it and it becomes a bird by God’s leave. And I heal the blind, and the lepers,
and I raise the dead by God’s leave.” [3:49]

Muhammad and Jesus, as well as the other prophets, were sent to confirm the belief in one God. This is referred to in the Qur’an where
Jesus is reported as saying that he came:

“To attest the law which was before me, and to make lawful to you part of what was forbidden you; I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear God and obey me.” [3:50]

Prophet Muhammad emphasized the importance of Jesus by saying:

“Whoever believes there is no god but Allah, alone without partner, that Muhammad is His messenger, that Jesus is a servant and messenger of God, His word breathed into Mary and a spirit emanating from Him, and that Paradise and Hell are true, shall be received by God into Heaven. [Bukhari]

More on introduction to islam

Knowledge,
Pillars of islam,
Prophet muhammed,
Peace,
Christianity and other religion,

All these and the previous post should be well understood before we go into facts, fouls and stories in islam. May almgihty Allah make it easy for us. AMEEN!

Jazakum lah kairan..

Introduction to ISLAM

Asalam alaikum,

Mariaba bikun ya ramadan…

Hope everyone of us is preparing for Ramadan? For the next 30-40days, this blog would be laying emphasis on islamic facts, fouls, questions, stories, and many other entries on Islam. You as a muslim would benefit and receive blessing as you read and share and as a non muslim would be able to have answers to doubtful thoughts and unaswered questions. Tha aim is to introduce Islam in its purest and simplest state.
May Almighty Allah make it easy and accept it as an act of ibadah. Ameen!

Introduction to islam
Allah (God)

Islam is the complete submission and obedience to Allah (God).
The name Allah (God) in Islam never refers to Muhammad (pbuh), as many
Christians may think; Allah is the personal name of God.

What do Muslims believe about Allah?

1. He is the one God, Who has no partner.
2. Nothing is like Him. He is the Creator, not created, nor a part of His creation.
3. He is All-Powerful, absolutely Just.
4. There is no other entity in the entire universe worthy of worship besides Him.
5. He is First, Last, and Everlasting; He was when nothing was,
and will be when nothing else remains.
6. He is the All-Knowing, and All-Merciful,the Supreme, the Sovereign.
7. It is only He Who is capable of granting life to anything.
8. He sent His Messengers (peace be upon them) to guide all of mankind.
9. He sent Muhammad (pbuh) as the last Prophet and Messenger for
all mankind.
10. His book is the Holy Qur’an, the only authentic revealed book
in the world that has been kept without change.
11. Allah knows what is in our hearts.

These are some of the basic guidelines Muslims follow in their knowledge of God:

1. Eliminate any anthropomorphism (human qualities) from their conception of Allah. His attributes are not like human
attributes,despite similar labels or appellations.
2. Have unwavering faith in exactly what Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) described Allah to be, no more, no less.
3. Eradicate any hope or desire of learning or knowing the modality of His names and attributes.
4. Belief totally in all the names and attributes of Allah; one cannot believe in some and disbelieve the others.
5. One cannot accept the names of Allah without their associated attributes, i.e. one cannot say He is Al-Hayy – ‘The Living’ and then say that He is without life.
6. Similarity in names (or meanings) does not imply similarity in what is being described (referents). As a robotic arm differs from a human arm, so the “hand” of Allah is nothing like a human hand, His speech is nothing like human speech, etc.
7. Certain words are ambiguous or vague in their meanings, and thus may be susceptible to misinterpretation. Only those meanings that are in accordance with what is specified by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) are acceptable.

Cleanliness
Islam places great emphasis on cleanliness, in both its physical and spiritual aspects. On the physical side, Islam requires the Muslim to clean his body, his clothes, his house, and the whole community, and he is rewarded by God for doing so.
As we all know; cleanliness is next to Godliness
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, for example:

“Removing any harm from the road is charity (that will be rewarded
by Allah).” [Bukhari]

While people generally consider cleanliness a desirable attribute, Islam insists on it , making it an indispensible fundamental of the faith. A muslim is required to to be pure morally and spiritually as well as physically. Through the Qur’an and Sunnah Islam requires the
sincere believer to sanitize and purify his entire way of life.

In the Qur’an Allah commends those who are accustomed to cleanliness:

“Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those
who keep themselves pure and clean.” [2: 22]

Allah orders the believer to be tidy in appearance:

“Keep your clothes clean.” [74:4]

The Qur’an insists that the believer maintain a constant state of purity:

“Believers! When you prepare for prayer wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; rub your heads (with water) and (wash)
your feet up to the ankles. If you are ritually impure bathe your whole body.” [5: 6]

Bringing about the invention of ablution
.
Ritual impurity refers to that resulting from sexual release, menstruation and the first forty days after childbirth. Muslims also use water, not paper or anything else to after eliminating body wastes.

Prophet Muhammad )pbuh) advised the Muslims to appear neat and tidy in private and in public. Once when returning home from battle he advised
his army:

“You are soon going to meet your brothers, so tidy your saddles
and clothes. Be distinguished in the eyes of the people.” [Abu Dawud]

On another occasion he said:

“Don’t ever come with your hair and beard disheveled like a devil.” [Al-Tirmidhi]

And on another:

“Had I not been afraid of overburdening my community, I would have ordered them to brush their teeth for every prayer.” [Bukhari]

Moral hygeine was not ignored, either, for the Prophet (pbuh) encouraged the muslims to make a special prayer upon seeing themselves in the mirror:

“Allah, You have endowed me with a good form; likewise bless me
with an immaculate character and forbid my face from touching the
Hellfire.” [Ahmad]

And modesty in dress, for men as well as for women, assists one in
maintaining purity of thought.

Being charitable is a way of purifying one’s wealth. A Muslim who does not give charity (Sadaqah) and pay the required annual Zakah, the 2.5% alms-tax, has in effect contaminated his wealth by hoarding that which rightfully belongs to others:

“Of their wealth take alms so that you may purify and sanctify
them.” [9: 103]

All the laws and injunctions given by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) are pure; on the other hand, man made laws suffer from the impurities of human bias and other imperfections. Thus any formal law can only be truly just when it is purified by divine guidance – as elucidated by the Qur’an and the Sunnah – or if it is divinely ordained to begin with – the Shari’ah.

Introduction of Islam continues soon 😀

Jazakum lah kairan as you share this post, welcome!

welcome to peace

THE WAKE UP CALL

Good morning, at least there is something good about this morning, even though it might not be the same in another region but whichever situation we are, we should be grateful.

Let’s re-wind to about 40hours ago….

I was getting set with my friends and a cousin of them who just got in from the UK few days back, the aim was to show her the fun side of Nigeria, we were all looking fly and sexy. The gals in colorful dresses and the guy looking cool, ready to go storm the beach and have maximum fun. We were about leaving when i decided to update my status as usual, ..beach things.. Only for me to see about two updates saying there was a plane crash; to be sincere i wasn’t moved but then i decided to check twitter and that was all over my TL, I quickly asked a couple of people i know would have facts and they confirmed. I told the people around me in the house and they were so engrossed in the on-going match and no one paid attention.

We proceeded anyway, i couldn’t explain what was going through my mind. I was confused, sad, angered, disappointed, everything else but not excited. On the 3rd of June, 2012 a DANA AIR plane crashed into the streets of Iju-Ishaja at about 2pm with 153passagengers and 9crew members on board all these numbers are nothing compared to the numbers of lives and property lost in the past months due to terrorist attacks or accidents which all falls back to the Government as people already started blaming on twitter and every other social network.

At 4:50pm when i left the house, no local Television station was showing it, no media house was talking, no ambulance, no government parastatals at the scene, no help, nothing! And we hear rage and rants everywhere. I got to Elegushi beach and i kept wondering what if that plane crashed over my house, what if my friends are on that plane, what if what if, but my questions were never why.

I have grown to never question God for his actions, because he his merciful and all knowing, he will warn us and pet us. I am no better than the crashed, neither are you. But my anger is, why would this happen in this country, i am not wishing another country bad, my anger is why would a 29years old plane be allowed to fly? Why would there be houses and industries just around an airport, i might have not flown to many countries but research shows that many other countries have their airports very far away from town. Let’s agree the passengers boarded their coffin but are the ground men too living on coffins, am i walking on a ground coffin? Should i not sleep in peace because i live near the airport? Should i not transact businesses because my government is incapable? Should i live everyday as my last because by government is incompetent or because i fear God?

It has come to my notice on several occasions that life goes on after we are gone, no matter your status or figure, not minding what you have or have done, do people even have heart anymore, have we lived in a dark country with our black skin so much our souls are becoming dark, do we not cry anymore, no we not THINK anymore? Do we forget that DEATH is eminent and do we forget that there is an ETERNAL LIFE after DEATH where will would all answer to our DEEDS, this is not a matter of religion but a matter of compassion. Have you thought that your so-called cherish family could perish in a day or that one step you take today could be your last.

Let’s forget DEATH for a moment, since that’s certain, are we not ashamed anymore, have we not courtesy or fear, i was telling someone i felt bad because i had a dream δ day before about a plane crash but though i was hallucinating due to the Allied air that crashed in Ghana, this was the only reason my friend didn’t travel to Lagos that day(at least so he said) but whichever way, why would someone laugh at such things, i am not saying weep or feel sorry for me but do you ever remorse, another friend sent a funny broadcast as to

“U travel by road, A tanker will catch fire..by air, plane crashes..u sit in ur house,the plane will come and meet u, u go to church boko haram will attack u,u go by sea,militants will attack,u finally run to ur village,u r kidnapped..! No safe place in naija. Cotonue I see u=))”   just in-between the whole crisis as much has i tried to see sense in it, i couldn’t because of the last line and the sarcastic laugh symbol.

This is sad, we keep saying we are the leaders of tomorrow and we are not acting like one, you a graduate and cannot think of a good life for yourself, if your life ends, what the use of all the life you wasted? he that is DEAD is BETTER than he that is BORN. But BETTER than BOTH of them is he that NEVER EXISTED. We keep saying life is unfair but the fact that every human has to share the grace and pains of life is what defines the fairness of life.

What did the people at the scene do aside taking pictures, well at least they tried, but what about the fools that went there only to take pictures with the debris as background, what of those that took there time to compose unnecessary funny message just 24hours after the crash saying we need a little laugh. My dear brothers and sisters, what little laugh do we need?, when we do not have the basic amenities to a good life, when bombs from BOKO HARAM has become the norms to a particular elite, of what difference do the plane crash victims have to the past Bomb blast victims or is it that death now has class? If the FG had to declare 3days mourning after every incident/accident, won’t we be mourning every week? THINK! Its time to think, we shouldn’t be all about profits and fame keyword being ALL ABOUT we live life to survive and on this universe, its the survival of the fittest, nobody chose that.

Its a shame that what our fore fathers have worked for is beginning to collapse right before our eyes but what are we youths doing ? As we pray for our fore-fathers will our generation pray for us, we all updated our status and say #pray4Nigeria, how many of you actually did? . We all blame Jonathan and the likes, i am not sorry to say this is how they started, as bad sons and daughters, greedy friends and colleagues,incompetent class reps and SUGs, and the likes of us who know the right thing to do but hide in our abode, who keep quiet when we see bad planes and cars, who send worthless BCs but never take actions, who entered DANA Air to Uyo, Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and saw or noticed something was wrong but didn’t deem it fit to send that broadcast then, you should THINK!

Ogundamisi said, he once sat in a plane with holes but never talked and prayed to grace and mercies of God just for safe landing, well he landed safe and i hope that plane never crash till they all banned. This is not a post to proffer solutions but to tell you that, weather you like it or not, this incidents are wake up calls; if not how come different people from at least every arms of the government ranging from, NUC, CBN, Ministries, Army, Military, NNPC, political parties and several business holders, people with different religions and faith, infants, married, just married, engaged, Ini the only child of her Old parent, Ibrahim the only hope of his father, the Chinese, Raju whose first trip to Nigeria brought his families and company sorrow. Please, let’s stop saying, let’s start acting! Nigerians are virus, so what we say or do spread fast, if you know or sense anything, just say. No government is ready to take care of us, its high time we joined hands together and save ourselves.

let it linger in the mind of those contractors, engineers, aviation managers, NCAA, MINISTRY OF AVIATION, DANA officials and ,many others involved that they have made a nation weep and they have dropped several heroes and hopes, let them know we might not know them by face but they will not rest or no peace for as long as the memory of June 3rd 2012 remains.

May God rest the dead, punish the cause, pray for Nigeria, and console their Families. AMEN!!

Gracias.

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