Islam – A Conscious Submission to the Will of God

Staff Writer


Table of Contents

The main objective here is to define Islam according to the Qur'anic description against the backdrop of pre-Islamic Arabia.

The Term Islam

The term Islam could be understood as both a name and a concept that was developed from Arabic with a three-letter root: (s/l/m); which means ‘submission’ or ‘surrender’. It was from this root (s/l/m):

The three-letter root, from which Islam is derived also means peace (salam), soundness, and safety. Islam is therefore a person’s total submission to the will of God, which gives him or her inner peace, soundness of nature in this life and safety from divine retribution in the life to come.

In Surah, (Al-‘Imran 3:19), the Qur’an emphasizes the following: “Truly, the religion with Allah is Islam,” and states in (Al-‘Imran 3:20) that “So if they dispute with thee, Say: “I have submitted my whole self to Allah And so have those who follow me.” And in (Al-‘Imran 3:85) it re-emphasizes that: “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter, he will be one of the losers.” Besides, in another Medinan revelation the Qur’an maintains that: “This day, those who disbelieved have given up all hope of your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion” (Al-Ma’idah 5:3).

The significance of the emphasis on Islam as the people’s religion coincides with Islamic status in Medina: a force in scope and character and a power to reckon with among other believers, such as Zindiqs, Sabines, Arabians, Jews, and Christians dwelling there at that moment. A commentary on (Al-Ma’idah 5:3) suggested a separation of those who have submitted to the Will of God from the polytheists, idolaters, Zindiqs, Sabines, Jews, and Christians.

Forbidden to you (for food) are dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows; that is impiety.

The question to ask is: Why did the Qur’an forbid such associations with other dwellers of the area before the coming of Islam? What was the belief in pre-Islamic Arabia?

The idea of God in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Before the coming of Islam, Arabs had the disposition and tolerance of a variety of religions. There were different types of beliefs and practices that included:

Christianity 

The Christian religion was brought into Arabia when the Romans converted the north Arabian tribe of Ghassan to Christianity and in the south; Christianity was brought into the place by the Christians in Yemen following the Ethiopians' occupation of the region. The Christian centres were Najran in the south and Hijaz in the north.

Sabines 

The Sabines worshipped the stars and were identified as Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of ancient Italy. But they also lived in pre-Islamic Arabia. They were known for their various beliefs and practices.

Jews 

The Jews were driven out of Jerusalem after it was conquered by the Romans in A.D. 70, many Jews left Palestine and Syria, and some found places of abode in Hijaz in Arabia. With their presence in Hijaz, quite a good number of Arabs were converted to Judaism. Many Jews could be found in Fadek, Umm-ul-Qura and Yathrib.

Zindiqs 

They believed that there were two gods who were in an endless competition for supremacy; the two gods were identified as twin forces of good and evil or light and darkness. The Zindiqs were influenced by the doctrine of dualism prevalent in Persia.

Atheists 

Those who did not believe in a God but considered the material world as eternal.

Polytheists/Idol Worshippers 

They were considered idolaters and most Arabians were regarded as such because they worshipped many idols, and each tribe had its own idol or fetish.

Monotheists 

Among those living in Arabia before the coming of Islam were the monotheists; those who did not worship idols or fetishes. They were regarded as those who followed the teachings of Abraham. It was this last group that the members of the families of Muhammad and most members of their clan belonged. The period before the coming of Islam in Arabia is identified as the ‘Times of Ignorance.’  

That could be an explanation for the separation of those who have submitted to the idea of a ‘single God’ from other dwellers of the area.

The idea of separation does not last long. In (Al-Ma’idah 5:5), the Qur’an tends to bring together the People of the Book (The People of the Book are identified as Jews and Christians) in dietary and marital injunctions, thereby proposing peace and friendship:

This day is (all) things good and pure made lawful unto you. The food of the People of the Book is lawful unto you and yours is lawful unto them. (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book, revealed before your time – when ye give them their due dowers, and desire chastity, not lewdness, nor secret intrigues.

Islam As Peace

Islam signifies peace. One of the attributes of God in the Qur’an is peace. God is al-Salam. He is the source of peace. Through “maximum human effort known as jihad, the whole of God’s creation strives to make peace and this is achievable only through active obedience or conscious submission to God’s will.” This definition already brings out one basic Islamic concept of distinct relations that is, the Oneness of God.

For Muslims, “Islam signifies the commitment of its adherents to live in total submission to God within prescribed conduct as defined by the Qur’an, the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and the living tradition.” Adherents to this call to submit or surrender to God are called Muslims. One can become a Muslim either by hereditary or by a mere profession of the Shahadah.

A Muslim is either someone who is born to a Muslim family and is a member of the Muslim community by birthright, or someone who accepts Islam by repeating before two Muslim witnesses the Shahadah, or profession of faith: “I bear witness that there is no god except God (Allah), and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

By simply making the Shahadah, a man or woman becomes legally a Muslim with all the rights and responsibilities of this new identity.

Muslims do not favour the referents known as Mohammedans and Mohammedanism. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary in its analysis of the concept crescent used the term Mohammedan to juxtapose the ideologues: crescent and cross.

The word crescent has it as an “adopted badge or emblem by the Turkish sultans, and used within their dominions as a military and religious symbol”; hence, figuratively, represents the “Turkish power, and as this has been to Christendom in recent times the most formidable and aggressive Mohammedan power, used rhetorically to symbolize the Mohammedan religion as a political force, and so opposed to the Cross as the symbol of Christianity.

Nevertheless, the central idea of Islam when addressing the question of who a Muslim is comes under three-fold meanings. The first is:

“On the basis of the use of intelligence, which discerns between the Absolute and the relative, one should come to surrender to the Will of the Absolute. This is the meaning of the term Muslim: one who has accepted through free choice to conform his will to the Divine Will...”

Then the second is more generic and all-inclusive:

“Muslim” refers to all creatures of the Universe, who accept Divine Law in the sense that they conform to the unbreakable laws which the Western world calls “laws of nature.”

And the final category is restrictive and selective. Not all are invited but the holy and blessed:

“Finally, there is the highest meaning of Muslim which applies to the saint. The saint is like nature in that every moment of his life is lived in conformity with the Divine Will but his participation in the Divine Will is conscious and active whereas that of nature is passive.”

It is said that Islam claims for itself as the religion of God (Al-‘Imran 3:19). The question that calls to mind is: Has God any religion? Has he chosen any religion in particular? How has God singled out Islam as his religion? It is understandable that Islam is a peaceful religion and God is known as the God of peace. Many religions can claim that they are peaceful too. The idea of God choosing a religion for himself can also be found in the Old Testament account of Israel as ‘God’s chosen people’ and the consequent condemnations of other religions besides God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6).

Islam means peace and a follower of the way of peace is someone who consciously submits to the will of God. Any individual who has achieved this is a “‘saint’ whose life is lived in conformity with the Divine Will.” Because God is peace, any religion that promotes the peaceful co-existence of living can be said to be a religion of God in word and meaning. 

Sources

Ammah, R 2007, ‘Christian-Muslim Relations in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 139-153.

Ayoub, MM 1995, ‘Jesus the Son of God: a Study of the Terms Ibn and Walad in the Qur’an and Tafsir Tradition’ in Haddad Y.Y., and Haddad W.Z. (eds.), Christian-Muslim Encounters, University of Florida Press, Gainsville

 Ayoub, MM 2004, Islam: Faith and History, OneWorld Publications, Oxford.

Qutb, S 1981, In the shade of the Qur’an, vol. 30, translated by M. Adil Salahi & Ashur A. Shamis, MWH London Publishers, England.

Qutb, S 1999, In the Shade of the Qur’an, Fi Zilal al-Qur’an, vol. 1, Surahs 1-2, translated by MA, Salahi & AA, Shamis, The Islamic Foundation, Leicester.

Qutb, S 2002, In the Shade of the Qur’an, Fi Zilal al-Qur’an, vol. VI, Surah 7, translated by Adil Salahi, The Islamic Foundation & Islamonline.net, Leicester.

Nasr, S 1985, Ideals and Realities of Islam, George, Allen and Unwin, London.

Nasr, SH 2001, Ideals and realities of Islam, Islamic Text Society, Cambridge.

Wood, SA 2008, Christian Criticisms, Islamic Proofs; Rashid Rida’s Modernist in Defence of Islam, Oneworld Publication, Oxford. 

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