Understanding Islam

Hello Swaite!

Did you just copy-paste your Project Outline? lol! Just kidding :p Maybe you could help us out by narrowing down, or asking more specific questions?

As usual Semar summed everything up so nicely! JazakAllah!

Your course sounds really interesting! :)

We Muslims do everything with one major goal i.e. to please Allah and submit to His Will. That involves us performing certain 'good' i.e. encouraged acts and abstaining from discouraged acts (e.g. lying, cheating, dishonesty, etc). Gaining Allah's pleasure by bieng a good muslim will get us Paradise in the hereafter. Unlike other religions bieng a muslim by name/label/default does not give us a free ticket to paradise, we have to work for it. If we are bad people on earth, we shall not enter paradise until we have paid for our sins.

The good acts involve pleasing Allah in 2 ways; 1)simply by being nice human beings, good citizens, family members, friends, members of community (all the things Semar mentioned) and 2) worship Allah through prayer, pilgrimage, fasting etc. (Being a nice person is in itself a worship of Allah.)

A Muslim cannot be a source of harm to another living thing/environment/ community. He/She MUST have a positive impact on his/her surroundings according to his/her potential & role. We are taught how to achieve the above by Prophet Muhammad & Allah. (all this is mentioned in Qur'an & Hadith. Our two main sources of info).

EVERY act that a Muslim does can become worship i.e. rewardworthy. Islam is a state of mind, and consists of God consciousness in WHATEVER you do.. be it earning money (e.g. work for your money through lawful means, don't take interest, don't usurp property etc) Eating (e.g. don't consume unlawful food such as alcohol/pork/slaughtered meat etc, eat in moderation), raising a family, marriage etc. ANYTHING you can think of can become an act of worship is done the right waY.

So feel free to elaborate on your questions! Goodluck with assignment!

"O Lord, forgive me, my parents and Muslims in the Hereafter. O Lord, show mercy on them as they showed mercy to me when I was young."

swaite07 wrote:

How is Islam organized at the local, national, and international level, how are leaders chosen, are they compensated, what are their responsibilities?

Theoretically there is no formal hierarchy in Islam, it's not like Catholicism that have bishop, pope etc. However every locality or countries have their own system that usual specific to that place. They have bodies that will be responsible to help the community on religious issue. Such as performing marriages/divorces, issuing fatwas (ruling) that not clearly define in the holy Quran or hadith (prophet Muhammad's tradition), for example how Muslim should react to the embryonic stem cell research etc. The members of the body can be chosen by the government (in the Islamic countries) or chosen by the community (in secular countries).

swaite07 wrote:

Core teachings- basic message and core doctrine? What are the members supposed to believe?
Requirements and expectations-what are members supposed to avoid/do to be considered a member in good standing, how does the church teach them to live their lives?

In core believe we are similar with Christianity, we believe in one God, we believe to prophet Jesus, moses, Abraham, Adam and all their miracle. In addition we also believe to prophet Muhammad as the messenger of God and the seal of prophets. Regarding prophet Jesus, we believe that he was born from virgin Mary, without a father, but we consider this just a miracle from God, not consider prophet Jesus as a son of God, or had a Devinne "component/aspect". And we don't believe he died on the cross to save all human sins. We also believe there are angels, satans, and the day of judgment, hellfire and heaven. We also believe that holy books had been revealed to prophet Moses (old testament), Jesus (new testament)Muhammad (Quran) and other prophets.

To be good Muslim, similar with Christianity we should have a good moral, in addition of that there are additional thing such as perform 5 daily prayers, not eat forbidden food such as pork, blood, alcohol, don do gambling, adultery etc. Regarding church (mosque) membership, we don't have membership system. We can go to any mosque without any permission or registration.

swaite07 wrote:

What is the daily life or a Muslim? For example if I was Muslim what would my daily, weekly, monthly, yearly life be like?

Daily life, we should follow a standard moral such as be nice your neighbor, care your family, working hard, seek knowledge etc. You also should share your wealth with others (charity). That aspect we call it relationship with human being and other God's creations (including environment). Then we have also to maintain relationship with God, by doing 5 prescribed daily prayers, go to Friday prayer, fasting in the month of Ramadan (one month in a year), pilgrim to mecca (if you are capable in term of money and health).

swaite07 wrote:

What are holidays, traditions, rituals, habits, rites of passages for children, practices?

We have only 2 prescribed Islamic Holidays. Eid-al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and Eid-al-Adha (the 10th of Dzulhijjah/Hajj month). Eid-Adha is a day after Arafat Day (the pilgrims stay in Arafat and listen a Hajj Sermon, this is the pick of Hajj rite). We have other holidays such as Islamic New Year, birth of the prophet, Isra-Miraj (prophet Muhammad travel just in one night from Mecca to Jerusalem and fly to heaven to meet the God almighty and to receive the instruction of 5 daily prayers). Those holidays were not celebrated during the prophet live, in these holiday there is no prescribed ritual. So these holiday is consider as cultural events, not religious events/ceremony.

Regarding children, we muslims are encouraged to marry and have children. In the scripture is mentioned that marriage is a half of the religion. Divorce is permissible, however it hated by God, so it should be the last resolve after other option to keep the marriage no longer work.

Raising children in a good way have high value in Islam, and the scripture say that the only things that you still can receive "royalty" after you die are "useful" knowledge that you thought/shared, physical charity (such you give money to build mosques, schools, hospitals etc), and pious children that always pray for you. In above teaching also shows the importance of seeking knowledge and share it with others.

Being nice to other also very important part in Islam, the scriptures say that you are not consider pious until your neighbor free from your bad act. Also you are not consider pious if you sleep well while your neighbor can not sleep because hungry. The scriptures also say that if hurt somebody, your repentance will not accepted by God until she/he forgive you.

Edited by semar - 03 February 2011 at 10:57pm

Salam/Peace,

Semar

"We are people who do not eat until we are hungry and do not eat to our fill." (Prophet Muhammad PBUH)

"1/3 of your stomach for food, 1/3 for water, 1/3 for air"

Hello. For one of my college courses I am required to learn more about a religion of my choosing. I choose to learn more about Islam for several reasons. I don't know much about it, I think it is misunderstood in the context of current world events, and from the little I know about it I think it is a very good religion. I am LDS and think there a lot of commonalities between my religion and Islam.
Anyways for my assignment my professor really encouraged us to learn about the religion from someone who actually practices it. I, unfortunately, do not personally know a Muslim and this is where I would like some help.
There are a some requirements we have and these include:
A brief history of the religion
How is Islam organized at the local, national, and international level, how are leaders chosen, are they compensated, what are their responsibilities?
Core teachings- basic message and core doctrine? What are the members supposed to believe?
Requirements and expectations-what are members supposed to avoid/do to be considered a member in good standing, how does the church teach them to live their lives?
What is the daily life or a Muslim? For example if I was Muslim what would my daily, weekly, monthly, yearly life be like? What are holidays, traditions, rituals, habits, rites of passages for children, practices?

I would really, really appreciate it if someone could answer these questions. I have been doing some research out of books and stuff but I feel like I am not getting a complete answer. I think getting information from someone who actively practices Islam would give me a greater understanding and appreciation of it.

Edited by swaite07 - 02 February 2011 at 5:35pm