Five pillars of Islam. A declaration of
faith. There is only one God. Prayer.
Fasting. Zaka. God has created all human
beings equal. As we accept differences
amongst brothers within our own
families, why can't we accept
differences among brothers in humanity
in our own points of view about life?
[Music]
Do you know what Islamism is? It's a way
of life for all. It is taught in the
good for big and
small. Islam is a way of life, a
complete way.
Alhamdulillah. All praise is due to
Allah. We praise him with all his
beautiful names. I greet you all with
the Islamic greetings. Asalamu
alaykumahu. May peace and blessings of
the almighty god. Allah be upon all of
you all. We have a topic building
bridges between Hindus, Christians and
Muslims.
So this is going to be a more of an
interactive session on Q&A and this
question answers allowed only for the
brothers and sisters of other faiths.
This is a purely an exclusive session
for them. We have Dr. Bilal
Phillips. So we'll straight away go on
to the session. So I request Dr. Bilal
Phillips to just introduce Islam briefly
and start the question answers. I would
first uh after praising
God and asking that his peace and
blessings be on all of his
prophets like to welcome all of our
non-Muslim guests here and uh I
appreciate your willingness to come and
share your ideas with us and uh that's
what we're here for to help you to
understand why we do or why we say the
things that we say as
Muslims and uh to improve
relations with peoples of other faiths
because
ultimately we are all trying to do what
is
good. We are all in favor of what is
beneficial for the welfare of our
communities, our
societies. So we really should not be at
odds with each other. We shouldn't have
misunderstandings especially in these
days where
communication lines of communication are
readily available. So that's what we are
here uh to share with you that
Islam if we look at its most basic
foundations what are known as the five
pillars of
Islam that in one way or another I'm
sure you would all
agree that they
represent good principles for
life. Whether it is the first of the
pillars which is a declaration of faith
that one be open with one's faith not to
hide it to pretend but to be
real this is what I believe this is who
I am that is the first step for the
Muslim for a person to be a Muslim he or
she should openly declare declare their
faith. Faith that there is only one
God which virtually all societies in the
world agree that there really is only
one God. But how that God is perceived
is where we find differences of
understandings etc. But the idea that
there's ultimately one supreme being who
governs
all, this is shared by all societies
around the world. And for the believing
people, we are the majority. Those who
claim that there is no supreme being,
they are in fact a
small,
strange, abnormal
minority. This is reality. I know those
of you who are visiting who may be
atheists might say, why would you want
to say that? Well, this is what history
shows us. Wherever we go in the world,
whatever age, whatever society, whatever
civilization, backwards, developed,
underdeveloped people believe in
God. A
minority you find in around the world
who say there is no God. So as
believers, this is a common ground that
we should share and uh help those who
have lost their
way to the state where they don't
recognize that there is a God. Help them
to find their way
back. And of course for a
Muslim there is added to the basic
declaration of faith that there is only
one God. that the one who informed us of
that, the messenger of God known as
Muhammad, Ib Abdullah, who appeared uh
was born in the uh 6th century after the
time of Christ. He conveyed that message
and he not only conveyed it in word but
he also conveyed it in deed. So a Muslim
when he or she declares their faith they
not only recognize the unity of God that
there is one God ultimate God but also
that the messenger who brought this
message is to be followed meaning he
represents the guide in life. He is the
example of how we should live our lives.
That's the first pillar of Islam.
And I'm sure all
religions have
comparable
guides. People depend on uh commit
themselves to believing that they are
the example for them. So I'm sure any
person who believes in God would say
yes, that is a reasonable principle. We
should have guides. We should have
somebody to show us how to live a good,
righteous, pious, beneficial
life. The second pillar of
Islam, the prayer.
Praying five times a day. But some
people might say, "Well, that's a lot.
You know, how about once a week or
couple of times a week? That may be a
little more." Well, of course, it's a
choice. If a person commits himself or
herself to pray five times a day, in
other words, trying to communicate with
God five times a day, trying to remember
God five times a
day, we say the more the merrier. Really
nothing bad about that.
Even if you as an individual may
personally feel it's a bit too much for
you but still the idea if somebody
wanted to do that it's a good thing
because the more we remember God the
better people we will
be. So again the second pillar of
Islam five times daily prayer no
believer in God would say hey that's not
good. No. The third
pillar,
fasting. Fasting in the month of
Ramadan. One month every
year, Muslims are required to fast for
30
days, daylight hours. And fasting is
something instituted in virtually every
religion. Even if people today don't do
it, we go back into the scriptures, you
will find that people of the past did.
So if we're not doing it and they did
it, it means somehow we slipped off the
path a bit. We need to get back on the
path because fasting was prescribed by
God because it is good for human
beings whether
physically or spiritually. And of course
the spiritual concerns are the greatest.
fasting which teaches
self-restraint, control of one's basic
desires, so that throughout the rest of
the year when we're not fasting, the
lessons learned in fasting should be
applied. And all of course, all of what
we're talking about here are ideal
principles that people should strive
for. Now, I know you might say, "But I
know some Muslims who fast every year,
and they don't seem to be very
restrained. They don't manage to
restrain themselves at all." Well,
probably because they're not fasting as
they were supposed to fast. And because
there are principles and rules for
fasting, there is the letter of the law.
You don't eat or drink or have sexual
relations between dawn and sunset.
That's the letter. But there's also
spirit where the prophet said that the
person who doesn't give up uh
backbiting, telling lies, cursing, God
has no reward for their
fast. So a person may go through the
physical requirements but the spiritual
requirements they're not taken care of.
So naturally the fast doesn't have the
required impact on the individual.
The fourth pillar of Islam is zaka or
charity which is an obligation on every
member of the community who has surplus
wealth. Everyone who has surplus wealth
above a
minimum is required to give
2.5% of it to the poor.
not to the church, the temple or the
mosque or to the imam or the
priest, but to the
poor.
Recirculating some of our surplus with
the needy members of the society and the
community. And again, anyone who
believes in God, even if you didn't
believe in God, you would say that's a
good thing, that's beneficial, it is
helpful. And the last of the pillars,
the one which might be a little
different, that of the pilgrimage Hajj,
the fifth pillar of Islam, where Muslims
uh once every
year gather some 3 million
strong. It is a requirement once in a
lifetime for those who are able. Those
who are not are required to desire
it. And what it
represents
is a
celebration of the diversity of
humankind and the greatness of
God.
Because as a Muslim here, Muslims of
India are taught that God has created
all human beings equal. Doesn't matter
what so-called race they belong
to, cast or position in society, etc.
They are really all equal and one.
But the reality of it isn't experienced
until a person goes to Hajj. When a
person goes to Hajj, goes to Mecca, he
meets there or she meets there people
from all parts of the world. And the
universality of that message of the
oneness of humankind comes alive on a
scale which is
unimaginable except for those who
actually get there and see it. It's very
difficult even to
describe but it's a celebration of that
variety and of the fact that there is
one God that brought them there who
created them and brought them there. And
it is also many of the rights performed
there rights of worship are focused on
prophet
Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice
his own son at the command of God.
Muslims uh accept prophet Abraham as one
of the prophets of God. And we as
Muslims are required to believe that God
sent prophets everywhere. Everywhere in
the world over 124,000 prophets.
Prophets were sent everywhere. Well, of
those that have remained, those that we
know of, uh, prophet Abraham is one who
is spoken about quite often in the Quran
and his, uh, sacrifice, his willingness
to sacrifice his son is commemorated in
the rights of Hajj itself.
So the idea of people gathering to
celebrate the unity of humankind and the
oneness of God and the need for human
beings to be prepared to sacrifice
themselves for the sake of God. Meaning
for the sake of what is good and what is
right. We should be prepared to
sacrifice anything which God has given
us. Because whatever we have belongs to
God. Then again even though the practice
of pilgrimage may not be found in some
religions the concept itself is again a
universal concept. So the basic pillars
of Islam are pillars which are
universally
uh recognized universally accepted and
uh that is what we have come to share
here with you this afternoon. we'd like
to share it with you and any
misunderstandings or any thing which is
not clear uh of these pillars or our
practices we are here to clarify them
for you. And with that I think now we
will turn over the floor to you to share
uh any issues or any uh points that
you'd like clarified. And please do not
feel shy. uh know that whatever you say,
we will take it in the spirit of uh
understanding and an attempt to uh get a
clear understanding, a better
understanding and not one that you're
trying to attack us or one that you're
trying to hurt our feelings. So don't be
shy to ask any question. Don't feel that
any question is too embarrassing or
whatever. This is uh our welcome to you
to share with us anything you have.
Thank you very much for being here and
we hope that you will share please. Uh
my name is professor Salvajan from Metas
University. I received invitation from
you. Thank you sir. Yeah he has given a
beautiful account of the five pillars of
the Islam and because your Islam is in a
different language many people are not
aware of it. Now I had a very good
perception of what Islam and five
pillars. Sir, our president Abdul Kalam
has been telling that we must have a
vision of universal brotherhood and a
global family. I think you must you must
have heard of our president Abdul Kalam.
But when we go to airport or when we get
into flight, we are always suspecting
everyone and searching all suitcase
everything. Life is full of tension.
When do you think this global family
would come up? Thank
you. Well, I think that the global
family will only
come when we are able to understand each
other on the most basic levels.
If we are unable to understand each
others, if there are tensions amongst us
between ourselves and our neighbors, you
know, our communities from state to
state or whatever, you know, we have not
established that that communication,
those open lines of communication on the
most basic levels, then we cannot expect
it to appear on the higher levels. You
know, perhaps maybe we're thinking from
the top down, but we need to think from
the bottom up. So we need more and more
gatherings of this type you know shared
by various communities where we can
share our beliefs with each other and
come to mutual understandings and to
work out whatever problems and
misunderstandings exist amongst us
because truly we are one humanity.
uh we are from the same origin and as we
accept differences amongst brothers
within our own families why can't we
accept differences among brothers in
humanity in our own points of view about
life
uh Dr. Rajan I am a scientist from the
ministry of agriculture and I am also a
member from the international
association of lions clubs wherein I
have participated the international
conference in Denver, Colorado, USA last
year and I am also the world
constitution world parliament member
that was constitute Virginia University
and now I have one question God is one
we represent different religions for
worship. ship we human beings
representing from various religions for
worship and why we
embrace that is say Islam kindly
enlighten this point as far as Muslims
believe and now we're talking about
sharing belief right Muslims believe yes
that there is only one God there is only
one human
race even though we've been told there
There's a variety of races. No, there's
just
one. And therefore, the need of human
beings to worship God, to live in
accordance with God's
will. That need is
fulfilled through God
revealing one
religion because human beings don't have
different needs in that sense. We all
have the same uh emotions. It's the same
psychology. Uh our organization of
societies may differ because of
technology and thing but basically it's
the same. We have a family structure, we
have communities, we have states
wherever you go in history. No, no
matter how far back you go in time, you
know, it is the same situation. Human
beings have not changed. So we believe
that when God created the first two
human beings, Adam and
Eve, he taught them, he informed them of
how he wanted them to live. That we call
religion. how he wanted them to live
because he gave them guidelines in terms
of how they should
relate between themselves, interpersonal
relationships, how they should relate to
the world around them which God has
provided for them and how they should
relate to God. That religion is not
restricted to just how you relate to
God, but how you also relate to each
other. How do you deal with the
environment around you? So religion, the
religion of God was taught to Adam and
Eve. The first two human beings, first
two human beings who Allah or God
created, they were taught the religion
of
God. As time
passed, people
multiplied. People strayed away from
that original religion.
made
changes, corrupted,
added, and God
sent messengers, prophets to bring
people back to that original
religion. And as people spread to
different parts of the world, of course,
the prophets were sent to the different
parts of the world, always calling them
back to that original religion.
Islam holds as
Muslims claim that that original
religion was
Islam. that Islam itself means
submission to the will of the creator,
sustainer of this
world, the one God who in Arabic his
name is
Allah. That one God who is not
material of the creation but the creator
himself.
So, submission to the will of God,
meaning submission to the commandments
and instructions of God, that is what
Adam and Eve were told to do. And this
is what uh describes that final
revelation of that same religion
according to the teachings of Islam.
So we believe really yes there should be
one religion but human beings are free
to make their own
choices. Human beings are free to choose
for
themselves what they feel is best for
themselves and in the end they will be
accountable to God for their choices.
That is the sum of our belief with
regards to that. My name is Dr. S. Rau.
I am not a Muslim but I was born and
brought up in a Muslim atmosphere,
educated completely in a Muslim
school. I have I am tremendously
influenced by the teachings of Prophet
Muhammad and what is contained in the
Quran and I happen to go through English
as well as Tamil version of Quran.
I from a for a long time I have been
raising a simple doubt which I want to
present here. Take for example
Christianity is being preached and
followed almost all over the world
because I think it is being propagated
in the language of the folk in the
language of the
people where it is being propagated. For
example, in in Tamil Nadu, we in most of
the Christian uh propagations are made
in Tamil. People are allowed to worship
Jesus Christ or to uh do any kind of
worship in the vernacular language in
the local language. Whereas Islam is
insisting on the Arabic language only. I
think that is the major impediment for
people to follow Islam and to understand
what is contained in uh Quran.
Therefore, is there any solution for
this that prayer or worship can be
allowed in the local languages? Quran
can be translated in almost all
languages and uh made cheaper available
to the people so that even the common
man can understand Islam and follow. And
this uh question I before I place before
you and I seek some answer is there any
positive solution for this? uh because
the language can easily uh attract
people a Tamil language through which
you can spread Islam the good teachings
of Islam. Nowadays Islam is being the
most misinterpreted religion. It is
being deliberately done by some section
of the society which is not acceptable.
I don't accept such a miscreant uh
propaganda. Therefore, I request is
there any solution for this problem and
can will you allow local languages to be
followed in your worship? Thank you very
much. Arabic
also allows Muslims to worship together
wherever they are. If I went to
ping and people called the adan, the
call to prayer in Chinese, then I
wouldn't know because the mosques in
China don't look like the mosques in
India. There's not a special shape that
a mosque has to take. It's just a place
of worship. It could be a room, a single
room. So the adan or the call to prayer
is done in Arabic. So that if I happen
to be in peing I would know that there
is a mosque here and I would enter that
mosque and if the imam the one who leads
the prayer led the prayer in Chinese I
wouldn't know what is going on either
but since prayer is done in Arabic I can
join in his prayer. So the Arabic
becomes a unifying force for Muslims
throughout the world. Wherever they go,
regardless of their languages, they're
able to pray together.
Furthermore, as my brother mentioned, it
is the language of the original
revelation and Muslims are all enjoined
and encouraged to learn some Arabic to
stay in contact with the words of God of
Allah as they were revealed. As he said,
translation gives you an idea of the
meaning, but the words of God
themselves have their own beauty, have
their own impact. So the translation of
the meanings of the Quran has been done
in most of the major religions of the
world. We have uh the Quran's meanings
translated into Tamil. This is an
example of the Tamil translation of the
uh meanings of the Quran as well as many
other languages. So we appreciate your
suggestion and I hope you've understood
the reasoning.
Next question please. I'm Nirmal Raj. Um
I was told by my Muslim friends
that God created us to worship him. Um
and those people who are worshiping him
they'll go to heaven and those who are
not woriing him they'll be passed into
the hell and my doubt is that is that
the our whole purpose of life is only to
worship God or do our life has some
other purpose and if so what is the
actual purpose of our life?
When the Quran states
that God created, Allah created human
beings and the spirit world we know as
the
jin solely for worshiping
him. That means that for Muslims
according to Muslim belief that is the
essential purpose of life to worship
God. But we have to ask
ourselves what do we mean by
worship. See if we think of worship as
uh merely calling on God and asking him
when we have a need then that is not
what is meant by the statement that we
were created to worship God.
What is meant is that we live all of our
lives in accordance with his
will. In doing so, we are worshiping. So
worship includes all aspects of life.
From the time you get up in the
morning, how you function, how you clean
yourself, how you deal with your family,
how you deal it at work, in all aspects
of your life. Did you go to bed at
night? You when you go back to sleep,
all of that becomes worship if you do it
in accordance with what God has
prescribed for you. So that way of life
which God has prescribed which
transforms all of your acts into
worship. That way of life brings out
from the human being the best makes him
or
her the best that he or she can be. So
that's the idea that is the goal behind
it. So this life being this world being
a transition
world we believe that there is a greater
life to come the everlasting life. This
life is a limited life. We are born at a
certain point. We die at a certain
point. So this is a transitional world.
The state of our world to come depends
on this life. depends on us living this
life in the way which God wanted us to
live the life. If we do so, we earn the
better life in the life to come. If we
don't, then we lose that.
So
worship enables us to achieve the goal
of this life or the purpose of the life
that we're
living. Is that
clear? You have a followup on it. Go
ahead. I'm satisfied with your answer.
Um but one one doubt is what does he
expect out of us? Why should he create
such a test to us?
The issue of what does he expect of us?
That is the religion. That is the way of
life which he has prescribed for us.
That's what he expects of us to
live to our utmost
potential in good and in goodness and in
righteousness. That is what is expected
of us. Why did he create us and expect
that of us? He is the
creator. Being the creator, he created.
You don't ask the painter why you
painted. In the same way, you don't ask
the creator why he
created. There's a point of questioning
where we accept, well, this is one of
the attributes of the one God who rules
this world. He is the creator and he
created us. He chose this life for us
because it was what was best for
us. Those who follow his instructions
and do what is required then this life
becomes in fact best for us. Those who
follow a life of their own choice enjoy
here disregard the instructions of God
then this life will be a source of
torment for us in the next. My name is
Ambalana. Throughout my life, my
observation of all the
religions. This is my perception. I am
not casting any aspirations. The meaning
of forgiveness and forgiveness and
tolerance. Is
it wanting in this religion?
Because the way in which you have put
the invitation the aftermath of the
September 11th incident the Islam's
tolerance and Islam's forgiveness
principle need much more explanation or
much more level of tolerance because I
find that
Islam it's only my perception it's not
my view doesn't have that much of
tolerance and
forgiveness as other religions. Please,
I would
suggest that you read the life of the
prophet to see where tolerance and
forgiveness is expressed, you know, as
the originator of the final message of
Islam, to see how it is expressed
there. And if you read also the
Quran, you will find
tolerance and forgiveness and uh mercy
expressed throughout it. In fact, each
chapter of the
Quran is
begun with the
phrase in the name of Allah the
beneficent the most
merciful.
So that is the teaching of Islam.
If you find some Muslims
intolerant and I won't deny that they
may not have been and they're not around
today too. Uh that is their
individual practices or ignorance or
whatever emotionality or whatever but
that is not the teaching of Islam. If we
consider for example the greatest
example, one of the big examples from
the uh life of the prophet that when he
was driven out of Mecca with his
followers and followers were murdered,
their wealth
taken. Eventually after some 10 years he
came back and reconquered
Mecca without a fight. Mecca
surrendered and the people of Mecca were
wondering what is going to happen to us
because how we treated you previously.
We killed you and did all these
different things to you. Then they were
expecting what they normally do when
they capture an area is they kill
everybody. They slaughter them. They
take their women and wealth. And this is
what they were doing. So they asked him,
"What are you going to do to us? You
know, you are one of us. Are you going
to be merciful to us?" He said, "Go all
of you. You are
free. Go all of you. You are free." That
was his magnaminity. That was his
generosity. That was his kindness. That
was his tolerance.
You know and that is the
example throughout actually is Muslim
history. If we look at the great points,
we look at the difference between when
Salahudin, if you're looking at uh
conquering for example, when Salahudin
conquered
uh Palestine, Palestine had been
conquered by the crusaders 100 years
before. And when they came in, according
to crusader uh
history, they massacred all of the
inhabitants. Their horses marched in the
streets with blood up to the ankles of
the horses. They massacred not only the
Muslims but the Jews who were there as
well as the Christians who didn't follow
their own brand of
Christianity. And when
Salah conquered
Jerusalem, he spared
everyone. He spared
everyone. No life was
taken. And that was in keeping with the
example of the prophet before him. Omar
the second khalif took
Jerusalem and he did the
same. So there was an example set by the
prophet.
Historically people followed that
example for the most part but there are
examples in history where people didn't.
So when we are to look at these
different examples, we judge them
according to the original example. We
say, well, this is what Islam actually
taught, but these people did something
other than its teachings. So Islam
really is a religion full of tolerance,
full of
forgiveness. But sometimes we find that
Muslims aren't.
My name is Ram Natan as a former
employee of the United Nations. I'm I
would like to know the meaning of the
term hadith. A hadith meaning uh
conversation literally in English in uh
English translation or something new. um
from the context the technical term in
in uh in Arabic it refers to the sayings
actions
approvals of the
prophet that's so it's comp this
represents the Quran represents direct
revelation yes it came on the tongue of
the prophet but it's direct words of God
recorded and memorized
Then the implementation of the Quran.
The Quran says pray but doesn't tell you
how many times to pray, when to pray, uh
how to pray. It just says pray. The
hadith now clarifies the
details. So the prophet's life, may
God's peace and blessings be upon him,
is contained within the hadith as the
example.
Is there any uh sisters of other faiths
there?
As for uh God's word, Islam believes in
God's birth, Jesus Christ birth and his
second coming. And why he didn't doesn't
believe in God's death. Please kindly
explain me.
As you said, Islam believes in God's
birth. No, we
don't. We believe in Jesus's birth.
God. One of the basic attributes of God
is that he is
eternal. Once we say that God is
eternal, to speak about his birth or his
death is
contradictory. He is without beginning,
without end. Everything else of his
creation has a beginning and has an end.
So, we don't speak of God's birth, nor
do we speak of God's death. We speak of
Jesus's birth, and we do not believe
that Jesus was God. Jesus, we believe,
was a prophet of God. We do believe he
was born of a virgin, that Mary was not
married. Islamic tradition in the Quran,
you will not find any mention of
marriage there at all. So we do believe
in the virgin birth, but the virgin
birth was still by the will of
God, an an act of creation of God,
not proof that Jesus was God because we
believe Eve was born without a
mother. So if Jesus was God because he
was born without a father, then what do
we say of Eve?
Furthermore, Adam was born or came into
being without father and mother. So what
do we say of Adam? So we look at Jesus's
birth though
miraculous as being a part of the four
modes of creation. God may create us
without an father and mother or with
father and mother or without a father or
without a mother. These are the four
possibilities.
Yes. One of the most confusing word
which we have in Islam is jihad. I would
like to know the real meaning and the
purpose of jihad. Jihad, Arabic word
uh means to
struggle, to
strive, to do something good, to
overcome something evil. The prophet
said, "May God's peace and blessings be
upon him, the best
jihad is a perfect Hajj, perfect
pilgrimage. Because in going to make
pilgrimage you have to control yourself.
People will step on your toes. People
will maybe you'll lose some of your your
uh provisions. You know they will find
difficulty and people crush together 3
million people in one location. You can
imagine there will be uh people's
tempers. All these things will be there
and and you'll be driven to want to
argue or to shout or to get upset and
but you're told to be calm to be
patient. The perfect Hajj which one is
able to get through that those eight
days without flying off the handle you
know uh arguing with people next to you
shouting at somebody else but patiently
bearing whatever difficulties you find.
So the prophet said this was the best
jihad. Hajj was the best jihad. So this
is telling us that the term jihad though
today it is associated with picking up a
gun and trying to kill somebody. This is
not the original meaning of the term.
Now jihad has a variety of different
levels. It may require that one picks up
a gun you know to defend one's life or
to defend one's community uh where one
comes under attack. Yes, this is there
too. But it starts at the most basic
level in the heart. On another occasion,
the prophet had said that the greater
jihad is the jihad of the heart where
one struggles against the evil
tendencies within the heart because God
has created us with an awareness of both
good and evil. Each human being is born
with that. And religion is supposed to
help that good side, support the good
side, help the person to make the right
choices. But still it is the individual
who has to make those choices. So when
that individual struggles against his or
her evil tendencies, they are involved
in jihad at the most basic level. And if
one cannot engage in that level of
jihad, then no of the other levels, none
of the other levels are
true jihad because we do this for the
sake of God. Believing that this is what
is pleasing to God. This is what God
wants from us. That we be good people,
we promote goodness, we live goodness.
So on the basic level which is required
of us if we cannot do that then even on
the highest levels where we're fighting
uh offering our lives up supposedly to
defend the faith or the believers or the
country of the believers or whatever
whatever level it is it will be missing
that most vital component. And the
prophet had said that such a person who
fights there without that vital
component in fact will not earn the
reward, will not be a true martyr, will
in fact end up uh a loser in the next
life. So jihad is the struggle against
evil on all levels.
[Music]