Following Pope Benedict's controversial comments last week, Ali Selim offers an insight into the many benefits which Muhammad's teachings have brought.
It is by Allah's grace that we have been guided to Islam - i.e. to submit our will to the will of our creator, the religion of which we are proud. It is the religion of all prophets, from Adam to Muhammad, peace be upon them all. It is the religion that Allah has chosen for us.
Allah said: "This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed my favour on you and have chosen Islam as your religion."
The revelation given to Prophet Muhammad, deemed to be the final divine expression which completed the previous revelations, has come to remove hardships that overburdened people.
Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - was sent as a mercy to all creatures. The Koran states clearly: "We have sent you naught but as a mercy to all that exists." This mercy is not limited to Muslims or human beings but rather it includes all that God has created. This is, from a Muslim point of view, an unquestionable fact.
In Muslim literature it is reported that a woman who committed one of the major sins was admitted to paradise for, while she was in the desert, she became extremely thirsty. When she found a well of water, she jumped in and drank. As she was coming out of the well, she saw a dog dying for water. She took off her leather socks and filled them with water and gave them to the dog. As a result, she was admitted into paradise.
In spite of that message, every now and then a voice is raised endeavouring to distort the Islamic image. Let this disturb no Muslim. A huge fortune has been spent and great efforts exerted to deform Islam. Nevertheless, Islam remains bright and attracts a great number of educated people. It is considered the fastest-growing religion.
The fact that people on a daily basis embrace Islam is because Islam is harmonious with our innate inclinations and characteristics. In spite of the fact that Islam is the perfection of previously-revealed messages, it states clearly: "Let there be no compulsion in the religion."
Undoubtedly, the reason for that is the idea that imposing one's belief on others contradicts the Islamic call to apply our mental faculties. In many a place in the Koran there is a manifest call for reasoning.
The divine revelation coming to Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - has a significant start. Idolatry was widespread in the environment in which Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - first preached Islam. However, the first verses of the Koranic revelation represented an open call to seeking knowledge.
Allah said: "Read in the name of your Lord, who created. Who created man from a leech-like clot." The very first Islamic revelation calls people to tread the main gate of knowledge, namely reading. The Koran was not commenced by commands of rituals but rather of seeking knowledge, since Allah can be pleased only with belief and practices founded on free will. And free will can only be implemented when one applies one's mental faculties.
Despite what the Pope may have alluded to, it has never been recorded in history that Islam contradicted science. To the contrary, seeking knowledge is an Islamic obligation. The Muslim imams were scholars in many secular subjects such as medicine and chemistry.
The Pope quoted the Byzantine emperor: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new." In fact, He has brought a lot. I can quote from Islamic literature, but first I ask: who were the torch-bearers of knowledge in the medieval ages?
Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - has brought the Islam that respects man. Islam perceives man as Allah's product that He looks after. He created a mind for him, so He gave a job to this mind. He created for him a soul so He provided him with spirituality. He created his material aspects and facilitated a system that allows the expression of these aspects in an organised way.
Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - received the message that organises the affairs of this life and the life to come. Islam has laid the foundations for the systems of the Muslim state - e.g. justice and equality - and has prohibited oppression and racism. However, it is left for people to find out how to implement justice.
Islam has come to establish the constitution that organises the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims on a friendly basis. Allah said: "Allah does not forbid you, with regard to those who do not fight you in the cause of your religion nor displace you from your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them."
Islam has come to say transgress not, as Allah loves not transgressors. Islam has come to organise the affairs of this life and the life to come. Rab'I Ibn Amer said: "Allah sent us to guide whom He wills out of darkness to the light, out of worshipping people to the worship of Allah, and out of the hardship of this world to the happiness of the hereafter."
Currently, we hear some people talk of clashes of civilisation. Some are calling for genocide. But this serves none but the merchants of weapons and those who wage wars. Islam calls for mutual co-existence.
People misinterpret the word "jihad" as "holy war" when the term "holy war" does not exist in Islam. There is nothing called the Koranic or Muhammadic war either. It is a mistake to limit the term jihad to fighting.
It means to strive against yourself - to teach, learn and defend. But it can never mean transgression.
Ali Selim is secretary-general of the Irish Council of Imams