Islam A Total Beginners Guide – Part Three (P/B)

Often, the first thing someone is asked when they discover the truth and embrace Islam is the question: Why Islam? Here, an American revert-to-Islam answers that question. The author, K. Sherman, writes: The beauty of Islam is probably the best-kept secret in modern times; it is about time it was revealed. This is the sentiment of a majority of people who are discovering the truth about Islam every day. My first exposure to the religion was through a perusal of a fifty-page booklet titled Towards Understanding Islam (written in 1932). It explained to me everything that twenty years of life and fifteen years of education could not. After the initial sense of relief, I suddenly felt cheated. I was consumed with rage. Why? I could not fathom how people could know about this phenomenal way of life and not speak out and inform others. This book is my personal take on the beauty of Islam, backed up by relevant and authentic references. I am convinced that humanity direly needs it and it is my duty to speak out.

In all the divine revelations there is a constant warning that wrongdoers may end up in Hell-fire, though Allah’s kindness and mercy are extended to many people. Reading about the Hell-fire enables one to know it, fear it, and try utmost to keep oneself away from it through correct beliefs and good deeds. The more one knows about Hell-fire, the more he or she strives to be saved from its reach. Relying on statements from the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith, this book enables the reader to have a realistic picture of Hell-fire’s torments. It may be enough to know that it is a raging fire, but detailed knowledge of it, as displayed in this book, will strengthen a person’s belief and eventually, Allah willing, make him or her seek for and remain steadfast on the path to salvation. This is an indispensable book for believers and non-believers alike. Hell-fire: Its Torments and Denizens is an abridged, summarized version of Siddiq Hasan Khan’s book about the Hell-fire.

No one denies that the modesty which is commanded by Islamic Law and by convention includes the decency and decorousness demanded of a woman, and the kind of behavior that will ensure that she is kept far away from situations of temptation and suspicion. Further more, there is no doubt that the greatest act of modesty that she can perform is to wear the hijab, which covers her face. It is the best thing with which she can adorn herself, because it protects her and keeps her far removed from temptation.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Allah (SWT) says: (If you fear that you will not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one or (the captives or the slaves) that your right hands possess. That will be more suitable to prevent you from doing injustice) (An-Nisa’: 3).

Praise be to Allah (SWT) who has prescribed for His Servants a religion (Islam) that is beneficial to them in this world and the Hereafter, and Peace and Blessing be upon His Messengers and Prophets who were guided by His Guidance and conveyed His Religion. The last and seal of His Messengers was Muhammad Ibn Abdillah (SAW). He (SAW) was the best to advise his Ummah and convey the True Message, by words, deeds and his character. He (SAW) was the best model and example for the believers.

LET US BE MUSLIMS is a new edited English version of Sayyid Mawdudi’s Urdu Khutubat. It is no ordinary book, says Khurram Murad in his long Introduction, for it has stirred more hearts and impelled more lives to change their course than any of his more erudite works. In these Friday congregational addresses, Sayyid Mawdudi expounds such familiar themes as Iman, Islam, the Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, Pilgrimage and Jihad. But, in an unusually beautiful, powerfully reasoned, eloquent and passionate, and yet simple and lucid style,

“Sayyid Abul A’la Al-Mawdudui (1903-1979), one of the chief architects of contemporary Islamic resurgence, was the an outstanding Islamic thinker and writer of his time. He devoted his life to expound the meaning and message of Islam and to organise a collective movement to establish the Islamic Order. In this struggle, he had to pass through all kinds of sufferings.
Between 1948-67, he spent a total of five years in different prisons of Pakistan. In 1953, he was also sentenced to death by a Martial Law court for writing a ‘seditious’ pamphlet, this sentence being later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1941, he founded Jama’at-I Islami, of which he remained Amir, until 1972 and which is one of the most prominent Islamic movements of our day. He authored more than one hundred works on Islam, both scholarly and popular, and his writings have been translated into forty languages.”