Husseiniat Alrasool Alaatham Alkarbalaeia
of South Australia
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About Islam
Islam and Muslims
The name of this religion is Islam, the root of which is Silm and Salam, which means peace. Salam may also mean greeting one another with peace. One of the beautiful names of God is that He is the Peace. It means more than that – submission to the One God, and to live in peace with the Creator, within one’s self, with other people and with the environment. Thus, Islam is a total system of living. A Muslim is supposed to live in peace and harmony with all these segments, hence a Muslim is any person anywhere in the world whose obedience, allegiance, and loyalty are to God, the Lord of the Universe.
Muslims are from diverse racial and national backgrounds
The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Muslims are not to be confused with Arabs. Muslims may be Arabs, Turks, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis, Malays, Indonesians, Europeans, Africans, Americans, Chinese, or other nationalities.
An Arab could be a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew or an atheist. Any person who adopts the Arabic language is called an Arab. However, the language of the Qur’an (the Holy Book of Islam) is Arabic. Muslims all over the world try to learn Arabic so that they may be able to read the Qur’an and understand its meaning from the original text. They pray in the language of the Qur’an, namely Arabic. Supplications to God could be in any language.
While there are more than one billion Muslims in the world, there are about 200 million Arabs. Among them, approximately ten percent are not Muslims. Thus Arab Muslims constitute only about twenty percent of the Muslim population of the world.
Allah, the One and the Only God
Allah is the name of the One and Only God. Allah has ninety-nine beautiful names, such as: The Gracious, The Merciful, The Beneficent, The Creator, The All-Knowing, The All Wise, The Lord of the Universe, The First, The Last, and others. These are titles that tell us about who God is.
He is the Creator of all human beings. He is the God for the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the atheists, and others. Muslims worship God whose name is Allah. They believe in His existence, worship Him, put their trust in Him and they seek His help and His guidance.
God in Islam is unlike any of His creation. Therefore, God is not male or female nor does God have any human or physical image. Sometimes the word “He” is used for God mainly as a limitation of English language.