Table of Contents
The main objective here is to define Islam according to the Qur'anic description against the backdrop of pre-Islamic Arabia.
The Term Islam
The term
Islam could be understood as both a name and a concept that was developed from Arabic with a three-letter root: (s/l/m); which
means ‘submission’ or ‘surrender’. It was from this root (s/l/m):
The three-letter
root, from which Islam is derived also means peace (salam), soundness, and
safety. Islam is therefore a person’s total submission to the will of God,
which gives him or her inner peace, soundness of nature in this life and
safety from divine retribution in the life to come.
In Surah,
(Al-‘Imran 3:19), the Qur’an emphasizes the following: “Truly, the
religion with Allah is Islam,” and states in (Al-‘Imran 3:20) that
“So if they dispute with thee, Say: “I have submitted my whole self to Allah
And so have those who follow me.” And in (Al-‘Imran 3:85) it re-emphasizes
that: “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted
of him, and in the Hereafter, he will be one of the losers.” Besides, in another
Medinan revelation the Qur’an maintains that: “This day, those who disbelieved
have given up all hope of your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This
day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and
have chosen for you Islam as your religion” (Al-Ma’idah 5:3).
The significance of the emphasis on Islam as the people’s religion
coincides with Islamic status in Medina: a force in scope and character and a
power to reckon with among other believers, such as Zindiqs, Sabines, Arabians,
Jews, and Christians dwelling there at that moment. A commentary on (Al-Ma’idah
5:3) suggested a separation of those who have submitted to the Will of God
from the polytheists, idolaters, Zindiqs, Sabines, Jews, and Christians.
Forbidden to you (for food) are dead meat, blood, the
flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than
Allah; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a
headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten
by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which
is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by
raffling with arrows; that is impiety.
The question to ask is: Why did the Qur’an forbid such
associations with other dwellers of the area before the coming of Islam? What was the belief in pre-Islamic Arabia?
The idea of God in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Before the coming of Islam, Arabs had the disposition and tolerance of a variety of religions. There were different types of beliefs and practices that included:
Christianity
The Christian religion was brought into Arabia when the Romans converted the north Arabian tribe of Ghassan to Christianity and in the south; Christianity was brought into the place by the Christians in Yemen following the Ethiopians' occupation of the region. The Christian centres were Najran in the south and Hijaz in the north.
Sabines
The Sabines worshipped the stars and were identified as Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of ancient Italy. But they also lived in pre-Islamic Arabia. They were known for their various beliefs and practices.
Jews
The Jews were driven out of Jerusalem after it was conquered by the Romans in A.D. 70, many Jews left Palestine and Syria, and some found places of abode in Hijaz in Arabia. With their presence in Hijaz, quite a good number of Arabs were converted to Judaism. Many Jews could be found in Fadek, Umm-ul-Qura and Yathrib.
Zindiqs
They believed that there were two gods who were in an endless competition for supremacy; the two gods were identified as twin forces of good and evil or light and darkness. The Zindiqs were influenced by the doctrine of dualism prevalent in Persia.
Atheists
Those who did not believe in a God but considered the material world as eternal.
Polytheists/Idol Worshippers
They were considered idolaters and most Arabians were regarded as such because they worshipped many idols, and each tribe had its own idol or fetish.
Monotheists
Among those living in Arabia before the coming of Islam were the monotheists; those who did not worship idols or fetishes. They were regarded as those who followed the teachings of Abraham. It was this last group that the members of the families of Muhammad and most members of their clan belonged. The period before the coming of Islam in Arabia is identified as the ‘Times of Ignorance.’
That could be an explanation for the separation of those who have
submitted to the idea of a ‘single God’ from other dwellers of the area.
The idea of separation does not last long. In (Al-Ma’idah 5:5),
the Qur’an tends to bring together the People of the Book (The People of the
Book are identified as Jews and Christians) in dietary and marital injunctions,
thereby proposing peace and friendship:
This day is (all) things good and pure made lawful unto
you. The food of the People of the Book is lawful unto you and yours is lawful
unto them. (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are
believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book, revealed before your
time – when ye give them their due dowers, and desire chastity, not lewdness,
nor secret intrigues.
Islam As Peace
Islam
signifies peace. One of the attributes of God in the Qur’an is peace. God
is al-Salam. He is the source of peace. Through “maximum human
effort known as jihad, the whole of God’s creation strives to
make peace and this is achievable only through active obedience or conscious
submission to God’s will.” This definition already brings out one basic Islamic
concept of distinct relations that is, the Oneness of God.
For Muslims,
“Islam signifies the commitment of its adherents to live in total submission to
God within prescribed conduct as defined by the Qur’an, the sunnah of
the Prophet Muhammad and the living tradition.” Adherents to this call to
submit or surrender to God are called Muslims. One can become a Muslim either
by hereditary or by a mere profession of the Shahadah.
A Muslim is
either someone who is born to a Muslim family and is a member of the Muslim
community by birthright, or someone who accepts Islam by repeating before two
Muslim witnesses the Shahadah, or profession of faith: “I bear witness
that there is no god except God (Allah), and I bear witness that Muhammad is
the Messenger of God.”
By simply making the Shahadah, a man or woman
becomes legally a Muslim with all the rights and responsibilities of this new
identity.
Muslims do
not favour the referents known as Mohammedans and Mohammedanism. For example,
the Oxford English Dictionary in its analysis of the concept crescent used
the term Mohammedan to juxtapose the ideologues: crescent and cross.
The word crescent has it as an “adopted badge or
emblem by the Turkish sultans, and used within their dominions as a military
and religious symbol”; hence, figuratively, represents the “Turkish power, and
as this has been to Christendom in recent times the most formidable and
aggressive Mohammedan power, used rhetorically to symbolize the Mohammedan religion
as a political force, and so opposed to the Cross as the symbol of
Christianity.
Nevertheless, the central idea of Islam when addressing the
question of who a Muslim is comes under three-fold meanings. The first is:
“On the basis of the use of intelligence, which
discerns between the Absolute and the relative, one should come to surrender to
the Will of the Absolute. This is the meaning of the term Muslim: one who
has accepted through free choice to conform his will to the Divine Will...”
Then the second is more generic and all-inclusive:
“Muslim” refers
to all creatures of the Universe, who accept Divine Law in the sense that they
conform to the unbreakable laws which the Western world calls “laws of nature.”
And the final category is restrictive and selective. Not all are
invited but the holy and blessed:
“Finally, there is the highest meaning of
Muslim which applies to the saint. The saint is like nature in that every
moment of his life is lived in conformity with the Divine Will but his
participation in the Divine Will is conscious and active whereas that of nature
is passive.”
It is said that Islam claims for itself as the religion of God (Al-‘Imran 3:19).
The question that calls to mind is: Has God any religion? Has he chosen any
religion in particular? How has God singled out Islam as his religion? It is
understandable that Islam is a peaceful religion and God is known as the God of
peace. Many religions can claim that they are peaceful too. The idea of God
choosing a religion for himself can also be found in the Old Testament account
of Israel as ‘God’s chosen people’ and the consequent condemnations of other
religions besides God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6).
Islam means peace and a follower of the way of peace is someone
who consciously submits to the will of God. Any individual who has achieved
this is a “‘saint’ whose life is lived in conformity with the Divine Will.”
Because God is peace, any religion that promotes the peaceful co-existence of
living can be said to be a religion of God in word and meaning.
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