"Majesty
of Islam & the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace)"
Speech delivered at Chesham Town Hall on the Occasion of the Inter-Faith Conference
Sunday 19th September 2004
As-salaamu alaikum, which means "Peace be unto you" the greetings between believers, from my heart to your heart.
Ø Intro
Indeed it is always pleasing to be called upon to present a few words applauding the great majesty and mystery of Islam. In the presented case, one has been asked to draw upon the Islamic and Christian faiths and attempt to illustrate that what is purported in the media is a mere illusion alluding the person as to the truth of what the respective faiths entail. I am of course not a learned authority to speak at great lengths, as indeed the learned Muslim scholastic authorities have exhausted this field, nonetheless I shall attempt to enlighten you my audience with a few reminders that we are alike and in a sense the same, much to the displeasure of some. As Richard Moss once said “The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.” Illustrating what I have mentioned by referring to the commandments advocated to Musa (peace be upon Him) , as noted in the Bible:
These are the Ten Commandments as recorded in the 5th Chapter of the fifth of the Five Books of Moses, called Deuteronomy:
6 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
7. Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
8. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
9. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
10. And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
11. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.
13. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work:
14. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
15. And remember that thou west a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
16. Honour thy
father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee;
that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may 
go
well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
17. Thou shalt not kill.
18. Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
19. Neither shalt thou steal.
20. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
21. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s
If the article of Faith within Islam were studied they are an expansion of that just mentioned. What is Islam and what of its constitution, this is by far the most misunderstood question, this shall be addressed in due course by touching upon western commentators and their conclusions as to the lofty position of Islam. It will be shown that by the end, my audience you will have an understanding that adherence to Islam is what is greatly needed. Something lacking amongst my Muslim brethren!
Ø About Islam
A.M.L. Stoddard testifying “The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human history. Springing from a land and a people like previously negligible, Islam spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires, overthrowing long established religions, remoulding the souls of races, and building up a whole new world -world of Islam.
The closer we examine this development the more extraordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly, by painful struggle and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism its Asoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen cult the mighty force of secular authority, Not so Islam. Arising in a desert land sparsely inhabited by a nomad race previously undistinguished in human annals. Islam sallied forth on its great adventure with the slenderest human backing and against the heaviest material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous ease, and a couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the desert of Central Asia to the deserts of Central Africa.”
(quoted in Islam - The Religion of All Prophets, Begum Bawani Waqf, Karachi, Pakistan, p. 56.)
I ask you what is the cure to the ills of this world?
To this effect President George W. Bush on October 11, 2002 stated “Islam is a faith that brings comfort to people. It inspires them to lead lives based on honesty, and justice, and compassion.” (Remarks on U.S. Humanitarian Aid to Afghanistan Presidential Hall, Dwight David Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C.)
As indeed H.A.R. Gibb, (Whither Islam, London, 1932, p. 379) has petitioned:
(But) Islam has a [still further] service to render to the cause of humanity. It stands after all nearer to the real East than Europe does, and it possesses a magnificent tradition of inter-racial understanding and cooperation. No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity, and of endeavours so many and so various races of mankind...Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of East and West is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition. In its hands lies very largely the solution of the problem with which Europe is faced in its relation with East. If they unite, the hope of a peaceful issue is immeasurably enhanced. But if Europe, by rejecting the cooperation of Islam, throws it into the arms of its rivals, the issue can only be disastrous for both.
Ø Origin of Religion
Today my respectful audience I turn your attention to the undeniable fact that Islam and Christianity have emanated from the same religious doctrine given to our Blessed and most venerated Prophetic forefathers Sayyidinnah Ibrahim and Sayyidinnah Musa.
Islam represents the culmination of the evolution process of revelation. The Qur'an affirms the truth of all previous revelations. Allah (the Exalted) states “This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” (5:4)
The Qur’an emphasises the unity of the fundamental teaching contained in all previous scriptures and insisted upon by the Prophets, namely belief as the existence and unity of Allah and in the hereafter, and conformity to Allah’s will through righteous actions.
The Qur'an comprises all truth in the whole of mankind for all time. Its message is directed to all mankind, serving as guidance for mankind, with clear proofs of guidance and with discrimination between truth and falsehood.
Ø Islam & Muslims within the UK
In looking to our country Islam has been known in England for a long time; there are references to Islamic scholars in the Prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1386).
Following the anti-Islamic frenzy of the Crusades, Britain became friendly with some Islamic countries. Queen Elizabeth I, for example, asked the Ottoman Sultan Murad for naval assistance against the Spaniard Armada. [The court etiquettes of Western Monarchies were taken from the courts of the Sultan of the Muslim world!]
The first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim was John Nelson, who converted to Islam at some point in the 16th Century.
A 1641 document refers to “a sect of Mahomatens” being “discovered here in London”. There were also a few conversions to Islam during the period, and a few years later, in 1649, came the first English version of the Qur’an, by Alexander Ross.
In the 18th and 19th Centuries there were a number of converts to Islam amongst the English upper classes, including Edward Montagu, son of the ambassador to Turkey.
The first large group of Muslims in Britain arrived about 300 years ago. They were sailors recruited in India to work for the East India Company, and so it's not surprising that the first Muslim communities were found in port towns.
The first Masjid in Britain is recorded as having been at 2 Glyn Rhondda Street, Cardiff, in 1860.
Many of the immigrants in the 1950s and 60s came from India and Pakistan in search of a better material life. They could earn 30 times as much in Britain as they could in Pakistan. The first immigrants were men, who left their families behind. Once in Britain they tended to live in groups in communal houses until they had saved enough money to bring their wives and children to join them, or chosen to return to their birth-land. Now that generation is witnessing the fruits of their labour in that their children are at the forefront of British society, ascending up the professional ladder to assume positions worthy of their efforts! As of course Rasoolallah (Salutations be ever present upon Him) defined a Muslim as “one from whose hands and tongue, his fellows apprehend no harm.”
One should leave today with it embedded clearly into ones thinking that Islam is not a pariah but is the panacea today’s problems both on a personal, spiritual and on a global level!
Rasoolallah (Salutations be ever present upon Him) said every child is born in accordance with divine nature, it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Zoroastrian or a Christian. In other words, a child is influenced by heredity and environment. It has no natural inclinations towards evil.
Dear audience, should man fall in to evil by error or design, he can win back to purity and righteousness through prayer and repentance. Allah the Exalted declares “Oh my servants, who have committed excesses against your own souls, despair not of the mercy of Allah; surely Allah forgives all sins, verily he is most forgiving, Merciful. Turn ye to your lord and submit yourselves, to Him before comes unto you the chastisement. (39:54-55)
Ø The Noble Prophets
In proceeding I turn my attention to the questions that I have posed who was the blessed Prophet of Allah the Exalted Sayyidinnah Isa (peace be upon Him) and who is the Beloved of Allah the Exalted Sayyidinnah Rasoolallah (Salutations be ever present upon Him) ?
Of the former referring to the workings of Al-Ghazali who translated from Aramaic into Arabic The Rare Sayings of Isa (peace be upon Him)
Jesus, (peace be upon him), was asked: “Refer us to a deed through which we will enter Paradise on account of its practice.” He replied: “Do not speak at all.” The inquirer said: “We cannot do that.” Jesus replied: “So do not speak except with good.”
Jesus, son of Mary, peace be upon him, passed by a tribe of Jews who shouted evil things at him. But in return he said good words to them and was asked: “They said evil things to you yet you replied with good!” Whereupon he replied: “Everyone spends from what he has.”
The life of the Prophet Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) is the example of what people should be striving for. Indeed as one can see Lord Hadly; Sir Charles Archibald; HG Wells; Guru Nanak; Napoleon Bonaparte; Mahatma Gandhi; George Bernard Shaw and a countless number of historians, philosophers, orators and statesmen have painted a marvellous picture of the Prophet Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him).
Napoleon Bonaparte as Quoted in Cherfils, ‘Bonaparte et Islam,’ Paris, France, pp. 105, 125.
“Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation. Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammad to the old continent...
“Arabia was idolatrous when, six centuries after Jesus, Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) introduced the worship of the God of Abraham, of Ishmael, of Moses, and Jesus. The Ariyans and some other sects had disturbed the tranquillity of the east by agitating the question of the nature of the Father, the son, and the Holy Ghost. Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) declared that there was none but one God who had no father, no son and that the trinity imported the idea of idolatry...
“I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of Qur'an which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.”
Reverend Bosworth Smith in 'Muhammad and Islam,' London, 1874.
“Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right divine, it was Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) , for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life.”
“In Islam every thing is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history....We know of the external history of Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) ....while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation....on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt.”
Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.
“If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam.”
“I have always held the religion of Muhammad (Salutations be ever present upon Him) in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity.”
“I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
My respectful audience I leave you with the following admonition I the words of the Divine Lord Exalted is He in His Supreme Majesty “Oh you who believe, fear me and be with the righteous (pious in deed and in virtue)”
As Mawlana Rumi stated “The people of Love are hidden within the populace; Like a good man surrounded by the bad.”