Forword: Pillars of Islam by Dr Muhammad Sharif Chaudhry

FOREWORD

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful. “O My Lord! Open for me my heart. And ease for me my task, and loose a knot from my tongue. So that they may understand what I say” – (Taha:25-28).

Ibn Umar has reported that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: Islam is built on five things (or pillars) – to bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (PBUH) is His servant, to keep up prayers (Salat), to pay Zakat, to make pilgrimage (Hajj) and to keep fast (Saum) in the month of Ramadan. (Bukhari, Muslim).

In this book I have dealt with all these five pillars or articles of religion of Islam. Verses of al-Quran, the revealed book of Islam, and Ahadith (Traditions) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) relevant to these pillars have been extensively reproduced and each subject has been discussed in the light thereof. Some books on Fiqh and some books written on these subjects by eminent scholars have also been consulted. However, the opinions of the jurists and the scholars have only been given when urgently needed, avoiding sectarian controversies.

Abdullah-bin-Amr has reported that the Messenger of Allah said: ....... The israilites were divided into 72 sects and my people will be divided into 73 sects. Each of them will remain in the Fire except one sect. They (the people) enquired: O messenger of Allah! Which is that? He said: That on which I and my companions stand – (Tirmizi). Today this prediction of the Prophet of Islam has been fulfilled to the utmost. The Muslims are divided into so many sects, divisions, schisms, denominations, orders, schools of thought, etc., that it is not possible to exactly count and identify them. However, it is not very difficult even in this critical and ambiguous situation to find out the true way i.e. the way of the Prophet and his companions if you sincerely act upon the advice of the Prophet (PBUH) which he gave to his followers during his Farewell Pilgrimage. According to Hadhrat Jaber (R.A) the Prophet said: And I have left among you a thing which if you adhere to, you will never be misguided after this – The Book of Allah (i.e. the Quran) and my Sunnah – (Muslim). So I always try to struggle to find out the true way of the Prophet in the Qur’an and the Sunnah and do my best to adhere to it. Thus I do not believe in or follow any sect or schism. The Islam presented in this books is the same which was that of the Prophet and his companions, and which is available in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

I am thankful to Allah, the One and the only God of Universe who blessed me with some knowledge of the Qur’an and Hadith and enabled me to write this book. I pray to Him to forgive my deceased parents and grant them Jantul Firdous.

It would be fair if I express my gratitude to my wife Dr. Nasreen Sharif who has always cooperated with me and provided me a peaceful atmosphere which is pre-requisite for research and writing.

I hope the book would prove useful to every reader especially to a student and a newly converted Muslim.

Let me conclude this foreword with my usual prayer to the Almighty Allah: “O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge” (Al-Quran 20:114).

15^th October, 2013 A.D.

9^th Zil-Hajj, 1434 A.H.

Muhammad Sharif Chaudhry

Advocate

169-A/I, Township, Lahore

Pakistan