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02-24-2008, 01:26 AM

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 robotics 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. 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 indispensable 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]

In Islam the Arabic term for purity is Taharah. Books of Islamic
jurisprudence often contain an entire chapter with Taharah as a
heading.

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]

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 hygiene 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.

Muslims Contribution To Science

Astronomy

Muslims have always had a special interest in astronomy. The moon and
the sun are of vital importance in the daily life of every Muslim. By
the moon, Muslims determine the beginning and the end of the months
in
their lunar calendar. By the sun the Muslims calculate the times for
prayer and fasting. It is also by means of astronomy that Muslims can
determine the precise direction of the Qiblah, to face the Ka'bah in
Makkah, during prayer. The most precise solar calendar, superior
tothe
Julian, is the Jilali, devised under the supervision of Umar Khayyam.

The Qur'an contains many references to astronomy.

"The heavens and the earth were ordered rightly, and were made
subservient to man, including the sun, the moon, the stars, and day
and night. Every heavenly body moves in an orbit assigned to it by
God
and never digresses, making the universe an orderly cosmos whose life
and existence, diminution and expansion, are totally determined by
the
Creator." [Qur'an30:22]

These references, and the injunctions to learn, mnspired the early
Muslim scholars to study the heavens. They integrated the earlier
works of the Indians, Persians and Greeks into a new synthesis.
Ptolemy's Almagest (the title as we know it is Arabic) was
translated,
studied and criticized. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in
their Arabic names - Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran.
Astronomical tables were compiled, among them the Toledan tables,
which were used by Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. Also compiled
were almanacs - another Arabic term. Other terms from Arabic are
zenith, nadir, albedo, azimuth.

Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like
the
one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis Khan, in Persia,
and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe,
which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic
navigation,
contributing to the European age of exploration.

Geography

Muslim scholars paid great attention to geography. In fact, the
Muslims' great concern for geography originated with their religion.
The Qur'an encourages people to travel throughout the earth to see
God's signs and patterns everywhere. Islam also requires each Muslim
to have at least enough knowledge of geography to know the direction
of the Qiblah (the position of the Ka'bah in Makkah) in order to pray
five times a day. Muslims were also used to taking long journeys to
conduct trade as well as to make the Hajj and spread their religion.
The far-flung Islamic empire enabled scholar-explorers to compile
large amounts of geographical and climatic information from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.

Among the most famous names in the field of geography, even in the
West, are Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Batuta, renowned for their written
accounts of their extensive explorations.

In 1166, Al-Idrisi, the well-known Muslim scholar who served the
Sicilian court, produced very accurate maps, including a world map
with all the continents and their mountains, rivers and famous
cities.
Al-Muqdishi was the first geographer to produce accurate maps in
color.

It was, moreover, with the help of Muslim navigators and their
inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the Cape of Good Hope,
and Da Gama and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.

Humanity

Seeking knowledge is obligatory in Islam for every Muslim, man and
woman. The main sources of Islam, the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Prophet
Muhammad's traditions), encourage Muslims to seek knowledge and be
scholars, since this is the best way for people to know Allah (God),
to appreciate His wondrous creations and be thankful for them.
Muslims
were therefore eager to seek knowledge, both religious and secular,
and within a few years of Muhammad's mission, a great civilization
sprang up and flourished. The outcome is shown in the spread of
Islamic universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo go
back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest existing universities
in
the world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European
universities, such as Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the
familiar academic cap
and gown originated at Al-Azhar University.

Muslims made great advances in many different fields, such as
geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology,
architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic
numerals were introduced to ...

On Feb 12, 7:28�pm, MrSpook <ne...@home.world> wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:23:09 -0800 (PST), Rob Cypher
>
>
>
>
>
> <robcypherena...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Feb 12, 7:11 pm, "Smart Ape is expecting to expect the unexpected"
> ><Za...@POTA.com> wrote:
> >> Scott Bakula on Boston Legal!
> >> --
> >> --- Tied for 4th Best RSPW Poster of 2007.
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> >> --- 8th Funniest Poster of 2004, 6th in 2005, 5th in 2006 and 4th in 2007.
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> >> tied for 2nd in 2007.
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>
> >Rob Cypher
> >robcypher.livejournal.com
>
> � � � � LOL.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -