The central theme of Islam is people and humanity, and it is a faith for everyone, writes Principal Mufti Maulana Shaikh Muhammad Usman Goni in a column for Prothom Alo. He is senior joint secretary general of the Bangladesh National Imam Association and an assistant professor at the Ahsania Institute of Sufism. The views are the writer's own.
He recalls that the Quran addresses people as "O mankind" and that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is described as a mercy to all the worlds. Islam means submission and peace and a Muslim is one who submits and seeks peace; iman means faith and safety, and amanat is what is kept in trust.
In the writer's view the core of religion is ethics, trustworthiness and humanity, and its aim is peace in this world and salvation in the next. That requires cultivating good qualities and restraining impulses such as greed, anger, envy and pride. He links good governance, justice, human rights, patience and tolerance directly to morality.
The column says that all people are descended from Adam, so no one is born above another; the most honoured before God is the most God-fearing. He calls the unity of people across country, nation, language and colour brotherhood, or ukhuwat.
Quoting verse 103 of Surah Al Imran, "Hold fast to the rope of God and do not be divided", the writer stresses unity, and cites the hadith in Bukhari and Muslim that an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab.
He closes with a hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him): Muslims are brothers, one does not wrong another; whoever meets a brother's need, God meets his, and whoever relieves another's hardship, God will relieve his on the Day of Judgement.
Photo: Ferdous / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); Baitul Mukarram, Dhaka
Source: Prothom Alo
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