Welcome to Islam, - Islam's revolutionary role- I

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As a result of ignorance, the evil known as the worship of natural phenomena was born in human society. Man attributed divinity to mere creatures. He began to worship all the things in the world, holding them to be gods. Owing to this intellectual aberration, idolatry became a rooted feature of human civilization. Not even the coming of thousands of Prophets and reformers could bring about any change in this state of affairs, in the practical sense. The rejection of the Prophets brought down on the deniers the chastisement of God, but Shirk )associating partners with Allah( could never be wiped out from society. Then Almighty God took it upon Himself to intervene. One major manifestation of this Divine intervention in human history was the emergence of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. An American encyclopedia has very appropriately described his coming as having “changed the course of human history.”
French historian, Henri Pirenne, has expressed it thus: “Islam changed the face of the globe. The traditional order of history was overthrown.”
The Qur'an, in defining the objective of the Divine intervention, has this to say )what means(:}It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion. And sufficient is Allah as Witness.{]Quran 48:28[
This has found expression in a Hadeeth: “He will not depart from this world as God has decreed, unless and until these people are brought to the straight path.” ]Al-Bukhari[
This shows that, for the Prophets of the past, communication alone was required, whereas for the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, not just communication but also implementation was required.
The task of the earlier prophets was completed with the full communication of the message to the people. But the Divine plan in sending the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to the world was to bring about a practical revolution. His message could not, therefore, remain at the theoretical stage.
It being beyond human capacity to make the end result a certainty, how was the Prophet's, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, message to be translated into reality? It all became possible due to the special Divine succor extended to the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, by Almighty God. This took the form of a Divine plan which had two basic aspects to it: one, to provide the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, with a powerful and trustworthy team, and the other to significantly weaken the enemies of monotheism by means of a special strategy, so that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and his companions could easily dominate their opponents.
The first part of his Divine plan was brought to completion in the form of the settlement of Isma’eel, son of Prophet Ibraheem, may Allaah exalt their mention, in the unpopulated desert of Arabia, two thousand five hundred years ago. At that time it was a totally isolated place situated far from the centers of civilization. There a community was raised by Ismail ibn Ibrahim, may Allaah exalt their mention, trained in the desert atmosphere where there was nothing save nature. As a natural result of this unadulterated atmosphere, )free from all man-made pollution,( the human qualities of the inhabitants of the desert were fully preserved. It was like a vast natural training camp. It took more than two thousand years to evolve a nation of such high caliber as to be called a “nation of heroes” by a western scholar. In the history of the Arabs this nation is known as the Ismailites. Despite religious perversion having set in, so distinguished were they in human values—thanks to their particular training—that they had no peers among those who came before or after them.
The Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, one of the distinguished members of the Banu Isma’eel )descendant of Prophet Isma’eel(, may Allaah exalt his mention, struggled for about thirteen years in Makkah and ten years in Madeenah. Ultimately, more than on hundred thousand people believed in him and joined his mission. Each and every one of his companions possessed a strong and dependable character. In this way the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, in an exceptional way, secured a team by which he could bring the message of the Prophets to fruition—taking the prophetic mission from the theoretical stage ideology to the practical stage of revolution.
The next part of this divine plan consisted of weakening these anti-monotheism forces so considerably that the last Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, might subjugate them and usher in the desired revolution in the very first generation itself. To achieve this end, the Arabian tribes remained engaged for a long period of time in bloody, internecine warfare.
Consequently, when the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was sent to the world, the idolatrous tribes of Arabia, having so weakened themselves, could not continue their resistance for long. This enabled the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, to overcome Arabia and root out the idolatry completely within a short period of time.
In those days there were two great empires outside of Arabia. These empires kept the major parts of Asia and Africa under their full control. Their power was so great that the Arabs could not even have dreamed of overcoming them. Despite this extremely out of proportion difference, how did it become possible for the Arabs of the very first generation, to conquer both these empires - the Sassanid and Roman- in such a decisive way as to crush them absolutely, resulting in the dominance of monotheism over idolatry throughout this region? This miracle became a reality owing to a special Divine strategy, which is paralleled by the case of the Romans. Almighty God Says )what means(:
}The Byzantines have been defeated in the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will overcome within few years.{]Quran 30:2-3[
History shows that from 602 to 628, extremely extraordinary events took place between these two great empires.
First, the royal families in the respective countries clashed internally with one another, and in consequence, many individuals of great political worth were killed. In fact, these feuds gave a death blow to these empires, shaking them to the very roots. Subsequently, certain factors led to the destructive collision of these empires with one another. First the armies of the Sassanid empire crossed the border of the Roman empire to attack it. Circumstances proved favorable and they succeeded to the extent that the Roman Emperor Heraclius decided to flee from his Palace in Constantinople. But again, events took a new turn. Heraclius regained his lost confidence and after making full preparations, attacked the Sassanid empire, destroyed their armed forces and penetrated right into the heart of Jerusalem.
These civil wars, lasting for about twenty five years, considerably weakened both these empires. Therefore, during the pious caliphate when the Arab forces entered the Roman and Sassanid empires, they managed to advance with great speed.
To be continued...

- PUBLISHERNajimudeeN M

Welcome to Islam, - Islam's revolutionary role- II

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Historical Revolution
This expansion of the Islamic empire was not simply a political event. Its aim, in fact, was to set in motion a revolutionary process in history. This process had been initiated in Makkah itself, and then it travelled from Makkah to Madinah, to Damascus and Baghdad from where it entered Spain and thereafter it spread all over Europe and the entire world. We would probably be right in saying that the 20th century saw the culmination of this process.
There are two basic aspects to this movement. One was the end of religious persecution. )This kind of persecution has been mentioned in the Qur'an as Fitna'(.
The process began with the end of idolatry and was completed during the lifetime of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. The other, the advent of religious freedom, came about later, during the pious caliphate; with the disintegration of the two great empires—the Sassanid and Byzantine—the two greatest pillars of religious persecution were uprooted, and religious freedom became the order of the day. However, no great revolution materializes all of a sudden. It reaches fruition only by a long historical process, and the Islamic revolution was no exception to this rule. The process of human liberation, initiated by Islam, continued over a long period to make advances through individual and collective efforts, taking various forms. The second Caliph, Umar, may Allaah be pleased with him, addressing one of his governors and his son in a well-known case asked: “Since when have you enslaved people while their mothers had given birth to them in freedom?”
This voice was echoed eleven hundred years later by the well-known French reformer Rousseau. His book, titled The Social Contract, began with this famous sentence: ‘Man was born free, but I find him in chains. This concept of intellectual and religious freedom had fully matured by the end of the 20th century. With the establishment of the United Nations all the nations of the world signed its charter of Human Rights, proclaiming that intellectual and religious freedom is the irrevocable right of every human being and that on no pretext can it be abrogated.
Freedom of Choice
Through a long process, that age has finally come when man has secured the absolute right to adopt the religion of his choice and to propagate that religion, on the sole condition that he will not use violence in the exercise of his religious freedom. This change brought about in the world has thrown open all the doors of communication formerly locked to the message of monotheism; doors that had been locked by the ancient absolutist regimes.
The creation plan of God regarding human beings has been thus alluded to in the Quran )what means(:}]He[ who created death and life to test you ]as to[ which of you is best in deed — and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving.{]Quran 67:2[
To achieve this end, it is essential that an atmosphere of freedom prevail in this world, that everyone without any hindrance may play his role. Without freedom, neither reward nor punishment can be awarded to anyone. An atmosphere where there is no intellectual freedom nullifies the very scheme of God—the scheme according to which man has been created and placed in this world. That is why these regimes based on an absolutism, which had taken root centuries ago, had to be overthrown.
In recent times the communist revolution of 1917 again attempted to establish a vast empire based on the coercive system of the ancient type. But since this ran counter to the divine plan, God brought about a situation which lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Man again was granted the same freedom as was available to the rest of the world.
The end of the superstitious Era
Another basic change wrought by the Islamic revolution was similar in some respects to the scientific revolution of modern times; that is, the rooting out of superstitious thinking on scientific grounds and the general prevalence of thinking based on facts.
As mentioned above, the continued existence of the idolatrous way of life and thinking in ancient times was due to the ignorance of human beings regarding nature. Ancient man used to judge natural phenomena by their appearance. Holding them sacred, he began to worship them. For the first time in human history, Islam succeeded in convincing people that these phenomena of nature were not creators, but only creatures. They were entirely helpless beings, mere slaves and not the masters of man.
In the wake of this revolution the ideological base of idolatry was wiped out altogether. All those things held sacred were relegated to the status of mere creatures. They were there to be harnessed by man and not for man to be enslaved by them. The sun was held to be a god and worshipped in ancient times; the man of today is converting the sun into solar energy. Ancient man held the moon sacred; modern man has set his foot on it. Ancient man had deified the river; modern man has converted rivers into steam power, etc.
In this way, it has happened for the first time in human history that the phenomena of nature, looked upon by ancient man with reverence, have how become objects of investigation. In other words, Islam started the process of scientific enquiry. The Qur'an repeatedly enjoins man to reflect on the objects of the universe. This is no simple matter. The act of pondering over the nature of the phenomena of the universe has been accorded the status of worship in Islam. As a result of this thinking, for the first time in known history, all things in the universe have been subjected to research and investigation.
The scientific way of thinking of the modern age initiated in the early period of Islam, continued as a process to grow, spreading from one country to another until it reached the west where it saw its culmination in the western world. In respect of its reality, this scientific thinking is a revolution desirable by Islam itself.
After this revolution, for the first time in human history the idolatrous way of thinking has been totally deprived of its ideological base. The concept of the sacredness of natural phenomena is now seen for what it is—a superstition, for modern scientific investigation has demonstrated belief of this kind to be baseless.
All that happened was exactly in accordance with the divine plan, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and his Companions, may Allaah be pleased with them, having been asked to carry out this Divine scheme as stated in the Quran )what means(:}“And fight them until there is no chaos and ]until[ the religion ]i.e. worship[, all of it, is for Allah”{]Quran 8:39[ This means that there was no longer any barrier to man’s making a choice in the way of God.
This was the final goal of the revolution brought about by the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and his Companions, may Allaah be pleased with them. It ended that absolutist system of coercion which places curbs upon personal decisions about one’s religion. It also removed the veil of obstacles in ideological terms which confused and mislead people, as a result of which they began to worship creatures.
The Quran tells us that there is no compulsion in the matter of religion, with the proviso that true guidance and misconceptions should be thoroughly separated from one another. ]Quran 2:256[
Truth and falsehood stand clearly separated from each other, just like light and darkness after the sun has risen. This was something which—after the Islamic revolution—could be grasped beyond the shadow of a doubt by anyone who sought reality with an open mind. No one was left groping in the dark. And no one was left with any excuses for rejecting God.
The Truth Unveiled
To this particular end God brought about the revolutions in human history, as mentioned above. Now truth and untruth have become so distinct from one another that there is no thick or thin veil in between: the task of clarification has been performed so thoroughly that the man of today has total freedom of choice. Now in his journey towards God, man is hindered neither by false ideologies nor by practical barriers.

- PUBLISHERNajimudeeN M

Welcome to Islam, - Atoms that come alive

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Atoms are the building blocks of both animate organisms as well as inanimate objects. Since atoms are inanimate particles, it evokes extreme astonishment that they are the building blocks of living beings. This is an issue evolutionists can never explain.
Just as it is impossible to imagine pieces of stone coming together to form living organisms, it is impossible to imagine inanimate atoms coming together by themselves to form living organisms. Think about a lump of rock and a butterfly -- one is inanimate, the other is animate. Yet, when we delve into their essences, we see that both are made up of the same sub-atomic particles.
The following example may elucidate the impossibility of inanimate matter transforming by itself into animate matter in a better way: Can aluminum fly? No. If we mix aluminum with plastic and gasoline, can it fly? Of course it still cannot. Only if we bring these materials together in a way so as to form an airplane, can they fly. So, what makes an airplane fly? Is it the wings, the engine or the pilot? None of these can fly by themselves. In fact, an airplane is manufactured by the assemblage in a special design consisting of different pieces each of which has no ability to fly. The ability to fly is derived neither from aluminum, nor plastic, nor gasoline. The specifications of these substances are important, but the ability to fly can only be gained by bringing these substances together in a very special design.
Living systems are no different. A living cell is formed by the arrangement of inanimate atoms in a very special design. Faculties of living cells such as growth, reproduction and others are results of perfect design rather than the properties of molecules. The design we find at this point is only Allaah's creating the living from the dead. Allaah Says )what means(:"Indeed, Allaah is the cleaver of grain and the date seed. He brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living. That is Allaah; so how are you deluded?"]Quran 6:95[
When the Theory of Evolution was advanced in the middle of the 19th century CE, scientific research conducted with primitive microscopes had created the impression that the cell was just a simple lump of matter. However, in the 20th century CE, observation and research made using advanced instruments and electron microscopes revealed that the cell has an extremely complex structure that could only have been formed as a result of perfect design. Most importantly, research showed that it is absolutely impossible for life to arise spontaneously out of inanimate matter. The source of life is life alone -- a fact has been proved experimentally too. This is a problem evolutionists can never resolve.
It is for this reason that renowned evolutionary scientists find themselves in a great impasse and instead of presenting solid scientific evidence, resort to telling hypothetical 'tales' which amount to nothing but window-dressing. They put forward completely illogical and unscientific claims that matter has a consciousness, ability and will of its own. However, they themselves do not believe these absurd tales and are eventually forced to confess that the main questions that need to be answered cannot be answered scientifically: "The outstanding evolutionary mystery now is: how matter has originated and evolved, why it has taken its present form in the Universe and on the earth, and why it is capable of forming itself into complex living sets of molecules." ]C. D. Darlington, Evolution for Naturalists, )NY, John Wiley, 1980( p. 15[
As the evolutionary scientist quoted above confesses, the basic purpose of the Theory of Evolution is to deny that Allaah )God( created living beings. This is the scenario claimed by evolutionists, describing the transformation of inanimate and unconscious atoms into animate organisms, and most significantly, into people with high levels of consciousness and intelligence: "After the Big Bang, atoms, containing precisely balanced forces, somehow brought themselves into being...These atoms first transformed themselves into cells with highly complex structures and then produced copies of the cells they formed by splitting into two, after which they started speaking and hearing. Subsequently, these atoms transformed into university professors viewing themselves under the electron microscope and claiming that they came into being coincidentally…"
It is possible to prolong this story but let us stop here and see whether unconscious atoms can spontaneously form the DNA molecule, the cornerstone of life and proteins.
DNA )Deoxyribonucleic Acid(, which is located in the nucleus of a cell contains the codes carrying the information that controls the formation of all organs and characteristics of the body. This code is so complex that scientists were only able to translate it )to a very limited extent( as late as the 1940s. Proteins are the building blocks of living beings and play a key role in many vital functions of the organism.
DNA is a series of nucleotides arranged in a special sequence. A protein is a series of amino acids arranged again in a special sequence. First of all, it is mathematically impossible for either DNA molecules or protein molecules that come in thousands of different types to sort out the appropriate sequences necessary for life by chance. Probabilistic calculations reveal that the probability of even the simplest protein molecules achieving the right sequence by chance is zero. In addition to this mathematical impossibility, there is also an important chemical obstacle to the coincidental formation of these molecules. If the relationship between DNA and protein were a result of time, chance and natural processes, then there would be some sort of chemical affinity of DNA and protein to react, as acids and bases have a great tendency to react. In that case, if chance had really played a role, a whole host of other natural chemical reactions would occur among any random fragments of DNA and protein and the living beings we see today would not have formed.
Just as the entire Universe was created from nothing, so were living beings created from nothing. Just as only nothing can come into existence out of nothing by chance, inanimate matter cannot combine by chance to form living beings. Only Allaah, Possessor of Infinite Power, Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Knowledge, has the power to do all these. Allaah Says )what means(:"Indeed your Lord is Allaah, who created the Heavens and Earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. He covers the night with the day )another night( chasing it rapidly; and )He created( the sun, the moon, and the stars, subjected by His command. Unquestionably, His is the creation and the command; blessed is Allaah, Lord of the worlds."]Quran 7:54[

- PUBLISHERNajimudeeN M