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Islam and Muslims!

The word “Islam” is an Arabic word which means “submission to the will of God”.  This word comes from the same root as the Arabic word “salam”, which means “peace”.  As such, the religion of Islam teaches that in order to achieve true peace of mind and surety of heart, one must submit to God and live according to His Divinely revealed Law.  The most important truth that God revealed to mankind is that there is nothing divine or worthy of being worshipped except for Almighty God, thus all human beings should submit to Him.

The word “Muslim” means one who submits to the will of God, regardless of their race, nationality or ethnic background.  Being a Muslim entails wilful submission and active obedience to God, and living in accordance with His message.  Some people mistakenly believe that Islam is just a religion for Arabs, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Not only are there converts to Islam in every corner of the world, especially in England and America, but by taking a look at the Muslim World from Bosnia to Nigeria, and from Indonesia to Morocco, one can clearly see that Muslims come from many various races, ethnic groups and nationalities.  It is also interesting to note that in actuality, more than 80% of all Muslims are not Arabs - there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in the whole Arab World!  So, though even though it is true that most Arabs are Muslims, the large majority of Muslims are not Arabs.  However, anyone who submits completely to God and worships Him alone is a Muslim.

Continuity of the Message

Islam is not a new religion because “submission to the will of God”, i.e. Islam, has always been the only acceptable religion in the sight of God.  For this reason, Islam is the true “natural religion”, and it is the same eternal message revealed through the ages to all of God’s prophets and messengers.  Muslims believe that all of God’s prophets, which include Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, brought the same message of Pure Monotheism.  For this reason, the Prophet Muhammad was not the founder of a new religion, as many people mistakenly think, but he was the final Prophet of Islam.  By revealing His final message to Muhammad, which is an eternal and universal message for all of mankind, God finally fulfilled the covenant that He made with Abraham, who was one of the earliest and greatest prophets.

Sufficient is it to say that the way of Islam is the same as the way of the prophet Abraham, because both the Bible and the Quran portray Abraham as a towering example of someone who submitted himself completely to God and worshipped Him without intermediaries.  Once this is realized, it should be clear that Islam has the most continuous and universal message of any religion, because all prophets and messengers were “Muslims”, i.e.  those who submitted to God’s will, and they preached “Islam”, i.e. submission to the will of Almighty God.

This is a really interesting question to ponder, and buckle up for a long one. Short answer: YES, ISLAM DOES SAY.

Does Islam believe that aliens exist?

“ARE WE ALONE?” A question that has bothered the humankind for centuries. Are we? And where does the religion stand in this regard?

The main problem with this method is, they “discover” these scientific miracles in Quran AFTER science has made the discoveries, not BEFORE. More like, smokes and mirrors explanation, which I don’t like.

But, aliens? extraterrestrial lives? Well, that’s interesting because science that we know of today has NOT yet proven THIS ONE.

But has the Quran been saying anything about that?

To your bewilderment, and to mine as well (when I first read these), it does say about extraterrestrial lives. And when I say “lives” I mean Biological entities, made of matter, not spiritual or ethereal beings like Angels or Djinns from Quran. They do not fall under the category of ET.

Do I sound crazy? Hold that thought, I am not finished yet, may be you’ll think, I’m even crazier.

First verse:

“And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and what creatures He has dispersed throughout them. And He, for gathering them when He wills, is competent.” [The Holy Quran 42:29]

Hold on, do angels fit in the category of “creatures”?

Says God:

“And to Allah prostrates whatever creature is in the heavens and whatever is on the Earth, and also the angels, and they are not arrogant.” [The Holy Quran 16:49]

That’s a really nice indication of adding the angels, outside the range of creatures. No? It’s like saying, hey, I’m not talking about angels, ok?

Next. So those creatures, where are they? Just floating in space?

No.

“It is God who has created seven heavens and similar number of Earths. His command descends among them too, so you may know that God is competent over all things and that God has encompassed all things in knowledge.” [The Holy Quran 65:12]

Could Quran be any clearer, considering that it was only the seventh century? There was no Drake equation, yet. So, there were some explanation back then saying, oh this means earth has seven layers probably.

Did it?

7numbers? The Arabic numerical system back then used the number 7, 70, 700, 70 thousand… these as meaning “infinite”, but it could also mean exact sometimes too. Also, 40, 40000…. These numbers played the same role. Like, when you say, “I have been calling you hundred times”, but no, u didn’t mean exactly 100.

So… an indefinite number of earths? And revelations/commands coming down among those too?

So, did the Arab Muslims feel confused at this verse? Or, did they take it normally?

They did not.

They nagged about the real meaning behind it.

If we open the explanation/Tafsir by Ibn Kathir for 65:12, we see,

Companion Ibn Abbas said, “If I explain this verse to you, it will feel absurd to you. And you will think of it as a lie.”

Another one came with the same question.

Ibn Abbas said again, “How can I be sure that you won’t deny the extraordinary explanation of this verse?”

Ibn ‘Abbas was once asked about the verse, “It is Allah who has created seven heavens and of the earth, the like of them.”1 He replied, “Seven earths: In every earth is a prophet like your Prophet, an Adam like your Adam, a Noah like your Noah, an Abraham like your Abraham and a Jesus like your Jesus." [Al-Durr Al-Manthur Fi Tafsir Bil-Ma'thur by Imam Suyuti]

The incident that I’ll describe now is extraordinary. Taken from Ibn Kathir:

Once the Prophet (PBUH) appeared to the gathering of the companions. He noticed that all of them were in deep thinking. So he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“We are thinking of the creation of Allah.”

“Very well, think of Allah’s creations, but not about how He might have come first lest it should inject bizarre thoughts.”

Then the Prophet (PBUH) said, “Let it be known to you, (pointing at west horizon) there’s a white Earth there. Sun is 40 times brighter there. There exists a creation of Allah, none of them have ever gone astray.”

The companions said, “Where’s Satan then, to them?”

“They do not know of creation of Satan.”

“Are they humans? Children of Adam?”

“No,” the Prophet (PBUH) replied, “they even don’t know of Adam.”

Such a story in a book written more than a millennium ago! Well, there were many stories that didn’t make space in the books that are read today, because many of them were left out as being “ridiculous”, but still authentic. Why risk making people disbelieve?

There is a myth in Islam that Humankind if the best creation. “Ashraful Makhlukat” (The Best Creation)- a phrase only found in text books, or in hearsays, but neither in authentic hadith books, nor even in Quran. Even though Quran awards the humankind calling the most beautiful species, it stops before declaring us the very best.

But the Quran specifically says, humankind is not THE BEST, rather-

“And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them a big portion of what We have created, with preference.” [Quran 17:70]

Over many? over a big portion? Why did He not say over ALL? Why did God not say, you are the best? But He said, you are better than many.

So, is it a notion in the Quran and Hadith (i.e. Islam) that there may exist extraterrestrial biological entities that might be purer or advanced than human beings which is yet to be discovered by modern science?

Yeah.