Frequently Asked Question

No, never The Quran implores Muslims to show kindness to all those that do not fight them or expel them from their homes. This no doubt encompasses the vast majority of Non-Muslims living alongside Muslims in peace today. The Quran even urges Muslims to respond with “Peace” to those that are ignorant and offensive. These misconceptions about Islam are abundant and infectious that take the form of any rumor that travels around between friends and family. So treat these misconceptions about Islam like any rumor and read more into them.

Muslims believe that Muhammad was God’s last prophet and communicated God’s final revelation. Muslims consider Adam the first Muslim. Muhammad is seen as the best example of how to be a good Muslim. He is held in great esteem, but he is not to be worshiped. Worship is reserved for God alone, and it is strictly forbidden to worship anyone or anything else.

Muslims place a high value on education. Many Muslims are highly educated with Master’s degrees and PhDs. Many Muslims speak multiple languages. Until the industrial age, Islamic universities were the world leaders in math, medicine, science, law, architecture, and many other fields of study. The scientific method has its basis in Muslim advancement of science. Muslims cite the Qur’an as their encouragement to seek knowledge of the world around them. Many Muslims come and study at our universities, yet today most Muslims are poor and lack educational opportunities.

Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. Allah for Muslims is the greatest and most inclusive of the Names of God, it is an Arabic word of rich meaning, denoting the one and only God and ascribing no partners to Him. It is exactly the same word which the Jews, in Hebrew, use for God (eloh), the word which Jesus Christ used in Aramaic when he prayed to God. God has an identical name in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Allah is the same God worshiped by Muslims, Christians and Jews. Muslims believe that Allah’s sovereignty is to be acknowledged in worship and in the pledge to obey His teaching and commandments, conveyed through His messengers and prophets who were sent

Many social studies textbooks for students show the image of an Arab horseman carrying a sword in one hand and the Quran in the other conquering and forcibly converting. This, though, is not a correct portrayal of history. Islam has always given respect and freedom of religion to all faiths.

The Quran says: “God forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not for [your] faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them; for God loveth those who are just.” (Qur’an 60:8)

Islam’s entire focus is towards self-cultivating one’s moral character in the society living in. Some of the true values that Islam promotes includes,

o Respect every single creatures

o Care more about less fortunate peoples

o Never stop seeking knowledge

o Keep-up honesty & truthfulness in every deed

o Work hard towards self-improvement and world living in

See the six major beliefs of Muslims,

  • Believe in God
  • Believe in Angels
  • Believe in Prophet/Messengers sent by God
  • Believe in God’s holy scriptures sent to the messengers
  • Believe in Judgement day during which people in world will be accountable based on their actions and will rewarded accordingly
  • Believe in God’s divine and nothing happens without his knowledge

According to Muslims Jesus was given birth by Virgin Mary by the act of God, how Adam was believed to have been created by God with no Father or Mother. In Qur’an many miracles of Jesus has been mentioned, such as his birth and his power of healing ailments. Apart from other wonders of him he is denoted as considerable prophet from God also one among the messengers that received revelation from God. Beside all these facts he is yet another prophet who is just a normal human being.

Due to fact that just 20% of Muslims are Arabs, Qur’an has been translated into many languages with English translations. Yet Arabic is the ritual language for world Muslims, it is been recited in its native language Arabic just as how Hindus recite mantras in Sanskrit and Christian perform mass in Latin. In order to grasp the true instructions of Qur’an non-Arab Muslims recites the translation in native languages.

It is purely based on individual’s daily schedules. Most Muslims probably need not perform all five prayers in a day during work time as the prayers are done at different times in a day. There are excuses to offer every prayer before the allowed time border. That time frame prolong from an hour to four hours based on the time of prayer. This timing differs from region to region.

During most of year, the prayer time for noon goes longer during school time. Thus they can perform it even after reaching home.

It has been told not to miss the prayer even during battel field, so if a soldier missed a prayer and didn’t gets time to fulfil it before the time ends he will offer it along with next prayer in middle of the war.

As believed by Muslims it is the first house of worship to God, which is situated at Mekkah covered with black cloth and it is cube-shaped. During every prayer Muslims direct themselves towards the Ka’bah, this direction differs from place to place i.e. from one part of the world people will face it towards the west and at the other place, it is being faced from the east.

A person’s deeds, intentions, circumstances and limitations are hidden from normal humans yet known by the God. Every Muslims believe that an individual will be given judgement based on his entire actions and beliefs he had during his period on earth.  In Qur’an God’s 99 names have been mentioned, most of which denotes “the Judge” & “the Justice”

God remunerates everyone based on his righteous acts during his life time and without any doubt he knows the innermost secrets of every soul and can judge with utter justice.

It is a Muslim’s belief that humans are free to choose good or bad activities unlike angels/animals. However God knows the final destination of every human being without their knowledge. Hence it’s one’s self decision to whether commit a sin or not, but they will be accountable for sure during judgement day.

One of the basic principles of Islam is to respect other religions deliberately, this act of diversity is piece of God’s plan of divinity. Moreover Islam concludes that salvation of world people is with the God alone including Muslims.

Qur’an explicitly states that there is no compulsion over any person to follow a particular religion, in fact Qur’an has forbidden hatred, domination or forcible imposition of activities. Also it describes that religious pluralism is nothing but a part of Almighty’s plan for testing the people. The existence of non-Muslims prayer building around the world demonstrate that Muslims societies are in no way opposing to other religious communities.

The core belief between these two parties are same i.e. God is one, Prophet-hood of Muhammed & the Five Pillars of Islam.

Only thing that keep them apart is the source of knowledge and leadership.

The real problem rose after the death of Prophet Muhammed, i.e. whom to take for the next leadership. Shi’as believed that it should be led by the family and particular descendants of Prophet Muhammed. Whereas Sunnis had different opinion that Muslims have liberty to choose the right person among them as the next ruler.

Shia’s states that Prophet Muhammed has appointed his son-in-law Ali as his successor, which according to Sunni was not a true fact. And Muhammed didn’t set any specific person as his spiritual and political successor.

The right answer is to whom a women talking to.

It is a directive to a Muslim women to cover her physic to a third person (which is male) except from men that are blood related. That too in public places if there is some need to show her identity it is allowed to uncover her face.

In most of the Muslim countries, Hijab is practiced for various reasons, such as a sign of identity, devotion towards faith, to stay away from being judged by physical appearance, etc.

Muslims in America & other parts of the world fought legally to attain equality between men & women. Women especially have held different designations & leadership in American Muslim Community. In many of the Muslim majority countries women work as physicians, entrepreneurs, engineers etc. and even sometimes served for the nations.

This explicitly concludes that women are given room to furnish their thoughts across the world.

Answer to this question  entirely depends on the interpretation of the Qur’an in every single community & its culture

This scenario totally based on one’s family culture and circumstances, and need not based on religion. As per the scholars neither the Qur’an nor hadith restricts women from working. In the whole world Muslim women are working outside of their home in the male dominated domains such as medicine & engineering.

It is in no way allowed to practise domestic violence & spousal abasement that violates Islam’s principle of respecting other human. Different sources of Islamic law says that spousal abuse is one single reason more than enough for a women to raise for divorce. The history of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) shows that there is never a sign of such activity he commenced during his life time and he condemned hose who committed it.

There is one popular saying in Qur’an, “seek for knowledge” that made Muslim Women go corners of the world and become scholars, writer & teachers. Seeking knowledge is made statutory for every Muslim. In fact the very first word revealed in the Qur’an was “read”, a common directive towards both men & women

As part of the tradition, a Muslim men can marry women who are Christians or Jews. In this scenario, the Muslim husband must allow the Christian/Jewish wife to worship her God as per her belief.

Whereas Marrying a non-Muslim men is not allowed for a Muslim women because of the fact that the husband may not under the same obligation to give respect to her religion as Muslim men have.

This view is based on the fact that Men are the highly dominating factor in a family, which is why these sort of marriages are prohibited by contemporary Muslims.

Polygamy was allowed to support widowed women with children and orphans which has been the actual purpose. This might not be suitable for Men and not be served by polyandry i.e. women marrying multiple men. Hence it is not permitted.

According to a hadith, divorce is considered to be the most hated lawful thing, as it can break a family. However Qur’an allowed divorce and also describes various steps in it. First the  concerned couple is urged to indulge in for a counselling and mediation. After these attempt fail, divorce becomes the final option and might be the only solution for many situations.

It totally depends on the community that asks this question. By any chance if modernity related to democracy & right to think, expression religion & conscience then Islam’s opinion varies.

The views on this of some of the Muslims are that the Modernity is considered a secondary issue in the religious principles and the other set of Muslims consider modernity as fundamental principles of Islam. In a worldwide poll taken by many Muslims in the year 2013 they have voted supporting Modernity as a democracy & religious freedom.

Beyond all these facts many Muslims like people of other religions are concerned about devastating outcomes that modernity & its related technological advances, when influenced only by factors between economic growth & short-term gain, have had in our environment and the world.

In Islam, democracy is being treated as a way of gathering every single human being in the society & allowing them to vote provided it didn’t contradicts with individual dignity & principles

First Islamic society framed by Muhammed (the final prophet) contained spiritual elimination & other social problems within Arabian territory. Freedom to religion practices were allowed; Women treated equally in the community; racial discrimination eliminated completely; alcohol was made forbidden utterly. A famous writer named Karen Armstrong, mentioned in his book of religious comparison saying that, Muhammed had a dazzling success politically, spiritually & seen an exponential growth in strengthening the community”.

Basically the word Sharia derived from an Arabic phrase called “path to the water”, which clarifies that Sharia is nothing but guidance from the Qur’an & Sunnah (teachings of Prophet Muhammed) for the betterment for humanity that drive them close to the God & to have peaceful approach to his creations.

Sharia gives valuable guidance to the human during code of conduct & religious commandments and offer guidance under different circumstances in life.

In any religion there are complications happening which is hard to conclude whether to follow it or not. During such conditions there are spiritual scholars to guide the society.

Likewise in Islam there are authorised Islamic scholars (claiming authority) to guide the Muslim society based on the Islamic law. Such opinion delivered occasionally is known as “Fatwa”. As these new findings are non-binding, Muslims are free to choose whether to follow it or not.

Severe punishments such as cutting hands of the convict, stoning & death penalty were in practice around 1400 years ago among the tribal society in Arabia and the conditions to fulfil them were so strict. For e.g. the stoning punishment in case of adultery can be fulfilled only based on testimony of four eyewitnesses. In today’s condition most Muslim majority countries don’t practice these punishments, and been followed by prohibited societies in Arab countries. For the sake that the necessary due process to fulfil these punishments are impossible to be followed which made the scholars to condemn implementing these punishments.

It is a form of violence which is prohibited in Islam. These sort of brutal activity generally happen towards girls or women by self-family members if the victim brought dishonour to the family. In Islam it is not allowed even to speak ill of a women without evidence against her.

Suicide bombing & terrorism are strictly violated and are against Islamic principles. It is also considered one of gravest sins in Islam.

Speaking with self-motivation & untold methods are not allowed in Islam. As how other religions seeks guidance from their religious writings, so do the Muslims seeks information from the Qur’an?

Most terrorism activities are claiming Islam as their purpose of fight. Many of legal issues that are related to Muslim community are most times taken in to the attention of legitimate scholars. Yet some extremists pretend to be traditional scholars and promote rulings that are no more allowed and prohibited by the Islamic community.

Assassinating innocent people is strictly against Islamic teachings, as signified by Muslim scholars around the world.

This question induces another question, does Christians or Jews denounce any terrorism undergone by someone with their religious name?

It doesn’t mean that Muslim bear the act commenced in the name of Islam unless they specifically state otherwise. This kind of data are biased and obstructive.

The true fact behind this question is, in public view Muslims are the one who prone to commit terrorism especially in US & Europe. Worst part is some erroneously believe that violence is one of unique action followed by Muslims. There are bunch of reasons for this.

And there are very few terrorists & extremist in the name of Muslims compared to the entire Muslim population. They easily intrude in the society and appear highly in public mind

The actual meanings of Jihad is “Striving” that is highly misunderstood as “Holy War”. The official Muslim sources differentiate it as greater and lesser jihad. Greater jihad refers to handle internal struggles to stop negative actions and promote liable activities, whereas lesser jihad stands for external attempt for achieving justice by self-defence.

From these two statement one can say that, Jihad is something none other than defensive measure taken while the truth is at real danger.

There are two perspective to the question asked. One is that conflict raises high among Muslims compared to other religion followers. Second is more conflicts exists in Muslim ruling regions.

In both scenario, first one is false. Out of 50% Muslim majority countries vast regions are under peace. Rather other regions are the ones into conflicts most of the time, this includes US for instance. And just for citation, both largest world wars were fought between Christian living countries.

In second scenario there are lots of reason for conflict to evolve in a country, in which religion could also be one factor among many reasons. Political issues could be an underlying reason beneath all conflicts which also comprises of Muslims.

Answer to this question is very simple, only reason is the Qur’an forbids it since its harmfulness to the person consuming it exceed its benefits.

Halal is an Arabic term that refers to direct meaning “Permitted”. Direct opposite is “Haram” which is unlawful. This term is quite popular in usage and can be seen in hotels, which means that they offer foods that are prepared in authentic way for Muslims to eat i.e. reciting the God’s name before slaughtering the animals/birds allowed for eating.

According to Muslim economists money is to be earned, which is why few forms of earning through gambling & loaning with interest are strictly prohibited. On other hand investment is highly encouraged in Islam which involves high risk to the investor with specific percentage as return. This also circulates the wealth among the society in a hygienic manner.

During recent financial crisis, Islamic banks and financial institutions left unaffected, as they don’t deal with interest filled financing.