It is necessary for us to be open hearted and open minded, because if we want a glass of water but turn the glass upside down, and pour water into it, then we’ll never get a glass of water.
Facts alone do not lead to understanding; it takes tolerance, ambition, and the ability to appreciate and accept the truth when we hear it.
The word Islam means surrender, submission and obedience-to the law of almighty God. You can say Allah, you can say Creator, you can say Supreme Being, The All-Wise; these are all His names. We say Allah in Arabic, because this expression-Allah- cannot be applied to any created thing. Other words are used to describe created things.
The word Islam is derived from the word Salam; which means “to be at peace” or “to feel security”. Therefore, a Muslim is a person who surrenders, submits, and obeys the laws of Allah, and through this submission obtains peace and security for themselves. We can immediately see that the definition of Islam describes the manner and way of all the prophets and messengers of almighty God. All of them: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, Solomon, Ishmael, Isaac, Jesus and Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of God be upon all of them. All of these men came with the exact same message from the same God. They said one thing—the same thing: worship God. Obey God, and fulfill your purpose in life, do good actions, and you will be rewarded with another life. Don’t make it more than that. That is all they said, regardless of what language, what time, and who they came to. If you read the scriptures carefully without your interpretation or someone else’s interpretation or someone else’s fabrication, you will find that this is their simple message. Not one of those prophets ever claimed, “I am God. Worship me.”
You don’t have to think about it; you won’t find it in any book you have: not the Bible, not the Torah, not the old or the New Testament, not the Psalms of David. You will not find it in any book. You will not find it from the speech of any prophet.
Not once anywhere. So where did this come from? That is something else you have to investigate. History has a way of turning over every stone.
We can immediately see from this definition that this is what all the Prophets did. They came and surrendered themselves to God, and asked the people and insisted upon the people to do deeds of righteousness. The Ten Commandments of Moses, what were they? The proverbs of Solomon, what do they say? The Psalms of David, for what? The Bible? What did Jesus say? What did Muhammad say?
“And they were ordered with nothing except to worship Allah and be sincere to Him, and this is the Straight Way.” [Quran, Chapter 98: Verse 5]
This is the original way.