Ask About Islam - an independent perspective.

[stevecanuck]

It's not that simple.

I didn't think it was true when I first read it. If G-d had not helped me, I wouldn't have known it to be truth.

If one has the wrong intention in the first place, one can never understand it. One cannot get everything from books.
One needs a community to show them how it is true.

If people don't listen to educated Muslims on the meaning, and just wish to be smart and prove it is incoherent, they are either wasting their time, or have an agenda on opposing it for reasons best known to themselves.

I would rather listen to a beggar in a poor country than a wealthy person in a rich one.
How can one expect a rich person to be guided when both Jesus and Muhammad taught that paradise will not be for the rich?

The point is that you read it. Then you decided.

 

[stevecanuck]

The historic advice we all needed to cover our bare naked tribal human bodies with cloth.

Garden burning tree bush life oxygen gone history. Eviction out of healthy DNA.

From burning irradiation effect of falling stone.

Felled disintegrated mountains at feet angel cloud burning gases came to ground attacking temples on mount.

Wise man given visions by heavenly so feedback voice image in attacks of causes.

Man scientist pyramid theist reinvented dusts. Began thesis ground chemistry dusts ended effect.

Visionary advice science after ice age advised choice.

That was an interesting collection of words. What order do they normally go in?

 

[stevecanuck]

Thank you for offering to answer any question about Islam.

What is the meaning of life and the universe?

The meaning of life according to the qur'an is to worship and obey Allah so that he let's you into his great brothel in the sky for eternity (really). It is clearly aimed at men, so I'm not sure if women get to cavort with young stud-muffins, or if they are the sex slaves.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I am biased towards being objective and independent.

I am not interpreting it.

Yeah, objective and independent to me is different.

 

[Kooky]

Muhammad was a political leader. And a military one. Thought that was taken for granted.

Did you derive that from your only-correct and objective reading of the Quran, or do you make claims to complete accuracy and objectivity outside those Scriptures as well?

 

[KWED]

If a person doesn't witness signs of God in form of miracles, can, they be a disbeliever in context of how Quran talked about it?

Don't understand your question. Which passages are you referring to?

 

[KWED]

Maybe so, but I don't accept that.

Indeed, only Muslims believe that. Whether it is true or not depends on whether Islam is true. Hopefully I can help people think about that.

It might to me. I think if I wish to gain an understanding of Islam, a Muslim would be an obvious source to go to. Non-Muslim sources might also be of interest, but getting it from the "horse's mouth" would I think be good.

If you wanted Tory party policy explained in an objective and independent manner, would a Tory supporter be the best person to consult?
The problem with such partisan sources is that they have a vested interest in the issue.

So...were you?

No, but I have read different versions of the Quran, along with classical tafsir and accompanying hadith, as well as Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (the earliest biography of Muhammad) and academic works on the history of Islam. Many Muslims have never even read the Quran so their only source of information is what their imam tells them.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Indeed, only Muslims believe that. Whether it is true or not depends on whether Islam is true. Hopefully I can help people think about that.

...

Well, it is true, that there are people, who believe, that Islam is true. So I generally leave it there for methodological naturalism, as I consider it a part of nature, that people can be religious. That is how objective I can do that.

Now if you want to evaluate their cognition/behaviour and so on, you can do that, but I have found no objective methodology for that.

 

[KWED]

No, nor do I.
I think this notion is often misunderstood.

“Allah Almighty says, ‘I created all My servants hunafa’, then the devils misled them from their religion and forbade them from what I made lawful for them and commanded them to associate with Me that which I have not sent down any authority for.” (Sahih Muslim)

Yes, some people claim that hanif (or fitrah in other hadith) refers simply to acceptance of monotheism or "purity", but as Islam is the only monotheism, that sounds like equivocation. Additionally, in the hadith above Allah specifically refers to people being misled from an original position of Islam.

 

[KWED]

This is the crux of the matter.
How can anybody who doesn't believe it to be true, understand what it is saying?
The Qur'an is not a book of proofs. It is a book for those who believe.
A disbeliever is misguided, so how can they guide anybody to the truth?

They simply cannot !

I am not making any claims to spiritual truth. I am merely answering questions about Islam in the context of the Quran and sunnah.
I think claiming that the Quran has some magical property that makes in incomprehensible to non-Muslims is both unreasonable and unhelpful. (If this were the case, how could the Quran bring anyone to Islam?)

 

[KWED]

I didn't think it was true when I first read it. If G-d had not helped me, I wouldn't have known it to be truth.

Why didn't you bring this up in the discussion about god's part in belief? So you have personal experience of god deciding who believes and who doesn't, even though you insisted that he doesn't do that. That's naughty.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I am not making any claims to spiritual truth. I am merely answering questions about Islam in the context of the Quran and sunnah.
I think claiming that the Quran has some magical property that makes in incomprehensible to non-Muslims is both unreasonable and unhelpful. (If this were the case, how could the Quran bring anyone to Islam?)

No, you have chosen a certain context to interpret it in. You can do that.
But so can everybody else, so for truth, how do you know, that your choice is true?

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Why didn't you bring this up in the discussion about god's part in belief? So you have personal experience of god deciding who believes and who doesn't, even though you insisted that he doesn't do that. That's naughty.

How do you know as true, that it is naughty?

 

[KWED]

If Sadigh was boasting that Allah made Him one of those who is well grounded in knowledge, one can say, Muhammad and other prophets were boasting around that they are a Messenger of God!!

That would seem reasonable.

ibni khatir did not claim., simply because he was not chosen by God.

Are you saying that only people who claim they are chosen by god can interpret the Quran?

I am not biased towards anyone, Sadigh or anyone. I am discussing Islam Logically, according to its Sources.

The only sources of Islam are the Quran and sunnah. Everything else is interpretation of those two sources.

Tell you what. You choose a verse from Quran which is difficult to understand, and bring a Tafseer from Ibni Khateer, or your own personal Tafseer. I will bring the explanation from those who claimed to be well-grounded in knowledge. And we compare their knowledge, and judge fairly. How's that?

How do you suggest we "compare their knowledge and judge fairly"? By what independent method do we decide which it correct?

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

...

How do you suggest we "compare their knowledge and judge fairly"? By what independent method do we decide which it correct?

Neither of you can. Because you will personally choose one over all other one and thus it is not independent of a choice.

 

[KWED]

I simply quoted Hadith of Muhammad. That's what your Prophet said, not me. I'm sorry didn't mean to make you feel bad.

You seem to misunderstand. I have noticed that Muslims of different sects seem overly concerned with showing that other sects are "Not True Muslims". I don't get involved with that. I maintain that if someone sincerely takes the shahada and follows the five pillars to the best of their ability, they are a Muslim, whichever sect they happen to follow. Do you disagree?

 

[KWED]

Thank you for offering to answer any question about Islam.
What is the meaning of life and the universe?

According to Islam, only to worship Allah and submit to his will.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy said that after programming the world's most complex computer to find that answer, and after working on it for billions of years, the answer was......42.

What many people aren't aware of is that this wasn't the end. The answer was so puzzling that the earth was then built as a computer to find out what the question was.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

You seem to misunderstand. I have noticed that Muslims of different sects seem overly concerned with showing that other sects are "Not True Muslims". I don't get involved with that. I maintain that if someone sincerely takes the shahada and follows the five pillars to the best of their ability, they are a Muslim, whichever sect they happen to follow. Do you disagree?

Well, you are asking something subjective, so that means there are at least 2 possible ways to choose. How do you independently of your thinking know which one is true?

 

[KWED]

That was an interesting collection of words. What order do they normally go in?

I'm convinced that Rational Experiences is a random text generator.

 

[KWED]

The meaning of life according to the qur'an is to worship and obey Allah so that he let's you into his great brothel in the sky for eternity (really). It is clearly aimed at men, so I'm not sure if women get to cavort with young stud-muffins, or if they are the sex slaves.

Women get their husbands. They must still lower their gaze from other men.
According to sahih hadith, the "virgins" (houri) aren't human. They are specially created by Allah and described, amongst other things, as 90ft tall with transparent skin so you can see the marrow in their bones, and a virgin every time they have sex.