Muslims in Britain – A discourse

Rania Hafez: The main sacred text of Islam is the Qur’an, which was revealed to the ProphetProphet Προφητεύω (Prophesy) - He who tells in advance. A prophet may not be a Messenger from God. He may simply predict something may happen in the future. Hebrew prophets claimed to have the capacity to see the future or interpret the present situation for future circumstances. Narada in Indian Puranas was the Messenger from Devatas (Vishnu). Vyasa gave power to Sanjaya to see from a distance and not the future. Whether 'future' exists or not is the investigative subject of Physics. If the future is fixed from the past, why should people move (Karma) for anything? Elohim never created any future for Adam in Genesis (1.1) Muhammad 1,400 years ago. It was revealed in installments, by the Angel Gabriel, and it took about 23 years before the whole book was revealed to the Prophet, and the Prophet would recite it as it was revealed to him. So, to us, to Muslims, the Qur’an is not written by humans, it is not amended or commented on by the Prophet, it is simply a direct transmission from the Divine to us humans, through angels, through the Prophet Muhammad.

Colin Baker: This is the British Library’s oldest Qur’an manuscript and one of the oldest Qur’ans in the world. It dates from the eighth century, about 150 years after the death of the Prophet. No Qur’an manuscript from this period has survived intact completely, but what we have here is one of the largest fragments, about two-thirds of the Qur’an’s text.

Shaykh Naveed Arif: For Muslims, the Qur’an is a way of life, so it sets down for us not only rules, how do we live our life and what is permissible for us, and what is impermissible, but general advice as well on how we should live. It also tells stories of previous nations, the story of JesusJesus Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ: Doubts and controversies are always with him. Whether he existed at all or not?  Whether Paul was correct or Muhammad about Jesus? If Paul was a student of Gamaliel then why he had heard nothing about Jesus from him? Why Aramaic culture of Jesus was not preserved? Why there were no dates in apostolic letters? But writing Date in letters was a standard practice then. What was the original language of the epistles? Possibly Constantine would have known these. He died due to asphyxiation. ChristChrist Lamentations 4:20 > The breath of our nostrils, the Christ (Mašíaḥ) of Yahweh, was captured in their pits, of whom we had said, “Under his shadow, we shall live among the nations.” Greek Septuagint (OT), χριστός derived from χρίω (anointed one). Whether Jesus was Christ? NT declared in affirmative. Jews never accepted Jesus as a chosen leader. His violent death was interpreted as a curse by Yahweh. For Hindus, Christian claims are absurd. Performing Dharma leads to liberation. For Muslims, Jesus never died on the Cross. He who confesses that Jesus is Christ is Christian. Confessing Muhammad is the Last Prophet (Rasul) earned the name of Mohammedan. ., peacePeace εἰρήνη be upon Him, and his mother Mary, and Moses and Noah, all these similar stories that you will find in the Bible, these narratives, the Qur’an tells those same stories. But they’re told for, in a way, to remind us, as believers, as human beings, not to fall short in our worship of GodGod People in most cultures believe in the existence of supernatural beings and other supernatural concepts. God is attributed to both anthropomorphic properties (“listens to prayers”) and non-anthropomorphic properties (“knows everything”). Conceptualizing God is associated with willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine hesitancy. Pope requested people not to practice “Jesus is my vaccine”. For the Jewish, family (Avestan universal) god became national God:  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,”(ex 3:15).  See Ishwar. .

Rania Hafez: So the Qur’an is far more than just a sacred text, it is a blueprint for life. And it is a historic document, as well as a document of philosophy, of law, and of moralMorality Mental frame. It can be high morality or low morality, savage morality or civilised morality or Christian morality, or Nazi morality. Decent Behaviour is acceptable norms of the nations. Christian morality starts with the belief that all men are sinners and that repentance is the cause of divine mercy. Putting Crucified Christ in between is the destruction of Christian morality and logic. Now morality shifted to the personal choice of Jesus. What Jesus did is 'good'. The same would be the case of Ram, Krishna, Muhammad, Buddha, Lenin, etc. Pure Human Consciousness degraded to pure followership. There exists no proof the animals are devoid of morality. values.

Shaykh Naveed Arif: As Muslims, we were commanded to pray five times a day. The prayers are spread throughout the day and follow the motion of the sun, so a prayer before sunrise, end of sunrise. Then you have a prayer at the zenith, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, you have a late afternoon prayer, when the sun is coming down, then you have a sunset prayer when the sun is actually set, then you have a night timeTime Where any expression of it occurs in any Rules, or any judgment, order or direction, and whenever the doing or not doing of anything at a certain time of the day or night or during a certain part of the day or night has an effect in law, that time is, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, held to be standard time as used in a particular country or state. (In Physics, time and Space never exist actually-“quantum entanglement”) prayer, when it’s gone completely dark. You can pray as much as you wanted to, you can pray all day long if you wanted to, but those are the five minimum prayers which we have to do, which are one of the pillars of Islam.

Rania Hafez: The Shahada is a declaration of faithFaith  πίστει. but also a declaration in the belief in the unity of everything in the universe. So when you say lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh – there is no God but God – what we are saying is that everything in creation is connected, everything is one, and that really is a very important principle of Islam: the unity of everything in creation.

Colin Baker: This is one of the British Library’s most beautifully decorated and ornamented Qur’ans, and this book was commissioned by Sultan Baybars at the beginning of the fourteenth century. It really is a magnificent piece of illumination, calligraphy, and design. Islamic art is essentially beautifying the sacred text, that is to say writing down the sacred text in a beautiful calligraphy and illuminating it. And it’s very abstract, there is no human or animal representation.

Shaykh Naveed Arif: Zakat is the third pillar of Islam, and it is very, very important for Muslims all around the world. It is tradition that was started by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon Him, 1,400 years ago. In practical terms Zakat aims to purify one’s wealth and it’s devised so that the rich that are blessed with wealth are not holding on to their wealth, they are sharing that wealth with the less fortunate in society.

Rania Hafez: So we give charity, which is a percentage of wealth, or income, once a year, to the poor.

Shaykh Naveed Arif: The Qur’an has very clearly directed Muslims around the world on how Zakat can be distributed and can be used. Amongst them are the poor and needy, and spending in the cause of God, and the cause of God can be striving to understand the religionReligion ‘The word ‘Religion’ -Re Legion- A group or Collection or a brigade, is a social-cultural construction and Substantially doesn’t exist. Catholic religion is different from Protestant religion. It is not Dharma. or in terms of development work or community engagement, community development. In recent history, we have seen the tragedy of Grenfell in 2017. So a lot of people gave Zakat to Islamic Relief specifically for the Grenfell tragedy and Islamic Relief administered Zakat at home? to help the survivors of the Grenfell tragedy. Taking from the rich and giving to the poor has been emphasised in the Qur’an, and there are many, many evidences in Qur’an and Hadith.

Shaykh Naveed Arif: Hadith is one of our sources of law in Islam, so Hadith plays a huge role for us in terms of understanding the Qur’an, because there are some verses in the Qur’an which are quite general, so we use the Hadith to make those verses specific, or to get better understanding of why those verses were revealed. But also for us as a source of law, where we derive rulings.

Rania Hafez: We pray five times a day but the Qur’an doesn’t tell us to pray five times a day. The Qur’an doesn’t tell us how to do our prayer. This was collated or reported from what the early Muslims did, and what the Prophet did. So that’s why the Hadith is really important.

Rania Hafez: The fourth pillar is fasting in the month of Ramadan. It is one month of the year when we are required to abstain from food and drink, from dawn to sunset. It’s really a month of detox, spiritual detox.

Omar Salha: Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan because they were commanded to by God. In the Qur’an God commands Muslims to fast in order to attain God consciousness. The relationship with Muslims and the Qur’an is a very holy one during the specific month of Ramadan. So many Muslims will attempt to complete a whole Qur’an in terms of its reading. Fasting binds the MuslimMuslim A community gathered around Muhammad (d. 632 CE) and confessed that Muhammad was the last of Prophets and he received Quran through Zibreel Farista from Allah. Hadith of Sahih Bukhari faithfully recorded the commands of Muhammad. He acknowledged the contribution of Jesus to the Abrahamic Religion. community together, through purely when we come to break our fast, we do so through communal gatherings, whether it’s in our local mosque or a community centre, or out here in a park for instance.

Rania Hafez: Islam is not a culture it’s a prism through which we look at our culture, our history, our moral values, and particularly in Britain today we will find that the Muslim community is so diverse in terms of the ethnic background or people, the cultural practices, the languages. To me, the beauty of Islam is the diversity of the Muslim community across the world.

SOURCE: British Library

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