From personal experiences I have been drawn to ask the question, "Who is God?" and I am never slightly amazed when I realize that my imagination cannot grasp something as great as the answer to this question. God has been defined in an extremely large amount of ways, but everyone seems to trust in their beliefs and live for him, no matter who they think he is. For this post I have decided to look at a PBS document where they explain just how Islam, the empire of faith, believed in their God and just how they lived for him.
It is said that the Muslims thought of God as something completley unique in which nothing, or any person, could compare itself to. The reason that the Koran constantly switches pronouns throughout its story is to help people understand that they cannot create a physical image of him. This brings the people to talk of, and understand that, God is not a physical thing or an image of human self.
In contrast to many other religions, the basic practice of Islam is simplicity itself. The believer worships God directly without the intercession of priests or clergy or saints. The believer's duties are summed up in five simple rules.
These simple rules are referred to as the Five Pillars of Islam. These Pillars are Belief, Worship, Fasting, Almsgiving, and Pilgrimage. If you would like to read more on these interesting ways of life you can scroll on down to Katie Lett's post. In this post you will find a well thought out definition to each of the Pillars and some very intriguing thoughts about how they can apply to daily life.
If you have been introduced to the gospels you can compare them to the length of the Koran. There are a total of 114 chapters in the Koran, all of different length, and the opening chapter is called Fatiha. In this chapter you will find a "Beautiful, short, prayer," in which serves as a prayer in many situations.
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Praise belongs to God, Lord of all Being
the All-merciful, the All-compassionate
the Master of the Day of Doom
Thee only we serve; to Thee alone we pray for succor
Guide us in the straight path
the path of those whom Thou hast blessed,
not of those against whom Thou art wrathful
nor of those who are astray.
The Koran is believed to only be understood when read in the majestic Arabic language in which it was revealed. This has come to mean that all believers should feel the necessity to learn the language in order to completely comprehend the scriptures. The purity of the Arabic language has kept true, in most part, because the primacy of Arabic is the language of God's revelation.
In a section entitled, People of the Book, you come to understand that Muslims accept the teachings of both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. They believe in these teaching because they have trust in the fact that God had previously revealed Himself to the Jews and Christians.
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/faithgod.html
With this historic adventure into the lives of their God I have realized that I know absolutley nothing about living for my own God. This story describes Islam that is filled with people who live, completley and whole heartedly, for the God that they truthfully believe in. They do not understand him as a physical figure, but instead they use his story and ideologies on life to fulfill their very own lives. It is with my sincerest hopes that one never thinks they are done growing, learning, and changing, because with this blog post I have learned more about myself than I have about Islam.
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