America’s war in Afghanistan against Bin Laden and Taliban is feeding the spirit of terrorism worldwide. The atrocities that were committed in America on September 11th reflect a deep damage in the moral and spiritual state of those who committed them. That very deficiency echoes in the hearts of those who have been directing their hatred to Muslims and Islam hysterically and haphazardly. We need to break that upsurge of mutual hatred and hostility. Let those who work for shedding peace, love, knowledge and tolerance make it their shared mission to educate people about the spiritual value of life. That education exists in all words of wisdom, and in all revelations, natural and prophetic.
Now more than ever before humankind is in need of spiritual awareness and purity of mind and soul. Otherwise, there is no way out of the vicious circle of hatred, hostility, lust for retaliation and racial prejudices. We need to gain insight into what is going on. We need to probe behind the scene and realize that despite all seeming differences, the warring parties are but two sides of one and the same coin: selfishness, racism, and hunger for domination. Advocates of peace in every part of the world have to be together shedding light, love and knowledge. They have a common mission to fulfill together: every human being, regardless of color, nationality, race, or religion has an equal right to live safely and to be dignified. (Excerpted, with thanks, from The Egyptian Society for Spiritual and Cultural Research)
It is interesting to observe that the word "Islam" is derived from the Arabic root: s-l-m. Out of this root, the noun salam "peace," the verb sallama "to surrender," and the adjective salem "the saved one" are also derived, while bagheyan is derived from b-gh-y. As one word, baghy means an "unjustified" attack.
Those who differ cannot coexist with each other; they quarrel and dispute without justification. That kind of conflict is in itself an indication of the deviation from the holy guidance. As such, people lost the ability to discern between what is true and what is false.
In contrast to those people, Muslims (with the broad meaning of the word) are those who surrender to the holy, and therefore they live in peace within and manifest peace around. (Excerpted, with thanks, from ESSCR)
Also see, Books On Islam, Sites On Islam, or our home page, spiritual-paths.com
Out of the conviction that man is spirit enclosed in matter, ESSCR devotes its efforts to awaken man to that realization. Spiritual knowledge is not meant to be for a certain creed, religion or culture. It is for every one.
The goal of this society is to disseminate knowledge about the oneness of all revelations, prophetic and natural, and to conduct research in that area. We feel that throughout history, the basic concepts that underlay the teachings of all revelations have been misunderstood, misused, misrepresented distorted and overlooked. We are attempting to clear up the misconceptions as we see them departing from a belief that the aim of all revelations is to guide man through his earthly journey to make living spiritually fruitful.
This page demonstrates the points identified so far for research to contribute to the achievement of our goal.
There is always room for more points to be indicated for investigation. The first point is to prove that there is One Primordial Religion that guides man to live according to the Divine Law.
"Religion" means a road, a way, and a path that is taken by man to achieve certain goals, the most important of which, is for man to return to his Origin. As such, he will be secured; he will be "home". We have made "A Road Home" our channel of communication. We are stretching our hands to reach to whoever shares with us the same goal. Hand in hand with love and devotion, together we can make our life fruitful. We would thus spread love and peace on earth.
http://www.aroadhome.org/index.htm
The channel of communication for The Egyptian Society for Spiritual and Cultural Research, a group in Egypt with Islamic, Sufi, and spiritual background.
Objectives: The group aims at spreading spiritual awareness in the whole world based on knowledge, reason, and love. The knowledge offered is addressed to all humans in all cultures, societies, faiths and nationalities. We have a hope that we share with our human brethren and sisters, with different religious affiliations, languages, colors, races and nationalities, a dialogue. The only precondition is open mindedness where there is not “me” and the “other” as two rivals but there are “all of us” who share “new thought,” “One Direction,” and “One Home.”
We pray to God that the world will awaken to realize that there is One Religion, and that humans should not stick to false racial prejudices, and insist on ignorance. The world should realize that the shared goal among men is to know God, seek His face, and to gain Truth. The world has to realize that human brethren should talk to each other with open minds, discussing their shared goal: how to be real humans whatever were their nationalities, civilizations, origins, or environment. We do not say whatever their religions are because Religion is One, the Eternal Law of life is One; and it applies to all men here and there.
http://www.beconvinced.com/INTRO.htm
This is a very informative site about Islam. In addition to much information about the beliefs of Islam, this site includes a comparison of Islam with other religions, science in Islam, women in Islam.
Table Of Contents •Allah (God) •Cleanliness •Muslim Contribution to Science •Human Rights •Jesus •Knowledge •Main Pillars •Muhammad •Women •Other Religions •Peace •Relevance •Sources •Sunnah •Tolerance •Universality