Toward Understanding Islam

This is a basic premier on the religion of Islam. Every important feature and tenant of Islam is in this book. All of the important events of the life of Muhammad are here too.The recent election of the US President has made it essential that this book be made available to the US reading public. This is because our new president gives out completely wrong information about the religion of Islam. It is reprinted as a Large Print Edition for easier reading.Muslims are being portrayed as suicide bombers and terrorists. This is false. As this book explains, suicide is absolutely prohibited by Islam. A pious and believing Muslim will never take a human life including his own. Even the mistreatment of animals is not allowed by Islam. A believing Muslim must not allow his animals to go hungry nor may he overwork them. This edict is in this book.Maulana Maududi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami, a political party in Pakistan, in 1941. He was the founder of the largest Islamic organization in Asia. This has become an extreme right wing political party thought to be complicit in political assassinations. Maulana Maududi says that the taking of a human life is prohibited by Islam, so he could not have been involved.Most religions are named after the founder of the religion. Christianity is founded on the memory of Jesus Christ. Judiasm is based on the Tribe of Judah, the fourth son of the Biblical patriarch Jacob in the Bible. Buddhism is based on Buddha. Zoriasterism is based on Zoriaster.However, Islam alone is based on an attribute, not on the name of a person. In Arabia where it originated, it meant submission, surrender and obedience. As a religion, Islam means peace and stands for complete submission and obedience to Allah.Muslims are being portrayed as bomb-carrying terrorists. This is not true. While it is true that the 9-11 bombers were all from Arab countries, none of them were practicing Muslims. None of them prayed five times a day. None of them regularly attended mosque. We are not aware of any of them performing Haj. None of them are known to have made donations to charities for the poor. In short, none of them were Muslims. Syed Abul A'la Maududi (alternative spellings of last name Maudoodi, Mawdudi, also known as Abul Ala Maududi) was born on 25 September 1903 in Maharashtra in India. He was an Islamist philosopher, jurist, journalist and imam. His numerous works were written in Urdu, but then translated into English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Burmese and many other languages. He strove not only to revive Islam as a renewed religion, but to propagate "true Islam", which he saw as a remedy for the weakness from which Islam had suffered over the centuries. He believed that politics was essential for Islam and that it was necessary to institute Sharia and preserve Islamic culture from what he saw as the evils of secularism, nationalism, socialism and women's emancipation.