Islam: Religion of Health and not Submission

Islam: Religion of Health :

Name is the main representative of a school of thought, especially about Islam religion, which according to the Muslim’s beliefs, God himself has determined its name in the holy book of Qur’an[1]. Islam mostly has been translated and interpreted as submission. In this article first, based on a theological approach, this interpretation has been challenged. The base of reasoning is that creatures are intrinsically per se submissive to the divine; therefore not being submissive is not possible and insisting on submission as the main representative of a religion from God is not plausible.

Then the meaning of Islam has been investigated from an etymological point of view. The term ‘Islam’ (‘اسلام’) is rooted from ‘سلم’ /s l m/ which means “entering to health” and it has become transitive by taking it to “باب الافعال”. Therefore its literal meaning is “making healthy and giving health”. Then by an inter religion point of view the consistency of this new meaning of Islam will be investigated. The word ‘Islam’ has been used 8 times in Qur’an. In this article the translations of these notations by both submission and health have been compared and consistency of two meanings has been discussed based on which, the meaning of “religion of health” has been inferred. This new meaning shows more consistent translation of Qur’an in comparison with that of submission interpretation. Afterward historically we discuss why this meaning has been concealed throughout the history; the most important reason is the warrior spirit of Muslims during the first decades after its prophet’s death.

Finally we demonstrate how fruitful this new meaning could be which the most significant one is its consistency and alignment with science, since “Health” is a concept that has been targeted in many branches of science like medicine and psychology.
[1] Al imranSurah, verse 85- MaidahSurah, Verse 3