Greetings tearrow and welcome to the forum.
format_quote Originally Posted by
tearrow
how you perceive God
Allah* is our Creator, Sustainer, Cherisher, Lord and Master. He is Most Merciful, Loving and Forgiving, and where necessary, stern in punishment. He is the Most Just, and Perfectly Just.
*The proper name of God in Arabic is Allah. It has no grammatical derivations, so cannot be turned into gods, goddesses etc.
Our beliefs regarding Him are as follows:
There is only One God. He alone should be worshipped.
He does not beget, nor is He begotten. He has no sons, daughters, siblings, parents, cousins, nor relatives of any sort.
He is eternal and does not die.
There is nothing like Him. He is all Hearing, all Seeing, all Knowing, all Powerful, the Creator of the Universe.
He does not depend on anyone/anything yet we all depend on Him.
He does not/has never dwelt in human/animal bodies or other created beings/objects.
He is not composed of persons, nor a trinity. There are no secondary, lesser, greater, equal, or multiple gods, no intermediaries, and no denying of God's existence either.
There are no sharers or associates or parts whatsoever in His exclusive Divinity.
Simply, He is One, in every sense.
He has sent a succession of Prophets to people throughout the ages, with guidance to show us how He wants us to live and worship Him.
After our death, we will all be resurrected on the Day of Judgement and called to account for our deeds.
format_quote Originally Posted by
tearrow
and Islam.
Islam is the way of life and faith that is and has always been, the original and only message and way of life ordained by God, and the true and natural religion. We believe that all the Prophets sent by God taught people to
worship One God alone, without any associates in His Divinity, and to obey the Prophet He sent, and that no prophet ever claimed divinity. Thus, Islam is not a new faith but is the same Ultimate Truth that God revealed to all prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all). Since the time of prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), that message is available unchanged and unadulterated. He is the last, not first, prophet of Islam; a messenger to all mankind, to be followed until the end of time.
All the Prophets of God are accepted, believed in, loved and honoured.
Islam is a religion for all people, all times, and all places. Thus you'll find that it is not named after a specific person (like Christianity, Buddhism), nor after a certain race (like Judaism, Hinduism), but is named by God Himself, and the meaning loosely translates as 'submission to God'. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was not sent as prophet for a specific group of people and specific time, but he was sent for all the world, until the Day of Judgement. Thus the scripture God sent down to him, God's final scripture, the Qur'an, is preserved and unchanged with no word coming from any human.
Each messenger is only for the period until the next messenger is sent by God, after which God requires that allegiance be given to the new prophet, who does not come with any new/changed core beliefs, but confirming the truth of what came before, clearing misconceptions that have crept in, reinforcing the key beliefs that have always been, with possible small changes in ancillary rules/regulations.
Moses (peace be upon him) was the messenger for the Children of Israel until Allah sent Jesus (peace be upon him), at which point it became incumbent on the Children of Israel to follow Jesus. Jesus was messenger for the Children of Israel until Allah sent the last and final messenger, prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and since he was sent, he is the Prophet for all mankind, with Gods scripture sent to him and his preserved teachings to be followed until the Day of Judgement.
Islam is a means for our own personal and spiritual growth as well as the means of success in this world, and also in the hereafter, with Allah's Mercy. It is a complete way of life for all the people of the world.