الطريق إلى الإسلام
STRAIGHT ROAD TO ISLAM

تأليف / محمد بن إبراهيم الحمد
Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al-Hamad,
Teaching Staff, Faculty of Faith and Belief,
Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University

ترجمة/ أبو أنس صديق محمد ولينكود
Translated into English from Arabic By
Sidheeque M. A. Veliankode

Dar Ibn Khuzaimah

In the Name of Allah,
The Most Merciful, Most Beneficent 

PREFACE
All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe. Peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad, the seal and final of all the prophets, upon his family, companions and all those who follow his true guidance until the Day of Judgement.
The basic purpose of life for every human being in this world is to achieve the ultimate happiness and salvation. This could be accomplished through endeavors focused on how to drive away the discontentment from their lives.
A writer, a thinker or a philosopher and other literary persons including those who obtained doctorate are continuously in search to achieve this ultimate happiness as well as to avoid frustration in their respective lives. Though the nature of happiness for each such category of persons might differ and direction varies, they exert their energies to achieve this ultimate goal.
Therefore, each of this class recognizes his/her profession and lives accordingly. Sometimes the degree of happiness achieved by such personalities is incomplete or even imaginary.
The ironical but relevant example in this case could be of a drug addict. In his initial practice feels ecstatic but as he becomes fully addicted to the narcotics after an excessive use the euphoria vanishes and the state of his mind changes into melancholy and gloom prevails over his life.
The reason why such persons fall trap to this artificial merriment is that they inadvertently neglect the fundamentals of the real happiness that brings the unfeigned salvation to life. One should bear in mind that the firm belief in Allah is the core and the secret to achieve the real happiness. That is the only means that leads to the Straight Path.
Therefore, only the true believer in Allah achieve the real and constant happiness, which guides one on to the Straight Path and brings eternal happiness in this life and the Hereafter.
Dear Reader, this book explains and enlighten you about the real happiness that is meritorious and guides you to the true belief in your Lord, the Creator of this universe. It also guides you to the correct tenets of a religion, based on reasoning and convinces you to understand the real happiness of life and guide you to the straight path and uprightness.
Reading of this book will take you on a journey of life starting from coming into being through to the demise from this world. It speaks about the wisdom behind creation of man, etc. It will also introduce you to the true concept of Islam, which Allah has satisfactorily finalized as being the correct and natural religion revealed to humankind and commanded them to embrace it.
Other benefit of reading this book is to get acquainted with the grandeur and the strong basis on which the Islam is founded, its true message, the appropriateness and the practicality and its existence in all times, place and the civilizations.
Dear reader, after you finish reading this book, do your own research. Furthermore, if you feel that you need to know more about Islam, do not hesitate to ask any Muslim scholar or those knowledgeable personalities in Islam.
Islam is an open religion. Its doors are wide open for those who are inquisitive to know about it. It is a religion, which neither lacks in providing information related with any subject matter of life nor it retreats from addressing questions or issues however enormous and varied they might be.
In Islam, there is an answer every question and for every issue there is a solution, and for every problem there is a rule.
To sum up, Islam is a complete way of life. Therefore, I solicit your attention while you read this book.
I seek Allah’s help, and on Him, I put my full reliance and trust.
Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad and all his family members and Companions.