Recommended Books for All Muslims

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful

I was looking into books that would be most beneficial to new Muslims. Upon further reflection I realized that in reality majority of the Muslim world itself has yet to recognize the true Islamic concepts on the nature of God, the Angels, Life After Death, the Soul, and Pre-destiny vs Free Will. Hence, here are five books that all Muslims should read to truly understand their religion and its intricate nature in the most simple manner. Titles are linked to the electronic PDF copies of the books from www.alislam.org/books.

An Elementary Study of Islam

“On March 12, 1990, at the invitation of the Department of Islamic Studies, Seville University, Spain, Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad delivered an address entitled 'Islam -- A Discourse on its Elementary and Fundamental Teachings'. He was advised by the Head of the Department to introduce Islam at an elementary level, keeping in view that most of the audience, drawn from other departments and the general public, would have very little knowledge of Islam.”

Topics: Unity of God, The Angels, The Books, The Prophets, The Prayer, Spending in the Cause of Allah, The Pilgrimage, Fasting, The Holy War, Life After Death, Pre-destiny and Free Will.

Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam

Present the views of Islam on the following five subjects:

1. The physical, moral and spiritual conditions of man.
2. The state of man after death.
3. The object of man's life on earth and the means for attaining the same.
4. The effect of action in this life and the next.
5. What are the means for the attainment of spiritual knowledge?

Life of Muhammad (saw)

Introductory book on the life of Holy Prophet (saw). Presents image of Arabia at the time of his birth and his personality and character. Thoroughly covers major events from prior to receiving first till his last days.

Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues

“The central theme of the lecture is peace in this world: or to be more exact the teachings of Islam regarding peace” It is spread into following six categories:

1. Inter-religious peace and harmony
2. Social peace, in general
3. Socio-economic peace
4. Economic peace
5. Peace in national and international politics
6. Individual Peace

Absolute Justice,Kindness, and Kinship

“The Quranic verse which I have chosen for today’s address is extremely vast and comprehensive:

'...Indeed Allah requires you to abide by justice, to treat with grace and to give like the giving of kin to kin. ...' (Surah al-Nahl; Ch. 16: V.91)

Allah does not command us to exercise justice (‘Adl) alone, but also desires us to voluntarily add benevolence (Ihsan) to the act of justice and then to move further to the third stage of human relationships, which is Ita’i Dhil-Qurba—a spontaneous expression of love and care as experienced by a mother for her child.”

Fitrat Allah, Human Nature and the Conscience

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful

[30:31] And follow the nature made by Allah — the nature in which He has created mankind

In the Holy Qur’an Allah (swt) has instructed instructed us to follow “Fitrat Allah”, the nature made by Allah. There is a popular Hadith of Holy Prophet (saw) in which this nature is explained.

God is One and humanity is One. This is the Fitrat Allah or Dinal Fitrah - the religion which is rooted in the nature of man and to which he conforms and instinctively reacts. It is in this religion that a child is born but his environment, the ideas and beliefs of parents and the training he receives from them subsequently make him a Jew, a Magian or a Christian. (Sahih Bukhari)

Many are aware of this Hadith which is now known for the idea that people revert to Islam rather than converts. Unfortunately they have overlooked the more beautiful and deep concept conveyed in this Hadith, just as one who collects a pearl shell but is not yet aware of the pearl inside. Now to expound on the concept of Fitrat Allah I will turn back to the Holy Qur’an which says:

[91:8] And by the soul and its perfection —

[91:9] And He revealed to it what is wrong for it and what is right for it —

What is being conveyed here is that the right path is ingrained in human nature and soul is born pure. Not only is it born pure but it is taught the difference between right and wrong, and this which has been labelled today as “conscience”. It is wrongly believed today that “conscience” is taught by society, it is actually Allah (swt) who has ingrained it in our very nature. It is something that cannot be removed from our nature. So the question that follows is, why does it appear that this nature is not present among the whom the Qur’an has described as the asfala safileen, “lowest of the low” (95:6).

[91:10] He indeed truly prospers who purifies it,

[91:11] And he who corrupts it is ruined.

The reality is that the nature is always present in mankind and cannot be removed from it. It can only be covered by corrupting it. Just as the when the moon eclipses the sun it does not cease to exist but rather we are shaded from the light. Similarly this nature and conscious is always present by Allah's Rehmaniyyat (Grace) as the Sun is always present even if we are undeserving of it. This is why the Holy Qur’an warns those who corrupt their soul (91:11) that they will be ruined. Just as a plant deprived of the light from the sun meets its ruin.

[83:15] Nay, but that which 

they have earned has rusted 

their hearts.

The Holy Qur’an has referred to the corruption of the soul as the rusting or sealing of hearts and other faculties such as sight and sound. The Holy Prophet (saw), so beautifully explained the meaning of rusting of hearts in this verse in the following Hadith:

When a man commits a sin, a black spot is thereby formed on his heart. Then if he repeats and gives up the sin and asks God’s forgiveness, the black spot is washed off, leaving the heart clean. But if he repeats not and commits another sin, another black spot in formed on his heart and so on, until his whole heart is covered with a black covering, and that is the covering of rust to which the Qur’an refers in Sura Tatfif (Jarir).

To wrap this up, it is our own actions that ruins our soul and suppresses our conscience. Fitrat Allah, the nature made by Allah (swt) is always present within us. This brings us to the topic of the importance of repentance and prayers so that we can prosper by purifying our soul, I will leave it as a topic for a later post, InshAllah. One should also keep in mind that conscience is not created by society but rather it is corrupted by it, this is exactly what Holy Prophet (saw) said in the Hadith stating what changes us a man is “ his environment, the ideas and beliefs of parents and the training he receives”.

Unfortunately I am not capable of doing justice to this topic, I hope I have introduced it in good light. In order to truly understand this concept one must refer to the sources have learned and greatly benefited from. They are deeply rooted in the teachings of the Holy Quran and I am certain they will prove beneficial to all. First and foremost, is the lecture written by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Philosophy of the Teaching of Islam. Second, the explanation of “Who and What is Satan” in a Question & Answer Session by Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (ra), Khalifatul Massih IV. Third, the Commentary on Surah Baqarah Verse 8 by Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad (ra).

References

1. http://www.alislam.org/library/books/Philosophy-of-Teachings-of-Islam.pdf
2. http://www.reviewofreligions.org/2698/who-or-what-is-satan/
3. http://www.alislam.org/quran/tafseer/?page=38&region=E1&CR=EN,E2

Please note this is my first post sharing content and its getting late as I edit it for approx the 10th time. I will review it further as I feel it can be improved as time permits. If I had held the draft back I fear it may have fell off of my mental list of topics to research. JazakAllah to the friend whose post brought this topic back from my lost thoughts.

If there are any errors please let me know and I will correct them. InshAllah

As-Salamu Alaykum

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful

This is my first post by the grace of Allah. First I would like to say how blessed I am to have acquired a blogspot name "in the cause of Allah" which is the translation of fisabilillah!

Alhamdulillah!

I have recently been sharing a lot of content in the Twitter World which is a medium not designed for anything except short "tweets". I was getting around the system of character limits by doing screenshots, but always knew it would eventually have to come to a blog.

InshAllah will get some insightful content up such that it brings mankind closer to God. Discussing beliefs that Islam shares with other religions and some of the distinct features of Islam. I would especially be trying to focus on clearing confusions on some Islamic concepts that have become less and less attached to the true teachings of Islam.

Watchout for topics covering:
-Jesus (as) in World Religions.
-Life After Death
-Pre-destiny and Free Will
-Nature of Miracles in Islam
-The True Islamic Concept of Angels
-The True Islamic Concept of Jinn
-The Criteria for a True Religion
...

And InshAllah it will be bestowed upon good looks! :)

God Bless!