The meaning of the Arabic term "Islam" is "to submit oneself to Almighty Allah by worshipping him alone, to yield in obedience to Him and to free oneself from idolatry and those who worship other than Almighty Allah."

Unlike the other names of religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism or Christianity the word Islam is not attached to any human being, time, or location. Islam refers to the submission and worship of all people, all times, and all places to the one true Lord and the Creator of the universe. Only by submitting one's will to Almighty Allah can one obtain tranquillity in this life and hereafter.

Islam did not start with Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the 7th century Arabia. Rather Islam is the message that was delivered by all Prophets of Allah from Adam to Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon all of them. Islam teaches us that the previous prophets ascribed to Judaism and Christianity were adherent of Islam by the virtue of their wholehearted submission to the will of Almighty God (Allah) and by worshipping Him alone. Therefore, Islam is not a new religion but it is the same divinely revealed ultimate truth that Allah revealed to all prophets. Though each prophet had a relatively different laws, they all taught same Creed of Islam; strict monotheism and faith to one God (Allah) only and doing of good did.

Islam is not just a religion of faith and worship, rather it is a complete and comprehensive way of life based on divine laws and revelations; explained by the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Islam defines the rights and responsibilities of each individual regarding their relationship with Allah and His creations. It balances the spiritual and material needs of its followers and helps them gain happiness in this file and salvation in the next.

Allah is the One and Only, the All-Powerful, Omnipotent God of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad PBUA. Allah is the Creator of the Universe as we see and as we don't see. Allah is One and Indivisible, eternal, sustainer of all, He never begets and never was begotten and there is nothing like Him. Far above He is from the things they associate as partner with Him. No one else is worthy of worship besides Allah and there is no intercessor in front of Him except who He will allow.

Allah is He, besides whom there is no god worthy of worship, He is the knower of the seen and unseen. The Most Compassionate and Most Merciful. There is no God except Allah, He is the King, the Most Holy, the All-Perfect, the Source of Peace, the Guardian on All, the Almighty, All-Wise, the Judge Most High, the Majestic. He is the Creator, the Inventor, and the Provider of Balance. He has the most beautiful names and whatever is in the heavens and the earth constantly glorifies Him.

The word "Allah" is a proper noun which is the name of the Almighty Creator in Arabic and other sematic languages. Arab Muslin, Christian and Jews all call The God "Allah". In Arabic translations of The Bible the word "Allah" is used where the word "God" is used in English. Also, the Arabic word "Allah" is very similar to "Elah" the Hebrew word for God.

The word "Allah" is unique in the sense that there is no plural or gender form of the word, which is most appropriate name for The One God, The Majestic. In The Holy Quran Allah give a four-line description of Himself which is the definition of God for Muslims:

"Say, O Prophet, "He is Allah—One and Indivisible.
Allah—the Sustainer needed by all.
He has never had offspring, nor was He born.
And there is none comparable to Him." (Holy Quran, 112:1-4)

For various reasons, some non-Muslims mistakenly believe that Muslims worship a different God than the Prophets such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus worshipped. This is certainly not the case, since the pure monotheism of Islam calls all people to the worship of the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, John, Jesus, and all of the other prophets, who is called "Allah".

Muslims believe that the followers of other religions have strayed from the way of the prophets and have associated partners in worship of Allah. So, they seek aid, deliverance and assistance from prophets, saints, and holy men and this opposes true monotheism. Or they may describe these created beings with the attributes of the Creator, such as having the ability to see and hear everything. All of this is considered idolatry in Islam.

Human beings are representative of Allah in this world. Allah created us in best of the form and taught us to distinguish good and bad and gave us free will to choose between them.

Allah placed us on this earth for a very short period of time with sole purpose of worshipping him alone, so righteous among us can be separated from the wrongdoers. Allah has given us the honour of best of his creation, has given the best intellect but made us very weak physically and mentally.

Because he has created us weak, we are susceptible of temptation, mistake, and error by falling into such issues and not rectifying oneself, we can become the worst of His creations.

But the wiser will recede and repent and redeem his status as best of Allah's creation. Because Allah loves to forgive, He is prompt to grant forgiveness for anyone without any compensation, who ask for it sincerely with the intention to not falling into the error again.

Every human child is born with a clean slate, sinless and innocent as an angel, without any sin of itself or any sin inherited from any of its ancestors. His/her actions are not accounted for until he/she reached puberty and mental maturity. So, this is very important duty for the parents, extended family, and the society to give the child the proper education and knowledge of Allah and His religion of Islam. But if the child passes away before reaching puberty or mental maturity then he/she will go straight to haven, no question asked as they were innocent.

As Allah has created the humans weak we are sure to fall into error. We make error in judgement and need guidance. Allah has sent guidance to all people, to all generation at all times, His guidance is the religion of Islam.

Allah appoint a man among the people to carry and convey his guidance to the people so they can attain salvation from the sin they commit. These special men among the human themselves are called prophets and messengers.

Anyone who follow the teaching of the prophet of his time will attain salvation. Anyone who reject the prophet of his time and do as he wish or hold on to the account of a previous prophet, is in error and will be rejected by Allah unless he repents.

The last prophet bringing guidance of Islam to all people till the end of time is prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Allah bestowed His guidance on prophet Muhammad, The Quran and Prophet Muhammad taught us the religion of Islam, which Allah ordained as only acceptable religion since the time of Adam.

In the Quran Allah has set four criteria for the salvation for all people after prophet Muhammad (pbuh):

"By the passage of time! Surely humanity is in grave loss, except those who have faith, do good, and urge each other to the truth, and urge each other to perseverance." (Holy Quran, 103)

So they are:

• Iman/Faith: believe in Allah the one and only, all His messengers last one being Muhammad (pbuh), His angels, Holy Books He revealed, the fate He has ordained, day of judgement and the afterlife, heaven, and hell.

• Good did: perform good did as approved by Allah and taught by prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Worship Allah and spend life in general good manner as examples set by the Prophet (pbuh).

• Attain and advice truth: attain and recommend one another to the truth, this is to perform acts of obedience and avoid the forbidden things.

• Attain and advice patience: to be patient and recommend one another to patience. Meaning be patient in all difficulties, with the plots, the evils, and the harms of those who harm people due to their commanding them to do good and forbidding them from evil.

The Quran is the final revelation of the will of Almighty God, Allah; to all of mankind, which was conveyed through the Angel Gabriel, in Arabic, to prophet Muhammad, (pbuh) in its sounds, words and meanings. The Quran, sometimes spelled Koran, was relayed by the Prophet to his companions, which they memorised verbatim, and which has been publicly and continually recited by them and their successors until the present day. In short, the Quran is the book of guidance from God par excellence.

The Quran is still memorised and taught by Muslims, being the only book in history that has been memorized verbatim by millions of people. The language of the Quran, Arabic, is still a living language to millions of people, so unlike the scriptures of other religions, the Quran is still read in its original language by millions of people.

The Quran is a living miracle in the Arabic language; and it is incapable of being imitated in its style, form, and spiritual impact. Allah's final revelation to mankind, the Quran, was revealed to prophet Muhammad (pbuh) over a period of twenty-three years. The Quran, in contrast to many other religious books, was always thought to be the actual and real Word of God by those who believed in it. It was not something decreed by a religious council of men many years after being written. Also, the Quran was recited publicly in front of both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities during the life of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The entire Quran was also completely written down in the lifetime of the Prophet, and numerous companions of the Prophet memorised the entire Quran word-for-word as it was revealed.

So, unlike other scriptures, the Quran was always in the hands of the common believers, it was always thought to be Allah's word and, due to wide-spread memorisation, it was perfectly preserved. With regards to the teachings of the Quran, it is a universal scripture, and it is addressed to all of mankind, and not to a particular tribe. The message that it brings is nothing new, but the same message of all of the previous prophets, i.e. submit to Almighty God and worship Him alone without association of partners. As such, God's revelation in the Quran focuses on teaching human beings the importance of true monotheism and framing their lives around the guidance which He has sent.

Additionally, the Quran contains the stories of the previous prophets, such as Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus, as well as many commands and prohibitions from God. In modern times in which so many people are caught up in doubt, spiritual despair and 'political correctness', the Quranic teachings offer solutions to the emptiness of our lives and the turmoil that is gripping the world today.

It is known for fact that prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was unlettered and could not read or write. He never studied scriptures, history or poetry and did not produce any work of literature before his prophethood. Also, it is worth mentioning that the first Arabic translation of The Bible was only produced centuries (9th century CE) after the death of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in 632 CE. So, it was impossible for the Prophet to copy text from The Bible.

Form an Islamic perspective, similarities between present day The Bible and Quran, especially in historical accounts, stem from the fact that both scriptures share the same source – divine revelation from Allah.

Despite the similarity of the historical accounts, The Quran distinctly differs with many Biblical narratives. The generations of verbal transmission and translation by unknow authors without a mechanism of authentication, and by addition of ideas of the scholars, The Bible has deviated from the original revelation, which The Quran corrects. For example, in The Bible, Eve was tempted to eat from the tree and therefore she is to blame for the fall. But The Quran says Adam and Eve both made the mistake (The Quran, 20:121). Also, according to The Quran, the prophets are infallible of sin, but The Bible accuse many prophets of shameful, even criminal acts. For example, The Bible claims David (pbuh) impregnated his neighbour's wife and conspired to kill her husband, and for this crime God punished David by having all his wives raped by this own son. Almost every prophet in The Bible is accused of committing such gave sins. The Quran outright rejects these accusations and defend the prophets and their dignity. This makes it clear that Muhammad (pbuh) was not copying from The Bible.

The Quran also corrects historical mistakes in The Bible of which prophet Muhammad (pbuh) could not have any knowledge. For Example, The Bible calls the Egyptian kings of the time of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses as "Pharaoh". Whereas The Quran mentions them as "king" in the time of Joseph and "Pharaoh" during the time of Moses. This distinction is recently uncovered from the reading of hieroglyphics. The title "Pharaoh" was only assumed by the Egyptian kings of "New Dynasty". Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) could not have known this distinction to correct while copying from The Bible. There are numerous such examples where The Quranic narrations are more accurate. If these were copied from The Bible then they should appear verbatim in The Quran.

One more example is: a character "Haman" is mentioned as a courtier of King Xerxes in the "Book of Esther" in The Bible. However, The Quran mentions "Haman" as a courtier of the Pharaoh of the time of Moses. This attracted a lot of ridicule to the Muslims and towards The Quran by orientalists and non-Muslims in general as a mistake in The Quran; until reading of hieroglyphics was possible and it confirmed "Haman" indeed was the courtier in charge of stone quires in the court of Pharaoh. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had no way to know this fact accurately if he was copying from The Bible. The Quran remains accurate but "The Book of Ester" is today considered to have no historical and spiritual values even by the Christian and Jewish scholars despite being part of their holy scriptures supposed to be revealed by God.

Both scriptures emphasize global ethics such as dignity, kindness, and charity, each revolves around a different theology. Both having contrasting views on the perception of God, salvation, crucifixion, and original sin to mention a few. These clear ideological differences between the two scriptures cannot result if one was copied from another.

First of all, The One and Only, The Almighty Allah has promised to preserve The Quran Himself. Unlike the previous scriptures which were for specific people of specific times, The Quran is for all people of all time. Hence Allah did not preserve the previous scriptures but taken upon Himself to protect and preserve The Holy Quran. We read His promise in The Quran:

"It is certainly We Who have revealed the Reminder, and it is certainly We Who will preserve it." (Holy Quran, 15:9)

Secondly, Almighty Allah has promised to make the learning and memorization of The Quran easy for the believers.

"And We have certainly made the Quran easy to remember. So is there anyone who will be mindful?" (Holy Quran, 54:17)

We can witness the fulfilment of this promise throughout the history till today. There are several hundred million people who has memorized The Quran cover to cover in all seven dialects. Every year more and more Muslims are completing Quran memorization around the world. The Quran is so easy to memorize for the one who tries, that even non-Arabic specking children of ages nine to twelve memorize the entire Quran in less than a year in many cases. This is a miracle in itself. No other book of this calibre, in the entire human history was ever monomerized and transmitted by so many people. And this has been going on from the first revelation of The Quran. And this mass memorization and correction of each other's recitation is the primary vehicle of Quran preservation from the time of prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

All Quran memorizers know the chain of their teachers straight up to the Prophet (pbuh). That is, he knows who his teacher is and his teacher's teacher and all teachers onwards, and in this way the memorizer knows the entire chain up to the Prophet himself. Upon memorization of The Quran and error free recitation of it's entirety to the satisfaction of his teacher a memorizer receives "ijazah" or "approval" or certification of authenticity from the teacher who himself has got "ijazah" from his teacher. This way every memorizer conveys The Quran accurately to the next generation of the memorizers.

This is one of the most accurate methods of authenticating scriptures and no-other scripture in the world has anything close to this method of authentication. For example, we don't know of any single person from another religion in the entire history who might have memorized their scripture from an unbroken chain of teachers, from his time to his prophet. If all the copies of the Holy Quran disappear today for some reason it will be only a matter of hours to restore it from the memory of the millions of the authentic memorizers. No other religious group can demand this capability.

Finally, from the time of the Prophet, Muslims has taken great care to record The Quran in writing besides memorizing. The written preservation of The Holy Quran was done in three stages:

Stage 1: During the 23 years of Quran revelation The prophet (pbuh) taught it to his disciples and about 42 scribes wrote the verses on different materials such as paper, cloth, bone fragments and leather bedsides memorizing. One of the leading scribes was Zaid ibn Thabit who has worked as the Prophet's official scribe among others like Ali ibn Abu Talib, Uthman bin Affan and Abdullah ibn Masud just to name a few companions from many. The prophet had the scribes read their works back to himself and corrected any error himself.

The Quran was not made into a book form yet. Each scribe preserved part of his writing approved by the prophet (pbuh).

Stage 2: After the death of Prophet Muhammad, (pbuh), Abu Bakar compiled a collection of manuscripts so the entire Quran can be kept together.

He created a committee of 12 persons lead by "Zaid ibn Thabit" the head scribe of the Prophet (pbuh). This delegation of 12 people, including famous figures such as Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Talha ibn Ubaydullah, Abdullah ibn Masood, Ubayy ibn Kab, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Hudhaifah and Saleem, came together in Umar's house and collected all the materials on which verses from the Quran were written. In addition, the verses memorized by the companions were heard as well. Each of them was asked to show two witnesses for the verse they read.

Thus, an agreed upon compilation of The Quran was completed and the honour of writing it into a single book form was bestowed upon "Saeed ibn al-Aas".

The copy of the Quran was recited to the companions at a general meeting. There was no objection. So, a book called "mushaf" emerged, which means written verses. Then this mushaf was sent to Umar ibn al-Khattab. After his death, this book passed on to Hafsah, the daughter of Umar and a wife of prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Stage 3: The 3rd Kalif Uthman created a committee to copy the Quran into book form from the mushaf of Abu Bakar and the committee was led again by the same great companion "Zaid ibn Thabit". This committee created 7 copies and returned Abu Bakar's manuscripts to the Prophet's (pbuh) wife Hafsa.

These new copies were sent to different places such as Bahrain, Damascus, Basra, Kufa, Yemen and Mecca, accompanied by a Qari. There are also rumours that copies were sent to Egypt and Jazeera. Thus, the Quran was written during Muhammad's (pbuh) lifetime, while its compilation was done during the caliphate of Abu Bakr and it was copied during the caliphate of Uthman. One surviving copy of these 7 copies are at display at Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.

In 2015, an ancient Quranic manuscript, which is held by the University of Birmingham, was radiocarbon dated to between 568 and 645 CE, which indicate that this was written during the life time of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) or shortly after his death. The comparison of the text with a modern-day Quran proves perfect preservation.

David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham said:

"The tests carried out on the parchment of the Birmingham folios yield the strong probability that the animal from which it was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterwards. This means that the parts of the Qur'an that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad's death. These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Qur'an read today, supporting the view that the text has undergone no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed."

Alongside The Quran, prophet Muhammad (pbuh) received another form of revelation from his Lord, Allah, which is also preserved till this day, and is called the 'Prophetic Tradition'. The Prophetic Tradition (Arabic: Sunnah) are the words, actions, and tacit approvals of the Prophet Muhammad.

So, the "sunnah" refers to the traditions and practices of prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which are believed by Muslims to be a model for them to follow. The sunnah are documented in the "hadith", which are the records of prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) teachings, deeds, and sayings, as noted by his companions. It explains the Quran and details the beliefs and the acts of worship.

A Muslim is someone who submits his will completely to Allah and practices Islam. There are six articles of a Muslims faith:

• Faith in One and Only, Almighty Allah without any partner.

• Faith in His Angels

• Faith in His Prophets

• Faith in His Scriptures.

• Faith is Destiny.

• Faith in Judgement Day.

Muslims adheres to the five pillars of Islam:

• Shahadah: testifying that here is no God but Allah and Muhammad (pbuh) is the final messenger.

• Salah: five mandatory prayers every day.

• Sawm: fasting dawn to sunset during the month of Ramadan.

• Zakat: paying 2.5% of all wealth over a specified amount every year in charity.

• Hajj: pilgrimage at Mecca for whoever is able to.

Muslims also strictly adhere to the moral obligations to the entire creation of Allah, as commanded by Him and as established in Prophetic traditions.

The Arabic word "Kafir" literally means one who rejects. It is derived from the word "Kufr" which means to conceal or to reject.

In Islamic terminology, "Kafir" means one who conceals or rejects the truth of Islam and it roughly translate in English as "non-Muslim".

There is an unfortunate misunderstanding that the word "Karif" or its plural form "Kuffar" are derogatory words for non-Muslim. This is not true and the use of this words is not intended in that way.