Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam (/ˈsuːni/ or /ˈsʊni/) is a denomination of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad's first Caliph was his father-in-law Abu Bakr. Sunni Islam primarily contrasts with Shi'a Islam, which holds that Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, not Abu Bakr, was his first caliph. Sunni Islam is by far the largest denomination of Islam. As of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted 87–90% of the world's Muslim population. Its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah (Arabic: أهل السنة والجماعة‎), "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" or ahl as-sunnah (Arabic أهل السنة) for short. In English, its theological study or doctrine is called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites and Ahlus Sunnah. Sunni Islam is the world's largest religious denomination, followed by Roman Catholicism. Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "orthodox Islam". The word "Sunni" comes from the term Sunnah (Arabic سنة), which refers to the sayings and actions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as recorded in the hadith.

Zakir Naik

Zakir Naik (born 18 October 1965 in Mumbai, India) is an Indian Islamic preacher, who has been called an "authority on comparative religion", "perhaps the most influential Salafi ideologue in India", and "the world's leading Salafi evangelist". He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), and founder of the "comparative religion" Peace TV channel, through which he reaches a reported 100 million viewers. Unlike many Islamic preachers, his lectures are colloquial, given in English not Urdu or Arabic, and he wears a suit and tie rather than traditional garb.

Before becoming a public speaker, he trained as a medical doctor. He has published booklet versions of lectures on Islam and comparative religion. Although he has publicly disclaimed sectarianism in Islam, he is regarded by some as an exponent of the Salafi ideology, and, by some, as a radical Islamic televangelist propagating Wahhabism.

Biography

Zakir Naik was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He attended Kishinchand Chellaram College and studied medicine at Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital and later the University of Mumbai, where he obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS).

Islam

Islam (/ˈɪslɑːm/;Arabic: الإسلام‎, al-ʾIslām IPA: [alʔisˈlaːm]) is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a religious text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh), and, for the vast majority of adherents, by the teachings and normative example (called the sunnah, composed of accounts called hadith) of Muhammad (c. 570–8 June 632 CE), considered by most of them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim (sometimes spelled "Moslem").

Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and that the purpose of existence is to worship God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted over time, they are nevertheless all obliged, according to the Qur'an, to treat the older scriptures with the utmost respect.

Al-Baqara 255 (Throne Verse)

The Throne Verse (Arabic: آية الكرسي ‎ ʾĀyat-ul-Kursī) is the 255th verse of surah Al-Baqara, the second chapter of the Qur'an. It speaks about how nothing and nobody is comparable to God. It is the most famous verse of the Quran and is widely memorized and displayed in the Islamic world due to its emphatic description of God's power over the entire universe.

Etymology

One of the few named verses in the Quran, this verse is called 'Ayat Al-Kursi' (Kursi: literally a footstool or chair, and sometimes translated as "the throne".) The Kursi mentioned in this verse should be distinguished from the 'Arsh (Throne) mentioned in V 7:54, 10:3, 85:15 and elsewhere. Muhammad said: "The Kursi compared to the 'Arsh is nothing but like a ring thrown out upon open space of the desert." If the Kursi extends over the entire universe, then how much greater is the 'Arsh. It is narrated from Muhammad bin 'Abdullah and from other religious scholars that the Kursi is in front of the 'Arsh (Throne) and it is the at the level of the feet. Another opinion preferred by Tabari, Sufyan al-Thawri in their exegesis, in the Mufradat by Raghib and narrated by Bukhari as the opinion of Saeed ibn Jubayr, interprets Kursi as "Allah's Knowledge (Ilm)".

Allah

Allah (English pronunciation: /ˈælə/, /ˈɑːlə/ or /əlˈlɑː/;Arabic: الله‎ Allāh, IPA: [ʔalˤˈlˤɑːh]) is the Arabic word for God (al ilāh, literally "the God"), referring to the God in Abrahamic religions. The word has cognates in other Semitic languages, including Elah in Aramaic, ʾĒl in Canaanite and Elohim in Hebrew.

It is now mainly used by Muslims to refer to God in Islam, but has been also used by Arab Christians since pre-Islamic times. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used by Bábists, Bahá'ís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, and Mizrahi Jews. Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia also use and have used the word to refer to God. This has caused political and legal controversies there as the law in West Malaysia prohibits non-Islamic uses of the word.

Etymology

The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the deity", or "the God".Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic. The corresponding Aramaic form is Elah (אלה), but its emphatic state is Elaha (אלהא). It is written as ܐܠܗܐ (ʼĔlāhā) in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlâhâ) in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply "God".Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural (but functional singular) form Elohim (אלהים), but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah (אלוהּ). In the Sikh scripture of Guru Granth Sahib, the term Allah (Punjabi: ਅਲਹੁ) is used 37 times.