What is Quran

Introduction
Quran is an arabic word which means – one that is read. Quran refers to the last revelation of Almighty God or Allah. Quran was revealed to last Prophet of God -Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). It was revealed in the duration of 23 years. Today it is in the form of book or CD. It contains 100% word of God. Quran has 114 chapters or 114 Surah. Each surah contains several sentences called Ayah. In total – Quran contains 6236 ayah. Quran is guidance for whole of humanity. It has been revealed for whole humanity till the end of this world.

Genesis
Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) was born in mecca, Suadia Arab in 560 AD. At the age of 40 he was bestowed with Prophethood. Arch Angel gabriel brought the first revelation of God to Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him). He also announced to Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) that Allah has chosen Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) as prophet. After this in a span of 23 years of time revelation of God would come to prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) in several ways on different occassions. When revelation would come then Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) would recite it and his comapanions would memorize and write it. There were several companions of Prophet Muhammad who had memorized the Quran. Before death of Prophet Muhammad Quran was complete.Even today there are thousands of people around the globe who have memorized the whole Quran, giving no chance for any adulteration or changes.

There were several revelations of GOD
Almighty God is one. He is not 2 or 3 or 2.5! Almighty God is most powerful, most merciful. He is absolute and free from any weakness. Almighty God is The Creator. He created the whole universe, he is the master of all worlds, all creatures and all creations.

“Say! He is Allah one and only. He is absloute and eternal. He does not beget anyone, nor is he begotten. There is nothing like him“-Quran Surah Ikhlas(112)-Ayah 1-4

“Allah. There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. ” Quran, Surah Baqrah(2)-Ayah 255

Almighty God created the first person on earth – Prophet Adam (Peace be upon him). After that generations after generations followed on the earth.For the guidance of mankind, almighty God has sent several revelations or words of God to earth.

“…and to every people(there is) a guide” Quran,Surah Rad 13:Ayah 7

These revelations were revealed to chosen people of God called messengers or Prophets.
There have been thousands of messengers of God on earth. Prophet Adam, Prophet Noah, prophet Moses, prophet Jesus, prophet Muhammad – (peace be upon them all) – they all were messenegers of God. They were given revelation from God for the guidance of mankind.
We may not know today name of all thousands of messengers. Similalry we may not know name of all revelations revealed by God. Holy Vedas are considered to be the earliest revelations of God.Similarly torah,zabur and injeel were revelations of God which were revealed to Prophet Moses, Prophet David and Prophet Jesus-(Peace be upon them all)-respectively. Today in its changed form – torah,zabur and injeel are called Holy Bible. No wonder word Injeel(Revelation that was given to Prohet Jesus(peace be upon him)) is mentioned 12 times in Quran. Similarly word Taurat(Revelation given to prophet Moses(peace be upon him)) is mentioned 18 times in Quran. Quran time and again confirms that they were revelations from the God.
“It is He(The GOD) Who has sent down the Book (the Qur’an) to you (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) with truth, confirming what came before it. And He sent down the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)” Quran, Surah Al imran 3: Ayah 3

Quran is the last revelation of GOD
Then finally Quran was revealed to last messenger prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). All the revelations prior to Quran were meant for limited time and limited people. That is why today we dont have 100% pure Holy vedas or Holy bible. Due to being revealed in old age, when there was no preserving mechanism, these scriptures could not be preserved with their 100% purity. But Utmost care was taken in preserving Quran. As it was revealed only 1400 years back and it was memorized by several people there was no chance of adulteration of Quran. Morever Allah himself promises to preserve Quran.

“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).” Quran, Surah Hijar(15) Ayah 9

What about people who lived before revelation of Quran?
All the revelations of God were 100% word of God and whoever believed and followed it were muslims. All the messengers were pious people,they submitted to God and they preached the religion of God or islam. Quran prohibits us to make any distinction among prophets.

“Say, “We believe in Allah and that which has been sent down to us and that which has been sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Isma’il (Ishmael), Ishaq (Isaac), Ya’qub (Jacob), and to Al-Asbat [the offspring of the twelve sons of Ya’qub (Jacob)], and that which has been given to Musa (Moses) and ‘Îsa (Jesus), and that which has been given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have submitted (in Islam).”
( سورة البقرة , Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #136)

“The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. (They say), “We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers” – and they say, “We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your Forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the return (of all).”
( سورة البقرة , Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #285)

“Say: “We believe in Allah and in what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Isma’il (Ishmael), Ishaq (Isaac), Ya’qub (Jacob) and Al-Asbat [the offspring of the twelve sons of Ya’qub (Jacob)] and what was given to Musa (Moses), ‘Îsa (Jesus) and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between one another among them and to Him (Allah) we have submitted (in Islam).”
( سورة آل عمران , Aal-e-Imran, Chapter #3, Verse #84)

“And those who believe in Allah and His Messengers and make no distinction between any of them (Messengers), We shall give them their rewards; and Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”
( سورة النساء , An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #152)

Hence,those people who came before advent of Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) and followed teachings of their prophet or whatever was revelaed from God – were muslims or Submitters to God.

What Quran contains?
Quran is book of guidance for humanity. It covers various aspects of human life, viz: Spiritual, social, family,economic,poitical. Quran guides us how to lead our life so that we attain real salvation. Quran commands mankind to worship only One Almighty God. Quran exhorts its reader to ponder over the meaning of Quran, use intellect, understand the Quran, implement in life, look at various signs of Allah,follow what has been revealed from God. Quran speaks about several scientifc facts that were unknows to people 1400 years back. Quran is miracle of all miracles. Previous prophets were given some or the other miraclous power. The miracle given to Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) is Quran. Quran challenges its opponents to prove it wrong. Quran is mercy for those who humble themself to their lord.

Conclusion
Quran is word of God. It was not sent for a particular tribe/group/nation/race; rather it was sent for whole mankind.

“Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur’an, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment…” Quran,Surah Baqrah 2:185

It was the month of ramdhan when first revelation of Quran came. It has been revealed for whole humanity. Whosoever follows it will follow for his/her own guidance. Quran is the criteria to judge right from wrong. Let us submit to our creator-Allah and follow his commandments.

Note: Everything written is my level best unbiased understanding. Kindly mail me for criticism/suggestion/feedback serviceforhumanity@gmail.com.

The Evolution of economic t e r r o r i s m

Dear friends
Please find some time to read an excellent article written below. Though lengthy,but very meaningful and eyeopener article.
Take any currency note and have a look at it. You will find wordings similar to this.“I promise to pay the bearer a sum of….” So what does this mean? It means that the reserve bank of the country (in other words the Government) promises that the person who possesses the currency note (i.e the bearer) will be eligible to be paid goods worth the amount mentioned on that currency note.But what will the bank get in return for assuring and making that payment?
To answer this we have to go back a bit in history, to the origin of the currency notes as we see them today.Of course in US dollars, it would be “This note is a legal tender for all debts…”. The ” Will pay to bearer on demand ” which was present in US dollars earlier vanished from it in 1934 and was replaced by “This note is a legal tender for all debts…” !!!A 1918 US dollar note. In other words, the dollar note is just a legal tender, meaning all US banks will accept it, but other than that, nothing is promised by the US Federal Reserves about its value. In fact Federal Reserve is NOT Federal i.e it is NOT owned by the US federal government , nor does it have any independent reserves. It is just a group of private banks working with the US treasury department.It all started…In ancient times precious metals like Gold and Silver acted as the currency. Which is why we see that the ancient coins were made of precious metals. And there was no need for anybody to make a promise about the value of a Gold coin because the coin in itself contained precious Gold, unlike today’s paper currency.I promise to pay…And then came the promissory notes, which were the ancestors of today’s currency notes. Here, people used to deposit the precious metals they had with a trustee who in turn used to issue them a promissory note mentioning in it the worth of the Gold it represented. Then anybody who gave this note to the trustee would get back Gold worth the value mentioned in that promissory note. The trustee in turn would charge a small amount to the people for safeguarding their Gold assets.Slowly instead of using actual Gold to purchase goods people started using these promissory notes instead. Different denominations of these notes came into existence.

These were the initial days of currency notes, which is why even today you see on our notes a promise by the reserve bank (today’s trustee) about the value of that currency note. But then today these notes are NOT supported by Gold or any other precious metal. Howz that possible? Read on…The promissory notes became popular because it meant carrying a simple piece of paper instead of heavy metals. It not only reduced the carrying burden, but also protected people from thieves who could otherwise easily detect that you were carrying Gold/Silver.Over a period of time the trustees observed that most of the people who had deposited the Gold with them were not coming back to take back the Gold, and instead simply kept circulating the promissory notes, much like today’s currency notes. So the trustees thought why not issue more promissory notes than the amount of the Gold reserves they had? And thus was born the concept of modern currencies and the banking system.Deposited money exits through backdoorsBanks in those days simply issued more promissory notes than the amount of Gold they had, based on a simple faith that all their depositors wont come and demand their Gold back all at the same time! Imagine a bank which had 100 kg Gold in deposits and which had issued promissory notes for 200 kg of Gold. If all its customers came at the same time demanding their Gold back, then the bank would go bankrupt! But that doesn’t happen unless and until the bank loses the faith of its customers. So based on the faith that the overall amount of Gold withdrawn would always be little comapred to the overall amount of Gold deposited, Banks started overstating their Gold deposits.What the banks did with those extra promissory notes was to lend loans and earn interest. This is how the banking systems as we know today came into existence. And this is what is practised by banks today in the name of fractional reserve banking .

In other words, the banks today keep only a fraction of the customer deposits in reserves, and lend out all remaining money as loans to earn interest. The interest on the loans would be more than the interest paid by the banks for your deposits and thats how banks make profit. Your deposits are nothing but loan offered by you to bank for which bank pays a small interest, and in turn lends that money to others for a higher interst rate.So if the borrowers don’t pay back the loan amount, then your money is gone! And that is what is exactly happening in US today in the name of Sub-prime crisis. Borrowers have defaulted, banks have gone bankrupt and so have the investors! Lehman brothers was just an example, and AIG was bailed out by the US Government because it was too big to be allowed to go bankrupt!
The current US subprime crisis threatening the global economy is nothing but Banks being unable to recover the billions of dollars of depositors’ money which it had given out in the form of Bad loans.And how does the US Government bail out big bankruptcies? Simply by printing more dollars !In fact Billions of it!The question is why can’t other countries simply print more of their currencies and be rich? Because there will be no takers for mere paper. Currency being a piece of paper has to be supported by something which is really valuable, like the earlier Gold system. So what is supporting the US dollar then? Read on…Post World War II – US StrategyAfter the second world war most of the world economy was devastated. Most of the world’s Gold reserves had ended up in US as all countries required US help to rebuild themselves, the same way they needed US weapons prior to that. It should be noted that US mainland was not at all affected by the second world war and there have been conspiracy theories about Pearl Harbor, the same way there have been conspiracy theories about 9/11 . UK had been the world leader till then, but now was desperate for help after the devastating world war. It had enough of its own business to mind and hence declared independence to countries like India which were becoming unmanageable and which had already been looted to its core by the British. The empire on which the Sun never set had started shrinking to see its Sun setting. Britain’s prominent industries had been destroyed by the war and it badly needed aid. It wasn’t able to import more than half of its food and all raw materials, probably except Coal.At the same time US had the ambition to replace UK as the world economic power. At the end of second world war there was already great inflation in US and there were strikes in all major US industries like automobiles, steel etc. So US desparately wanted unhindered access to markets across the world to get cheap stuff to fuel its own economy. US agreed to give a loan worth 3.8$ dollar to UK provided it entered into a new trade agreement with US. And thus was born the Bretton Woods agreement which paved way for the creation of IMF, World Bank and laid foundation for the world domination of the US dollar. Prior to this agreement US and UK combined controlled over half of the world’s trade, and this agreement ensured that US entered UK markets. It should be noted that if not for the devastating effects of world war II on british economy, the british pound would have been today’s dominant currency. It was infact a dominant currency in the world prior to world war II.Bretton Woods AgreementUS entered into this Bretton Woods agreement with UK and rest of the world nations after the world war in 1945. According to this agreement all member countries had to trade their currencies against US dollar instead of against Gold or other currencies, and US dollar itself was promised to have a fixed value in terms of Gold.
In other words, by this agreement US dollars became the new promissory notes of the world economy! So a country need not worry if it didn’t have enough Gold to support its currency, all it had to do was to buy US dollars, because US promised its dollars to be supported by Gold!Now, what would a country do when it had a currency deficit? Well, it can take loans from the newly formed IMF and World bank(then known as IBRD), which would obviously be in terms of US dollars. In return for this loan IMF (on behalf of US) would set up rules and regulations on that country’s economy, so as to favor the US (in the disguise of helping that country overcome its crisis) and would put that country’s economy under IMF surveillance. The US owned one-third of all IMF quotas, more than enough to impose its rules and to veto any change it disliked in the IMF.To pay back the IMF loans (in US dollars) a country had to export its goods and services to US so as to earn US dollars. Even otherwise, countries wanted to earn US dollars since it was the default global currency for international trade in the non-communist (non-soviet) block. So all countries started selling their products to US for cheap prices, since they had competition amongst themselves. This ensured that US got best of the world products for lowest prices. And in the process US economy and consumerism boomed because they got cheap goods of great quality from all across the world! Pegging of world currencies to US dollar ensured that the value of US currency remained stable and hence there was no inflation in US and things became available for throw away prices. That’s how US consumerism was fuelled and continues to be fuelled even today.While in the third world countries people think a thousand times before throwing out something, in US it is the world’s largest amount of garbage produced everyday, simply because in US its cheaper to buy than to reuse. Things are(were) cheap in US at the cost of the rest of the world because rest of the world compete(d)s to sell their goods to US, just to earn US dollars, since it was supported by Gold. In other words US dollars had the greatest purchasing power, thanks to the Bretton Woods system. In return for making this agreement happen, US gifted its european friends with its Marshall Plan , where in the european countries received aid in terms of grants instead of loans to rebuild their economies. US offered a similar Marshall plan to the communist states led by USSR but was rejected by the Soviets who were well aware of US ambitions to dominate the world economy.Nixon ShockAll this went fine till one day the flaw in the system came out. US had created a Pax Americana system in the world, where every developing economy had this goal of exporting its goods and services to US to earn more dollars. US continued to print dollars left and right and kept distributing it to all countries to fuel its hungry consumers. But then according to the agreement the dollar was being supported by a promised denomination of Gold. But printing more dollars is not same as mining more Gold! And hence insufficient supply of Gold broke the system.While US dollar had a fixed value against Gold which was artificially set just to enable US to print more dollars, the price of the Gold in the open market was much higher than the Gold supported by an US dollar! In other words, if Gold of amount x was available for a dollar, the same Gold x cost 3 dollars in the open market!This meant countries could now use their piled up US dollars to get back cheap Gold from US government (since US had promised fixed amount of Gold to its dollar according to the Bretton Woods agreement), and then sell it in the open markets for higher prices! Just imagine all the countries that had kept piling up US dollars, now opting to give it back all, in return for the promised Gold. Well, this happened on March 17 1968 (along with violent protests in London the same day against US involvement in the Vietman war) and US looked blank! Where is so much Gold? US had Gold reserves to support only 22% of the dollars it had printed so far! What about the rest, and obviously US cant give away all its Gold and go bankrupt on its own either.

Thus came the Nixon Shock in 1971 on 15th of August when the then US President Nixon simply refused to pay Gold for US dollars anymore! He didnt even consult IMF before announcing his decision. In other words, entire world economies collapsed since their millions of dollar reserves were worth nothing more than a bundle of paper! If any other country had done this to US, then US would have nuked it out of existence, but since it was the great military power of the world that had defaulted, all other countries had to keep quiet.Once the US refused to pay Gold for its dollars, the world entered a floating exchange rate system, where the markets decided the exchange rates based on demand and supply principle for currencies. While the US dollar was supported by Gold, other currencies were held weak in respect to US dollars so as to facilitate cheap imports to US. Now that the US refused to pay Gold for its dollars, its economy came down as other countries stopped buying its dollars since it was no more than a piece of paper now. So to boost US economy, US had to now export goods instead of importing them. Gone were the days when US could buy anything and everything just by printing more dollars. So, Nixon heavily devalued US dollar to allow US exports to other countries, so that US economy could get a boost. He even imposed 10% import duties so as to discourage cheaper imports which would harm local industries.Enter Petrodollar But how long could US be without a strong dollar? Absence of a strong dollar meant US would have to compete with other countries on an equal floor and dollar would no longer be a dominating world currency. This would remove economic US advantage in the world since there would be no demand for US dollars across the world, and if there is no demand to US dollars then why will countries prefer exporting their products to US only? And if that doesnt happen then how to fuel US consumerism?It should be noted that it is the consumerism that fuels more buying which in turn fuels innovation, provides funds for further research and hence leads to growth of science and technology.So between 1972 and 1974 the then US president Nixon held a series of meetings with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, and struck a deal where in US would provide technological and miltary assistance to Saudi, and in return Saudi had to trade its oil exports only in terms of US dollars.

Now this resulted in two major advantages for US. One, all countries which import oil have to pile up dollars, since only dollars are accepted by oil exporting countries. This was because once Saudis agreed to trade oil in terms of dollars, even OPEC (the organization of petroleum exporting countries) agreed to trade oil only in terms of dollars. So oil importing countries again started to trade with US and started selling their goods and services at throw away prices just so that they could earn dollars to enable them to buy Oil. So all oil importing countries started to build up dollar reserves, and this boosted US consumerism, bringing back the world currency status to US dollar, this time supported by Petroleum instead of Gold, and hence the term Petrodollar.The second advantage to US from the petro-dollar was it could simply print more dollars to buy the oil it needed, and hence petroleum became available in US at throw away prices, and this is what made owning private cars almost one per head, cheaper in US. Without petroleum being not just affordable, but cheaper, there was no way that a giant automobile and airlines industry could have come up in US. Now that the US dollar is losing its value again, the effects of increased petroleum costs on US roads is becoming evident.As described in earlier articles Iraq was invaded simply because Saddam Hussein had started accepting Euros instead of dollars to sell Iraqi Petroleum. This was a master blow to US economy and hence Iraq was invaded. The WMD which Saddam had was none other than Oil. After US invaded Iraq and dethroned Saddam the first thing it did was to revert back oil exporting currency of Iraq to dollars. Similary Iran is being threatened by US not because it has started Uranium enrichment programme but because it has started accepting Euros instead of dollars. Similarly Russia has started accepting its own Roubles instead of dollars to boost its own economy. Venezuela is also switching to Euros to export its Oil.Iran, Venezuela and Russia account for about 25% of world oil exports, and if they do away with dollars, then there is a serious threat to dollar stability, and would lead to serious inflation and recession in US. UAE central bank has said that it will convert 10% of its dollar reserves to Euros. Even Kuwait and Qatar have hinted at the same. Sweden has brought down its dollar reserves from 37% to 20%. If there are no buyers for dollars, why will countries export their goods to US, what will they do with the dollars paid to them?Biggest threat to US economy today is China which is sitting on world’s largest dollar reserves. If it releases those billions of dollars it holds in its reserves, then US economy will simply collapse. At the same time, the dollar reserves are a threat to China itself, for if dollar value comes down due to some other reasons, then Chinese collection of dollars would be mere paper notes. Slowly the ground below the internation dollar shaking, and shaking violently . It simply means US will have to go for a major war to bring back the world economy into its hold again. The target can be Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, anything and it has no ideological basis. It is the military might which fuels the economic might and vice versa. When one is under threat, use the other to recover. Its as simple as that.What Promise?By the way, today’s paper currencies have no inherent value in them. Even though the Reserve Bank promises to pay the value mentioned in the notes, consider inflation. What you get for 100 Rupees today, if you have the same 100 Rupees three years from now its value will be less worth than what it was when you earned that 100 Rupees. So where is the promise? What is the promise all about?Note that your money is not supported by any Gold or Oil. Its just a piece of paper. The moment you earn money convert it into something which has real value. For instance, buy Gold or invest in real estate. Because these things have real value in them. If you just end up saving your 10000 Rupees in a bank account, 5 years from now its value would have reduced due to inflation and would be worth probably only 7000! Understand the economics of money and play safe. Don’t save money as cash, other than for the minimum amount required to face any eventual emergencies.
Source: http://www.hitxp.com/articles/economics/promise-pay-bearer-currency-history-federal-bank/

Number 786 is NOT sacred

MISCONCEPTION: Number 786 is sacred for some people???
REALITY: Number 786 has nothing do with faith. It has been popularized by films. In Quran almost all chapters starts with the statement – Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem which means In the name of Almighty God, most compassionate, most merciful. This statement Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem is invoked by muslims before they do anything like before starting something, before ridding a vehicle etc – the purpose is: to praise and invoke name of Almighty God.
In every language there is numerical value assigned to each alphabet. Similarly in Arabic language there is numerical value assigned to each alphabet. If we sum all the numerical value assigned to each letter of Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem then the sum comes to 786. But does this means 786 is sacred or writing 786 EQUALS to Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem? Of course NO.The sum 786 can be achieved in number of ways, in different kind of words.
For example – Suppose, just an example: Assume that in English language numerical values are assigned as A=4, B=30, D=10, O=1, G=32
GOOD – 32+1+1+10 = 44
BAD- 30+5+10 = 44
So we can get same number 44 by summing up numerical values of two OPPOSITE words. Hence number 44 does not means GOOD or BAD Similarly if, by calculating numerical values of Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem we get 786 then it DOES not means that 786 is equivalant to saying Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem. Hence 786 IS NOT EQUAL TO Bis millah Al rahman Al Raheem. This is just a popular myth that 768 is scared.

Muslims do NOT glorify or refer to King Akbar in adhan

MISCONCEPTION: When muslims say – “Allah-u-akbar” then they are referring to Mughal Emperor King Akbar.
REALITY: King Akbar has nothing to do with words “Allah-u-akbar”. “Allah-u-akbar” is made up of two words – Allah and Akbar. “Allah” is an Arabic word, it means “Almighty GOD” and “akbar” means “The greatest”. Hence “Allah-u-akbar” means Almighty God the greatest in English or in Sanskrit Ishwar Mahaprabhu. Many times, because of language difference we get wrong picture or wrong understanding.

If My name is khan then I am a muslim???

Introduction
Thanks to the sensation-seekng media and ignorant mass, it has become a common understanding that if a person’s name is khan or ahmed or imam then he/she is a muslim???? A major credit for this propoganda goes to media – who out of ignorance spreads such information. And the irnoy is that there are few people who proudly claim that they are muslim while not having any knowledge about who muslim is.

Who is a muslim?
Word muslim is derived from the arabic word – slim – meaning submission or peace.Muslim is someone who has surrendred his/her will to Almighty God. So if anyone who surrenders his or her will to Almighty God is called muslim in arabic. In sanskrit we can say that anyone who has done sarv samaprpan to eshwar is a muslim.Hence anyone who follows islam i.e way of life as per God is called a muslim. It has nothing to do with the name of the person.

Qualities of a muslim
When we say that one who submits to God is a muslim then what do we mean? We mean that a muslim is someone who:
a> Strictly believes in ONE TRUE ALMIGHTY GOD
b> Does not give any attribute to GOD that contradicts the definition of GOD.
c> Worships only ONE TRUE ALMIGHTY GOD. Does not worship something that is NOT GOD. Like, a muslim will not worship any man/woman, any natural thing or any man made thing.
d> Follows the guidance of GOD.Almighty GOD guides mankind through his revelations revealed to his messengers. There has been several revelations of GOD. Quran is the last and final revelation of GOD,it was sent for whole mankind and is the ONLY uncorrupted revelation of GOD today.
e> Follows Quran. Abstain from what is forbidded by GOD and does things made obligatory by GOD. For example-A muslim does not worship anything that is not God, does not commit adultery or fornication, does not kill any innocent, does not deal with interest, does not eat pork, does not drink alcohol, does not marry someone who associates partner with GOD.
f> Similalry a muslim does what is ordered by Almighty God; like-Believes and worship only ONE GOD, prays 5 times a day, gives charity money, fasts during ramdhan, maintains modesty, does not indulge in illegal sex,obeys his/her parents, is honest, does not eat someones money etc.
g> Follows the guidance of prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him). There has been several messnegers of God, viz Prophet Adam, prophet noah, prophet Abraham, prophet Moses, prophet Jesus and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon them all). Last and final prophet is prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him). Quran exhort its believer to obey Almighty God and obey the guidance given by Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him).

Conclusion
So next time when you see someone on TV claiming that he/she is a muslim or ambassador of islam the please re think about the definition of a muslim. Dont be confuse by the name. Name has nothing to do with the belief and practise. There may be many icons around you whom you may be thinking as a muslim but actually they may be NOT. They may be muslim in the register of Govt-census but not in register of GOD 🙂

Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) was NOT the founder of islam

MISCONCEPTION: Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was the founder of Islam. We read it even in text books.
REALITY: Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was NOT founder of any religion. He was just last and final messenger of Almighty God. Someone who is last in series can not be founder of it. Never ever does Quran claim that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) brought or established any new religion. All the prophets of God gave same fundamental teachings of God. Right from first prophet i.e. Prophet Adam (Peace be upon him) to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) there have been thousands of prophet. They all gave same fundamentals.
The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah – the which We have sent by inspiration to thee – and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein:….. Quran 42:13
We have sent thee inspiration, as we sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms. Quran 4:163
Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things. Quran 33:40
Conclusion: Religion is established by GOD and not by men. hence no man can be founder of releigion. Men can start a sect,ideology,cult etc but Only GOD will be the founder of religion.

Modern youth and Mus’ab bin ‘Umair – Heart touching

By: Umm Rashid
Big city, bright lights. Cars flash in fa st lanes. Young Muslims are getting ready to hit the “night scene”. Branded shoes and designer clothes in place, clutching the latest mobile gizmos and sporting the trendiest watches, their perfume smells — more than anything else – of money.
You can see them “hanging out” in groups, lolling in the bright lights of a megamall, lingering aimlessly in hypershops, buying a knick knack to drive away the bored om ; even if it’s just for a second.
You can see them sipping cappucino at a Starbucks café …watching people go by, sharing a joke and laughing raucously; vacant eyes straying over to huge tv screens for the latest football score.
You can see them racing cars dangerously late into the night, music blasting fr om the stereos, startling passersby while they laugh in their fa ces. A standard sight.
Each time I see this all-too fa miliar scene, I find myself thinking of someone. Someone who lies buried in the blood-wet earth of ‘Uhud, feet covered by scented grass and his body covered only by a square woollen sheet that was not even sufficient to cover him c om pletely. Someone who was his mother’s pampered son, he wore the best clothes his rich mother’s money could buy, his perfume scented the streets he walked through. The talk of Makkan matrons and maidens in their plush sa lons, the toast of his peers in the city’s clubs, the most flamboyant young man of the Quraysh, who left a life of pleasuring the Self to gain the pleasure of Allaah: Mus’ab bin Umair bin Hashim bin Abd Munaf who was also known as Mus’ab al Khair.
Mus’ab was only a youth when he heard of the new Prophet who had arisen among the Quraysh and his Mes sa ge of monotheism; Makkah talked of very little else in those days. His curiosity piqued by all the talk, Mus’ab decided to approach the Prophet sa ll Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sa llam on his own to determine the truth of his Mes sa ge.
One night, instead of joining his friends in their cust om ary revelry, Mus’ab made his way to the house of Al-Arqaam Ibn Al-Arqaam which came to be known as Daar al Arqaam among the Muslims. It was here that the Prophet met with the growing band of Muslims, away fr om the eyes of the Quraysh. It was here that the C om panions talked over the future of their fa ith, heard and recited newly revealed portions of the Qur’aan and prayed behind the Prophet sa ll Allaahu ‘alayhi was sa llam to Allaah. That night, Mus’ab sa t down among the gathering of the fa ithful and heard the Prophet sa ll Allaahu ‘alayhi was sa llam recite verses of the Qur’aan. Fr om that m om ent on he forgot for ever his life of luxury and indolence, in the ecstasy of discovering the key to eternal life. Mus’ab’s path to the fa ith was not easy – his mother, Khunnas bint Maalik, a strong willed w om an in fa mous for her sharp temper and sharper tongue – was his chief opponent. In order to avoid an unplea sa nt confrontation with his mother, Mus’ab initially avoided telling her about his new fa ith. However, people found him frequenting Daar Al-Arqaam more than his usual haunts and sa w him c om ing under the influence of the Prophet sa ll Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sa llam. It wasn’t long before news of his conversion reached his mother.
Reacting with the imperiousness of her nature, her pride in her lineage and her age-old allegiance to the gods, she c om manded Mus’ab to return and repent to the gods he had abandoned in his “foolishness”; and when he refused, she had him shackled and imprisoned in a corner of the house. S om ehow, news of the first emigration of s om e Muslims to Abyssinia reached Mus’ab in his incarceration and his heart longed to join his brothers in the fa ith. Using his ingenuity, he managed to delude his mother and his guards and escaped to Abyssinia with other emigrants. Later, he returned to Makkah with them for a short while and emigrated a second time, this time as the Prophet [SAW]’s chosen envoy to the new centre of fa ith: Yathrib. When Mus’ab returned fr om Abyssinia , his mother sought to imprison him yet again. But this time he vowed that if she attempted that, he would kill all those who came to her aid to lock him up. She knew the intensity of his determination better than anyone else and so she bade him a final fa rewell, crying bitterly: Go away; I am no longer your mother.
At this, Mus’ab went close to her and sa id: O Mother, I am advising you and my heart is with you, please bear witness that there is no God but Allaah and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
Enraged, she swore: By the stars, I will never enter your religion, to degrade my status and weaken my senses! But Mus’ab entered Islaam in the spirit of the Qur’aan when it sa ys: udkhuloo fi silme kaa fa h [enter into Islaam c om pletely]. He forsook every semblance of sa tis fa ction of the Self for the sa ke of Allaah – his dress was tattered, his food was simple, the bare earth was his bed.. One day he went out to meet s om e Muslims while they were sitting around the Prophet sa ll Allaahu alayhi was sa llam, and when they sa w him they lowered their heads and shed silent tears at the sight of the pampered youth of their memory, moving about in wornout patches held together by thorns, which barely covered him. After Mus’ab moved away fr om the gathering, the Prophet sa ll Allaahu alayhi was sa llam recalled: I sa w Mus’ab, and there was no youth in Makkah more petted by his parents than he. Then he abandoned all that for the love of Allaah and His Prophet. Recognizing Mus’ab’s noble manners and patience, the Prophet [SAW] c om missioned him to instruct the people of Yathrib who had pledged their allegiance to the Prophet at ‘Aqabah, to call others to Islaam and to prepare the city for the eventual migration of the Prophet [SAW]. At that time, there were among the C om panions men of sterling character and nerves of steel, men who were older and more experienced in the ways of the world; yet he [SAW] chose Mus’ab as his representative. And Mus’ab proved worthy of the Prophet’s choice many times over, dealing with detractors with patience and sa gacity. Mus’ab entered Yathrib as a guest of Sa’ad ibn Zurarah of the Khazraj tribe. Together they went approached the citizens of Yathrib, explaining the mes sa ge of Monotheism and reciting the Qur’aan. Once Mu sa ’ab and Sa’ad were sitting near a well in an orchard of Banee Za fa r, when they were approached by U sa yd ibn Khudayr brandishing a spear in obvious rage. Sa’ad whispered to Mus’ab: This is a chieftain of his people. May Allaah place the truth in his heart.
Mus’ab replied calmly: If he sits down, I will speak to him.
U sa yd was angry at the success of Mus’ab’s mission and shouted angrily: Why have you both c om e to us to corrupt the weak among us? Keep away fr om us if you want to stay alive. At this, Mu sa ’ab smiled and sa id softly: Won’t you sit down and listen? If you are pleased and sa tisfied with our mission, accept it; and if you dislike it we will stop telling you what you dislike and leave. Sticking his spear into the ground, U sa yd sa t down to hear them out. As Mu sa ’ab began telling him about Islaam and reciting portions of the Qur’aan to U sa yd’s expression changed. The first words he uttered were : How beautiful are these words and how true! What does a person do if he wants to enter this religion?
Mus’ab explained: Have a bath, purify yourself and your clothes. Then utter the testimony of Truth (shahadah), and perform prayers. U sa yd testified that there is no god but Allaah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, prayed two rakaats of sa laah and was followed by another influential man: Sa’ad ibn Muaadh. By the time the Prophet [SAW] emigrated, there was not a single household in Yathrib in which Mus’ab had not endeared himself and the Mes sa ge of Islaam. In the subsequent pilgrimage, he led a c om pany of 70 people went fr om Yathrib to pledge allegiance to the Prophet. In a fa mous incident after the victory at Badr, the Muslims captured s om e Makkans and sought to rans om them. Mus’ab was passing by the ranks of prisoners and stopped when sa w his brother, Abu Azeez ibn Umayr among them. However, instead of interceding on his behalf, he instructed his brother’s captor to bind him securely and to extract a large rans om for the prisoner, because “his mother is a very rich w om an” When the brother sought to remind Mus’ab of his relationship, Mus’ab replied: I only recognize brotherhood of the fa ith; this man is my brother, not you!
At ‘Uhud, the Prophet sa ll Allaahu alayhi was sa llam chose Mus’ab to bear the battle standard. In the melee that followed the archers descent fr om the hill where they were stationed, in violation of the Prophet [SAW]’s orders, the Makkans fought back fiercely. Taken unawares by the cavalry of the Quraysh attacking fr om the rear, the Muslim ranks scattered. Intent on harming the Prophet [SAW], the Makkans searched for him while he was being guarded only by a handful of c om panions. Suddenly, s om eone shouted that the Prophet [SAW] was no more. It was at this juncture that Mus’ab’s glorious life reached a fitting culmination: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad related fr om his fa ther, who sa id: Mus’ab ibn ‘Umair carried the standard on the Day of Uhud. When the Muslims were scattered, he stood fa st until he met Ibn Qaami’ah who was a knight. He struck him on his right hand and cut it off, but Mus’ab sa id: And Muhammad is but a Messenger. Messengers have passed away before him. He carried the standard with his left hand and leaned on it, when his left hand was cut off; he leaned on the standard and held it with his upper arms to his chest, all the while sa ying: And Muhammad is but a Messenger. Messengers have passed away before him. Then a third soldier struck Mus’ab with his spear, and the spear went through him. After the battle, the Prophet and his c om panions came to the plain of ‘Uhud to bury the martyrs, s om e of whose bodies had been mutilated by the marauding w om en of the Qur’aysh. Pausing when he sa w Mus’ab, the Prophet [SAW] recited: Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah. Then he [SAW] looked at the remains of his c om panions in the battlefield and sa id: The Prophet of Allaah witnesses that you are martyrs to Allaah on the Day of Resurrection. There wasn’t enough material to serve as a shroud for Mus’ab. Khabbaab ibn Al-Arat narrated: We emigrated with the Prophet for Allaah’s cause, so our reward became due with Allaah. S om e of us passed away without enjoying anything in this life of his reward, and of them was Mus’ab ibn ‘Umair, who was martyred on the Day of Uhud. He did not leave behind anything except a sheet of shredded woollen cloth. If we covered his feet with it, his head was uncovered, and if we covered his feet with it, his head was uncovered. The Prophet [SAW] sa id to us: Cover his head with it and put lemon grass over his feet. It was this memory of Mus’ab in his martyr’s grave, that caused c om panions like Abdur Rahmaan ibn ‘Awf to cry in fear of having no share in the Hereafter, because they had been granted a life of plenty and ease right here in this world. Once his servant brought him a meal to break his fa st and ibn ‘Awf burst into tears, remembering Mus’ab who had passed away without tasting the good of this world, to the certainty of eternal pleasure in the Hereafter.
As night fa lls, I think of the shadows lengthening across ‘Uhud where the martyrs lie buried, when visitors drive off leaving the plain quiet, dark and peaceful. I think of the graves of the shuhadaa, resplendent with the dazzling light of the truly fortunate: those who are pleasing to Allaah and are pleased with Him.
In the neon dazzle of malls, where countless young Muslims strive dai ly in the trivial pursuit of pleasure, we would do well to bear the memory of Mus’ab radiyy Allaahu anhu in mind. It may keep us from getting lost in the light.

All religions are same-whichever u follow is OK????

Introduction
“You know: All religions are same. No matter you follow whichever religion; it is ok”
“See! One can reach a destination in several ways, by taking different routes. Similalry to reach one God, we can follow any religion-be it hinduism, islam, christianity, sikhsim etc”
“You follow your religion and be a good hindu/muslim/christian “
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These are few oft repeated statements by most of people in context with religion. Many of us have above mentioned belief and we preach the same. But just ask yoursefl one question – what i am saying is correct or wrong? Whenever we make a statement we MUST strive to finds its truthfulness.

Simple Analysis
Let us analyse this issue in a simple way. When asked to a Hindu – “How many Gods are there?” – Reply is – “One”. Similarly if one ask to a christian -“How many Gods are there?”, Answer is “One”. In the same fashion a muslim too will say that there is only one God.
So if Hindu/muslim/christian all believe that there is ONLY ONE GOD then how come we will have so MANY RELIGIONS of God????? Is not this surprising?? We say, we believe, we preach that God is one – yet we say that there are so many religions of God. So smething is wrong in our understanding. Please note that by religion we refer to way of life as per God’s commandments.

The right perspective:
Now let me put an alternative idea. How can we reconcile between One God and multiple religions? Are there so many religions of God? Has God made so many religions? can we follow any religion and attain salvation? Let us end this suspense.
Almighty GOD is one and only one. Almighty God is unique in attributes. There is nothing like him. We can call him by his different attributes. He is THE CREATOR, THE SUSTAINER, MOST MERCIFUL, MOST COMPASSIONATE etc.
For the guidance of mankind Almighty God reveals his words to his chosen person. The chosen person is called messenger or prophet. Almighty God does not come down to earth, rather his messenegers / prophets spread his teachings. There were several messengers/ prophets of God. These messengers/prophets were normal human being like me and you. But they were very devout to God. The first person on earth – prophet Adam was the first prophet. After him there were so many prophets, viz: Prophet Noah, Prophet Solomon, Prophet David, prophet Zakaria, prophet Yahya(John the baptist), prophet Yunus(Jonah), Prophet Yusuf(Joseph), prophet Ayub(Job), prophet Moses, prophet Jesus and Prophet Muhammad. These messengers were the Prophets of God. They all brought the same fundamental teachings from God. The important point is: None of them brought any new religion, none of them were founder of any religion, none of them started a new religion. The religion of God was established by God himself. And always there was only ONE religion of God. Prophet Muhammad was the last and final messenger of God. The teachings propogated by prophet Muhammad had the capacity to reach throughout the globe,we got scientific advancement so that teachings of God could reach everywhere after advent of Prophet Muhammad.

Ok, but why so many religions….:
As i mentioned earlier, these messegers brought same fundamental teachings of GOD. Almighty God would communicate with Prophets in some highly advance level and reveal his words to them. These revelations were true word of God. The duty of messengers was to propogate the words of God. In this series there were several revelation from God. Holy Vedas are considered to be the earliest revelation. Torah, zabur and injeel – were revealed to Prophet Moses, Prophet david and Prophet Jesus respetively. Today in their present form – Torah,zabur and injeel – are called Bible. Similalry Holy Quran is the last revelation of Allmighty God. Quran was revealed to last messenger – Prophet Muhammad. Quran was revealed 1400 years back to Prophet Muhammad.
Holy Vedas: They are considered to be earliest revelation. Its so old that its time of revelation is not certain. Majority of indian community, who call themself Hindus-associate themself with vedas.Within Hinduism there are different sect who give different time period for revelation / existense of vedas. According to Swami dayanand sarswati – founder of AryaSamaj – Vedas are considered to be into existense for more than 1,96,00,000 years while another sect – Brahmakumaris claim that vedas are there into existense for less than 5000years. Morever we dont know the circumstanses / context of revelation of various verses of vedas and reason is obvious – because they are extremely old. So in short we can not ascertain 100% authenticity of holy vedas. Though originally they were words of God, but as of today, after passage of thousands and lakh of year they can’t be said to be in their original form, and thus can’t be called 100% word of God. Long time after vedas came into existense there were several kinds of books that were written by scholars of hinduism, viz: upnishad, puran, ramayan, mahabharat, manusmirti. Todays hinduism is derived more from these scriptures which came into existense after vedas. And the followers of the teachings and culture given by these books are called hindus and thus we find it to be a different religion.

Holy Bible: Prophet Moses was given the revelation Torah (book of laws) by Almighty God. He preached and practised laws given by Almighty God. He was follower of religion of God. Afterwards Prophet David was given revelation of God called Zabur. Similarly Prophet Jesus was given Injeel (Gospel). These all revelation were from same Almighty God. Here again, these revelations could not be preserved with its 100% purity. We dont have original torah, zabur and injeel. The current bible contains 66 books in protestant bible and 73 books in catholic bible.We have so many versions of bible, viz: Kings james version(written in 1611), Roman catholic bible, Revised standard version (written in 1952), re revised standard version (written in 1971), international standard version. Different versions differ in number of verses, some words were added while some deleted in different versions. The latest bible is based on oldest available manuscripts that are dated to be 200-300 years after the departure of Prophet Jesus. So we can’t say that present bible is 100% words of God, as we dont have original torah(that was revealed in hebrew) or original injeel (that was revealed in aramaic).Those people who associate themself with bible call themself christains. Present christianity is mixture of some teachings of bible and teachings of the church. Thus we see evolution of a religion.

Holy Quran: In the desert of arabia in 560 AD was born a man called Muhammad. He was bestowed with prophethood and first revelation came to him when he was 40 years old. After that in span of 23 years revelation of Quran was completed. prophet Muhammad died in 623 and before his death Quran was complete. Afterwards it was compiled in form of book.Quran is the only holy book that claim that it is part of faith to believe in previous messengers and previous revelations (revelations that were revaled from Almighty God). Also Quran procalims time and again that it is word of God and religion of God is only one and has been same. Prophet muhammad never claimed that he has brought any new religion. Quran confirms that prophet Muhammad was a prophet just like other prophets and also Quran claims that it has been revelaed for the guidance of whole mankind, now no messenger will come afterwards, whosoever believes and follows Quran will be successful in the life hereafter. Important point to note is that unlike to previous revelations Quran is 100% preserved. There are many people who have memorized the whole Quran since the time of prophet Muhammad. Since it was revelaed only 1400 years back which comes under modern history-minute details related to it are preserved and well authenticated. We know the background and context of revlelation of its verses, we know the life history of Prophet Muhammad. Those who follow teachings of Quran call themselves Muslim. Thus we find a religion out of several religions around globe.

Conclusion: Since all revelations came from same God, but except Quran none is there in its 100% pure form today. Quran provides complete code of life, it deals with social/spiritual/ economical/ political aspects of life. Life hsitory and teachings of prophet Muhammad are preserved. Quran is guidance for whole mankind and its free from any error. So the religion of God has been always one and same. When Vedas were revealed then those people who followed it were following religion of God. Simialrly people who followed torah, zabur and injeel were following religion of God. And those people who follow Quran are following religion of God. But today if anyone wants to follow religion of God then he/she must turn to 100% word of God today i.e Quran. By following vedas and bible today we may not be following 100% the religion of God. For example- many people do idol worship which is against God’s religion, many people believe Prophet Jesus to be God which is against God’s religion. Since the teachings of God got mixed with teachings of man and so religion of God no more remained so. All these doubts can be eliminated if we all follow the last revelation of God i.e Quran and by doing this we will have ONLY ONE RELIGION OF GOD.

Peace be on all

Dear friends
May peace of God be on all of you.This is my first blog.Let me introduce myself.
I a software professional working at MNC. I believe in One Almighty God and i strive to obey his commandments. I believe that all kind of problems – be it social, economical or political – can be addressed and eliminated if we all love each other,have compassion towards fellow human beings, submit ourself to Almighty God and follow his commandments. By distancing ourselves from our creator we have invited so many problems in our life.
Let us submit to our creator.
You can reach me: serviceforhumanity@gmail.com