The Origin Of Islam Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Origin Of Islam - Term Paper Example But, after the death of Muhammed, Allah’s peace be upon him, every revelation were inscribed by the believers on barks, stones, and the modern times writing paper in the hope of passing the teachings on to the subsequent generations. In 1935, the first English translation was attempted bringing more people into the faith. Body Based on the revelation of Allah, praise and glory is only due to Him, in the Qur’an, Islam as the religion of mankind was first taught by Allah, praise and glory is only due to Him, to Adam and Eve, Allah’s peace upon them, with the following words: â€Å"And if as is sure there comes to you guidance from Me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve† Sii: 38 (Ali, 1935). â€Å"But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of the fire; they shall abide therein† Sii: 39 (Ali, 1935). This marked the beginning of Islam for mankind when men and women were sent down on the surface of the earth. This was after Adam and Eve fell for disobedience. Along the way, generations after generations, not the whole of mankind remembered to pass on the faith to their progenies. Then Abraham, Allah's peace upon him, was born to a family in Ur, Karbala, Iraq. "We gave him Isaac and Jacob: All (three) We guided: and before him, We guided Noah, and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron: Thus do we reward those who do good: And Zachariya and John, and Jesus and Elias: All in the ranks of the righteous: And Ismail and Elisha, and Jonas and Lot; and to all we gave favour above the nations" Sii: 84-86 (Ali, 1935). At about the age of maturity, after a long search for whom to worship, Abraham, Allah's peace upon him, received a revelation from Allah, glory to Him: "And who turns away from the religion of Abraham but such as debase their souls with folly Him We chose and rendered pure in this world: and he will be in the hereafter in the ranks of the righteous" Sii: 130 (Ali, 1935). "Behold! His Lord said to him: 'Bow (thy will to me):' He said: I bow (my will) to the Lord and Cherisher of the Universe" Sii: 131(Ali, 1935). "And this was the legacy that Abraham left to his sons, and so did Jacob; 'Oh my sons! God hath chosen the faith for you; then die not except in the Faith of Islam" Sii: 132 (Ali, 1935). The above quotations are the faithful English translation in 1935 of the Arabic Qur'an. The Arabic version was revealed during the time when people were left groping in the dark after about 500 years when Jesus the son of Mary left earth. This exact revelation marked the reappearance of Islam. This was revealed to the prophet Muhammed s.a.w. in 500 A.D.Subsequently, the following revelations confirmed Abraham's leadership of Islam as the religion reappeared guided by Allah s.w.a.: "He said: 'I will make thee an Imam to the nations.' He pleaded: 'And also (Imams) from my offspring!' He answered: 'but My promise is not within the reach of evil-doers.' Sii: 124 (Ali, 1935). Conclusion Islam as a religion of Muslims dates back to the time of the prophets Adam and Eve, Allah's peace upon them, which prominently reappeared during Abraham's civilization unto his progeny. Reference Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. 1935. Qur'an. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar Al Arabia.

Pay as Motivator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pay as Motivator - Essay Example Skinner's reinforcement theory (1953) is perhaps the foundation for every study on the matter. By stating that behaviour can be shaped, changed, or maintained through positive and negative reinforcement, he implied that people can be made to behave in certain ways using levers of motivation. Later studies merely attempted to find what those levers were. Maslow (1954) proposed five levers he called human needs, with the lowest being physiological, and self-actualisation the highest; in between are the safety, social, and esteem needs. He said meeting these needs is the motivational key, which leads others to ask: if pay helps meet each of these needs, why is it that even highly-paid CEOs continue to milk their corporate cow, sometimes fatally Pay does not seem to give the complete answer. Perhaps Herzberg (1959) had an answer in his hygiene and motivational factors. He argued that a worker would be satisfied if the motivation factors are met, but not if hygiene factors are unmet. However, hygiene factors do not necessarily lead to job satisfaction. And like these other content theories, MacGregor's (1960) simplistic categorisation of employees does not fully explain the behaviour of greedy managers who used to be honest. An interesting trilogy of process theories (Adams, 1963; Vroom, 1964; Porter and Lawler, 1968) goes beyond the tangible and crosses the line into the realm of the mystical. Balance (Adams's Equity Theory), values and beliefs (the expectancy and instrumentality of Vroom), and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation (Porter and Lawler) point out that money is important, but there are others of greater value that managers need to know about workers so they can trigger the right behaviour. Fifteen years (1953-1968) of research concluded that to motivate others, one has to find out why people do the things they do. And now, some four decades later, as researchers continue investigating the human psyche in search of answers, the list of motivational levers just keeps on getting longer. Pay has never been near the top of the list, superseded by more important ones like job security, the loftiness of goals, and the meaningfulness of work (Ambrose and Kulik, 1999; Gagne and Deci, 2005). Are these findings supported by empirical evidence in the real world of the workplace We find out by looking at two well-known U.K. companies: The Royal Mail Holdings plc, a government-owned firm, and J. Sainsbury plc, the publicly listed owner of the third largest supermarket chain in the U.K. Both companies, just getting out of a serious business crisis, offer us a good look at the "pay as motivator" issue by considering the behaviour of managers and workers. We may find some evidence of how our motivation beast really looks like, discover whether the theories are right and, if not, gain some practical lessons from this exercise. The Reality: Hard Facts The Royal Mail Experience The Royal Mail is a 370-year old organisation that began when King Charles I introduced the postal services in Britain (Steven-Jones, 2004, p. 8-9). It was a government monopoly until the passage of the Postal Services Act of 2000 that liberalised the U.K. postal services market. The law was the culmination of several factors, but what triggered it was an event that took place three decades earlier, when in 1971 postal workers staged a six-week strike that threatened to cripple the