islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

3-Basic Beliefs in IslamIslam is based on two foundational components: first, the divine revelation, contained in the Quranand second, the prophetic traditions, also called ahadith or Sunnah. The divine revelation is God’s message tomankind in His own words contained unaltered in the Arabic Quran. During Muhammad’s career ofpreaching and propagating Islam between 610 and 632, Allah passed His revelations in bits and pieces toMuhammad through His messenger, angel Gabriel. Muhammad was possibly an illiterate man. Every timeGabriel came down with God’s verses, he pronounced it to Muhammad until the latter memorized it word byword. Muhammad then got it written down by his literate disciples in order to keep them exactly as God’sword. He also got it memorized by a group of his favourite disciples. These revelations, after ProphetMuhammad’s death, were compiled into what is known as the Quran. The contents of the Quran, therefore,are exact words of the Islamic God intended for guiding human life in this world exactly in the way He wants.Such a life would enable believers to gain access to Allah’s Paradise after death and reap His endless bountiestherein.The second element, indeed, the other half of the Islamic creed, is the prophetic traditions: thesayings, deeds and actions of Prophet Muhammad, collectively called the Sunnah or ahadith. SinceMuhammad was the best amongst God’s numerous prophets and the embodiment of the highest perfection ofhuman life ever to walk on the earth—the only way for Muslims, indeed for all human beings, to live a perfecthuman life for achieving Allah’s bounties in Paradise is to walk in the footsteps of the Prophet.In Islamic belief, Muslims who live their life as perfectly as that of Prophet Muhammad will enterParadise without ever serving any time in hell. But it is almost impossible for a Muslim to emulateMuhammad’s sinless life. Therefore, most Muslims will first serve some period of time, being roasted in thehorrifying fire of Islamic hell. The length of their residence in hell will be determined by the quantum of sinsthey commit in this life. They will, thereafter, enter Paradise to live there for eternity.The only other group of Muslims who will enter Paradise, bypassing the roasting in hellfire, arethose who would die as martyrs while fighting in the cause of Allah, e.g, while engaging in Jihad or holy war[Quran 9:111] (see more in Chapter III). Therefore, those hundreds of Muslims, who died while fighting inthe wars commanded and/or directed by Prophet Muhammad in his lifetime as well as those hundreds ofthousands, who died in Islamic holy wars over the subsequent centuries and those dying at present and willdie in future, will directly land in the Islamic Paradise. Other Muslims, who die a normal death, will have towait until the Judgement Day after the end of the world for Allah to judge how much time they will have tospend in hell before they can enter Paradise.Therefore, it remains a universal desire amongst Muslims to emulate the life of Prophet Muhammad,namely his actions, deeds and sayings, in minute details. The other desirable outcome of the Muslim life is tobecome a martyr fighting in Islamic holy war against the infidels, particularly for expanding the domain ofIslam by wrestling territories under non-Muslim control. The fledgling early community of Muslims, underthe guidance of Prophet Muhammad in Medina, had wholly dedicated themselves in the profession of fightingJihad and lived on the plunder, the divinely-sanctioned booty, obtained from those wars (see Chapter III).During the twenty-two years of his prophetic career, Muhammad was in close contact with Allah.Allah was guiding him almost in every step of his life under all circumstances—be it the difficulties in war,dealing with prisoners, solving family disputes, and so on. Allah kept a constant vigilance over the actionsand deeds of the Prophet. Whenever Muhammad made a mistake, Allah was there to admonish, correct orguide him. Hence, every saying or deed of Muhammad during his prophetic career was divinely guided or ofdivine nature. Accordingly, Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, erudite scholar and translator of Sahih Muslim (a collectionof prophetic traditions), asserts that the Sunnah is of divine origin: ‘…the teachings of the Qur’an and theSunnah are derived from no human agency and are all inspired by God, and therefore transcend all material6