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Offline Mubashir

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So.....What exactly does Islam means?
« on: November 28, 2014, 09:58:16 AM »
When this question is asked, we get two answers 1. Submission 2. Peace.

If this is true then is a Muslim is one who submits or one who is peaceful?

What exactly does the Arabic language say? How can a word have two meanings? Kindly comment.

Thanks.

Offline Wakas

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    • What does The Quran really say?
Re: So.....What exactly does Islam means?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2015, 08:24:18 PM »
My current understanding is as follows, albeit I have not studied it in detail:
http://www.misconceptions-about-islam.com/more.htm

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What is islam?

There are many misunderstandings about religion in general, their beliefs and practices, but especially with regard to "islam". The first key thing to appreciate is the word "islam" and what it represents. It is an Arabic word and it existed before The Quran was written and was used to describe an attribute, an action, a state of being: self-surrender or to make peace. It comes from the verb "aslama" meaning 'to give over'. A "muslim" is simply one who is in "islam" (i.e. one who surrenders or makes peace).
It should be noted that this word had no religious connotation and was not a title of something, even though it has come to be used as a title these days. According to The Quran itself, everything in the universe, willingly or unwillingly has ultimately surrendered to God, thus the basic concept of islam is as old as the universe itself:
Do they seek other than the system of God, when all things in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly have surrendered / given over to Him, and to Him they will be returned. [Quran, 3:83]

Bro Ayman from free-minds.org has discussed this quite a bit, e.g.
http://free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9604871.msg319263#msg319263

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I disagree with all the arguments that say that "islam" can also mean "submission". In Arabic peacemaking/"islam" and submission/"taslim" are two different concepts that are two different Masdars of the root "SLM" that convey different meanings. So please do not use them interchangeably.

Words of the form "islam" indicate the making of the name of the Masdar of the form "fa3al". So "ifsad" is the making of corruption/"fasad" and "inga7" is the making of success/"naga7" and "isla7" is the making of good/"sala7", etc.... . So "islam" is the making of peace/"salam". The following figure extracted from the book shows a few such examples and their various consistent forms:

Also: http://www.quran4peace.org/documents/Quran4peace-English-part2.pdf