Islam
                    
 

The purpose of this site is to reach out to more people

regarding  Islam. The topics include:
        

         


My religion is Islam. I converted to the religion in  December at Darul Arqam. When I first  became a Muslim, I realised that there were several misconceptions regarding the religion. It is a simple religion to understand. In Islam, there is only One God, called Allah. Islam means submission or surrender to the will of Allah. Allah has 99 names altogether. Whoever is able to recite all His names may go to Heaven. Allah is eternal. The Quran states :' He is the First and the Last , and the Outward and the Inward; and He is Knower of all things.' (Quran 57:3).
 

Under Iman (belief), there are 6 things that Muslims must believe in. First, a Muslim must believe

1.    There is only one God.

2.    there are angels.

3.    in the Books of Allah, beginning from the time of Adam (s.a.w)

4.    in all the prophets, not just Muhammed (s.a.w) alone.

5.       the Day of Judgment, where all human beings and jinn will be judged
         by Allah and sent to Heaven or Hell according to their beliefs.

         Muslims  who believed in Allah, but did not repent or atone for his sins            will be sent to Hell for awhile, before they are liberated and sent to             Heaven by the mercy of Allah.

6      in Qadha' and Qadar which means that Muslims believe that God has
        planned and executed His plans for the universe. It means that God
        anticipates events and that events take place according to the exact
        knowledge of God. This is something like the Chinese's belief of
        fate.Even so, we should not abandon ourselves to fate
        but  try and try again and keep our faith in God.

Ihsan means conduct.

The 5 principles of islam are:

1.    The declaration of faith which a person who wants to convert must take  in front of witnesses. It is known as the kaliman shahadah:

    ash-hadu al-laa ilaa-ha il-lallaah
    wa ash-hadu an-na mu-Hamma-dar ra-suu-lul-laah

2.    To perform the 5 daily obligatory prayers.

3.    To distribute zakat (obligatory charity) to muslims only.

4.    To fast in the month of Ramadan

5.    To go to Mecca to perform Hajj
 

Books on Islam

Besides these, we are not allowed to go for fortune telling, as it is the work of the Satan. We are also not allowed to colour our hair or paint our nails as this is a defiance of what Allah has given us, unless there is such deformities that it is necessary to go for surgery, so that we can survive in society. There are alot of leeway given even, for prohibitions. So Islam is not as rigid as portrayed by the West. All these information can be found in the book, the Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam.

Another set of books that I would recommend is Stories from the lives of the Prophets (s.a.w). There are 3 books altogether so far and the last story is on the prophet Isa, also known as Jesus(s.a.w) to Christians. Of course the versions of the stories are very different from the Christians. When I find out the author's name, I will update this on my web page.

The most oft referred to book for new converts is the Essence of Islam published by the Darul Arqam, the Muslims' Convert's Association of Singapore. It is a simple book detailing all the basic requirements of a Muslim, and the prayers.

 

   Related Websites

 

          Those interested in knowing more about the religion can go the the              following web sites:

            Muslim Online           This web site enable a Muslim to know all the prayer                                               times for 1999.

            Islamic Software         This site is very helpful in terms of acquiring Islamic                                                 software, such as softwares used to calculate the                                                 direction of the Qilab according to your country and                                                  teachings of Quran and Hadiths.

            Questions and Answers on Conversions

            This site is probably one of the best ones in answering doubts concerning               conversion and Islam in general.

              Islam and Marriage     This site is especially useful for new converts                                                              marrying a born Muslim.

            The Quran                     The site shows the English translation of the Quran.

            

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