Frequently Asked Questions About Islam

FAQ'S Frequently Asked Questions About Islam 

In conveying the message of Islam to a non-Muslim, it is usually not sufficient to highlight only the positive nature of Islam. Most non-Muslims are not convinced about the truth of Islam because there are a few questions about Islam at the back of their minds that remain unanswered.

They may agree with your contentions about the positive nature of Islam. But, in the same breath, they will say - "Ah! But you are the same Muslims who marry more than one woman. You are the same people who subjugate women by keeping them behind the veil. You are fundamentalists, etc."

I personally prefer asking the non-Muslim upfront, what he feels is wrong in Islam. I prefer asking directly, what they feel is wrong in Islam with their limited knowledge, whether right or wrong and from whichever source it may be. I encourage them to be very frank and open and convince them that I can take criticism about Islam.

In the past few years of my Daawah experience, I have realized that there are barely twenty most common questions that a common non-Muslim has regarding Islam. Whenever you ask a non-Muslim, "what do you feel is wrong with Islam?", he poses five or six questions, and these questions invariably fall among the twenty most common questions.

Logical replies can convince the majority

The twenty most common questions about Islam can be answered with reason and logic. A majority of non-Muslims can be convinced with these answers. If a Muslim memorizes or simply remembers these answers, Inshallah he will be successful, if not in convincing non-Muslims about the complete truth of Islam, then at least in removing misconceptions about Islam and neutralizing the negative thinking about Islam and Muslims that the non-Muslims have. A very few non-Muslims may have counter arguments to these replies, for which further information may be required.

1. MOST COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED BY NON-MUSLIMS

2. MOST COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED BY NON-MUSLIMS WHO HAVE SOME KNOWLEDGE  OF ISLAM

3. COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED BY HINDUS ABOUT ISLAM

4. COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED BY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AGAINST ISLAM

5. QUERIES ON ISLAM

Islamic Research Foundation © 2015-2016 All Rights Reserved. 

Source: DZN

 

Ramadhaan Appeal

Dear Brother & Sister in Islam,

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.



As islam spreads the world over, how much are we ready to contribute and donate in its quest? What better time have to participate in this noble effort than Ramadhaan? The month in which Allah’s blessings descend in abundance.



So let’s contribute the most in this blessed month. Let’s spread the truth of Islam to less aware Muslims as well as non-Muslims, more effectively and widely.Frequently Asked Questions About Islam

Comparative Religion

QUERIES ON ISLAM
 

Source: DZN

Historical struggle between Islam & Kufr

http://www.hizb.org.uk/islamic-culture/historical-struggle-between-islam-kufr/

Historical struggle between

Islam & Kufr

The intensity of the struggle we witness in the history concerning the destruction of the Khilafah (as we will see) should not come to us as a surprise. The struggle between Islam and Kufr is as old as time. All the Prophets engaged in this struggle. 

• Nuh (as) struggled against his people for almost a thousand years, whilst they conspired against him and his Muslim followers. 
• Hud (as) struggled against ‘Ad, 
• Salih (as) against Thamud. 
• Ibrahim (as) underwent an intense struggle with his own tribe such that they sought to burn him alive. 
• Musa (as) faced the plots of Firawn, and 
• Muhammad (saw), the final Messenger, was subject to much persecution from the polytheists of Makkah, who sought to finish him and his call to Islam.

Thus we see that the struggle between Islam and kufr is an ongoing one and is an undeniable reality. It is a struggle rooted in ideology, and will necessarily exist whenever two people carry competing worldviews and seek to implement them in life. As Allah makes it clear, in plain language,


“Verily, the disbelievers are ever unto you open enemies.”   [al Nisa’: 101]


That is, those disbelievers who seek to fight against you and seek to take people away from the deen of Allah (swt) are open enemies to you.


In line with the open, the final destruction of the Khilafah State was not the first time the Europeans had attacked the Muslims. The first attack came much earlier in the form of the Crusades. The Crusaders came south into the Muslims lands in search of holy conquest and to fight the ‘infidel’ Muslims whom they considered a ‘vile’ race.


Addressing the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II rallied the Christians of Europe to a religious war against the Muslims, saying:


“Most beloved brethren:  Urged by necessity, I, Urban, by the permission of God chief bishop and prelate over the whole world, have come into these parts as an ambassador  with a divine admonition to you…O sons of God, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked your brethren in the East and have conquered the territory of Romania…On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot  soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.”

The Christian crusaders won some battles. The Muslims won the war. Salah al Din sent the crusaders packing with his decisive victory at Hittin in 1187. Importantly, if the Europeans learnt anything from the Crusades, it was that seeking to defeat the Muslims militarily alone was impossible. They learnt, albeit the hard way, that the real strength of the Muslims was their aqeedah, their beliefs, which pushed them to sacrifice everything in the path of Allah, which pushed them to be united under one leadership, which pushed them to have no fear of death and no worldly attachment to life. The next European attack was therefore much more comprehensive, as we shall see.

Destruction of the Khilafah

The Khilafah was officially abolished on the 28th of Rajab 1342AH, which corresponds in the Gregorian calendar to the 3rd of March 1924. However this was not a one  off attack. Rather it was the culmination of three centuries of work by the Western powers. Furthermore, it is important to appreciate that the measures taken by the Western powers were not of any one type. There was a mixture of attacks. It was not only a cultural invasion through missionary work. It was not only a political invasion through incited rebellion. It was not only a military attack through war and invasion. It was not only a legal invasion through imposition of Western laws. It was not only the co opting of agents. It was not any one of these things. It was all of these together. Only all of these together, over a period of almost three hundred years, and at a time of historical weakness of the Ummah, were the kuffar able to bring down the might and glory of the Islamic State.

Source

 

The Ummatic Obligation of Muslims The Objective & Goal of Muhammad (SAW)

The Ummatic Obligation of Muslims

The vital question that a true Muslim must ask himself is this: Did Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself fulfill the prophetic mission assigned to him by Allah (SWT) completely and in all respects? Or has that mission to be continued and carried out by Muslims to its completion at the global level? If we concede the truth projected in the latter question, can we really accomplish this gigantic task merely by celebrating annually the prophet’s birthday with devotion and fervour and by eulogizing his life and character traits? The right answer to this is definitely in the negative.

We Muslims must understand very clearly the all-important corollary of the belief in the Finality of Prophethood with the advent of Muhammad (SAW). That the institution of Prophethood has reached its zenith means that there will be no more prophets, and, therefore, the responsibility for the task executed by the chain of prophets has now been placed on to the shoulders of the Muslim Ummah. In respect of both types of duties — those pertaining to the basic purpose of Prophethood, which is preaching, and those related to the consummatory nature of Muhammad’s Prophethood, which is establishing the Deen of Allah in its totality — the responsibility lies with those who take pride in belonging to the Muslim Ummah and who adore and eulogize the Prophet.

All convinced and committed Muslims must realize that, since after Prophet Muhammad (SAW) there is going to be no prophet for the guidance of mankind, Prophet Muhammad’s mission has therefore acquired the following two-fold direction and significance. Firstly, he is the Messenger of Almighty Allah (SWT) to his contemporary Arab people (in particular) and, secondly, he is also the Messenger to the entire humanity till the end of the world (in general). It is stated quite clearly in the Qur’an (Al-Jum’ah 62:2,3) that the Prophet (SAW) was sent unto both the unlettered people (ummiyeen) and unto all the people belonging to other lands and future times (akhereen). The latter aspect of Muhammad’s Prophethood stresses the universality and timeless validity of all that was revealed to him. In a sermon already referred to, the Prophet (SAW) addressed his audience thus:

Verily, I am God’s Messenger unto you people in particular and unto all mankind (of other lands and of future times) in general. (Cf. Sermons of the Holy Prophet, reproduced in Nahjul Balaghah)

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) executed and fully achieved the target envisaged by the more immediate or “particularized” aspect of the prophetic call in his own life time, through the myriad activities of preaching and disseminating the Truth as well as persistent active struggle and even armed conflicts, in making Islam the supreme and dominant force in all of the Arabian peninsula. 

In this struggle, the Prophet (SAW) and his Companions (RAA) had to put up with all sorts of opposition, verbal and physical persecution, slander and mental anguish, conspiracies and armed attacks, vilifications and disinformation campaigns. Prominent landmarks in this arduous struggle include the confinement in the Sheb of Bani Hashim, the extremely insulting treatment and physical assault in Ta’if, the ordeal of hiding in the cave of Thaur while the Prophet and his Companion Abu Bakr were chased by the Quraysh, the migration to Medinah, and the battles of Badr and Uhad and Khyber and Tabuk; the Prophet (SAW) was forced to see hundreds of his devoted and cherished Companions martyred in this struggle, including Mus’ab Ibn Umair and Hamza (May God be pleased with them). But without faltering a bit, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his Companions (RAA) endured all the hardships and tribulations with patience and perseverance, and continued to work persistently for the execution of the Divinely ordained mission, until Islam gained ascendancy in all walks of life and the Qur’anic values and laws were implemented at all levels.

The climax and finale of the prophetic mission came at the pilgrimage performed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in 9 AH, when he addressed a mammoth gathering of Muslims at the Hajj Congregation and asked them whether he had fully transmitted to them the Truth. In reply, all testified that he had indeed communicated the Truth, that he had conscientiously discharged the duty entrusted to him by Almighty Allah (SWT), and that he had worked for their spiritual well being in the best possible manner. Only a few months later the Prophet (SAW) left this world for the Heavenly abode. Now, in the light of the following Qur’anic verse:

He has chosen you….so that the Messenger may be a witness (to Truth) before you and you might bear witness (to it) before all mankind.

(Al-Hajj 22:78)

The execution of the prophetic mission at the global level is the obligation of the Muslim Ummah as a whole. In the pursuance of this very objective the noblest of the Prophet’s Companions, i.e., the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, carried the banner of Islam on his behalf to the wide world outside the Arabian Peninsula. Indeed, Islam reigned supreme in its pristine excellence on a vast area of the then civilized world, and the obligations of witnessing to the Truth before mankind, preaching the message of Almighty Allah (SWT) and making Islam dominant as a system of life were discharged with utmost dedication for almost three decades. Thereafter, the Deen of Allah experienced a slow and gradual decline till it reached its lowest ebb in the first quarter of the present century.

Starting as an ideology believed in by a handful of people, Islam became the rock-bottom foundation of a whole world civilization. Now it has been reverted back to a position in which very few Muslims genuinely and whole-heartedly adhere to its dictates. We have, however, seen that Almighty Allah (SWT) demands of us a struggle and persistent endeavour to re-establish the link between faith and power, bringing both of them into a single unified whole.

So let us passionately involve ourselves in our society to do His will, and still more passionately let our hearts yearn for His pleasure. Let the life of the Prophet energize our ambitions and priorities. Let his message be our message, let his conduct be our conduct, and let his goals be our goals. Let nothing motivate us but an intense longing to please our Lord in the world to come, and let this expectation and desire give a decisive impetus to our life in this world.

The hope of meaningful future must make us bold enough to confront the risks and endure the pains that lie in living by God’s will. We, as Muslims, have but one option: to strive to change the world to conform to the model given to mankind by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Any other choice will only betray our hypocrisy.

Source:The Objective and Goal of Muhammad (SAW)

To Be Continued ....