Views of A British Muslim

VIEWS OF A BRITISH MUSLIM

Published by JRC Publications

COPYRIGHT ©JRC Publications 2013

Smashwords Edition

Background

I was born, raised and educated in the United Kingdom into a Muslim family; I am first generation English. I have lived my life within two cultures that is now being classified as British Muslims.

I chose this medium to express my views as a British Muslim to combat the negative media and to show the world that we all want the same for our lives and we all, no matter the religion, colour, culture and economic standing, strive for the same things in life; good health, good family, good relationships, good marriage and to be able to progress successfully through life. Many questions are being asked of Muslims in the United Kingdom, my aim is to provide a brief insight into Islam from the perspective of a person that lives in the United Kingdom as a Muslim.

This book will cover a variety of topics which are my personal views and I hope to enlighten non-Muslims and Muslims to my truth being a Muslim. I hope you will find my life as a British Muslim interesting and enlightening.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed within this medium, are entirely my own. They are not a reflection of other Muslims, British or non-British Muslims. I am not an Islamic Scholar; make no representation to be a scholar. The content within this book is my understanding and does not represent any community as a whole or any other individual.

This book is written solely from my viewpoint; it was not designed to cause offence to any person(s), religion or culture in anyway. I apologise in advance if I have failed and offend any person or persons, as certainly that was not my intention.

This book is aimed at Non-Muslims and Muslims alike, to provide an insight of my views as a British Muslim.

I hope you enjoy the read; it has been a pleasure to write about my life as a British Muslim.

WHAT IS ISLAM?

Islam is a religion, amongst many religions in existence today. Expressed are my personal views throughout the book regarding Islam. I hold no scholarly knowledge, having stated this; I plan to provide an insight into Islam as I believe it to be and as I live my life in the United Kingdom as a Muslim.

My aim is to bring an understanding so that my Muslim brethren or I are not looked at with fear but with acceptance as a human being walking the journey of life just as you walk the journey of life.

Islam we regard less as a Religion and more as a way of Life. Islam covers many aspects of our daily lives; it is a complete system. It teaches us from the basics to the advanced. What I would consider as basics are manners, morals, how we should eat, how we should go to the toilet, I am sure you get the picture. The advanced teachings are how we should run our economy. Our belief stems from the bases, Allah Subhanatallah has created the world; Muslims do not use the phrase GOD only ALLAH. Allah is an Arabic word; you will find the use of this term throughout the book.

The first step to becoming a Muslim is the recital of the Kalimah. The Kalimah is not only recited by the tongue, at the same time read, accepted through the heart. The Kalimah LA ILAAHA ILLA-LLAHOO MUHAMMADUR-RASOOL-ULLAH, the meaning There is no deity except Allah. Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wassalam) is the final messenger of Allah. The words (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wassalam) means, may peace be upon him; it is a duty of every Muslim to recite these words, when they hear the name of the Prophet. Throughout the book, you will find the abbreviation PBUH in brackets, after the name of the prophet Muhammad. This statement is backed by the fact, a Muslim must recite the Kalimah with their tongue and heart showing that they have truly accepted Islam of their own free will. This clearly shows and demonstrates Islam is not forced upon any person. There is no compulsion in Islam.

Islam means submission, it is derived from the word meaning peace. Every Muslim has to submit to Allah Subhanatallah, only then can they be successful in this life and the next. We are born to die, whether we live on Earth for one second, or thousands of years, death will come to all of us and this is a reality accepted by every human.

Muslims understand that Allah Subhanatallah has sent down 124,000 Prophets since the beginning of time through the knowledge given to us in Islam. The final Prophet, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), is the seal of all the prophets. Seal meaning Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the final messenger to be sent and no messenger will follow. Anyone who claims to be a Prophet after Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will be laying a false claim. Every Prophet sent to earth, delivering the message of the one creator, came with a miracle; the miracle of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the Holy Quran written in the Arabic language. I will be touching on the subject of other prophets, their miracles in a later topic.

The purpose of the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was to set an example for the rest of mankind regardless of the era. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came to inform and deliver the message of Allah Subhanatallah, this was done by the way he lived his life according to the teachings of the Holy Quran.

All Muslims believe in the Holy Quran accompanied by books such as the Hadith. Hadiths are witnessed testimony to the way the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) lived his life. I will fully describe the meaning of Hadiths in a later topic. This is the guidance for Muslims to stay on the correct path that Allah Subhanatallah has commanded and laid before us.

All Muslims are required to abide by the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In reality this is not the case; if we examine the Muslims in the world today, we will find a wide range of opinions and sects. I believe a total of 73 sects will exist, as we get closer to Judgement Day. I am unable to inform you of the number of sects that are in existence to this date but can say with some level of certainty; it is quite a high number. The main two sects are Sunni and Shia with many branches of sects stemming from them.

Many verses from the Holy Quran will be quoted directly throughout the book. The meanings of these verses are translated from Arabic into English therefore cannot be taken for 100%. Arabic is a very difficult language to translate and words changed can have a new meaning. Translations are meant for guidance purposes only, not to be taken literally. This is the reason we require Islamic Scholars. Even between Islamic Scholars, different levels and ranks exist which determines their ability to inform with 100% understanding of the Holy Quran.

Even though I have mentioned that many sects exist and many opinions are held, it is my true belief, the majority opinion shared amongst the scholars, is the true and correct one. For example, if majority of the scholars believe Muslims should have beards, this is the opinion that should be taken, not the minority opinion.

At the end of the book I will provide a questions and answers section. The book itself is designed to provide an insight, a very small extract of Islam and not a comprehensive guide. Each topic covered will be brief; detailed books on specific topics are available which are written by Islamic Scholars.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MIGRATION

GENERATION

GROWING UP

CULTURES

MEANING OF LIFE

HOLY BOOKS

THE HOLY QURAN

MIRACLES OF THE HOLY QURAN

JINN & BLACK MAGIC

THE DEVIL

ARRANGED MARRIAGES

ISLAM AND TERRORISM

ISA (JESUS)

MINOR SIGNS

COMING OF AL-MAHDI

THE DAJJAL (ANTICHRIST)

ISA CONTINUED (2)

YAJUJ AND MAJUJ (GOGG AND MGOGG)

ISA CONTINUED (3)

DEATH THE BEGINNING

DAY OF JUDGEMENT

JHANNAM (HELL)

JHANNAT (PARADISE)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

MIGRATION

Vast migration was taking place to the United Kingdom during the seventies due to the demand for workers in the industrial mills; my Father migrated to the United Kingdom in that period. A young man in his twenties, carrying with him a lot of responsibilities, great burden on his shoulders. I was raised learning how my father arrived with only five pounds in his pocket between three of them. This point must have been illustrated to us so many times and was used to justify success always comes from hard work. Being newly married, migration was not an easy choice for him but one that had to be made for the sake of providing a better quality of life for their families, this is the mission of every human, their duty to fulfil.

My Father came with the intention of making enough money to return to his native land. His mother, brother and sisters were all their; home is always home, were your memories are, is what he would always mention to us time and time again. It was clear he missed his native land and his heart remained there, however, this was not to be. My father came to the United Kingdom on a work permit and was given a job in an Industrial Mill working twelve hours shifts, if they offered overtime he would snatch it up, working up to sixteen hours a day. Having seen hardship back in his native land, to have work, no matter how hard, he saw as an opportunity to provide for himself and his new wife and that would lead to a better life for all. As he worked hard he started building a life for himself and his family, the years passed by quickly, he had lost touch with his native land, to return would mean to start fresh, again. He had already built a foundation in the United Kingdom; it was a choice he made to stay and continue his journey for his life in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile he had assimilated into the culture of the United Kingdom, my father had become an Englishman and remained a Muslim.

I was born, bred and educated at public schools in the United Kingdom. I have not known my fathers country except for the few holidays we have taken there, I must have visited on five occasions in my entire life. As far as we were concerned our real home was the United Kingdom, and we were British. This is the only real life and culture I knew or understood. Even when visiting my fathers’ country it seemed a holiday, never home. I never felt comfortable until we returned back to the United Kingdom. Other than spending time with my cousins and the friends I had made, the trip had no real meaning for me, the culture of the United Kingdom was what we were born into and what my father had taken as his.

My father was determined to make a better life for himself here in the United Kingdom. One strong belief my father had, everything was achieved by hard work. I am of a different generation to him, I like to work smart more and hard less, which does not mean I run away from hard work.

Building a family tree beginning from my father, I would be considered second generation in the United Kingdom or first generation British born. For the purposes of this book, we will consider me second generation, my father struggled and worked hard for the majority (90%) of his life in the United Kingdom and other than the fact that he was born in his native land, my father was an Englishman.

We, as the second generation were more accustomed to a social life in combination with a working life; this is something my father’s native culture did not understand. The choices placed before him combined with his upbringing and experience, did not allow such a luxury.

A typical day for us as we were growing up would be to attend public school between 9am-3pm Mondays to Friday, attend Mosque between 5pm-7pm Mondays to Friday and do our homework in the evening after our meal when we returned from Mosque, then bedtime. It is basically the same routine for the Muslim children growing up today in the United Kingdom or even around the world, weekends we got to relax and play with our friends. We would really look forward to school holidays particularly the summer holidays. We did not have PlayStations, Xbox or computers, we grew up playing in the streets in the neighbourhood when it could be said it was safe to be out for children in that era.

A real problem I faced growing up was when we attended Mosque. We were sent by our parents to learn to read the Holy Quran, we were being taught by our teachers how to read the Arabic text and pronounce the words correctly, we never understood the meaning of the words or what we were reading, to us it was a chore and something we had to do as a Muslim because our parents said so. We did not really have a great understanding of Islam only what we were told and taught which was brief and basic. At the same time, inside me it seemed what we were doing was right, it felt positive but my brain could not comprehend.

The teachers who taught us the Holy Quran were also migrants; they had learned to read in the same manner as they were teaching us, without a clear understanding but enough to keep us interested.

As I started to mature the lack of knowledge in Islam was becoming a big problem. The understanding our parents and teachers held was the teachings of their forefathers and teachers, was limited and our questions out stripped their knowledge. It was not until many years later when I myself started to get asked questions by colleagues, at this point I really started to research and study Islam properly. As I furthered my studies I started to learn the true meaning of Islam, it was becoming apparent to me this was a beautiful religion, it was nothing like what we were being taught in the past. What we were being taught was a mixture of Islam and culture; it was the way our parents had been brought up. I was discovering many of the practices the first generation portrayed or came from the society and culture they lived in and not what Islam taught. This would not be known to a non-Muslim, they would assume the practices they were seeing by Muslims represented Islam.

An example of this would be arranged marriage. The parents would pick a girl for you, if you were a boy, feel she was right and married you off. They would convince you it was your perfect partner, this continues today in some cultures, something I personally have not experienced. Islam teaches that each person had the right to choose their own bride; parents are not allowed to force you against your will. Some parents saw this practice as their duty, which solidified this practice within their culture.

To seek knowledge in Islam became common with the second generation that led them to challenge a number of practices by the first generation. This caused a clash in culture. Back in their native land you did not question the elders, you did what you were told. You showed respect to your elders as they were supposed to be wiser and knew best. You can imagine the friction our actions caused when we challenged them, in a polite manner of course, without being dis-respectful. This was not only part of the culture to show respect, but also part of Islam. Islam teaches us to respect our parents and obey them, not to argue, but at the same time, Islam teaches, if parents ask you to do something against the teachings of Islam, you can refuse them. This is not a licence for Muslims to go and clash with their parents, only an Islamic Scholar can advise you what is wrong or right in Islam. Respect of parents is considered very high in Islam, and you have to make sure you do not cross that fine line.

The Quran states And when it is said to them, Follow what Allah has revealed, they say, Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing. Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided? Quran 2:170. The Holy Quran is informing the reader just because in a culture they are following or leading their lives in accordance with how their forefathers lived before them does not make these actions right, as the actions have to be in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran. This statement became a very powerful tool at our disposal. We used it often to justify and back up statements or refuting actions of others. When discussing a particular issue, disagreements took place, the phrase quotation came to our rescue. It made the first generation think and reflect on the issue, as a result, they went out to seek knowledge. This was done over time, tactfully and with patience. It was essential we used this approach, as we questioned and changed everything their parents taught