Most Muslims know and practice the five pillars of Islam: The Profession of Faith (Shahada); Daily Prayers (Salat); Alms-Giving (Zakat); Fasting during Ramadan (Saum) and Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). However, like any building or structure, these five pillars must have a foundation. According to my personal interpretation, this foundation is like the soul of Islam that makes our faith (Iman) in Allah (SWT) strong.
The five pillars of Islam are the body parts that one must know in order to practice our faith with love and thankfulness. Notably, the three most important elements of the foundation of Islam are:
(1) Al-Eaql (Wisdom): Quran has put a great amount of importance on using wisdom in all themes including gaining awareness about the existence of Allah (SWT), knowing good from evil, differentiating between truth and lies, knowing the difference between freedom and domination, following the moral and leaving the immoral and finally to find purpose in life.
(2) Al-Fitrah (Goodness): Islam is the religion of Fitrah because human beings are born to do good deeds, to be kind and to help others. Considering my travel experiences, I encountered both good people and bad people everywhere. This illustrated that goodness doesn’t depend on any particular cultural or religious background.
(3) Al Tawheed (Law of Divine Oneness): As mentioned in the Quran “Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is Guardian of all things.” (Quran 39:62), Tawheed in Arabic means attributing Oneness to Allah (SWT). In order to help us adopt Al Tawheed in our daily actions, Allah (SWT) defines Himself with Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names in the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
About the Book
If you ever have been fully engaged in any social or professional activity, you might have been experiencing a mental state that psychologists define as flow. You are completely involved and you feel enjoyment in the process of the activity. Some might experience flow while engaging in a sport and others might have such an experience while engaged in an activity such as painting, reading, or fishing. For some, this activity involves helping people, animals or plants in one way or another, which relates to the state of the soul introduced in this book called The Eternal Path of Charity. Indeed, during any charity based activity, you will feel some kind of tranquility in your heart and sometimes, you will even experience tears of inner joy. This means that you are putting the path of your life in the pleasant Eternal Path of Charity.
“See you not that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth, and the sun , and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and living creatures , beasts and many of mankind prostate themselves to Allah…” (Quran 22:18)
This Quranic verse aroused my curiosity in order to find the commonality in the commandments of Allah (SWT) related to the universe and human beings and encouraged me to write this book. My exploration is predominantly based on lessons learnt from professional experiences over the duration of my travels and the lectures of Dr. Mohammed Rateb al-Nabulsi. First, since I have been for many years conducting research in different types of scientific fields and utilized diverse theories to interpret data from my experiments, I realized that, if the mathematical models used in different fields of science look different in the application, they have a similar profound concept. I came to the conclusion that these scientific principles could belong to one divine science imposed by Allah (SWT) on the whole universe.
This supposition informed my spirituality, and encouraged me to look for the hidden forces beyond the material world. Secondly, based on the lessons learned from the lectures of Dr. Nabulsi, I have come to the understanding that the foundation of Islam is fundamental to have a strong faith in order to worship Allah (SWT) with love and thankfulness. The adoration of Allah (SWT) in this book is related to adding our daily actions during social and professional activities in the Eternal Path of Charity.
Dr. Zin Eddine Dadach obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Refining and Petro-chemistry from the Algerian Institute of Petroleum in 1980. He received his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.; USA) in 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Laval University (Quebec, Canada) in 1994. He worked in the organic materials department at the Osaka National Research Institute (Osaka, Japan) from 1994 to 1996. He joined the Chemical Engineering department of the Higher Colleges of Technology (Abu Dhabi, UAE) in 2005.
