Very basics on Islam
In the ISLAMIC beginning…
- In the Name of God the Most Compassionate the Most Merciful
Islamic Greetings
- Salamun Alaykum: Peace be upon you
What is Islam and who is a Muslim?
- Islam literally means: Submission or surrendering to God
- Muslim is a person who believes in ‘Islam’
The Emergence of Islam
- Literally Islam began with the first prophet; Adam
- In its complete sense, Islam began with the first revelation to Prophet Muhammad in 25 June 610 AD at the age of 40 ( Muhammad was born in 28 April 570 AD)
The Main Sources of Knowledge in Islam
- The Holy Quran
- The Hadith (sayings and practical life of the Prophet Muhammad)
The bedrock of Islam
- In Theory: Faith in One God, Hereafter and Prophets
- In Practice: Righteous Deeds
Main Beliefs
- Monotheism: believing in Unique God who does not beget nor is He begotten
- Justice of God: believing that God is neither cruel nor unfair
- Prophecy: believing in all God’s Messengers from Adam to Muhammad
- Successors of the Prophet: Imam Ali and his 11 offspring
- Resurrection: believing in the day of Judgment: Eternity in Hell or Heaven
Islam in Practice
- Jurisprudence: Worshipping (Daily Prayers, Fasting, Charity (Zakat and Khoms), Pilgrimage to Hajj, Jihad, enjoining good and forbidding evil, befriending friends of God and dissociation from the enemies of God), only Halal meat is permissible to eat. All types of intoxicants are forbidden. Gambling is forbidden. Marriage is very recommended act and divorce is permissible but detested
- The noble social rule in Islam: “Repel evil with what is best.” (i.e. don’t repel evil with evil)
Two Main Muslim Denominations
- Shi’a: Those who believe Prophet Muhammad (P)- by the divine command- appointed Ali; his son-in-law and cousin, and his 11 offspring ending with Imam Mahdi, as his caliphs
- Sunni: Those who the Prophet (P) did not appoint anyone after himself to lead the Muslim community
Islamic Calendar and Main Festivals
- Muslim Calendar is lunar
- Holidays in Islam are holy days
- Eidul-Fitr (celebrating successfully ending the Month of Fasting)
- Eidul-Adha (celebrating successfully ending the Hajj pilgrimage)
- Eidul-Ghadir ( celebration of divine appointment of Imam Ali, by the Prophet as the authority after him: 70 days prior to Prophet’s demise.)
- Ashura ( Commemoration of martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet; Imam Husain and his loyal companions)
Quranic verses
Ayat ul Wilayah
This famous verse has been revealed in praise of the action of Imam `Ali (A).
Abu Dhar recounts, “Once, I was saying my prayers in the company of the Holy Prophet (S) when a beggar came to the mosque asking for some alms. Nobody gave him anything. `Ali (A) was in the state of Ruku` and he pointed out his ring to the beggar, who approached him and removed the ring from his finger.” At this time the following verse was revealed:
Verily your guardian is Allah and His messenger (Muhammad)
And those who believe and establish the prayer,
And give charity (alms) while they are (in Ruku`) bowing down. (al Maidah, 5:55) When we say (`Ali is the Wali of Allah) in our Adhan, it is based on this verse.
Ayat ut Tathir
The significant status of the People of the Household (Ahlul Bayt) of the Holy Prophet (S) had been continuously emphasized by the Holy Prophet (S) himself during his life time. There are many Ahádith (traditions) to this effect.
The most renowned Hadith is that which is known as “Thaqalayn” – “Two ‘Heavy’ things”. The Holy Prophet (S) said, “I leave behind two heavy things for you – The Holy Qur’án and my Ahlul Bayt; if you hold fast unto them, you shall never go astray for they will never separate until they come to me together on the Day of Resurrection”.
This significance of the Ahlul Bayt has also been mentioned in the Holy Qur’án several times. They are specifically mentioned in verse 33 of Súrah al-Ahzáb, which is known as Áyat ut Tathír, literally meaning “the Verse of Purification”.
We narrate Hadith-e-Kisá (The event of the Cloak) quite regularly whenever we gather for a Majlis, whether in large numbers or small. The event is said to have taken place at the residence of Bibi Fátimah (SA).
The narration states that the Holy Prophet (S) came to the house of his daughter and requested for a cloak and then lay down to rest. His grandsons, Imám Hassan (A) and Imám Hussein (A) came and joined him under the cloak. Thereafter, Imám `Alí (A) and Bibi Fátimah (A) also came under the cloak.
Bibi Fátimah (A) narrates that when they were all assembled under the cloak, Jibrá-íl (A) came to the Holy Prophet (S) and conveyed to him the verse which reads:
Verily, Alláh wishes to drive away all evils from you, O Ahlul Bayt, and cleanse you thoroughly. (al-Ahzáb, 33:33)
At this time, Umme Salma, a virtuous wife of the Holy Prophet (S), asked if she could join them under the cloak and be included in the Ahlul Bayt. The Holy Prophet (S) replied “You are a good woman but it is better that you stay where you are”.
As a reference to the event of the cloak, the group assembled under the cloak has been referred to as “Panjatan Pák” or “Holy group of Five”.
This narration of where the verse was revealed has been recorded in both the Shi`ah and Sunni history books. Two important Sunni references are “Sahih” of Muslim bin Hajjáj, and “Musnad” of Ahmed ibn Hanbal.
At the end of Hadith-e-Kisá, it is narrated that Imám `Alí (A) asked the Holy Prophet (S) as to the significance of the gathering under the cloak. The Holy Prophet (S) replied that any group that mentions the event in their gathering, the angels will seek forgiveness for them until they disperse. The Holy Prophet (S) also said that anyone who has a dire need or is in sorrow will have his prayer answered by the blessings of the narration of the event of the cloak.
When studying the Áyah of Tathír, one will undoubtedly note that the verse begins with addressing the wives of the Holy Prophet (S). Hence, some argue that the people referred to in this verse as Ahlul Bayt are the wives, and not the children of the Holy Prophet (S). To this there is a very simple and convincing answer.
The mode of address used in addressing the wives is the feminine plural mode. Hence, in the words “Qarna fi Buyútikunna..” – the nún at the end denotes feminine plural address exclusively to the wives of the Holy Prophet (S). Yet, when we come to the part of Ahlul Bayt, the verse switches to a different mode of address – “`Ankum.. Yutahhirakum.” This mode of address is used either for exclusive male plural or male and female mixed plural. Hence the verse changes to addressing a different group of people in a discourse that is overall being addressed to another group. The verse is addressing the wives of the Holy Prophet (S), except in this small part of the verse! In this last part, the address is directed to the Household of the Holy Prophet (S).
Meaning of Surat-Al Asr
1. By the Time!
2. Verily man is in loss!
3. Save those who believe, and do good deeds, and exhort each other to truth and exhort each other to endurance.
1. “Asr” i.e., Age, which is the continuity of Time. The word “Asr”, meaning age or time is used in a mystic use. Commentators say it is a reference to the Age of the Holy Prophet (A.S.) i.e., a period when the Lord’s Promised Last Reformer and Final Law-giver was sent into the world and stayed preaching the truth and taught men the correct ways and means by which man can rise from the ignoble and the loathsome depth of the material world into the glorious heights of spiritual bliss. Some commentators take the word “Asr” to mean the ceremonial afternoon prayer and the Sixth Holy Imam Ja’far Muhammad As- Sadiq (A.S.) says it is a reference to the age when the Last one of the promised Guide or Imam, in the seed of the Holy Prophet (A.S.) who bears the same name Muhammad who is the son of the eleventh Holy Imam Hassan ibn Ali Al-Askri who is titled “Mahdi”. Taking the reference to either the age of the Holy Prophet (A.S.) or his Last Deputy on earth, the last Holy Imam, it will mean one and the same significance to say that those who will be benefited by the teachings or the guidance of the Great Teacher, will be the ones guided aright and those who reject any one of these two, the Last Apostle from the Lord or the Last one of the Lord’s commissioned Guides or Imams, is lost.
“Asr” literally means “Squeezing” or the squeezed object. It has been figuratively used for Time-in the sense of its becoming-meaning the squeezed of the past, which unfolds as future. The other two verses give the justification of this meaning.
The state of ever-folding and the unfolding ascribed to time in its relation to the events falling within it, represents the state of the Imam as a microcosm and a medium between the Infinite One and the finite ones as such the Imam has been termed in the language of the Ahlul-Bayt as the “Madaarud Dahr”, i.e., the Axis of the age and the actuating factor behind it.
2. It is needless to go into details that man amidst innumerable temptations is always caught in the lust for the satisfaction of his carnal desires, thus under the risk of being easily beguiled by the innumerable and the most powerful and irresistible attractions. And if man, is not on his guard against all the formidable forces of Satan who is ever active to lead man astray, man suffers the loss, loss of the pleasure of His Lord which is the loss of his own salvation, the loss real.
It is said that this is, as well a reference to the taunt of Abu-Jehl and Walid bin Moghaira who said that the Holy Prophet (A.S.) and his Followers are the losers for they have abandoned the worship of their ancestral gods and have given up themselves to some one Allah. This verse clearly addressing the one who holds any such false idea says that he who says that the Holy Prophet and His Followers are in loss, is himself in the loss.
3. “Those who believe” may include every believer to the extent or the degree of the strength of his conviction or faith and those who will be meant here with the fullest application of the term, will be only those who satisfy to the fullest extent the owning of the several great qualities of a believer mentioned by Allah. See 26:15, 2:177, 6:163, 9:20, 26.
The believers are those from whom Allah has purchased their wealth and their lives in exchange for His pleasure with them 9:111. Those who hold the Holy Prophet (A.S.) in preference to their own souls 33:6. The perfection or the purity in the faith can never be found in any other than those whom Allah himself has purified (33:33) to be the models of purity in every aspect of goodness in the life on earth. Thus those who are referred here immediately are the Holy Ahlul-Bayt. (Imam Ali, Imam Hassan, Imam Hussein, Hazrat Fatima Zahra) (PBUT).
When asked the explanation of this Surah the Holy Prophet (A.S.) said “those who are safe and whose faith and deeds are totally correct and perfect are my Ahlul-Bayt”, i.e. Ali and the Imams in his seed “and those who reject me or them, are in the loss.”
As regards the preaching the Truth, who else could do it, save those who must themselves be fully conversant with it and even realized it by their own conviction and the strength of faith. The Holy Prophet (A.S.) had said that “I and Ali are of one and the same Light” and “Ali (A.S.) is always with the Truth and the Truth will always be with Ali”. The preaching of the Truth needs knowledge of it, and the Holy Prophet (A.S.) had said “I am the City of Knowledge, and Ali is its Gate”. The Holy Prophet (A.S.) has said ” I leave behind me two weighty things: The Book of Allah and my Ahlul-Bayt, if ye be attached to these Two, never, never shall ye get astray and never, never will these Two get separated from each other until they meet me at the Fountain of Kauthar in Heaven. Thus the immediate application of this reference could rightly be only to Ali or the Ahlul-Bayt collectively and those according to their attachment to these Holy ones.
None of the Eleven Holy Imams left this world with a natural death-they all suffered martyrdom. The Ahlul- Bayt exercised patient who suffered the untold miseries, tortures and even a wholesale massacre of all their dear ones.
