Mirza Yawar Baig – Islam 101
AI: Summary ©
The history and culture of Islam is a fundamental act of worship followed by the declaration of faith, before the suness, mandatory charity for Muslims, and five pillars of Islam, including worship, belief, acts, and actions. The sharia is a fundamental law in Islam, including the Quran, Sunoverah, deductive reasoning, and the Sharia, which is the teachings of the Quran. It is dynamic and has unchangeable parts, and all forms of abstract art are prohibited. Prayer and healthy interactions with children are encouraged, and individuals should be conscious of their emotions and not share anything with others.AI: Transcript ©
This is a short presentation,
which I have called Islam 101.
It is for
it is targeted especially
for school teachers and administrators,
to help them understand something about the Muslim
students
who are in their schools.
Let me begin with the greeting which I
mentioned to you just now.
Assalamu alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi
wu alaikato
which is the greeting of all the prophets.
If you look at the Bible, Jesus
greeted the people. He said, peace be upon
you. And this is the meaning of the
greeting. May peace and in the sense of
peace, salama is peace
and it also means security.
So salamaty.
So we say peace and security and the
mercy of Allah
and the mercy of Allah, wabarakatuh,
and blessing be upon you. It's a beautiful
greeting. It's also a prayer. It's a
gift to the person
that we meet.
Now why should you care about Muslims or
what your Muslim students?
Just some quick,
facts here. First of all, because
every 5th person on the face of the
earth is a Muslim.
Muslims form about 24%
of the world's population,
an estimate,
almost 2,000,000,000,
people.
There are 49 countries
in which Muslims are a majority,
and there are many other countries,
in which Muslims are
not a majority, but they are a very
large chunk of population. For example, India has
200,000,000
Muslims,
which is more than the number of Muslim
Muslims in all the Middle Eastern countries put
together.
These people, all these Muslims, there are 2,000,000,000
of them, They come from multiple ethnicities,
races,
colors,
so on. They speak hundreds of languages.
So there's an enormous diversity,
in the culture, in
the ethnicity,
in the histories
of Muslims worldwide,
but what unites them and makes them one
is Islam.
Why should you care also? Because
today, as we take this world and our
science and so forth,
for granted,
the fact is that if you look at
it historically,
scientific discoveries and inventions by Muslim scientists
powered the Renaissance in Europe,
and Islamic art, architecture,
language, literature,
poetry,
and thought have influenced the world
now for 1400 plus years.
And finally, very important
is that Islamophobia
is a rising problem for us to face,
and
schools are one of the
main areas where children are,
Muslim children face this problem.
And, I know that teachers are very interested
in ensuring that they have the Muslim children
are safe,
that they do not face this Islamophobic,
homophobic
issues, and therefore,
it's very important for us to know about
Islam.
Now what is Islam? Very simple. Islam, the
word itself means submission to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to the great to to our creator,
and it the result of that submission is
peace. So Islam means submission and peace.
Islam is the 2nd largest religion. I I
should actually say 3rd largest because the largest
religion in Islam in in the world is
a commercialism, not not even a religion, but
that's our whole commercial mindset that is there
in the world today.
The second is Christianity, and the third one
is Islam.
Islam is not a new thing. It's the
continuation of God's revelation
that was sent to all the prophets throughout
history,
starting from Adum alaihi salam, from Adam all
the way down and last,
to the prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him. Allah
is the Arabic word,
which means one God, which means God.
In Arabic, Jesus, for example, when Jesus says,
worship the Lord your God.
When he said God,
in Arabic, he said Allah
because the word in Arabic
and Aramaic
for God is Allah.
So
and and Allah is still used in the
Arabic Bibles. If you look at the Eastern
Orthodox,
churches,
in the Middle East, Jerusalem, for example,
if you listen to their sermons, you will
see the you will hear the word Allah.
Every time this the word God appears in
the Bible, they say Allah because that is
the word,
the name of of God in Arabic and
as I said in Arabic.
Islam is not a new religion, as you
might say it's the final version
of the religion of all the prophets who
ever came to humanity.
So what do Muslims believe?
Muslims believe in
the worship of the creator alone. Allah
the glorious and magnificent
without any partners. No partners,
no one being worshiped instead of him, no
one being worshiped alongside him. We worship the
creator who always was, who always will be.
A simple rule,
if it has a date of birth, it
is not God.
If it was a if it if it
was created, it is not God. As simple
as that. So, therefore, Allah
is the only one we worship.
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Salam, peace be upon him,
Muslims believe and we believe that he is
the last and the final messenger of Allah
after whom there is no other
Messenger
after Muhammad
The Quran is the revealed speech of Allah
to us human beings.
It was recited,
explained,
and its orders implemented,
demonstrated
by Muhammad
peace be upon him, and that is called
the sunnah.
And then finally, we believe also in the
day of judgment
and accountability
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala on that day,
where all of us, those who believe and
those who do not believe,
will be called up before Allah
and we will be questioned about what we
did or chose not to do in this
life.
You must have heard the word 5 pillars
of Islam. This is the foundation of Islam.
These are the fundamental
acts of worship in Islam. It begins with
the shahada
with which you enter Islam, the declaration of
faith, and that is Ashaduallahaillallah
or Ashadwala Muhammad Rasulullah.
I bear witness that there is no one
worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear
witness that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi peace be upon
him is the Messenger and the last and
final Messenger
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala after whom there
is no other. The second
pillar of Islam is Salah,
which is the prayer, which is 5 times
a day
and at its specific time, these times are
specified.
1 is
predawn. The second one is,
in the mid middle of the day. 3rd
one is late afternoon. 4th one is after
sunset, and the 5th one is at night.
3rd pillar of Islam is Zakat, which is
the mandatory charity that Muslims give. And just
to give you an idea,
this is 2.5%
of wealth. It's not an income tax. It
is a wealth tax, if you want to
use that
term. And
in the year 2022,
Muslims are estimated to have given $1,000,000,000,000
in Zakat alone.
So I'm very,
proud
and very happy to say that we Muslims
are among the most charitable people on the
face of the earth.
The 4th pillar of Islam is som, is
fasting
in Ramadan,
which is 29 days or 30 days. That
is the lunar month,
and we fast from
Kansi to Kansi,
from,
from dawn to dusk.
And this fasting consists of not eating, not
drinking, and not having intimate relationships with our
spouses
for this period of time. And the 5th
pillar is Hajj, which is the pilgrimage to
Makkah, to the grand mosque there, to the
to the Kaaba,
to the house of worship that was built
by Ibrahim alaihi salaam and performing the rituals
there. And this is,
for anyone who can, any Muslim who can
afford it.
Now these 5 pillars of Islam are common
to all Muslims
globally.
This is what distinguishes,
the Muslim, which is
these common things,
the belief in one God, in Allah
the belief in the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, peace be upon him, and these acts
of worship,
these are common across geographies,
across,
ethnicities,
across,
political and every
other boundary.
Muslims believe,
in the prophets.
Muslims believe in all the prophets.
The Quran mentions,
the prophets,
Adewale, Islam,
Adam, Noah, Ibrahim,
Abraham, Ismail, Ishaq,
Isaac. That is, Jacob, Jacob,
Yusuf, Joseph, Ayub,
Musa, Moses,
Harun, Aaron,
Daul,
David, Solomon, Suleiman,
Elias,
Jonas,
Jonah, Yahya, John, and Esa,
Jesus,
peace be upon them all,
and Muslim believeth, all of these prophets.
Believing in means that they believe that these
were prophets of God, prophets of Allah
This is part of our creed. If a
Muslim says, I do not believe that Jesus
was a prophet of Allah, then this Muslim
is out of his love. Ceases to be
a Muslim, and this applies to all the
prophets. The Quran
is the final message
of Allah
of God to humanity,
and it's a reconfirmation
of the eternal message that was revealed
to Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam through the
angel
Jibreel alayhi wasalam.
This is not new. The Quran is,
the final message,
similar
divine messages
had been revealed before to Abraham Ibrahim Alaihi
Salam, to Musa alay, salam, the Torah to
Isal, alay, salam, the Injeel,
the gospel, and by this, I don't mean
the gospel of Matthew and so on. This
is the gospel the
original, word of God that was revealed to
Isa,
to Jesus, in the language Aramaic,
which is currently we don't have it anymore.
The the earliest we have the origin we
have is in Greek.
The original is lost.
Now
the 3, what I call, Abrahamic faiths,
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They're called the Abrahamic
faiths because the common patriarch
is the prophet Abraham,
and our 3 prophets,
which is,
Musa alayhi salaam, Moses, Isa alayhi salaam, Jesus,
and Mohammed sallallahu alayhi salaam, peace be upon
all of them. They descended from his 2
sons, from the 2 sons of,
Abraham,
Ibrahim,
Ibrahim, alayhis salaam,
peace be upon him, from the elder son,
Ismael,
Ismael,
and Musa, alayhis salaam, and Isa, alayhis salaam,
from his younger,
son, Ishaq.
Now Isa, alayhis salaam is actually,
we believe that he,
we believe in the immaculate conception and so
on. We'll come to that. But, anyway, so
this is the original,
the link with Abraham, Ibrahim alayhis salaam, and
that is why these three faiths are called
the Abrahamic faiths. Muslims believe in all the
same prophets, and they considers
they consider Jews and Christians to be,
people of the book.
As I mentioned, we believe in,
believing in and revering, not simply respecting, but
revering, meaning that we don't joke about them.
We don't,
say anything which is disrespectful
of any of the prophets. This is part
of our,
creed.
What Muslims
what do they believe? Now what do they
believe about Musa,
for example, about Moses?
We believe that he was among the greatest
of the prophets.
We call we call them we call 5
of them olu alazam
min al rusl,
the greatest the the most steadfast,
the greatest of the prophets,
and these 5 are Noah, Noah alay Salam,
Musa,
Ibrahim alay Salam, Nuh alay Salam,
Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi salam, peace be upon them.
He was we we we believe that Musa
alaihi salam spoke to Allah, spoke to God.
He was given the Torah.
Allah saved
him from the firaoun, from the from pharaoh,
and this was,
we believe it is Ramesses the second.
And, he
was able to take the,
his people, the people the the children of
Israel,
out from Egypt, and Allah
gave
Musa, alaihi, salam, several miracles.
Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad, gave Musa, alaihis salam several
miracles. Musa, alaihis salam is interestingly mentioned in
28 out of the 30 sections of the
Quran. And we believe that he was a
teacher, a great teacher, a law giver, a
messenger,
and a prophet.
What do Muslims
believe about Isa
about Jesus?
We believe in the immaculate conception. We believe
that, his mother, Maryam alaihis salam, Mary Mariam
is
the Arabic name,
peace be upon her,
she gave birth to Isalaihi Salam,
without having any man touch her.
So we believe in immaculate conception. We believe
that Isa and his mother were sinless. We
believe that he preached the unity of God.
He preached that Allah is 1 and he
said, we have this in the Bible as
well, he said, The Lord your God is
1.
He did not claim divinity. He never said
that he was God. He never said that
he was Son of God. We believe that
he was given the Injeel
and many, Injeel is the book that He
was given
and many miracles. We believe that He was
not crucified but raised up to Allah
in safety
and will return
to fight the Dajjal or the Antichrist as,
the Christians
have that name for the jal. His mother
Mary Mariam,
peace
be upon her, was also sinless and is
mentioned by name in the Quran. She lived
a life of piety
and she saw many, many miracles came to
her as well, including the birth of Jesus,
which was a miracle, an ayah, a sign
of Allah in itself.
And a chapter in the Quran's Surah Maryam
is named after her.
There are 2 divine sources of law in
Islam,
the Quran, which is the revealed speech of
Allah
preserved perfectly from the day it was revealed,
unchanging and unchangeable.
The sunnah, the second source, is the teachings
of Muhammad, peace be upon him, salallahu alayhi
wasallam,
explaining the Quran, the meaning of the word,
the way it is to be practiced
in our lives.
3rd important thing to understand is that in
Islam, there is no church, there's no clergy,
there's no pope, there's no hierarchy, but scholars
who study and teach Islam,
and this have been has been throughout the
ages,
and, this is how Islamic law has been
formed,
from these sources.
The Sharia
is the, the Arabic name for Islamic law.
The Sharia is Islamic law based on the
Quran and Sunnah, and it encompasses
every aspect of human life, civil, criminal, family,
inheritance, everything.
The sources of the Sharia are 4.
The first and most important source is the
Quran itself. The second source is the Sunnah,
which is the teachings of the Quran,
taught by Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam peace
and blessing be upon him. The third one
is Ijma'ah,
which is consensus of scholars on some matters,
which may not be specifically mentioned in the
Quran and Sunnah, and the 4th one is,
which is deductive reasoning
by a scholar,
or a few scholars,
where there is the where some new issue
might have come up. So but both Ijma,
which is consensus, and khiyas, which is deductive
reasoning,
are and must be subject
to the principles
enumerated in the Quran and Sunnah. This is
the fundamental law of the Sharia. Sharia. The
sharia
is dynamic. There's a changeable part to the
sharia and there are unchangeable parts. The changeable
part is Ijba and Qiyas, which varies over
time. Unchangeable parts
are the text, which is the Quran and
the Sunnah.
You would have heard the terms halal and
haram.
Halal means permissible.
Haram means impermissible
or prohibited.
So
halal is permitted.
Everything that is intrinsically good and wholesome and
beneficial
is permitted in Islam. There is no,
obviously, there's there's no list of that for
the simple reason that,
when something is permitted, you don't have to
say it's permitted. If you drive on the
road, for example, you will find a sign
saying no entry.
Right? But on a in a in a
on a road where you can go, there's
no sign saying you can enter here. There's
no need to say that. It's understood. Where
there is no no entry sign, it means
you can drive.
Haram is prohibited,
this is specified.
Everything that is the opposite of halal, everything
that is intrinsically
bad, intrinsically
unwholesome and non beneficial,
pork is haram, pork is prohibited
all intoxicates of of every shape or form
known and to be known. So it's alcohol,
all drugs, everything. There's no, in Islam, there's
no permission for,
for for,
recreational
use of marijuana.
Right? Even though in this country, in some
states, it is permitted. In Islam, it's not
permitted.
All intoxicants
are prohibited. Tobacco is prohibited.
The
flesh of,
predatory
birds,
and mammals,
and all reptiles,
insects, all of these
are prohibited. You cannot consume them.
Any bird or mammal
that is slaughtered without the name of Allah
being mentioned on it is also prohibited.
So
but but all seafood
is permissible,
all,
you know, fish and any of,
anything from the sea is permissible.
Basic rules of conduct, Islam also
did,
delineates that and and specifies that.
What is and haram and halal also applies
to that. What is haram in terms of
basic,
rules of
conduct. He is
lying and cheating and infidelity,
making pictures and statues of living things.
This is something which is prohibited,
and that is the reason why,
you know, the Muslims,
you would find they
don't have they will not display for. You
can take a photograph. This is this is
permitted.
Some scholars do not do not permit that
also, but mostly, they permit that, but actually
drawing, portrait making,
and drawing pictures
of, living things is is prohibited.
All violence is prohibited.
Backbiting,
slander,
arrogance,
and, * outside marriage, whether it's premarital, postmarital,
adultery, all of this is, prohibited,
and all interest based dealings.
So all bank finance, mortgages, which way you
pay interest, all of these are prohibited in
Islam.
Our prophet Mohammed peace be upon him, he
said, The best of you is the one
who is the most beneficial to the people.
And in another place he said, he is
not a Muslim whose neighbor is not safe
from his hand or his tongue. And a
very important thing to understand in all of
this is that it does not say he
did not say your Muslim neighbor. He did
not say most beneficial to Muslims.
In Islam, the rule is very simple, benefit
and harm is across the board. A Muslim
is supposed to benefit everyone, Muslim or not,
and must not harm anyone, Muslim or not.
In Islam, justice is not person specific. There
is no one in Islam who is above
justice.
There is no one in Islam who has
immunity
from justice.
Right? There's no,
royal immunity or presidential immunity in Islam. Everyone
is
subject to the law, and the same law
applies across the board. The punishment for a
Muslim is the same as the punishment for
a non Muslim given the same crime or
the same,
same thing that they do,
and forgiveness is available also to both. There
is no differentiation
or differential treatment
for Muslims
and non Muslims
based on their religion,
and that is the true
meaning of justice.
Islam
and art, this is a question that lots
of people ask. All forms of abstract art
are permitted,
irrespective.
Art depicting life forms is private. As I
mentioned before, making pictures and,
sculptures and so on and so forth, statues,
moldings of life forms, not not
permitted.
Other,
in Islam,
respect for elders and scholars and teachers and
parents and most of all the prophet of
Islam, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is an intrinsic part of Islamic culture.
This is very, very important in our culture.
Therefore, making cartoons of the prophet,
as was done
in France and other places, is deeply offensive
and hurting and considered blasphemous.
In Islam, there is
perfect
freedom of expression,
provided
your expression
does not hurt or harm anyone else.
The overriding principle in Islam
is that whatever you do, anything you say,
anything you do, must not harm somebody else.
So your freedom is subject to that.
Beyond that, you are absolutely free to say
anything or anything or anything or do anything
you like,
provided you're not harming anyone
else.
Commonalities
with Judaism,
belief in one God,
belief that Moses was the prophet of God,
and he said eating meat that is slaughtered
in God's name,
circumcision,
gender separation, that is not shaking hands with
a person of the opposite gender, and so
on,
covering your hair,
not eating pork. All of these things are
common with the,
with Jewish people.
Commonalities of Muslims with Christianity
is belief in the immaculate conception of Jesus,
believing that Moses is a prophet of God,
believing that Jesus is a prophet of God.
The Christians also say, son of God, we
don't say that.
Saying that Mary, Mariam alaihi salaam,
was
his honored and revered mother, who we honor
and revere.
We believe in the return of Jesus to
earth and,
war with the antichrist.
We believe in the day of judgment and
heaven and *.
All of these are common beliefs between Christianity
and Islam. So Islam is nothing strange. It
is the same religion
in its final shape and form.
Now dealing with Muslim students, some of the
things that you might like to keep in
mind, one is in terms of dressing,
especially the the girls who will wear hijab,
the older girls,
so they then they stand out, and sometimes
this makes makes them targets of Islamophobia.
That's a that is something to to watch
out for. H three city also because a
lot of Muslims come from,
non European countries, and so therefore they are
people of color,
and therefore that is something to also keep
in mind.
When you're dealing with parents of Muslim children,
especially in this country in America, 1st generation
parents tend to be either refugees or migrants
from
places,
countries where English is not the spoken language,
and so therefore, they may have trouble and
difficulty with English.
So it's a good idea to have somebody
to translate. As far as food is concerned,
Muslims will eat halal, so therefore,
ensuring that the food is halal,
is important.
No pork or pork products, so, no
lard and so on or anything with lard.
So even though it might be,
pastry, but if it's made with lard, then
it is harm, not permissible.
And of course, no alcohol in any any
shape or form, in the food.
So flaming and so on is not permitted.
Prayer, Muslim children, will if depending on the
time of the school,
they will they will need the time to
pray.
Usually, at least one prayer will be during
school hours.
If usually, it can be done in their
in their lunch break and so on, so
maybe there's no special consideration to be done.
But if necessary, it would be highly appreciated
if they are given a place to pray
and,
a short time. It doesn't take about 15
minutes. So if they are if they if
that can be done. And on Friday,
the older children need to be permitted to
go to the mosque.
So that is something that, usually, we write,
applications for that, and this all the schools
here, I'm gonna they are,
very kind, and they they always approve that.
Then some exemptions that Muslim students might, especially
the girls,
might ask for is from swimming classes because
it is not permissible
for a girl to expose her body, and
so wearing a swimsuit and so on,
where there are men,
she can do that if there is a
women only,
swimming type. But if there are any men
involved in that, any any boys there, then
she's not allowed to expose her body, and
therefore, she might ask for an exemption.
Also things like dancing and so on, which
are not permissible.
Finally, last but not the least,
what must you do to build better relationships?
Communicate. Absolutely.
Ask questions. Be be completely frank. Ask respectfully,
with curiosity,
ensure that you don't ask them, ask questions
in an offensive manner, but make sure you
ask. If you need if you need to
know something, please ask. Ask questions. Meet parents.
The best thing to best way to know
people is to meet people. So meet parents.
Visit the Islamic Center. Visit the mosque in
your area. And there are
mosques everywhere. Ask for a visit. Everyone will
welcome you. Believe me, there's no mosque that
I know which will which does not welcome
visitors.
They are they are very welcoming, very hospitable.
Go visit them.
Have classes especially for parents, first generation parents,
to acclimatize them,
to the American culture, to,
European culture, whichever country it is, to, get
them accustomed to the culture and the norms
and so on. Also, in your school, what
will what your rules are and so on
and so forth, Have a meeting to do
that, to to build
better cross cultural understanding.
And remember when you're doing that, they will
not share. The the cross gender touching,
thing is not there, so therefore, the men
will not shake out to the women and
so on. So be,
be conscious of that. It's I know it's
very embarrassing to stick your hand out and
have your hand there, and nobody wants it.
So, you know, don't get your get yourself
do not get yourself into that
situation.
Encourage,
you know, interaction. So sharing food, information, cultural
norms,
maybe celebrating
festivals together.
We have 2 festivals, Eid ul Adha and
Eid ul Fitr. Eid ul Fitr at the
end of Ramadan, Eid ul Adha 2 months
later. So, you know, Festing is is celebrating
them together. So all these are wonderful ways.
Make Muslim friends. That's very important. There are
lots of Muslims around. If you have if
you have children in your schools, their parents
are there, make friends with them. Have somebody
do you can just pick up the phone
and call anytime you need something, any help,
any understanding, any clarification.
Have somebody,
who you can call.
You're most welcome to call me anytime,
who you can, you know, bounce ideas off
and so on. And, very important,
in the school, have somebody who the children
can go to if they are victimized. Because
this is a very important thing as far
as Islamophobic,
you know,
attacks are concerned.
It is very important for us to have
somebody, you know, an ombudged person,
to whom Muslim children can go if they
need any help. I hope this is clear.
I'm most welcome to,
contact me for anything more you need, and
thank you very much for
listening.
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