No God But God

To become a Muslim all that is required is to make the profession of faith—"There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God"—sincerely and in the presence of other Muslims who will witness it. No baptism is required because in Islam there is no original sin to be ritually washed away. For an adult who converts to Islam, making the profession of faith is an act of volition by the individual, who makes the free choice to submit to the will of God as revealed in the Koran.

Because no other person stands between the individual believer and God, Islam is not generally spread by people westerners would describe as missionaries; becoming a Muslim does not require the presence of any authority figure in a turned collar, only the willingness to accept the faith as learned from neighbors or fellow workers.

Free Will or Fate?

But how can the individual exercise free will if, as the Koran says, God knows everything in advance? How can Muslims reconcile the belief that everything occurs in accordance with a divine plan with the instructions of the Koran and the Prophet to live virtuously and do good works? This question of free will versus predetermination is as old as the faith. Muslims say that even if the fate of a person's soul is predetermined, he or she has no way of knowing what that fate is, and therefore it is incumbent upon people to strive for Allah's favor. "Each soul is the hostage of its own deeds," says the Koran (Sura 74, v. 38).

ON JUDGMENT DAY

Islam imposes a set of duties and requirements that must be fulfilled if one is to be in favor with God on Judgment Day. The Koran is eloquent and relentless in describing the inevitability and finality of that day, on which the believers in good standing will meet God and the unbelievers will be cast down forever. No last-minute repentance or pleas for mercy will avert their grim fate. Fear of God's inexorable judgment, rather than love of the deity, is the most powerful motivator in Islam. "When the sky is rent asunder; when the stars scatter and the oceans roll together; when the graves are hurled about; each soul shall know what it has done and what it has failed to do," the holy book says (Sura 82, v. 1). "The righteous shall surely dwell in bliss. But the wicked shall burn in hellfire upon the Judgment Day: They shall not escape." The Koran is graphic about the eternal torments that will be inflicted upon the condemned: no drink save boiling water and molten metal, no food but decaying filth, and when their skins have burned away they will grow new ones so their suffering can continue.

By contrast, as might be expected in a religion that originated in the barren Arabian Peninsula, the Koran describes paradise as a place of lush, well-watered gardens and fruit trees. Allah will reward the saved with "robes of silk and the delights of paradise. Reclining there upon soft couches, they shall feel neither the scorching heat nor the biting cold. Trees will spread their shade around them, and fruits will hang in clusters over them," the Koran promises. They will be attended by handsome boys and "bashful virgins . . . as fair as corals and rubies," who will bring cold drinks in silver goblets (Sura 76, v. 13-14; Sura 55, v. 48-58).

In sorting out those who will enter paradise from those eternally condemned, Islam makes no distinction between men and women; they are equal before God. "Those who surrender themselves to Allah and accept the true faith; who are devout, sincere, patient, humble, charitable, and chaste; who fast and are ever mindful of Allah, on these, both men and women, Allah will be-stow forgiveness and a rich reward," says the Koran in Sura 33.

THE STATUS OF WOMEN

The Koran makes clear that men are the leaders in family and community, and it permits polygamy. But it also requires that men treat women kindly and lays out in elaborate detail the rights of women to own and inherit property. By comparison with the pagan society into which Muhammad was born, the Islamic community that he created elevated the status of women by giving them specific protections and guaranteed rights. The Prophet forbade female infanticide, then a common practice. It is ironic that many modern Muslim countries sanction cruel and discriminatory treatment of women, for that was surely not the Prophet's intent. His wife Khadija, a successful businesswoman, and the other women he married after Khadija's death played important roles in his life and work.