Monday 8 February 2010

The Image of Islam and its Prophet

Islam, the last Divine message sent to the salvation of mankind, is the fastest spreading religion in recent history. On the other hand, its real picture is greatly misunderstood by many people. There are many factors that led to disfiguring the image of Islam to the world in the past and nowadays. One of the recent factors is the 9/11 catastrophe in addition to other incidents of violence that led to correlating Islam to terrorism.

The image of Muhammad (PBUH), the last messenger sent by the Creator to mankind, was and is also greatly disfigured, mostly by people who felt that Islam threatens positions they gained through religious leadership among their own people. To protect their own gains, they started to spread lies about Muhammad and Islam, these untrue stories, in turn, acted as a barrier that is still separating nations from the truth sent to them through the Qur'an.

Actually these are not the only factors that played an important role in giving a wrong perception of Islam. Muslims themselves participated, and still are participating, to a greater extent in giving a bad image to their religion.
Many Muslims who do not take their religion seriously, and who are mainly interested in worldly gains, and those who spend little or no effort in understanding their faith and applying it, share a great part in portraying a wrong image of Islam. Muslims who are drowned in their cultural heritage that contradicts Islam; those who oppress women because of their ignorance and their cultural believes are actively disfiguring the Divine message of Islam and are preventing truth seekers from approaching the reality they search for.

Apart from those sincere Muslims who take Islam seriously and live up to its high morals and try to spread its message, there are others who have Islamic knowledge, but they twist the truth and direct their followers away from the straight path. Also, there are others who are indulged, knowingly or unknowingly, in dividing Muslims into groups instead of uniting them, the matter that weakens the international Muslim Nation, and opposes the teachings of the Qur'an.

The danger induced by these factors lies mainly in building a great wall that prevents the light of the Divine message from entering the heart of every human being; it also prevents many people in the world from reaching the truth.

It is the right of every single person in this world to receive the divine message sent to him/her from the Creator through the Qur'an which was revealed to Muhammad, PBUH; the Qur'an that tells them the real purpose behind their creation, and which shows them the right path that leads to their liberation and happiness in this life and in the Hereafter.

The effort done by Michael Wolf and others to give the American community and the world a correct image of Islam through the documentary 'Muhammad: Legacy of a prophet' is really a great work that we need to spread for the sake of having a better peaceful world.