What is Islam?

What is Islam? In the words of : Dr. Mustapha Mahmoud (MD) Translated by : Samia Ahmed Suliman
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/english/article...a-ahmed-suliman.html

Quote: There is no occupation in Islam known as a man of faith

Probably Islam stands out because of that. It is very difficult to rate the degree of faithfulness since it is not in the practice only, but in the heart.

There is no question that Islamic scholars should always be revered and looked up to as role models for spreading Islamic teachings and the true message of tolerance, peace and amity advocated by Islam. But when they exploit peeople's trust in a way similar to medieval indulgences, then we, as Muslims, will always have problems.

Thank you Samia for the excellent translation, although some terms need to be revised for more accuracy (Zakat being described as charity giving .. for instance)

This is an excellent effort.

It is has become a necessity, long time back, to enhance discussions about Islam in some international language like English. If not to invite people to embrace Islam, let be at least to defend Islam against a negative profile that is being progressively drawn by non-Muslims and, even worst, by some Muslims. May be the self-inflicted negativity is even more serious.

Our brothers from Pakistan and India have done a lot. But we need more. We need people who can bring different cultures to send the appropriate messages to different parts of the world. The words, the terminology and the style make all the difference.

I notice that, because of the dominating Christian terminology in English language, words like the ‘Lord’ for example became a monopoly. On the other hand, and, although Arabic speaking Christian scholars use the name of the almighty ‘Allah’ frequently as a reference to their God, non-Arabic speaking Christian scholars regard “Allah” as the God of Muslims only. So culture matters. So we can consider this in our discussions.

Well done and let us have more.