THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM, HALAAL

Sir,

I was pleased to see the letter titled ‘The truth about Islam, Halaal’. It is really nice to find someone interested in knowing the concept of Islam, but unfortunately the letter contained a lot of false information which forced me, as a Muslim, to correct it.

Islam is derived from the Arabic root ‘Salema’- peace, purity, submission and obedience. In the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to His law.

The Arabic word ‘dawah’ means ‘an invitation’ or ‘a call to share’, therefore, dawah in essence means the conveyance of the message of Islam to people.  Da`wah should not be understood as the struggle to convert people into the faith. Islam never declared the conversion of people to the faith as an obligation of Muslims. So saying the invitation to Islam by influencing the political, economic, judicial or community system is just an argument that has no basis in Islam. The Quran says; “But if they turn aside, we have not sent you as a watcher over them; on you is only to deliver (the message),”Ash-Shura 42:48.

Because the Islamic religion came from God (Allah) the Creator who knows everything in favour of his creation, for that a Muslim can practice his life and activities in the framework specified by the great Creator and applied to all large and small in his life so as not to misguide the proper way specified by God Almighty.
As scholars of Islam have already eloquently stated; ‘jihad’ is best translated as ‘struggle’ - not war. This struggle is as much internal (against our own desires which are not allowed) as it is external (against forces that threaten the existence of Islam).

The issue of halaal food has stirred a lot of adoration that I would like to simplify until the misunderstanding of it ends. First halaal in Islam means that the name of Allah must be invoked (stated) at the time of slaughtering by saying:
Bismillah Allahu Akbar. (In the Name of Allah; Allah is the Greatest), thus it is a kind of getting the blessing of Allah. Secondly, the animal must be alive at the time of slaughter.

Definitely no one of any other religion is forced to eat halaal food as it was stated in the letter, besides the Quran gives an excuse of eating non halaal food if there is no possibility to get it, and allows the eating of food of other religions (Christian or Jewish). The Quran says: “This day all good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them,” Al – Ma’aidah verse 5.
Finally I felt the urge to hate Islam and Muslims from Mhlanga, which surprised me very much from a pastor, especially since I know very well that the Christian religion is the religion of love and sincerity.

Elham Ibrahim

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