THE BRITONS WHO TURN TO MECCA
AS the trains of the Southern Region rumble towards the West Country, passengers can see the centre of another non-Christian religion which is gaining strength in Britain.A few hundred yards before Woking Station a green-painted hoard beside the railway track proclaims: This is Islam.
And behind it rises the characteristic pear-shaped dome of the Shah Jehan Mosque. The property is owned and its missionary work financed by a trust which is supported by a community in Lahore, Pakistan. Business leaders, humble clerks, all give one tenth of their income so that “Our Christian friends can be given the message of Islam”.
Their religion
In Britain that message is usually called Muhammadanism. But the word is unknown to Muslims. To them their religion is Islam, an Arabic word signifying submission to divine laws.
Today there are about 100,000 followers of Islam in this country. Most are natives of the Muslim countries which stretch in a wide arc from Morocco to Indonesia and include about one-fifth of the world’s population. But the number of British converts to Islam is growing. Some arise from mixed marriages, others from conviction. The religion was founded 1,300 years ago by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He was orphaned as a child; as a young man acquired a reputation for goodness of the highest order.
God’s message in the form of the Koran, the Islamic Scriptures, is said to have been given him by the angel Gabriel. Muhammad ﷺ taught his pagan countrymen that there was only one God, Allah; that Allah was righteous and required righteousness of them; and that there was a bodily resurrection after death. He and his small flock of followers were ostracised and persecuted. Eventually Muhammad ﷺ had to flee from Mecca to Medina, 250 miles away. Fighting broke out, but the followers of Muhammad ﷺ triumphed and he became ruler of the Arabian Peninsula. Islam makes heavy demands on its followers.
A convert is required to declare publicly that “I witness that there is no god but One God and that Muhammad ﷺ is His servant and messenger”.
He has to say his prayers five times a day, facing towards the Prophet’s birthplace, Mecca. For Muslims here this means looking to the south-east. A Muslim who happens to be in a train or an aircraft at the time of prayer is permitted to face in any direction – “for wherever you turn, God is there”.
A Muslim must also observe an entire month each year in fasting—which means abstaining from food, drink, and tobacco from dawn until sunset.
He must give away two and a half per cent (6d. in the pound) of his wealth each year for the poor. And he must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his lifetime.
Its leaders describe Islam as the “common man’s religion” for it teaches that direct access to God is open to everyone. So it has no priests or monks. The head of a mosque – the Imam – is simply a lay leader.
Its teaching
Islam does not believe in “original sin”. It makes man the architect of his own destinies, teaching that if he follows the rules laid down in the Koran, he can achieve salvation.
Islam does not require the non-Muslim partner in mixed marriages to adopt its religion.
M.Y.K.
(The Light – January 24, 1960)
