IslamForToday.com
promoting the theology of Islam

IslamForToday.com
For Westerners seeking a knowledge and understanding of Islam.
A guide to the religion of Islam, Muslim history and civilizations, the rights of women in Islam, Islam in the West and around the world today plus Muslim schools and family life.

Assalamu Alaikum - Peace be upon you.

Welcome to IslamForToday.com
an Internet home for theologically motivated Western converts to Islam and a source of information for non-Muslims seeking a knowledge and understanding of Islam.

This site was founded by a Western former Christian who converted to Islam.  It began life under the name Understanding Islam (tripod) as a small collection of practical and theological information about Islam compiled principally for the benefit of other new Muslims.  It has since expanded greatly and now comprises a considerable body of knowledge - features and links about Muslim history and civilization, Islam in the West today, the rights of women in Islam plus Muslim schools and family life.  While a much wider audience will now also find many of the articles of interest, the primary purpose of this site is to be a resource for Western converts to Islam and those considering becoming Muslim.

The basis of any religion is theology - do you believe in the existence of God and if so, what do you believe about Him?  The core of Islam is belief in God and, specifically, belief in the Oneness of God as opposed to polytheism (belief in Many gods) or the Christian belief of three persons in one god (trinity).  But very often today the spiritual essence of Islam gets buried under the weight of "political Islam", upheavals involving Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere, and cultural baggage brought from the "old country" by Muslim immigrants to the West.  These can distract from Islamic belief and harm the spread of the religion of Islam.

I consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam.  Many born Muslims both overseas and among immigrant communities in the West conspicuously fail to differentiate between these.

In his introduction to the book Four Basic Quranic Terms by Syed Abul-Ala Maududi, the publisher explains how the writer devoted himself "mainly to the fundamentals, trying to scrub away the centuries old crusts which had dimmed the true Islamic concepts and to remove the misunderstandings that have spread gradually regarding the basic principles and purpose of Islam."  This site shares that ethos and those aims.  Islam For Today.com strives to focus on the religion of Islam.

Islam - peace through submission to God - is universal and available not just to Arabs and south Asians but to everyone regardless of race or country of origin.  Islam is not an ethnic culture.  It is a religion, a set of theological beliefs which have taken root across many cultures and countries from the eastern Atlantic to the South China Sea.  Islam For Today.com aims to show how Islam can be equally relevant to life in the West today by focusing on the theological and spiritual and offering practical, daily-life guidance to converts to Islam in countries where Islam is not usually associated with the indigenous population.

In addition, since the awful events of September 11, 2001 a further dimension has been added to the work of this site, namely to tackle extremism amongst Muslims and the politicization of Islam through giving a platform to mainstream, moderate Muslims who are calling us back to what God in the Quran has commanded us to be - a "middle nation" (2:143) which does not "transgress limits" (2:190).