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Islam literally means to submit and to
surrender. It also means to enter into peace. The idea
is that you're in peace with someone when you're not
fighting or opposing them. Islam is to enter into
submission before God and so to enter into peace with
Him, the most Wise and all-Powerful, the One whose
Will the whole universe obeys. This is what the
purpose of true religion has always been and what
every man of God has called towards. And this is the
call of every person's nature too, and the reason you
consider good as good and bad as bad. Islam is
therefore to enter into peace with your own nature
too. The beginning of this submission, Islam, in its
outward form is to submit to the truth that you know
inside yourself, that there is only one God, and bear
witness to it. Everything apart from the Creator is,
like yourself, a created being and always in need of
its Maker, and therefore unworthy of your worship. It
is only God who is in no need of anything outside
Himself, Absolute and
Independent.
The Arabic word for God
(is Allah), it is made up of al, the
definite article in Arabic meaning the, and
ilah which means God or a greater being
(that is the object of worship. Allah,
then, simply means the God, in contrast
to the false forms and images that people's minds
have qualified for worship. It isn't, therefore, in
any way the 'god of the Arabs' or Muslims but the
same One and Only God to whom all true divine
traditions called.
Say: He,
Allah, is One and Alone, Allah, the
Eternally Besought (of all), None
is born of Him and He is born of none.
And there is none comparable to
Him. (Qur'an, 112:1-4). Since He is
our Creator and the Creator of everything around us, the
One who gave us life and all that we've ever had, it is His
right upon us that we recognise Him and are grateful to
Him. And since He is the ultimate One in control, it only
makes sense that we obey Him and seek His pleasure;
anything else that we live our lives chasing after is soon
going to end while we, at the end of our road, have to go
back to God.
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