Introduction to Islam

(Introduction to Islam (İslam'a Giriş), Prof. Dr. Muhammed Hamidullah'ın "İslam'a Giriş" eserinin ingilizce versiyonudur.) It is well known that the motto of Islam is summed up in the expression of the Qur'an (2/101), "well-being in this world and well-being in the Hereafter." Islam will certainly not satisfy the extremists of either school, the ultra-spiritualists (who want to renounce all worldly things and mortify themselves as a duty) and the ultra-materialists (who do not believe in the rights of others), yet it can be practised by an overwhelming majority of mankind, which follows an intermediate path, and seeks to develop simultaneously the body and the soul, creating a harmonious equilibrium in man as a whole. Islam has insisted on the importance of both these constituents of man, and on their inseparability, so that one should not be sacrificed for the benefit of the other. If Islam prescribes spiritual duties and practices, these contain also material advantages; similarly if it authorizes an act of temporal utility, it shows how this act can also be a source of spiritual satisfaction. The following examples will illustrate the argument.