George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying:
I have always been the religion of Muhammad in high esteem because of its wonderful vitality, it is the only religion which appears to me, that adaptability are the different phases of life appeals to rule on each age I have studied. - The wonderful man - and in my opinion, far from being an Antichrist, he must be called the Savior of mankind, I believe that if a man take more than the dictatorship of the modern world, it would solve their problems to succeed. in a sense, they bring much needed peace and happiness would be. I have the faith of Muhammad, it is acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as he prophesied beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today. "
The question is what are the characteristics of Islam, have won millions of followers in the belief in the past and making it so attractive to modern times? Some of the main characteristics of Islam is in the following pages.
Simplicity, rationality and objectivity. Is Islam a religion without myth. His teachings are simple and understandable. It is free from superstitions and irrational beliefs. The unity of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad and cover the concept of life after death, the fundamental articles of their faith. They are based on common sense and sound logic. All the teachings of Islam flow from those basic beliefs and are simple and straightforward. There is no hierarchy of priests, not exaggerated abstractions, no rites and rituals complicated. Everyone can speak directly to the Quran and to translate its precepts into practice. Islam awakens in man the ability to reason and exhorts him to use his mind. He ordered him to see things in the light of reality. The Qur'an advises him to pray: "O my Lord! Advance my knowledge (20:1 14). He believes that those who do not know, not just those who have (39:9), which are those who do not realize and understand, worst than cattle (7:179) that the meaning of revelation Manifesto those who become knowledge (6:97) and understand (6:98), so any knowledge was, in fact, had the good wide (2:269), the basic requirements for management include knowledge and physical force (2:247) and of all, it is the foundation of knowledge that man was superior to angels and is representative of God on earth (2:30) was prepared.
Prophet Muhammad said: "Whoever leaves his house in search of knowledge walks in the way of Allah" (Tirmidhi and Daarimee) and (Ibn Majah and Bayhaqi) "to strive for the knowledge is compulsory upon every Muslim. "This is how Islam brings the art world of superstition and darkness and sends it to the world of knowledge and light.
Again, Islam is a practical religion and does not allow indulgence in empty and futile theory. He said that faith is simply a confession of faith, but rather it is the pivot of life is a lot. virtuous conduct must follow belief in Allah. Religion is something to be practiced and not an object of mere lip service. The Qur'an says:
Those who act righteously feel is joy for them, and return to a happy home. (13: 29)
And the Prophet Muhammad said,
"Allah does not accept belief, if not in deeds to express and does not accept deeds if they do not believe." (Tabaraani)
Islam is a religion simple, rational and practical.
The unity of matter and spirit. A unique feature of Islam is that it is not divide life into watertight compartments in the mind and matter. He did not resist the negation of life, but fulfilling life. Islam does not believe in asceticism. He does not ask people to avoid material things. He believes that spiritual growth must be achieved by living godly in life, not by renouncing the world. The Koran tells us to pray as follows:
"Our Lord, give us something beautiful in this world as something beautiful in the afterlife." (2:201)
Allah censures those who refuse to greatly benefit from its blessings. The Quran says:
Say: "Allah Who is the cute, he forbade his servants and the wholesome things in (its) product available?" (7:32)
Islam action is brought by way of injunction:
Food and beverages, but not extravagant. (7:31)
The Prophet said:
"A Muslim living in the heart of society and bears with patience the suffering that is coming to him better than he who flees society and can not bear wrong done to him.
And:
"Keep fast, they break (at the right time) and stand in prayer and devotion (at night) and sleep - your body its rights over you and your eyes right on you and your wife has a right you and the person who paid a visit with you has a right over you.
On another occasion he said:
'These three points are also imposed on the faithful: (a), to help others, even if you are economically desperate, (b) to pray fervently for peace of all humanity, and (c) the right to their management.
Islam does not allow separation between "material" and "moral," "banal" and "spiritual" life, and directs people to devote all his energies to the reconstruction of life on the moral foundations of health. He teaches moral and material forces which must be welded together and the spiritual redemption may be using the physical resources for the benefit of people in the service and not only ends a life of asceticism or by running away from life's challenges .
The world has suffered in the hands of the one-sidedness of many other religions and ideologies. Some have focused on the spiritual side of life but have ignored its material and temporal aspects. They have on the world as an illusion, an illusion, and saw a case. In other materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and rejected as fictitious and imaginary. Both attitudes have led to a disaster, because they robbed the people of peace, contentment, and peace. Even today, the imbalance in one direction or the other occurs. French scientist Dr. De Brogbi rightly said: "The risk that material civilization intensive civilization itself, it is the imbalance that occurs when a parallel development, spiritual life was not give the necessary balance.
Christianity erred on one extreme, whereas modern Western civilization, has in its two variants of secular capitalistic democracy and Marxist socialism committed to another. According to Mr. Snell:
"We have a noble structure building exterior proportions, but we have the essential requirement of an internal neglected, we have carefully designed, decorated and cleaned used outside of the cup, but the inside was full of greed and intemperance, we increase our knowledge and power to manage the comfort of the body, but we left the poor mind. "
Islam tries to strike a balance between those two aspects of life - the material and the spiritual. He said that everything in the world for man, but man was created to serve a higher purpose: the establishment of a moral and just, that is to do the will of Allah. His teachings offer spiritual and temporal needs of man. Islam enjoins men to purify the soul and the reform of everyday life - and to establish the supremacy of the law of power and virtue over vice - individually and collectively. Islam is the middle path and the goal of producing a moral man in the function of a just society.
A complete way of life. Islam is a religion in common sense and distorted, because it does not limit its scope in his personal life. It's a complete way of life and is in all spheres of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life - individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, national and international levels. The man to Islam Quran unconditionally accept and follow God's guidance in all areas of life. Indeed, it was an unlucky day, as was the point of religion to privacy rights and its social and cultural role was limited to naught, as happened in this century. No other factor, perhaps more important in causing the decline in religion in modern times that their retirement in the area of privacy. In the words of a modern philosopher:
"Religion asks us different things about Allah what Caesar. Such a separation between the two is the degradation of both the sacred and the profane ... That the religion of little value unless the conscience of their supporters not disturbed when war clouds over us all and industrial conflicts threatening social peace depends. Religion has weakened man as a social conscience and moral sensitivity by separating the things of God which Caesar. "
Islam denounces this concept of religion completely determined and clear that their objectives are the purification of the soul and the reform and reconstruction of society. As we read in the Qur'an:
We sent our messengers with explanations, and sent the Book and the balance to them, so that humanity can be guided in all fairness. We down iron wherein is great violence and the benefits to humanity, that God knows who sent the support and His Messenger, even though (He is) unseen. (57:25)
Discretion belongs only to Allah. He has commanded you to serve Him alone, as is the right religion, but note that most men are not. (1 2: 40)
(Muslims) are those who, if We establish them in the country will perform the prayer (salat) and pay the welfare due (zakah) command what is proper and forbid what is improper. (22:40-41)
The Holy Prophet said:
"Each of you is a keeper or a shepherd, and will be on the welfare of challenged his fold. The head of state will continue over the welfare of the inhabitants of the State. Every man is a shepherd and his family the responsibility of each member of it. Every woman is the shepherd of her husband's family and each member of his manager. And every servant is a shepherd to his master and is the characteristic of questioning his master. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Including a cursory review of the teachings of Islam demonstrates that it is a holistic way of living and do not leave out all the fields of human existence to a playground for evil. The balance between the individual and society. Another unique feature of Islam is that it strikes a balance between individualism and collectivism. She believes in the man's personality and keeps all personally responsible to Allah. It guarantees the fundamental rights of individuals and not allow anyone to hit with them. It allows the proper development of the personality of a man of the main objectives of its education policy. He does not believe that man must take out their individuality in society or in a position to lose.
According to the Qur'an:
They have nothing, but what he strives for ". (53:39)
And what you suffer, suffer what your hands have earned. (42:30)
Allah does not change what all the people until they change what in itself. (13:11)
Allah has one soul, which can manage them: to their advantage that has earned while charging all that he has about himself. (2:286)
For us, our work and is yours for you. (28:55)
Moreover, it also awakens a sense of social responsibility people, organized in a society and state, and ordered the individual to subscribe to the social good. Prayer in Islam is in town, a situation inculcates social discipline among Muslims offered. Everyone is invited to pay zakat, and it was established in the Qur'an that:
The beggar and the needy are (ie the rich), because the wealth of their rights. (51:19)
Jihad has been made compulsory, which means that the individual, when the opportunity to offer his life for the defense and protection of Islam and the Islamic state. The Prophet said:
"All mankind is a fold crease, each member to be a keeper or a shepherd to all others, and account for all."
"Living together is not running against each other to keep things simple and not other obstacles on the way."
'He is not hungry is a believer who takes his fill while his neighbor.'
"The believer in God is one who is not a risk to the lives and properties of others."
In short, Islam neglects neither the individual nor society - it is harmony and balance between the two and each of the beneficiaries in proper reason. The universality and humanism. The message of Islam to all mankind. Allah in Islam Allah is the world (Qur'an 1:1) and the prophet is a messenger to all humanity. In the words of the Qur'an:
The humanity! I am only a messenger of Allah to you all. (7:158)
We've sent as a mercy for all peoples of the world. (21:107)
In Islam, all citizens are equal regardless of skin color, language, race or nationality. It depends on the conscience of humanity and banishes all false barriers of race, status and riches. He can not deny that these obstacles have always existed and exists today to the so-called enlightened age. Islam abolished all obstacles and proclaimed the ideal of all humanity to a family of Allah.
Islam is international in its perspective and attitude and not let barriers and differences based on color, clan, blood, or territory, as was the case before the advent of Muhammad. Unfortunately, these prejudices remain rampant in different forms, even in our time. Islam wants to unite all mankind under one banner. To a world torn by national rivalries and feuds, it presents a message of life and hope and a glorious future.
The historian AJ Toynbee has some interesting observations in this regard. Civilization trial, he writes
"Two visible sources of danger - one psychological and other things - in this current relationship proletariat cosmopolitan, ie with the dominant [Westernized man] in our modern Western society are race consciousness or alcohol, and fighting with each of these evils the Islamic spirit has to do a service that could reveal whether they were adopted for the high moral and social value.
"The extinction of race consciousness between Muslims is one of the great moral achievements of Islam, and in today's world there are, as is the case, a crying need to increase this under Islamic ... It is conceivable that the spirit of Islam might decide that the rapid strengthening work for tolerance and peace.
"May the evil of alcohol, it was the worst among primitive peoples in tropical regions of western companies," open "is ... the fact is that the preventive measures imposed as a man of state by an external authority unable to free a community of a social vice unless a desire for freedom and willingness to implement this control by voluntary measures within its own area in the heart of those affected are awake. Now Western directors, at least those of "Anglo-Saxon origins are mentally isolated from their" local "stations with" color bar "physical race consciousness is directed, and the conversion of souls of the natives is a task, their expertise does can not wait to be extended and it is so that Islam can be role-playing.
"In these recently and rapidly 'opened' the tropical regions, Western civilization has produced economic and political plenum and in the same breath, a spiritual and social vacuum ...
"Here are the foreground of the future to leave two valuable influences which Islam is the cosmopolitan proletariat of a Western society that has cast his net in the world and embracing humanity committed in the observation, while in the more distant future may We speculate on the possible contributions of Islam, a new manifestation of religion. "
Permanence and change. The elements of permanence and change coexist in human society and culture and are committed to stay. different ideologies and cultural systems have relied heavily on one way or another mistake from the ends of the equation. Too much weight in the long term makes the system rigid and takes away the flexibility and progress while generating a lack of permanent values and immutable elements of relativism, the lack of form and moral anarchy.
We need a balance between the two and a system that could simultaneously meet the requirements of permanence and change to offer. An American judge, Judge Cardozo said, rightly, "who most need our time, a philosophy that will mediate between the conflicting demands of stability and progress and provide a principle of growth." The Islam presents an ideology that meets the requirements of stability and change.
showed that the deeper reflection has life in it the elements of permanence and change - it is not as rigid and inflexible they have no change to switch to simple questions nor as flexible and fluid even its distinctive traits have no permanent character of their own. They are observing the process of physiological changes in the human body, all tissues of the body has changed several times in life, even if the person has the same remains clear. A tree changing leaves, flowers and fruits, but their nature remains unchanged. This is a law of life that elements of permanence and change must work together in a harmonious equation. Only such a life system that can provide for these two elements, all the cravings of human nature and all the needs of human society. The fundamental problems of life remain the same at all times and places, but the ways and means to solve them and techniques to cope with the phenomenon undergo changes over time. The islam brings a new perspective on this issue and emphasis has been trying to solve a realistic way.
The Qur'an and Sunnah contain the eternal guidance given by the Lord of the universe. Retrieved from which God is exempt from restrictions of space and time, and as such, principles of individual and social behavior revealed by Him actually founded centuries. But Allah has only general principles, it has endowed man with freedom, they are suitable for all ages so are the mind and the conditions of the time. It is (mental effort to get the truth) through ijtihad people of all ages to implement and apply the divine guidance, to determine questions of their time. Thus the basic orientation of a permanent nature, while the method can change its implementation in accordance with the needs of each age. Therefore, Islam is still as fresh and modern as tomorrow morning.
Complete collection of teachings preserved. Last but not least is the fact that Islamic teachings in its original form. Consequently, God's direction, without distortion of any kind is available. The Qur'an is the Book revealed word of God and the existence of the last 1400 years has been. It is still available in its original form. Detailed accounts of the life of the Prophet and his teachings in their original purity. He did not even have a change in this unique historical record has been made. The lyrics and the entire record of the life of the Prophet have been handed to us with unprecedented accuracy and authenticity of works of Hadith and Sira. Also a number of non-Muslim critics admit facts speak for themselves. Professor A. Reynolds Nicholson, in his A Literary History of the Arabs, says:
The Koran is a very human document in which every phase of Muhammad's personality and has been closely tied to external events of his life, so we have the materials of the sole and indisputable authority needed to trace the origin and early development of Islam, such materials are not as in the case of Buddhism or Christianity or any other ancient religion.
Some unique features of Islam that the credentials as the religion of the man of religion today and the religion of tomorrow. These aspects are taken for millions of people in the past and the present and have them say that Islam is the religion of truth and the right path for humanity. There is no doubt that these issues will continue even more people in the future. Men with a pure heart and sincere desire for truth is always more to say:
'I assure you there is no god but Allah, there is one, share its authority with anyone, I declare that Muhammad is His slave and His Prophet.'
