"He is Allah, the Creator, the Originator, The Fashioner, to Him belong the most beautiful names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, do declare His praises and glory. And He is the Exalted in Might, The Wise. (Quran 59:24)

"The most beautiful names belong to God: so call on Him by them;..." (7:180)

It is not possible to perfectly translate the names and attributes of Allah from their original Arabic into English. However, here are some fairly close explanations.

Original article: http://www.jannah.org/articles/names.html

Zakat is the amount of money that every adult, mentally stable, free, and financially able Muslim, male and female, has to pay to support specific categories people.

LET US BE MUSLIMS

By Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi

Edited by Khurram Murad

The Islamic Foundation

1982

Introduction

Brothers in Islam! Hajj, or the Pilgrimage, is the last among those acts of Worship, which Islam enjoins upon you. Like the prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, it mounds your life and prepares you so that you may live in surrender to Allah.

The word Hajj means to make a resolve to visit a holy place: Visiting the Ka’ba in Makka is therefore called Hajj.

How did it begin? The Origin of Hajj is rooted in the Prophet Ibrahim’s life, peace be on him. That story is instructive, and illustrative, too, of the true meaning and significance of Hajj. That story you must know to fully understand the benefits Hajj can bring to you.

LET US BE MUSLIMS

By Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi

Edited by Khurram Murad

The Islamic Foundation

1982

LET US BE MUSLIMS

By Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi

Edited by Khurram Murad

The Islamic Foundation

1982

Introduction

LET US BE MUSLIMS

By Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi

Edited by Khurram Murad

The Islamic Foundation

1982

Introduction

Brothers in Islam! Muslims who should perform Hajj, because they the means to do so, are not few in number. They are found in thousands in every city and hundreds of thousands in every country. Many of them set out every year to perform the Pilgrimage. Imagine how, in every part of the world where Muslims live, the life of Islam becomes alive as the season of Hajj approaches, and how this sense of lively purpose extends over many months of the year.

From the month of Ramadan till Dhu ‘l-Qa’dah, many people from different parts of the world start off for Hajj, while afterwards, from the last part of Dhu ‘l-Thani, the homeward journey continues. For these six to seven months an incessant religious movement prevails among Muslims throughout the world. Those who go to perform Hajj and return home are no doubt enraptured with devotion to God. But even those who do not go receive some share of the experience by virtue of the emotional farewells and homecoming welcomes they accord to the pilgrims, and listening to their accounts of Hajj.

Ours is an era of space probes, computer chips, laser surgeries and cloning. If we were to label any book as a revelation from God, we couldn't help but to scrutinize this Scripture using modern scientific knowledge. It could not be that a revelation, proclaiming itself from God, could constitute aspects contradicting established scientific facts. How could we assume otherwise, when God is the one who created the universe and the laws operating within it.

The Quran was revealed 1400 years ago to the last Prophet of God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a guidance for all humanity. The entire Quran has been committed to memory by millions of Muslims around the world and has been preserved by God from any interpolations, for continuing guidance. Although the Quran is a religious book with a total of about 6600 plus verses dealing with many aspects of a person's life, about 1000 of those verses are of scientific nature, none contradicting established scientific facts.