A United Muslim world

Bismillahir Rahman ir Raheem,

When one thinks of the Muslim world, it conjures up images of poverty, corruption and war. Many negative connotations exist about the state of the Muslim world which continues to occupy news space and newspapers. The global media tends to neglect the achievements of the Muslim world and the contributions it made to humanity. The Muslim world has a rich history of development and discovery, the results of which are being reaped today.

Over the last decade, the call for a united Islamic world i.e. the Khilafah has gained momentum and this momentum continues to grow. The possibility of a united Muslim world behind one ruler (Khaleefah) is something that the Muslim Ummah can achieve as this was achieved in the past and even western historians have testified to this fact. The Muslim lands currently posses:

• The Largest population in the world, 1.6 billion
• Largest army in the world
• Control of half of the world’s oil and many other natural resources
• Control key strategic naval straits (A third of the world’s oil travels through the straits of Hormuz which is between Iran and UAE) and airspace
• Largest land mass
• Nuclear weapons

The golden period of the Ummah saw many technological developments. Muslims utilised technology which Europe at that time could not even dream of. For example, some of the technology we take for granted today would not have existed if mathematical concepts such as algebra did not develop during the golden period of Islam. Computers which are used today would not have been possible if mathematical concepts such as algorithms did not exist. Many scholars such as Donald Routledge Hill express the view that Islam was the driving force behind the Muslim achievements while Robert Briffault even sees Islamic science as the foundation of modern science.

Oliver Joseph Lodge wrote in the Pioneers of Science: “The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs (Muslims). The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia”

Through the application of Islam, the Ummah was bound by the Islamic systems, this allowed Muslims and non-Muslims to live in peace and security. The Muslim Ummah has to return to its previous position, the one of leadership and honour as this is the only position that will save the Muslim Ummah from the crisis it is currently facing.

If the Khilafah existed today, it would embrace technology, develop an economy that distributes wealth efficiently and establish law and order. The key to a successful state is to have a government that actually takes care of its citizens, as this will allow the Ummah to make advances since their basic needs are being taken care of. Islam makes it an obligation upon the ruler to fulfil the rights of its citizens and this is the reason why the Khilafah was successful in the past. The Khilafah will make use of its resources so that the needs of its citizens are met. Whereas today, the Ummah with its great reserves of mineral resources labours in poverty. No individual or company will have a monopoly over basic utilities that are essential to the Khilafah such as the water sources and oil wells because the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم said in a hadith narrated by Abu Dawud:

“The people are partners in three things: water, green pastures and fire (energy).”

The Muslim lands have no shortage of energy resources; however most of the Muslim lands suffer from load shedding and crumbling infrastructure. The majority of the Muslim world faces an energy crisis. The root problem of the energy crisis within the Muslim world is the attempts by many governments in privatising such resources. Privatisation has lead to increased prices of such basic commodities which ensures the masses labour in poverty. The Khilafah brings its assets together and develops the necessary infrastructure so that the citizens of the Khilafah can benefit from them. The large oil reserves (56% of world oil reserves are in the Middle East, Source: EIA) which exist in the Middle East will be used to fulfil the basic energy requirements of the citizens of the Khilafah as energy commodities will be transferred to all parts of the state. This energy policy is one example of what the Khilafah can do to develop

A number of Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey have developed aspects of their industry that has allowed them to make technological advancements, especially in their military industries.

Pakistan has been successful in developing defence hardware such as cruise missiles which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, aircrafts and the famous Al – Khalid tank (ranked 7th amongst tanks). If the Muslim armies were to unite under one leader, this army would be the largest army in the world with a force of over 3 million personnel.

The Muslim lands have many strengths and advantages. One key advantage that a united Muslim world has, is control over strategic international airspace and naval straits. During the time of Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih, the Muslims had control over the straits of Bosphorus and ships of other nations could only pass through the Bosphorus if the Islamic state gave permission. In the same way the Khilafah will have control over key strategic straits such as the Bosphorus and Hormuz and control over the airspace that comes under the lands it controls; hence the Khilafah will decide which nation can travel through its straits and fly over its airspace. As a result countries such as the US will find it hard to launch attacks on the Muslim world as the Khilafah will restrict American manoeuvrability.

If the US was not allowed to pass through the straits of Hormuz and use the airspace of Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, it would have been very difficult for the US to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighter Jets cannot fly non-stop from the US to Iraq or Afghanistan, hence the US requires local air bases and aircraft carriers for its operations.

The Khilafah will face many challenges on its emergence and this cannot be underestimated. Due to this, achieving technological development and improving the current situation of the Muslim world will take time, however the key issue is that a united Muslim world has the potential to become a super power. In the current climate the Muslim world has achieved certain milestones and if a sincere Islamic leadership arises, this leadership will guide the Muslim world to new heights and the Khilafah will become the beacon of light for the whole of mankind InshAllah.

The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Indeed Allah gathered up the earth for me so that I saw its eastern and western parts, and indeed the dominion of my Ummah will reach what was gathered up for me from it.” [Sahih Muslim]

Wal hamdulilahi Rabbil alameen.

Food Crisis - The Failure of Capitalist Economics and Global Institutions

Bismillahir Rahman ir Raheem,

The spate of food riots seen across the developing world in recent months lays bare the fragility of globalisation and is an indictment on the World Bank and IMF and their dogmatic free market liberalisation agenda.

Several near term factors have combined to propel the price of grains including increasing food demand in industrialising China and Indian, droughts in Australia and Central Europe and perhaps more insidiously greedy market speculation as traders shift into food commodities and away from beleaguered equities due to the effects of the credit crunch in the West. The increasing use of ever greater amounts of vital land to grow bio-fuels to power apparently more environmentally friendly cars in the West has also contributed to tightening supplies.

World Bank and the IMF chiefs have been quick to absolve responsibility citing many of the above issues as the causes for the food crises. The doubling in grain prices has made vital staple foods inaccessible for the billions living in poverty in the developing world. Furthermore it has plunged millions more into poverty - living on less than a dollar a day, as defined by international economists.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director, and Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, conveniently did not attribute blame for the troubles on the policies of their corruption ridden and failing institutions, however. The World Bank and the IMF have presided over the development agenda of developing countries for decades yet poverty levels in most "Third World" countries have worsened appreciatively.

This is evidenced by rising numbers in poverty in Africa, South Asia, Middle East and Latin America as recorded in the recently published World Development Report, 2008. Given the food crisis it is apt that the 2008 report focused on using agriculture to aid economic development. However, the report peddled the time-old agenda the World Bank and IMF have pushed for decades: poor economies need to reduce tariffs and taxes on agricultural imports and exports and to liberalise domestic markets. It did not matter to World Bank and IMF economists that these same policies have been unsuccessfully pursued by developing countries as part of structural adjustment programmes for decades. It did not matter to them that past crises in developing countries have resulted from over exposure to global commodities price crashes. It did not matter that rich North America and Western Europe heavily protect their agricultural sectors (note the recent rise in US farm subsides and the EU's continued support for its farmers using the Common Agricultural Policy). It also did not matter that the main direct beneficiaries of liberalisation will be net exporters of grain in the US (which accounts for up to 30% of world wheat exports) and Europe and the western multinational agrochemical corporations like Monsanto and Dupont.

Egypt, where people have been killed in several riots, has pursued the World Bank and IMF agenda in detail and has consequently increased dependency on wheat imports from 44% of total consumption in the 1960s to over 50% according to recently available estimates. Self-sufficiency in food supplies has been spurned even though Egypt has one of the highest per capita wheat consumption levels in the world and the majority of its poor households spend between 70-80% of income on food.

Egyptian economists bred of a diet of IMF and World Bank policies have argued that self-sufficiency is unimportant since access to imports will ensure supplies. However, access is meaningless if the price of vital food supplies is beyond the means of ordinary citizens. What responsible government would leave the feeding its people to be met by imports where false incentives can divert production to bio fuels or to feeding cattle or to price speculation from decedent traders siting in western capitals that see food commodity price inflation as a ‘nice earner'. Food supplies, where self-sufficiency is vital, are not like video recorders or cars where demand if not met by imports will cause a national emergency.

The roots of the current food crisis lie with the failed policies of the World Bank and IMF. Policies designed in Washington and London yet not implemented in the US or Europe - both of whom pursue a policy of food security, and therefore need open overseas markets to sell their overproduction. These policies bring the misery of harsh capitalism to the world's most vulnerable who have no welfare state to fall back on.

The ultimate blame though lies with traitorous degenerate rulers in the Muslim world, like Mubarak, who implement these policies wholesale and oblivious to the harm and despair that is being inflected on the weakest in society - those that a responsible state should be most concerned about. These rulers are the key instruments of the Western governments to guarantee their interests through liberalisation of markets and the suppression of the desire for the end of Western dominance and the reimplementation of Islam. The Islamic Economic system implemented by the Khilafah (Caliphate), with Egypt as a potential province (wilayah), has a number of economic Shariah instruments to address the current crisis. It could use land reforms, in the shape of redistribution of unutilised land, to create a vibrant and competitive domestic agricultural sector with investment from the state in developing and upgrading agricultural infrastructure including research and development in new seed technologies. Egyptian wheat consumption levels justify production at twice current levels. It is interesting to note that in the 1950s Korea and Taiwan (two thriving former ‘tiger' economies) built their growth paths on land reforms and rural investment that created an improvement income distribution from agricultural growth.

Wal hamdulilahi Rabbil alameen.

Reciting Qur'an is a way to Taqwa

Bismillahir Rahman ir Raheem,

We know that having taqwa of Allah (swt) means: taking protection from the anger of Allah (swt) and his punishment. This protection is realized by doing what Allah (swt) commands, and refraining from everything that Allah (swt) forbids. In brief, this protection is realized by obeying Allah (swt) which emanates only from the correct and strong belief in Him. This belief comprises the genuine love of Allah (swt) as well as the genuine fear of Him.

Today we ask how can we achieve taqwa in our life?

We can answer this question in a general way based on the definition of taqwa that we mentioned; taqwa can be achieved by doing everything that increases and strengthens link between belief and actions, and doing everything (sayings and actions) that increases the love of Allah (swt) and increases the fear of Him (swt).

We would like to elaborate on how we can achieve taqwa in three ways.

The first way to achieve taqwa of Allah (swt) is reciting the Qur'an reflecting upon its meanings and implementing its verses. Allah (swt) says in surat Al-Baqarah, (verse 121), what can be translated as,

''Those to whom We gave the book (the Qur'an) recite it as it should be recited, they are the ones that believe therein. And who disbelieves in it (the Qur'an), those are the losers.''

Imam Ibn Katheer says about this verse that Ibn Mas'oud, may Allah be pleased with him, said, ''By the one whose hand my soul is in, the real recitation of Qur'an is to adopt its halal and refrain from doing its haram, and recite it exactly like Allah (swt) has revealed it, without altering the meaning of its words, and without interpreting anything from it except the way it is to be interpreted, so it is to be followed faithfully.'' Omar, may Allah be pleased with him, said about reciting the Qur'an the way it should be, ''They (the ones who really recite Qur'an) are the ones who, when they pass by a verse of mercy, asked it from Allah (swt), and when they pass by a verse of punishment, they seek refuge from it, like the prophet (saw) used to do''.

Indeed, this is the real recitation of Qur'an that leads to the knowledge of Allah (swt) and to the knowledge of His names, attributes, reward, and punishment. About this knowledge, the prophet (saw) said, ''I am the most knowledgeable person, among you, about Allah (swt) and I fear Him more than you do.'' Whoever does not know Allah (swt), does not fear Him. For this reason, Allah (swt) specifically categorized those who fear Him only with those who have knowledge of Him. Allah (swt) says in surat Fatir, (verse 28), what can be translated as,

''...It is only those who have knowledge among His servants that fear Allah.''

This shows the greatness of the true recitation of Qur'an and the great effects it has on the lives of people and their behavior and conduct, and the greatness of reward for reciting, reflecting and understanding it.

Allah (swt) stresses that the purpose of revealing the Qur'an in Arabic; an understandable and clear language, with a lot of warnings in it, is to help people attain taqwa and wake them up from their absent-mindedness. Allah (swt) says in surat Taha, (verse 113), what can be translated as,

''And thus We have sent it down as a Qur'an in Arabic, and have explained therein in detail the warnings, in order that they may have taqwa, or that it may cause them to learn a lesson from it.''

Allah (swt) stresses that the purpose of revealing the Qur'an to Muhammad (saw) is to help people reflect upon his verses and understand them, so the verses will be a reminder for them. Allah (swt) says in surat Saad, (verse 29), what can be translated as,

''(This is) a book (the Qur'an) which We have sent down to you, full of blessings that they may ponder over its verses, and that men of understanding may remember.''

Allah (swt) scorns the people who do not reflect upon Qur'an and do not understand its meanings. Allah (swt) says in surat Muhammad, (verse 24), what can be translated as,

''Do they not then think deeply in the Qur'an, or are their hearts locked up (from understanding)?''

Every verse that Allah (swt) revealed in the Qur'an is to help guide the people to achieve taqwa. Allah (swt) says in surat Al-Baqarah, (verse187), what can be translated as,

''Thus does Allah make clear His ayat to mankind that they may become Al-Muttaqun.''

The companions of the Prophet (saw) when they received the Qur'an they 'recite it as it should be recited' and because of this they achieved great benefits in their lives.

Their lives changed from being the ignorant ummah who did not enjoin the good and forbid the evil and did not establish the justice to becoming the greatest Ummah; and they became the best generation. With this quality, they completely changed the direction of the life of humanity. They led the way for all of humanity to follow from complete kufr and ignorance to the highest level of Iman and true civilization. Yes, they surely established all of the good things when they received the Qur'an and ''recited it as it should be recited''. If we look back into our Islamic history books, we will know clearly that which they had established. You will also find that even the non-Muslim writers acknowledge the achievements of the companions of the Prophet (saw).

Why do we see so many Muslims today, reciting Qur'an so frequently without any positive effects on their lives?

We let two companions of the Prophet (saw) answer this question. They are Abdullah Bin Omar and Jundob, may Allah be pleased be with them (this is reported, authentically, by Imam At-Tabarani.), ''I lived a period of my life when some of us (the companions) would attain the Iman before Qur'an, while the surah was being revealed to the prophet (saw), so we learn its halal and its haram and learn to reflect upon it. Then, I saw people who would attain Qur'an before the belief, so they read between the Fatiha and the end of the book without knowing what commands them and what forbids them and where to reflect; reading it like throwing away bad dates.'' So, no one will benefit from the recitation of the Qur'an if it is not preceded with the correct belief, which will turn this recitation into a reality. Also, no one will benefit from the recitation of the Qur'an unless they understand the halal and haram, and the verses of glad tidings of Paradise and the verses of the warning of Hell Fire.

What are the reasons that make us not reflect upon the meanings of Qur'an when we recite it? There are two main reasons:

Firstly, weakness in the belief and absent-mindedness when reciting Qur'an. So, many of us recite Qur'an symbolically without any life in it to the extent that many of us look for the beautiful voice and great harmony when checking out the different reciters, and react and get affected by the voice and harmony, not by his appreciation for the meanings.

'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said to a certain man ''You are in a time when men of understanding (fuqaha') are many and Qur'an reciters are few, when the hudud(limits) defined in the Qur'an are guarded and its letters are neglected, when few people ask and many give, when they make the prayer long and the khutba short, and put their actions before their desires. A time will come upon people when their fuqaha' are few but their Qur'an reciters are many, when the letters of the Qur'an are guarded carefully but its hudud are neglected, when many ask but few give, when they make the khutba long but the prayer short, and put their desires before their actions.''

Secondly, our weakness in the Arabic language which Qur'an is revealed in. Many native Arabs do not understand many of the words in the Qur'an that they recite and do not exert any effort to understand the meanings of those words. The brief interpretation of Qur'an can help them a lot and there are many available resources.

As to the non-Arabic speakers, the problem is worse. It can be solved by referring to more than just one translation of the meaning of the Qur'an. They should not depend on one translation because the translator chooses from the language the word that is closest to the meaning of the Arabic word and ignores, on many occasions other words that carry different meanings. In many cases the a Arabic my include all of them and more

In conclusion, indeed, reciting Qur'an lively leads to the taqwa of Allah, and every verse in Qur'an increases the belief of the believers, while at the same time increases the ungratefulness of the non-believers. Allah (swt) says in surat At-Tawbah, (verses 124&125), what can be translated as,

''And whenever there comes down a surah, some of them say: ''Which of you has his iman increased by it ? As for those who believe, it has increased their iman, and they rejoice. But as for those in whose hearts is a disease, it will add suspicion and doubt to their suspicion, disbelief and doubt, and they die while they are disbelievers.''

Wal hamdulilahi Rabbil Alameen,

What is Jihad?

Bismillahir Rahman ir Raheem,

Never has there been a word more misrepresented in the media than Jihad.

Humans have been fighting and killing each other for millennia, developing ever more effective ways and enhancing technology to facilitate this killing. People fight to defend themselves, or to attack others. Wars are fought for land, tribe, nation, legacy, fortune, religion , independence, or resources like water and oil.

Today's many wars are mostly fought over resources, like the US and UK fighting for securing 'their' oil in Iraq or Afghanistan, or for land and its minerals as in parts of Africa, or civil wars in South America.

Islam addresses fighting and warfare, laying down rules for when and how it should occur. Islam does not allow wars for material gain, taking other people's resources and lands, or to convert people from their religion . Islam does not sanction the invading and pillaging of the past, nor the colonialism of the present, which all lead to enslaving and impoverishing the conquered people.

Muslims are required to follow the Islamic rules of warfare, if they were to go to war. Examples include: no killing of innocent people, no killing of women and children , no burning of crops or trees, only fight those that fight you, no wanton destruction.

Jihad, then, is the striving of Muslims when they go to war and are governed by these laws. Primarily there are two types of Jihad. The first is when Muslims rally to fight and expel invading armies from their land. Examples are when the Crusaders invaded Palestine during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, or when the Mongols invaded Central Asia, Persia, Iraq and Syria in the thirteenth century. This defensive Jihad aims to protect the citizens and their land by pushing the occupiers out.

The other type of Jihad is only undertaken by an Islamic State. Its aim is to eradicate 'fitna' (injustice and oppression) where it is exists in other places, and replace unjust and oppressive ruling with a just rule under the auspices of the Islamic State. There are three parts to it: first, to invite the people to accept Islam by explaining the Islamic belief and what Islam has to offer people. This is done by dialogue and discussion and maybe over some time. Secondly, the people are invited to unify with the Islamic State, whether or not they become Muslims, enjoying peace, justice, security and protection, thereby ending the injustice and oppression. Historically some non-Muslim peoples opted for this option, which is in exchange for a small yearly tax (taken as a token in exchange for their protection, since they are alleviated from contributing in other financial ways to the society, as the Muslims are obliged to do). The third and final course of action after the first two have failed is war. Such a war is called Jihad and it has its rules, like no wanton destruction or targeting of civilians. When an Islamic State goes to war, it can never be for money, land, or riches -unlike the current and past colonial occupations of the last two centuries.

Jihad is often seen by Western people as barbaric, as a result of the propaganda constantly pushed by thegovernment and media to portray Muslims as bloodthirsty, massacring killers, bent on forcing the world to change their religion . They have even coined the phrase 'holy war' for Jihad to encourage this false opinion. However, an Islamic State would commit to the Islamic foreign policy, showing the world what Islam really is and how Islam can truly make their lives and society better, even if they do not become Muslim. Jihad is a last resort in this process. The Islamic belief is never to be forced upon people once land is taken, with 1400 years of history bearing testimony to this.

When Western nations invade Muslim countries they destroy the infrastructure of the country causing more deaths than those caused by their bullets and bombs. It is estimated that a million or so civilians have died in the Iraq war, which was launched ostensibly to convert the Middle East to following liberal democracy, yet was driven by Western greed for securing resources - their 'vital security interests'. What further exposes the immorality of such warfare is that contracts are awarded to US and UK companies to rebuild the infrastructure, making the invaded country pay for it as well (Iraq as an example).

Whilst neo-colonial Western powers wage war and invade for resources, places of strategic importance and further increasing their luxurious way of living, Islam expressly forbids that war be waged for such selfish reasons. Even when war does occur, Islam does not allow the kind of killing and destruction that the Western powers have perpetrated over recent years.

This article was reproduced from the website Islam-Explained.

Wal hamdulilahi Rabbil alameen.

*credit to website Islam-Explained

I'm a fundamentalist, I'm an extremist and a terrorist!

Bismillahir Rahman ir Raheem,

This question is often hurled at Muslims, either directly or indirectly, during any discussion on religion or world affairs. Muslim stereotypes are perpetuated in every form of the media accompanied by gross misinformation about Islam and Muslims. In fact, such misinformation and false propaganda often leads to discrimination and acts of violence against Muslims. A case in point is the anti-Muslim campaign in the American media following the Oklahoma bomb blast, where the press was quick to declare a ‘Middle Eastern conspiracy’ behind the attack. The culprit was later identified as a soldier from the American Armed Forces.

Let us analyze this allegation of ‘fundamentalism’, ‘terrorism’ and 'extremism' :

1. Definition of the word ‘fundamentalist’

A fundamentalist is a person who follows and adheres to the fundamentals of the doctrine or theory he is following. For a person to be a good doctor, he should know, follow, and practice the fundamentals of medicine. In other words, he should be a fundamentalist in the field of medicine. For a person to be a good mathematician, he should know, follow and practice the fundamentals of mathematics. He should be a fundamentalist in the field of mathematics. For a person to be a good scientist, he should know, follow and practice the fundamentals of science. He should be a fundamentalist in the field of science.

2. Not all ‘fundamentalists’ are the same

One cannot paint all fundamentalists with the same brush. One cannot categorize all fundamentalists as either good or bad. Such a categorization of any fundamentalist will depend upon the field or activity in which he is a fundamentalist. A fundamentalist robber or thief causes harm to society and is therefore undesirable. A fundamentalist doctor, on the other hand, benefits society and earns much respect.

3. I am proud to be a Muslim fundamentalist

I am a fundamentalist Muslim who, by the grace of Allah, knows, follows and strives to practice the fundamentals of Islam. A true Muslim does not shy away from being a fundamentalist. I am proud to be a fundamentalist Muslim because, I know that the fundamentals of Islam are beneficial to humanity and the whole world. There is not a single fundamental of Islam that causes harm or is against the interests of the human race as a whole. Many people harbor misconceptions about Islam and consider several teachings of Islam to be unfair or improper. This is due to insufficient and incorrect knowledge of Islam. If one critically analyzes the teachings of Islam with an open mind, one cannot escape the fact that Islam is full of benefits both at the individual and collective levels.

4. Dictionary meaning of the word ‘fundamentalist’

According to Webster’s dictionary ‘fundamentalism’ was a movement in American Protestanism that arose in the earlier part of the 20th century. It was a reaction to modernism, and stressed the infallibility of the Bible, not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record. It stressed on belief in the Bible as the literal word of God. Thus fundamentalism was a word initially used for a group of Christians who believed that the Bible was the verbatim word of God without any errors and mistakes.

According to the Oxford dictionary ‘fundamentalism’ means ‘strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines of any religion, especially Islam’.

Today the moment a person uses the word fundamentalist he thinks of a Muslim who is a terrorist.

5. Every Muslim should be a terrorist

Every Muslim should be a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who causes terror. The moment a robber sees a policeman he is terrified. A policeman is a terrorist for the robber. Similarly every Muslim should be a terrorist for the antisocial elements of society, such as thieves, dacoit' and rapists. Whenever such an anti-social element sees a Muslim, he should be terrified. It is true that the word ‘terrorist’ is generally used for a person who causes terror among the common people. But a true Muslim should only be a terrorist to selective people i.e. anti-social elements, and not to the common innocent people. In fact a Muslim should be a source of peace for innocent people.

6. Every muslim should be an extremist

The word extremist means a person who is extreme in something or a person who is strictly steadfast upon a basis. Whenever we heard the word extremist we think of a muslim, why ? Because of the negative knowledge of the society. If it is to say that a student has to score the highest marks in physics then he should be an extremist in order to cut the figure. Without being extremely good at physics he cannot recover. So, a muslim should be an extremist. A muslim should be extremely kind, extremely merciful, extremely just, extremely obedient, extremely responsible, extremely truthful. I am very much proud to be an extremist, because without being an extremist a muslim cannot be a muslim.

7. Islam means submission to ALLAH

Islam is derived from the word ‘silm’ which means submission to ALLAH. A muslim is a person who submits his will to ALLAH, which means a muslim is not allowed to follow his own inclination. Islam is a 'deen' of peace whose fundamentals teach its followers to maintain and promote peace and tranquility throughout the world.

Thus every Muslim should be a fundamentalist i.e. he should follow the fundamentals of the Islam. He should be a terrorist only towards the antisocial elements in order to promote peace and justice in the society and an extremist to be persistent towards the truth.

Quran mentions :

"Invite all to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching and argue with them and reason with them in a way that is the best and the most gracious" - Surah nahl, verse 125

Wal hamdulilahi Rabbil Alameen,