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Page 4
The Islamic Bulletin
The Purpose Of Life
because in Arabic there is no other expression. The
word Allah cannot be applied to any created thing.
Other words that people use for Almighty are also
applied to created things. For example, “the almighty
dollar.” “Oh I love my wife, she is tops!” Or, “He’s
the greatest.” No, no, no, no… But the word ‘Allah’
can only be applied to the One who has created all
of this that we have previously described. So from this
point, I’m going to use the word ‘Allah,’ and you know
whom I’m speaking about.
The word ‘Islam’ is derived from the root ‘Sala-
ma’ - it means to be at peace. Therefore, a Muslim is a
person who surrenders, submits, and obeys the law of
Almighty God.
And through this submission obtains peace and
serenity for themselves. We can immediately see, that
by such a definition, the Arabic word ‘Islam’ describes
the same manner and behavior of all the well-known
and respected prophets and messengers of Almighty
God… All of them including Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David, Solomon, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, John
the Baptist, Suleiman, Jesus the son of Mary, and
Muhammad (May Allah’s peace be upon them all.) All
of these men, these prophets and messengers, came
from the same Almighty God, with the same message,
with the same chain of transmission, and they said
one thing - obey God! Worship Almighty God and
fulfill the purpose of life and do good actions, and you
will be rewarded with another life. That’s all they said!
Don’t make it more than that! That’s all they said, re-
gardless of what language and what time, whom they
came to - that’s all they said.
If you read the scriptures carefully, without
your own interpretation or somebody else’s addition
or fabrication - you will find that this was the simple
message of all those prophets who confirmed one an-
other. Not one of those prophets ever said, “I am God
- worship me.” You will not find it in any of the holy
books that you have - not the Bible, not the Torah,
not the New Testament, not the Psalms of David - you
will not find it in any book. You will not find it in the
speech of any prophet. Go home tonight and palm
through all the pages of your Bible, and I guarantee
you - you will not find it once. Anywhere! So where
did this come from? That’s something that you’ll have
to investigate.
We can easily see that by such a definition, the
Arabic word describes what all the prophets did. They
all came and submitted themselves to God; Surren-
dered themselves to God; Called the people to God;
And asked the people and insisted upon the people to
do deeds of righteousness. The Ten Commandments
of Moses - what was that? The speech of Abraham -
what was that? The Psalms of David - what was that?
The Proverbs of Solomon - what did he say? The Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ - what did he say? What did John
the Baptist say? What did Isaac and Ishmael say? What
did Muhammad say? Nothing more than that!
“And they have been commanded no more than
this: To worship Allah, offering Him sincere de-
votion, being true (in faith); to establish regular
prayer; and to practice regular charity; and that is
the Religion Right and Straight.” [Quran 98:5]
This is what Allah said. And they were ordered
nothing except to worship Allah, being sincere toward
Him. And this was the straightway, this was the origi-
nal message.
By the same token, it would also be appropri-
ate here to consider both prophets and messengers
as Muslims, because a ‘Muslim’ is what? Don’t think
about the Arabic terminology, don’t think about how
we address them— don’t think about Mecca, or Saudi
Arabia, or Egypt. No! Think about what the word
‘Muslim’ means. ‘He who surrenders himself to Al-
mighty God, and obeys the laws of the Almighty God,’
in that case whether naturally or in a dialectical man-
ner - everything that surrenders to the law of Almighty
God is a Muslim!
So, when a child comes out of a womb of its
mother at the time that God has ordered - what is it?
It’s a Muslim. When the sun goes around in its or-