The followings are my answers to some of the questions ask by a far away friend, which were taken from Darkside RG forum. There may be some mistakes I've made, so please correct me on the facts that I've wrong. Thanks for reading it, by the way.

Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim

1 - So what is your take on Islam. By that I mean what do you believe it means to be a Muslim?

To be a Muslim is to believe there is no God but Allah, and to bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. This is the basic principle of Islam. This is only the beginning, what follows may seems difficult, that is to pray five time everyday, on time without failing even once.

But believe me, the feeling of being able to stand in Solat (prayer), submitting the whole body and soul only to Allah is the sweetest feeling I have tasted for many years. And every single day, I wait eagerly for the time of praying, only hoping that Allah will response to my call, but alas, I also fear that Allah would not forgive me for my sins and for that I will be thrown in the Hellfire in the eternal life. This is the feeling I have; this is how I connect myself to God. I live between hope and fear to Allah.

Then, once a year, there will comes the fasting month, the month of Ramadhan as it is called in Islam calendar. This is a special month, where Muslim can concentrate and multiplies their worship to God during the day and also at night. It is like a big mega sale for Muslim to collect the rewards and blessing of Allah. During this month I will fast during the day (from dawn till dusk, it is about 13 hours or so in my country, but maybe more/less in upper/lower hemisphere countries). And during the night after breaking fast, I will Solat(pray) for an hour or so, sleep for a few hours, then woke up in the earliest hour of the new day just to submit myself to Allah in prayers and reciting Quran. Then before the first light appears on the horizon, I’ll have some food to keep me energized for the day to come.

And so, as a regular guy, this only what I want to be a Muslim. That I can perform my daily prayers, to be able to fast during the month of Ramadhan, that I can help my family and friends alike, that I can contribute a little of my income to the poor and the orphans, and if I have a little more extra money, I can go to Mecca and perform Hajj, the pilgrimage. And currently, I am really grateful that I live in a community that almost everybody’s goal is worshiping Allah day and night. This is my definition of being a Muslim. To be able to live a daily life of worshiping Allah, with a consent that my government has done its best to uphold the law of Islam in this small piece of land called Malaysia.

But to speak the truth, I am so sad and angry seeing my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters as either being oppressive to others or being oppressed by others in my own country or in other part of the world. That brings my answer to the second question


2 - Do you wish to see Islam dominant on earth? If yes, why? If no, why?
Yes. Everything in between the sky and earth are belongs to Allah. Muslims are the one whom Allah trusted to rule the land and the sea. History had proven that during the first golden age of Islam was during the ruling of Caliph Umar Al-Khattab. That means everyone and I meant everyone, Christians, Jews etc able to live peacefully and justice was for all to taste. There are even in his ruling times, no poor people were around. Everyone has been taken care of. After the murder of Caliph Umar, once the united muslim were broken into pieces of sects that until now they would never want to unite again. Pride, greed and jealousy spread across the land of Muslim and thus begun corruption everywhere and sparked the collapsed of this great empire, plunging the Muslim into a deep dark abyss they can’t crawl back to the top.

However, one after another true leader came. Leader that are so poor they live in house of mud, leaders that are so true, that on his death, what riches he left behind was worth just a few penny now. Leaders that are so strong that even the great Roman/Byzantine Empire were afraid of them. Great leaders such as Caliph Umar Abdl Aziz, Harun Al-Rashid, General of War Nur-al-Din and his student, the famous Saladin al-Ayoubi; just to name a few, had bring justice and peace to vast piece of land.

But as men repeated the same mistake, history repeated itself, again and again.
So begin the rise and fall of great Islamic empires. The Abbasid Empire, the Umayyad Empire, the Andalucian Empire up to the Turkish Uthmaniyyah Empire had lasted for hundred of years each. But constant wars waged by kingdoms that opposed Islam had made the world went in chaos. Why? While the muslim wanted to reclaim the land of Allah, to rule it with justice for all, the opposing kings wanted more than just ruling the land. Again, the greed of power to rule the land had shed blood of many men. To make matter worst, weak rulers of Islam Empires were appointed. This was the reason why Muslim had failed to dominate the earth.

Today is the result of yesterday events. While Muslim are still waiting for a true leader to be born again, Islamic rulings had not been practiced up to its standard in the so called Islamic countries such as my country. Today, man made ideology had penetrate the government system in my country. Capitalism, liberalism, Darwinism, these are the tough stained that had defiled the true law of Allah, the Sharia law.

to be continued...