Islam is the way of life shown by Prophet Muhammad saw to the whole mankind. Prophet Muhammad saw is the messenger of Allah and Allah is using him as a mean to show to the whole mankind on how to live correctly so that the whole mankind will gain success and happiness in this life and hereafter. There is only one way towards Allah and that one way is the way shown by the Prophet Muhammad saw. Many people say that there are many ways towards Allah as there are many ways to Kuala Lumpur. There are many ways or roads towards Kuala Lumpur but there is only one way towards Allah. Kuala Lumpur is a city and the roads toward Kuala Lumpur are made by men. On the other hand, Allah is the creator of the entire universe and the way to reach Allah is not via the material creations of Allah but via the amals or actions of Prophet Muhammad saw. Allah does not love the material creations but Allah loves the good actions. Good actions are the actions of Prophet Muhammad saw. Allah hates the worldly thing and whatever in it, but Allah loves good actions. We cannot attain the love of Allah by having abundant wealth of this worldly thing but we can attain the love of Allah by having abundant wealth of good amals or actions. The ways to reach Allah cannot be compared with the ways or roads to reach Kuala Lumpur. There is only one way to reach Allah and that way is the way that has been followed by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. It has been said by our Prophet Muhammad saw with approximate meaning, ‘my umat is divided into 73 groups and only one group is on the correct path and when the Prophet was asked by his companion, who are in the group that is on the correct path?, the Prophet saw answered, the one who follow my ways and the ways of my companions. There is only one straight path to reach Allah and the incorrect paths or ways will never ever make a person to reach Allah. There is only one straight path that will lead a person to reach Allah.

Many Muslims think that there are many ways to reach Allah and many think that all ways are correct. Many think all the ways will enable everyone to reach Allah. What we think is not necessarily to be the truth and what is the truth is not necessarily be the same as what we think. In order to make us and everyone happy, we tend to say that there are many ways to reach Allah and all the ways are correct. In reality the truth is always one straight path and never has two straight paths. Allah says in the Quran with the approximate meaning, Oh Muhammad say to your umat that this is my only path, to call peoples to Allah with firm faith and this is the path or way of those who follow me. The verse clearly says that there is only one straight path and that straight path is the path taken by Prophet Muhammad saw and those that follow him. What is the path of Prophet Muhammad saw? The path of Prophet Muhammad saw and those that follows him is to call people to Allah. The path can be understood as the work or the actions that lead to the attainment of the pleasure of Allah. In other words Prophet Muhammad saw and those who follow him are sent primarily for the work of calling peoples to Allah. The work of calling peoples to Allah is the work of Prophet Muhammad saw and those who follow him and the work must be done with great faith in the promises made by Allah. When a person does the work of calling peoples to Allah with great faith in the promises made by Allah, he will do the work with great enthusiasm and spirit. When a Muslim does not do the work of calling peoples to Allah, then he or she is not walking on the path taken by the Prophet Muhammad saw and the companions. In other words the work of calling peoples to Allah is the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad saw and it is obligatory on all Muslims either males or females to do the work of calling peoples to Allah. When a Muslim is not doing the work of calling peoples to Allah, he or she is not following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad saw. When a Muslim is not following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad saw, he or she is deviated from the straight path followed by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. The order of performing the five obligatory prayers is also a great Sunnah of the Prophet and when a Muslim is not performing five obligatory prayers, he or she is also deviated from the straight path followed by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. These two orders of Allah and performed in the ways shown by our Prophet Muhammad saw are the two great orders of Allah and the great Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad saw. Once we do not follow the two great Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad saw, we definitely are in a deviated path.

The work of calling peoples to Allah means to do the work similar to the work done by the Prophet Muhammad saw CLICK. When we are calling only the Muslims, we are not calling all the peoples to Allah but we are calling some group of peoples to Allah. The word peoples mean the whole entire mankind which include Muslims and the non-Muslims. When we do the work of calling peoples to Allah, we cannot only call only the Muslims or only the non-Muslims but we have to call both the Muslims and the non-Muslims to Allah. The word to call Muslims to Allah means to remind the Muslims about the Great Kalimah and to invites the Muslims to obey the orders of Allah and to call non-Muslims to Allah means to invite the non-Muslims to recite the Great Kalimah ‘ there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah’. When the Muslims who have been reminded about the Great Kalimah are willing to obey the orders of Allah, they must be thought on how to obey the order of Allah. The work of calling peoples to Allah is also known as the work of Prophet Muhammad saw. Now many Muslims are not doing the work of Prophet Muhammad saw and many Muslims are not performing their five obligatory prayers. In conclusion we can say that now there are so many Muslims who are following the deviated paths.

Prophet Muhammad saw said that my umat is divided into 73 groups and seventy two of the groups are following the deviated paths, and one group out of the 73 groups is following the straight path. Many Muslims are not praying at all and many are not observing any of the five pillars of Islam. They have entered Islam but iman has not entered into their heart. They have recited the Great Kalimah and so they have entered Islam but they have not become the true believers. When we are not a true believer, we will not get all the reward promises by Allah. All the promises made by Allah in the Quran are not to those who have entered Islam but to those who have become true believers. In order to become a true believer, all of us after reciting the Great Kalimah, we have to do all the actions or amals associated with the Five Pillars of Islam. Many Muslims are not doing the actions associated with the first Pillars of Islam because many Muslims do not know what are the actions associated with the First Pillar of Islam CLICK. In actual fact, the actions associated with the First Pillar of Islam is not only to recite the Great Kalimah but firstly is to convey the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims, secondly is to remind the Muslims about the Great Kalimah and to invite them to obey the orders of Allah in our locality and in the whole world and thirdly is to teach Muslims about the orders of Allah. When Muslims are not doing the actions of the Five Pillars of Islam, they cannot become true believers but remain as peoples who have entered Islam until they die. What a great pity and tragedy to the Muslims in all over the world because dying not as a true believer.

We have only one path to follow, which is the path that has been followed by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. We have only one Islam and we do not have many type of Islam. We have neither extremists nor moderate Islam. We have no Islam Hadhari, Islam Madani, Islam PAS, Islam Liberal or Islam Wasatiyah. We have only the Islam shown by our Prophet Muhammad saw which is the true Islam. Allah has given us the Five Pillars of Islam and Six Pillars of Iman and these are the basic creeds of Islam. The Five Pillars of Islam is not practice by most of nowadays Muslims as similar as what has been practice by Muslims during the times of Prophet Muhammad saw particularly the first and the second Pillars of Islam. During the times of the Prophet Muhammad saw, all Muslims are doing the work of the Prophet saw which is to convey the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims, to remind the Muslims about the Great Kalimah and to invite them to obey the orders of Allah in our locality and in the whole world and to teach Muslims about the orders of Allah and all the male Muslims were performing the five obligatory prayers with congregation and the females Muslims were performing five obligatory prayers on time in their houses. Now, most Muslims are not observing the first and the second pillars of Islam similar to what had been practice at the time of Prophet Muhammad saw and because of this we have been deviated from the path that has been taken by the Prophet saw and his companions. When Muslims are not following that path followed by the Prophet saw and the companions, we Muslims surely will start to follow so many paths and make the total numbers of deviated paths come to about seventy-two (72) paths. There is only one path which is the correct path making the total number of paths followed by all the Muslims to be seventy-three (73) paths. Many Muslims are not very happy to discuss about this issues but the truth is the truth where we Muslims are divided into seventy-three (73) groups which are made up of seventy-two deviated groups and only one group is on the correct path. Many Muslims like to claim that their group belongs to the correct one and if that is so they have to come out with evidences that their Islamic practices are similar to what had been practised during the time of Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. We like to make ourselves happy by telling that all the paths are correct but in reality there is only one path which is the straight path.

We have to find out ourselves the straight path which has been followed by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. When we are not doing the work of the Prophet Muhammad saw and we are not performing the five obligatory prayers with congregation, it means we are not following the path followed by the Prophet Muhammad saw and the companions. Islam means practicing the practices shown by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. Islam is not talking or reading or learning about Islam but it is practicing the practices shown by our Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions. When we are not practicing the practices shown by our Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions we are not in the correct path. If we are following the deviated path, we have to admit to ourselves and start searching for the correct path. Sometimes we know that we are following the wrong path but we do not want to change to the correct path because to change to the correct path will costs us hardship and pain. Because of this we decide to remain in the wrong paths and not to migrate to the right path. We hate the truth because the truth is often associated with hardship and pain. Some Muslims think that they are doing the work of Prophet Muhammad saw by going 3 days in a month, 40 days in a year and 4 months once in the lifetimes CLICK. They are satisfied with giving fiery lectures about the work of the Prophet Muhammad saw and yet they are spending more time in the mosques and visiting only certain Muslims whom they think they can influence to join their groups. They do not want to deliver the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims with reason given by them, that the time to do the work on non-Muslims has not come yet. In other words, this group of Muslims is saying that the order of Allah for Muslims to deliver the Great Kalimah to the non-Muslims has been temporarily stop because the Muslims are not rectified yet. This group of Muslims is saying that, they are now concentrating on rectifying the Muslims and when all the Muslims in the whole world have been rectified then only they will work on the non-Muslims. This group of Muslims think that at that time, the non-Muslims will enter Islam by just looking at the akhlak of the Muslims without Muslims having to give Dakwah to them like Prophet Muhammad saw did. They say we must clean our house before we can invite other peoples to enter our house. They use house as a comparison object, similar to Muslims use the roads to Kuala Lumpur as the road to reach Allah as comparison object. They tell the whole world by making large gathering of Muslims that they are doing the work of the Prophet Muhammad saw but in reality they are lying to the Muslims and to themselves. In actual fact they are not doing the work of the Prophet Muhammad saw. They are happy only to lecture, to write the lecture and to listen about the work of the Prophet Muhammad saw but they are not practicing the work of Prophet Muhammad saw.
I would like to remind myself and all the Muslims that we will only be on the straight path when we practice what have been adept by Prophet Muhammad saw and his companions.

Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
July 2011
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre