Admirable,appealing,monotheistic religion originated in Mecca in 7th century,1439yrs ago which spread all over the world like forest-fire.The reason was its clear & logical principles.Its founder was Prophet Muhammad SAW,a great philospher.It constitutes 5 pillars based on aspects of life & society.
▪Shahada(faith):have full faith that there is only1God who is the creator of all.
▪Namaz(prayer):which teaches punctuality & also equality.
▪Zakat(charity):Teaches Sharing of happiness & livelihood with poors & not enjoying self only. ▪Roza(fasting):which teaches us patience & teaches to control desire.
▪Hajj: A union in which everyone in same white piece of cloth depicts equality & no distinction of wealth & status.
The Quran is vital religious text of Islam,which is relevation from Allah.Its for all,one can memorise it too & thus cannot be distorted.Islam uplifted the position of women in society & prohibited the barberic activities common eg:- child-marriage,sex-object,female infanticide etc.It depicted daughter as 'Rahmet of Allah'.It preaches peace,humanity & simplicity.It outlawed the dowry system & suggested simple marriages to lesser the burden of her family.
According to Karen Armstrong,"there is nothing in Islam that is more violent than Christanity & other religions".
For those who speaks 'Islam was spread on base of swords',I would say Islam wanted sincere believers,not hypocrites. By forced conversions,one can only increase no.of hypocrites & not true believers.But history is evident about His influence on people.His words were 'golden-alphabets' for his followers.
When one complains about ruthless punishments set by Islam for criminals & tell it a vicious religion,I just object them with a note of nominal crime ratios as 'harsh punishments leads to less crime rate'.Today, the increased crime-rate is 10times more as compared to then bcoz of frail laws for rich criminals
Lastly,I quote Edward Said
"That so far as the west is concerned,Islam represents not only formidable competitor but also late comming challenges to Christanity".He claim Islam has been looked at with hostality & fear due to many religious,phycological & political reasons
-Fauzia Afreen
