Literally, the root word of Islam in Arabic is س،ل،م. It has two basic meanings: First, peace and security. السلامۃ means security from hardships and dangers. Second, obedience and subjugation (الانقیاد).

The term Islam encompasses both of these meanings. It means the total subjugation to the one and only Allah that saves one from his disobedience and also, as a result, from fire in the Hereafter.

Note: We have added the term “total” in the definition due to another linguistic property of the Arabic language. In Arabic, words have scales as do things have which gives certain attributes to words. The scale of Islam is “If’aal (افعال)” which has the meaning of totality and entireness of the action or quality described by the word. Hence, we have used the “total subjugation” for Islam.