A Challenge of Qur’anic Proportions

April 3, 2013November 24, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 5 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

The Bedouins (nomadic Arabs) of the time of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were known for their mastery of poetry. There was a Shakespeare or Chaucer in every corner in every tribe. They took great pride in composing and refining every word and line of their art.

When Muhammad (PBUH) told these poets about the message of Allah, they asked him for a miracle to prove his prophethood. And Allah answered them in a revelation.

And they say, “Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?” Has there not come to them evidence of what was in the former scriptures? (Quran 20:133)

And these seasoned poets were in awe of the Arabic recitation that is lost in translation. Those who were enemies of the Prophet (PBUH) and Islam would even hide in places where they could sit and and listen to the Quran. How could Muhammad, an illiterate Arab, in a land of pagans–a man who had never produced poetry or prose of any kind–suddenly produce the most eloquent speech of the Quran?

The answer is he could not and did not. Muhammad (PBUH) did not produce the Quran. The Quran is from God and is in itself the miracle the Arabs asked for. It is a mastery of language that even the most skilled poet from among poets could not approach.

In the Quran, God sets forth a challenge to those who doubted the message and its chosen messenger:

And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a chapter the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. (Quran 2:23)

And it was not [possible] for this Quran to be produced by other than Allah, but [it is] a confirmation of what was before it and a detailed explanation of the [former] scripture, about which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds. (Quran 10:37)

Or do they say [about the Prophet], “He invented it?” Say, “Then bring forth a chapter like it and call upon [for assistance] whomever you can besides Allah , if you should be truthful. (Quran 10:38)

It is important to note that when the Quran is translated into another language, even though the general meaning can be understood, sadly the actual miracle is lost.

The Arabs who were at the pinnacle of their poetry and prose during the time of revelation of the Quran could not even produce the smallest chapter similar to it (the smallest chapter in the Quran consists of only 3 verses).

Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, who was a notable British translator, said:

That though several attempts have been made to produce a work equal to it as far as elegant writing is concerned, none has as yet succeeded.

Even Goethe, a famous German writer, has been quoted as saying that the Quran:

[…] soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence […] Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand – ever and always, truly sublime – So, this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.

Many linguists, poets, thinkers -whatever their faith- speak about the style of the Quran with veneration.

When it is read aloud or recited it has a hypnotic effect.

This effect became even more clear to me while on a road trip. My husband and I, both American converts, were driving from New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama with three of his Christian nieces in the back seat of the car. These young ladies were in their early teens, and all were their usual hyper, talkative, and boisterous selves.

We feared that our small car would not be able to contain the teenage energy until the loudest niece shouted from the middle seat that she had heard my husband praying. She said that she liked the way it sounded and wanted to hear more. So we told them that if we played the Quran for them they would have to be quiet and listen.

They all agreed and within 20 seconds all three of them were sleeping peacefully. My husband and I looked at each other with astonishment. Up to this point we had only heard rumors that they did in fact sleep from time to time.

The Quran is the speech of the Creator. No one can bring rest to the hearts of the creation but the one who has created it.

Life is not like box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump has so famously claimed. To me, life is like a ship sailing on a stormy sea. When we have nothing to guide us we become fearful and stressed. Allah has given us a guide in the Quran, and when we let it lead our lives, those lost in the storm can be at ease.

The challenge of the Quran does not mean that we should not write prose or craft poetry. We should use the creativity and ability to communicate that Allah has given us. The challenge is put forth simply as proof that the Quran is the word of God. It has never been met and will never be met.

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Jihad Is Not The Problem

March 28, 2013November 24, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 16 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

Jihad! Yes, I said it *looks over shoulder to see if the FBI is going to pounce*.

Jihad is a source of fear and loathing the world over. It is embedded in popular culture as something crazed Muslims do in the name of their religion. But what does it really mean? Should we rely on the media to learn our religion or to learn about other’s religions?

Nah, prolly not a good idea. Unless you like being ignorant and led down the path of bigotry. Is there a place we can go to find out the truth about such things? Is there a source? Somehow? Somewhere? Yes, and in the case of jihad it is the Quran. The source is the Quran. Not those who take Quranic verses and explain them out of context.

Jihad does not mean to blow oneself up and kill innocent people in the process. This is NOT allowed in Islam. Period! Jihad does not mean holy war –the Arabic term for holy war is harbun muqaddasatu. Jihad is not even pronounce GEE-had.

Jihad [jee HOD] n.- 1. As a Quranic concept, involves resisting the base desires and struggling against all that would take one away from good. 2. It is to resist, to defend oneself if attacked. 3. As an Arabic term, it can mean to struggle in any way. It can be a jihad to study hard and make good grades.

Struggling and fighting are two separate but often related terms. The word most people mean when they use jihad is “qital”, which means to fight. One may have to struggle (jihad) against their desire to run and hide when they should fight (qital) an armed aggressor who first fights them.

It’s semantics. The problem is not with struggling or fighting, but with those who twist the Quran.

Yes, qital or fighting is prescribed in Islam when it is against armed aggressors:

Permission to fight is given to those who are fought against because they have been wronged -truly Allah has the power to come to their support- those who were expelled from their homes without any right, merely for saying, ‘Our Lord is Allah’ […]. (Quran, 22:39-40)

Those who twist the meaning of the command to fight often quote the Quran as stating, “slay them wherever you catch them”. (Quran 2:191) But these same people leave out the most important part. Who is the them? The rest of the passage states:

Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for God loves not transgressors. And slay them wherever you catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than death. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. And if they cease, then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. Fight them until there is no [more] fitnah and [until] worship is [acknowledged to be] for Allah. But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors. (Quran 2:190-193). [emphasis added]

Another trick of detractors is to quote part of chapter 5 verse 9 of the Quran:

Fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war).

But it somehow slips their mind to mention the context in which this was revealed.

This verse is referring to the early Muslims who had entered into treaties with neighboring tribes (Jewish, Christian, and pagan), Some Jewish and pagan tribes violated the terms of their treaty. They secretly aided an attacks against the Muslim community.

The proceeding verse instructs the Muslims to continue to honor treaties with those who did not betrayed them. The verse continues to say that those who violated this treaty have declared war, so fight them. Islam does not advocate pacifism in the face of injustice. Without justice, peace IS an illusion.

So, who is to blame for propagating this “jihad” misinterpretation/ misunderstanding?

First and foremost, ignorant Muslims are to blame for giving Islam a bad name because they themselves do not understand their religion.

This is very important to note- the actions of Muslims DO NOT define Islam. Islam is complete, does not change (Shariah), and can be traced to its source. Muslims are imperfect human beings, who sometimes do not practice jihad against their own desires.

Why and how is this misconception propagated?

The Muslims: Muslims see their brothers and sisters in Islam being insulted, degraded, oppressed, raped, and murdered all over the world. As anyone with a heart will do when they see their loved ones hurt, they get emotional. When you mix emotion with uneducated minds, you get irrational and often violent behavior.

These ignorant Muslims will twist the Islamic right (and human right) to fight in self-defense defense of as permission to commit suicide bombings and other atrocities. They blatantly ignore the strict Islamic rules in defensive fighting that forbids harming civilians, their property, and even forbids destroying crops, trees, or livestock.

They search for an “Islamic” ruling to meet their desires, and when they find something in their culture or find someone who has distorted the Quran, they run with it. But the Ummah (the Muslim community worldwide) does not benefit from this. If you think this is OK, there are better and actual halal ways to help your brothers and sisters in faith!

The Ummah needs to take a good look at itself. We need more personal jihad and less fighting:

Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. (Quran 13:11)

It is obligatory on every Muslims to learn his/her religion for a reason. If we do not understand our religion, who will? If we don’t fix ourselves, how will Allah change our condition?

The non-Muslims: There are those who portray Islam as a religion that condones the use of “jihad” to kill innocent people. And these same people will claim that all Muslims are terrorist.

This is not so. The acts of a few do not define the many.

Can we call Christianity a religion of brutality because of The Crusades and The Inquisition? Certainly not. Can we call all American men wack jobs because of the Oklahoma city bombing, the numerous school shootings, the Batman movie theater shooting, and so on? No, because the actions of a few, deranged people do not define the motivations and actions of everyone in that group.

Those who propagate stereotypes of all Muslims as terrorists do so for many reasons, some of which include fear, ignorance, and hatred. But those who do it to control the masses are usually after power and/or wealth.

Whatever the ends, the dissemination of false information about an entire group is the means. So anti-Muslim propaganda is disseminated in the media, in popular culture, and all over the internet. It is easy to view a group as evil if it is the popular thing to do.

Those who twist the Quran and spread lies about Islam and the Muslims, you are creating injustice which will make peace impossible. It would be more prudent to make alliances with the 99.9% of Muslims who also believe the actions of these few, fringe, deranged Muslims are wrong instead of demonizing all Muslims.

Peace out!

Muslim Crawfish Boil

March 25, 2013November 23, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 5 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

Hey, y’all! I have been having a pretty busy couple of weeks with my other writings and family stuff. But I did have time to squeeze in a crawfish boil.

In case you haven’t heard of such a thing, the crawfish boil can be described as a party in a sack. Crawfish come in a sacks the size of a third grader. They are then boiled in a large pot (like huge) with corn on the cob, potatoes, garlic, sausage, and seasoning. And everyone gathers around, rolls up their sleeve, peels the crawfish, stuffs their face, talks, and has a good time, washing it all down with beer.

When my father (who was born and raised in Missouri) married my mother (born and raised in New Orleans), he refused to partake in her crawfish boils. Until one day she brought home a sack of already boiled and spicy crawfish. She insisted that he stop being such a sissy (she was sassy like that), and try just one.

Well he did. And she regretted it. He proceeded to eat the entire sack, leaving none for her. She nearly divorced him for this travesty against humanity, but instead decided to train him to do all the hard work of a crawfish boiling, now that he was an enthusiast.

My father went on to become the best crawfish boiler, peeler, and consumer this side of the Mason Dixon line. (pardon my folksy-ness)

Spring time denotes the beginning of crawfish season in New Orleans and surrounding areas. With the weather not so hot yet, and the crawfish on sale, people get together to enjoy the bounty of the area and some friendly spice both in food and conversation.

Even though the crawfish boil usually entails some un-halal aspects (pork and alcohol), those can easily be switched out for their halal counterparts.

So, if you have access to crawfish, even if it isn’t from the Gulf of Mexico, you need to think about having a boil. It is an amazing delicacy in my neighborhood, and I don’t want anyone to have lived in this world and have never had a boiled crawfish. Some may be squeamish because it looks like a bug, but I guarantee it is worth the gross factor. You will first thank Allah, then thank me!

Halal Crawfish Boil:

1 lb Beef sausage, sliced to bite-sized pieces (vegetarians who eat fish: you can just leave this out)
6 onions, cut in half
5 lemons, cut in half
5 heads of garlic, whole
1 c salt (yes, one cup. You don’t drink the liquid it’s boiled in and the salt needs to get past the shell of the crawfish)
10-12 small red potatoes
5 ears of corn, shucked and cut in half
60 oz of Zatarain’s crawfish, shrimp, and crab boil
5 lbs live crawfish per person (this recipe is for 25 lbs- or 5 people)
softened butter
Barq’s root beer (http://barqs.com/)

How To:

-Bring a larger than life stock pot of water to boil (preferably outside if you can. The spices will make everyone in the house cough).

-Add garlic, onions, potatoes, lemons, corn, sausage, and Zatarain’s boil
and boil for 20 mins.

-Add crawfish and salt, cover, and cook or 5 minutes.

-Turn off heat and let set for 20 mins (the longer it stands the spicier it will be 😉 ).

-Drain water and pour out the deliciousness onto a table covered in several layers of newspaper.

-Bandage any cuts you have on your hands (these spices burn).

-Place a full roll of paper towels on the table (you and your guests will need the whole roll. It gets messy).

-Drench potatoes and corn in butter.

-Peel (how to peel crawfish:

-This is the most important step: Say Bismillah (In the name of God).

-Eat!

-Quench the spice with Barq’s root beer.

You don’t need pork or beer to have a great crawfish boil.
(you can also use this recipe for shrimp and/or crabs, as the zatarain’s boil suggests)
P.S. Make sure you wear clothes you are not overly fond of because stains happen, and throw your crawfish shells in the outside trash. It gets smelly quickly!

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Memories from the Dorm: A Conversion Story

March 18, 2013November 23, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 10 Comments

What follows is my old roommate’s response to I Bear Witness: How I Came to Islam Parts 1 and 2.

Written by Gracie Lawrence (the roommate)

You know it has been at least 16 years since we had those talks, and reading about it reminded me how I am still trying to “figure it all out”.

I remember it was a time of a lot of questioning, we were free from both conservative Christians AND Muslims – where we could just THINK and we had the time to do it.

I don’t recall thinking that it was strange to think those things- but I use to have the bad habit of thinking everyone must be the way I am (got screwed over a lot for it, lol).

I remember during that time your mother had passed away. That impacted me a lot. I think I remember that more than the details of our talks exactly (I was a bit of a chatterbox, I think you once referred to me as a puppy and you were the cat. And a lot of times you just needed some peace and to be left alone- and I didn’t understand that).

I know one thing I struggled with as I became Muslim was wondering if I could make that cultural leap/ sacrifice and I would take a few steps forwards, and then a few steps back- then I just dove in and became extreme- then balanced out, made more mistakes, etc.

Ultimately, I became Muslims to become a better Christian- I think you remember us speaking about that. I think even from a cultural viewpoint we both saw something lacking, even lonely in our modern North American existence and I saw Islam as the natural progression to fill that gap.

Nowadays, I see Christians and Jews as very close to me. Christians and Jews are easy to understand us, as we have the same background- are just like siblings that bicker.

Anyway, one things that is great about Islam, even if people are reluctant to believe in anything divine, is that it makes for a great play-book on earth i.e. you are much less likely to F-up your life than if left to your own whims or faulty logic. You are more likely to win the game if you are given the instructions of how to play. Ya know? I think that for something like this to exist- is, by itself, pretty awesome.

I Bear Witness: How I came to Islam, Part 2

March 15, 2013November 23, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 8 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

Part 1 here

Where did I leave off? Oh yes … So there I was, dying from vampire Lestat’s bite only to be reborn as eternal evil. Oh wait, that’s a different story.

Eh hem, so there I was, feeling like I had been lied to my whole life, trying to cling desperately to my culture and simultaneously trying to figure out what the truth really was. I was confused, embittered, and lost.

I believed in God, I just didn’t know what was the correct path to Him. I alternated between ignoring the question, flipping the question off, and seeking answers.

Now that I think about it, I had turned my culture into my new religion. To be the best worshiper at the altar of culture, I never wanted to miss a party, but wished I could just yell at all those kids and tell them to turn their racket down. I looked for answers in the holy books of Vogue and InStyle, but really wished I wouldn’t be considered a freak if I read and talked about Anna Karenina.

I was a hot mess, as the saying goes.

My culture was making me miserable. And my roommate was suffering most of its brunt. She spent much of her time studying other religions and talking to people of different faiths, allowing me to tag along from time to time. After much thought and deliberation, she converted to Islam.

I cannot say how she came to this decision. By this point, my mother had passed away, and I was busy with my grief and self-pity.

I had become a capital A-hole, challenging my newly Muslim roommate’s every move. I had all the cultural perceptions of Islam that can be expected. I don’t even know from where I picked them up. I knew nothing of the religion besides it being something that was “backwards” and tried to take women’s rights away from them. And I knew I was not down with that.

Our dorm room discussion became episode after episode of When Corbins (that’s me) Attack.

I accosted her when she decided to wear the headscarf. “Why do you wear that?” I asked as snide as I could be.

And she answered calmly and simply. “So, that I can be recognized as a believing woman. So that I can say who sees what of my body and am not a victim of the male gaze.”

I not only heard what she said, I saw it in action. I didn’t feel more liberate with less clothing. I felt picked apart and judged, and more often than not I felt like prey.

I longed for the respect that I saw my newly Muslim friend and other Muslim women receive from men as they wore their long and loose clothing. The thought of being in control over who would see me was very appealing.

“Yeah, but women are like second class citizens in your faith,” I spat on another occasion, trying to distance myself from my growing affection for Islam.

She explained that during a time when the Western world treated women like property, Islam taught that men and women were equal in the eyes of God. Islam brought more honor to the mother than the father. It made the woman’s consent to marriage mandatory, a practice that would have been laughed at in the Western world at the time.

Islam gave women the right to own property and businesses. And if a woman were to marry, she would not have to share her wealth with her husband. Islam gave women the right to inherit, unheard of in its day. She listed right after right that women in Islam held nearly 1250 years before women’s lib became a thing.

And these were just a fraction of the conversations we shared about Islam as a way of life. I continued to search. At some point, I thought about Judaism. It was the original monotheism. Since I wanted to get back to the original religion, this seemed logical to me.

When I voiced my Jewish aspirations to my roommate, we talked at length about the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She explained to me the Islamic belief in all the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and then the last prophet who came with the same message as all the rest–Muhammad (PBUH).

Prophet after prophet came until the last prophet Muhammad (PBUT) came with the same message to guide mankind back to the truth one last time. “And to this day his sayings can be verified in chains of narration and the Quran has not been changed by man.” She said.

When I heard, I believed. I had asked God when I was a seven year old in Catholic school and learning about prophet Noah (PBUH) if He should send any more prophets that He would guide me to believe in them. I believe that God granted me this mercy, because it was not until this conversation that it all clicked.

I became less angry about my friend’s new religion and began to listen about all the things she was learning as a Muslim. My next question was “What does it mean to be a Muslim?” I met other Muslim women and questioned them about their faith and read for myself.

What I found out was that in belief I was already a Muslim. I believed in the oneness of God. I believed in the prophets up to and including Muhammad. I believed in the angels, and Divine will, the day of judgement, the holy books, and all that jazz.

But—and this is a big but—I was scared to abandon my culture (turns out I didn’t have to abandon the good things from my culture). I was afraid of receiving the same ridicule I had dished out to my friend.

Islam made sense and even spoke to my nature. But I rebelled and the more I refused Islam and chose my culture over it the more miserable I became. I would find myself weeping for no other reason than the increasing emptiness I felt as I continued to reject Islam and replace it with culture. My health began to fail. I lost my scholarship at school. My personal safety was compromised. I even became homeless.

I defied until I couldn’t go on. I finally admitted, like the most homophobic person who finally comes out of the closet, that I was a Muslim. I finally said the words “I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and messenger” on the first day of Ramadan 2001.

And what I have learned since has taught me that I never had to give up my American culture entirely. I learned that fearing ridicule from people will only make you a joke. And I learned that their is an amazing peace that comes with being obedient to no one but the One God, the One who created you and designed you to do just that.

In Defense of the Prophets (PBUH)

February 28, 2013November 23, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 6 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

This post is one that I wrote in September 2012 about the anti-Islam video “The Innocence of Islam” and subsequent murders and riots. I know that it is no longer a “current event”, but the issue remains and has been relevant since the first prophet, Adam (peace be upon him).

It is important to understand why Muslims are/were angry

Muslims try to honor the prophets and follow their example. The prophets were patient, honest, and steadfast. Overall they were the best of mankind. They suffered, were harassed, and tortured for the message they were chosen to deliver.

So, when people slander a prophet, Muslims should and do take it personally. It is worse than a “your momma …” joke. Any good Muslim (or human being for that matter) will protect the honor and reputation of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and all the true prophets (peace be upon them all).

One lie about the prophet named Muhammad (the last and final prophet- PBUH) that particularly angers Muslims, is the claim that he was a child molester because of his marriage to Aisha (RA). To say that a man in the 7th century CE was a child molester for marrying someone who had reached puberty (as the Innocence of Islam claims) is absurd!

This kind of marriage was common practice in both the East and the West during a time when people died very young. If people then waited to marry like we do in our time, the species would have died out. Besides, people only estimated their ages back then. They didn’t have birth records or birthday parties at Chili’s.

Five centuries after Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, 33-year-old King John of England married 12-year-old Isabella of Angoulême. The only difference is that in Islam the bride-to-be had to (and still has to) give her approval of the marriage before it was (is) valid.

Whereas, a woman’s consent in the West was not even considered!

Historical facts need to be put in historical context. And not misconstrued to the level of vile slander.

However… and this is a HUGE however,

the reaction to the video was unfounded and un-Islamic.

Lives are phenomenally more important that some ignorant idiot’s video/cartoon/words/etc.
It is NOT OK to kill people. Especially over a flippin’ video; especially people who had nothing to do with it; especially when the sin of murdering one person is like the sin of murdering all of mankind.

I am ASHAMED of the Muslims who are committing these and other similarly atrocious acts!

Nothing can be solved this way, Nothing!

Would the Civil Rights movement have made an inch of progress if they had employed these tactics? Absolutely not. And we would all suffer from a lack of civil liberties in America today.

**Muslims need to remember that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon him) was insulted during his life, and he bore these insults with patience and returned them with kindness. Let us defend the prophets reputations’ by emulating their example.

So, as Amphion was said to move stones with his poetry to build Thebes, the prophets have moved men’s hearts to build empires of faith. Let us honor them by not tearing nations further apart.

Islam! Since 610

February 21, 2013November 23, 2016 by Corbin ♥ 4 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin

It amazes me how little the average American/Westerner knows about Islam. But, then again, I have to remind myself how little I knew about Islam 15 years ago.

In fact, I had never heard of such a thing. Nowhere in any of my high school history classes had I even heard of a religion called Islam, nor had I been introduced to this knowledge prior to high school in the 9 years I spent receiving knowledge from nuns at the local Catholic school.

Sure, I slept through several lectures on the Ottoman Empire in my teenage years, but I am pretty sure what I was napping through did not include an introductory discussion on a major world religion. How do I know that? Well, let’s just say that of all the tests I failed, never once was there a question about Islam.

If I had been quizzed during my youth about what a Muslim was or what Islam was, I would have responded that it was something like an Indian or an Arab, not that I knew there was any difference between Indians and Arabs. I was shamelessly sheltered. But at the risk of dating myself, this was well before 9/11.

Now that the U.S. and many Western countries are all up in Iraq (pronounced ee-ROCK not i-RACK) and Afghanistan (I won’t even go into the pronunciation of the “gh” sound in this word), both Muslim countries.

Now that Islam is the fastest growing religion.

And now that 1/4^th of the world’s population is Muslim, most of the Western world continues to be in the dark about what Islam really is. What’s up with that?

Here is a quick rundown of this “strange” thing known as Islam broken down into four basic categories: Religion, God, Book, Prophet. So we can be informed, so we can dispel ignorance that leads to fear, so we can be reminded, and/or so we can be guided.

The Religion:

It is very simple. Islam is a major monotheistic religion. Islam is not a cult formed in the 18^th century, as I have heard people prosthelytize—YIKES!

Nation of Islam is to Islam as Wicca is to Chrisitanity

Islam is a way of life. Islam is not an Eastern culture as some have “politely” informed me. Some even think that you have to be “black” to be Muslim, as my husband (another white convert) was informed in high school. This was probably because of the religion known as the Nation of Islam, which has VERY little to do with Islam.

Anyone can become a Muslim and enter the religion of Islam, regardless of culture or race. Islam only requires belief.

The God:

Muslims worship one God. Muslims are not moon worshipers, nor do they worship the prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be upon him- PBUH), as some Baptist congregations claim.

The God of Islam is the creator of everything. He* is not the creation. He is the Master of the Day of Judgement. God is in no need of help and has no partners. He is one. Period. The only one worthy of worship. Period.

He is the same God as the Christians believe to be God the father.

In Judaism, He is known as Jahweh.

The Book:

Photo used under Creative Commons from franca L

The holy book in Islam is the Quran (pronounced core-ON not coooo-RAaaN).

The Quran features the same traditions as the original Bible and the Torah. Not because it is infringing on these traditions’ copyrights, but because they are true and valuable lessons for all mankind. Because God is bringing people back to His original message.

Muslims believe that the original Torah and Bible were true texts, until man meddled with them.

The Quran remains in its original edition, unchanged.

The Prophet:

The Quran was first revealed to the last prophet, Muhammad (PBUH), in a long line of honorable men in 610 CE. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was known, even to those who hated him, as an honest and trustworthy man. How many people can say that about their enemies?

Muslims do not worship Muhammad (PBUH). He was a man. Muslims don’t worship men. Men are flawed. Muslims believe in Jesus as they believe in Abraham, Moses, Isaac, and Muhammad (Peace be upon all of them). Muslims believe in these men as prophets sent by God, and not gods themselves or partners with God.

God sent prophets to men over and over with the same message of His oneness.

We kept getting it wrong and going astray. We kept worshiping the creation and not the creator. God kept sending us prophets to get us back on track until Muhammad (PBUH), who was the last prophet sent to all mankind.

This is the foundation of Islam:

Islam is a monotheistic religion. God is one and only one.
There are holy books sent by God – Torah, Bible, Quran. The Quran being the most reliable.
Muhammad is the prophet.
There are angles. Angel Gabriel delivered the message from God to the prophets.
God has a divine decree that does not know the limits of time.
We will all be held to account for our deeds on the Day of Judgement.

*The pronoun “He” is not meant to suggest that God has a male gender. As gender implies a lack or need of another. God is not to be associated with being either male or female because God is not in need of anyone or anything. “He” is only used because of a lack of a non-gendered pronoun in the English language. And “She” would be equally inaccurate.

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one slice muslim. one slice 'merican. and all that comes between.

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A Challenge of Qur’anic Proportions

Jihad Is Not The Problem

Muslim Crawfish Boil

Memories from the Dorm: A Conversion Story

I Bear Witness: How I came to Islam, Part 2

In Defense of the Prophets (PBUH)

Islam! Since 610

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