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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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