General Issues / Questions

'Is Islamic History to Blame for Muslims 'Violent Mentality'? I think most if not all human history is violent. Christian, American, Indonesian, Chinese history it's all violent. Ancient human history is violent too Aztecs, Romans, its full of many wars, suffering, slavery, blood and gore. What does our human history really say about mankind? Regardless of faith, we are violent creatures. It is also not confined to a specific people and their history, like you seem to be suggesting. Atrocities are committed now and in recent history regardless of how advanced or civilized humanity has become, under many different banners and notions such as Imperialism, Maoism but still all pretty violent. I've lived in Bosnia, seen Srebrenica. You want to see how violent people are, visit these places where men have killed each other just because they were different, the wrong ethnicity or religion. Visit 9/11 towers, visit Rwandan, Cambodian killing fields. They are all a striking reminder and portrait of mankind, irrespective of beliefs.

Salaam almarh0m The 30-day notice proved ot be useless in these cases because the adopted children take the name of their adoptive family, especially that the law used to protect this by making it impossible for the child to find out about their natural parents. Then this law changed, and children have the right to find out when they reach the age of 18, two years too late for the age of sexual consent!! Maybe the children do not want to find out, just in case. No one else has the right to. So, what's the use of the 30 day period here?

peace be upon you i always thought of this...was islam known to people before all the prophets that we know came to the world? yes because people with knowledge know there is only one God,and ancient societies were pagan as hell,but of course there was always one small group of believers taking about the oneness of God and being persecuted for it,thats why God says to fight the unbelievers because he knows what we do not know. peace Actually, your assumptions need checking with known facts about ancient societies. As far as I know--most, if not all, primitive or ancient human societies, be they civilized or not, have some idea of religion or divine being. Some are monotheistic, others are polytheistic or pantheistic. It is said that no ancient human society was atheistic--but I cannot yet verify that claim. Early humans might have an idea of the supernatural too. Cave people paint pictures of 'unnatural' beings (like man with animal features) in their caves. There's also statuettes of fat women, interpreted as 'fertility goddesses'. And Neanderthals might bury their dead.

It is very clear and we wil discuss it; But it astonishing to read the comments of the Mods of this site, It makes me feel that there is something realy fishy going around. In these ayats Allah is talking with Muhammad and telling him about Moses and bani Israel up to some Ayats but then again orders are for Muhammad and his people Most glorified is the One who summoned His servant (Muhammad) during the night, from the Sacred Masjid (of Mecca) to the farthest place of prostration, whose surroundings we have blessed, in order to show him some of our signs. He is the Hearer, the Seer. Similarly, we gave Moses the scripture, and rendered it a beacon for the Children of Israel that "You shall not set up any idol as a lord and master beside Me." 1776] They almost banished you from the land to get rid of you, so they could revert as soon as you left. This has been consistently the case with all the messengers that we sent before you, and you will find that our system never changes. Here it is Muhammad definitly the who is being addressed. You shall observe the Contact Prayer (Salat) when the sun declines from its highest point at noon, as it moves towards sunset. You shall also observe (the recitation of) the Quran at dawn. (Reciting) the Quran at dawn is witnessed. then again During the night, you shall meditate for extra credit, that your Lord may raise you to an honorable rank. And say, "My Lord, admit me an honorable admittance, and let me depart an honorable departure, and grant me from You a powerful support." Proclaim, "The truth has prevailed, and falsehood has vanished; falsehood will inevitably vanish." Allah Ho Akbar Hi Raj-ah, i have always thought that "Wa" means "and" , but may be you can point to places in the quran where it has been used as "simerlarly" as you are showing us. Thanks.

This thread has degenerated into namecalling, thus it has been locked. If there are any salient points that still need clarification please start a new thread, refraining from insults, i.e. keep to the discussion and refutation of points.

salaam, I was just curious. I?ve not read any of the heretical gospels, but the gospel of Judas is intriguing, I remember watching an interesting documentary about it on Channel 4. Why does the church reject those heretical gospels? Judas is obvious, but why the rest? confused peace Well, there are a few pretty good reasons why the church rejected them when they sat down to decide a canon. First, they are not historical. They are written beyond the possibility of containing information from the eyewitness period (with the exception of the Gospel of Thomas). Second, they were not widely dispersed, even when they were being used. The Christian canon was decided in 397, but in the second century, a Christian writer put together a list of books accepted as inspired by most of the Christians he knew. It is called the Muratorian Canon, and it contains all of the books in the New Testament today with the exception of 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Revelation. The books that ended up in the canon were widely accepted everywhere from the get-go. The "heretical gospels" were never that widely read, and there is a good reason for that they were never intended to be. Those books emphasize "secret knowledge" and a secret isn't much of a secret if you are letting everybody read it, right? Third, around the time the canon was decided, there were heresies that arose that challenged basic Christian thinking. Those people claimed to be prophets (people like Mani, Montanus, etc), when really, they were plain off their rocker. But the church's reaction to this was to completely stifle anything remotely prophetic. Before, one of the claims of the early church was that God had abandoned the Jews' religion because they no longer had prophets, and that God proved that the Christians were those in covenant with him because they regularly had people prophesy and work miracles like Jesus did. But now that a few wackos started causing trouble while claiming inspiration, the church decided that prophecy and inspiration was something that the church did not need. They thought they needed a book as a benchmark for all future belief that would remain unchanged. There were many Christians who considered the writing "The Shepherd of Hermas" to be inspired by God, but didn't add it to the canon because it was written within their lifetimes and they knew the brother of the author. In short, some of the "heretical gospels" contain a record of the possibility of this ongoing revelation among Christians, but whoever wrote them down, did so in the form of a gospel. But there is hardly any general agreement in the meanings of the heretical texts, and each one has to be rviewed on its own. Some of the heretical texts are Sethian - a later gnostic heresy. I hope that helps, it may be more info than what you were looking for. peace

Salam Arnold, Thank you for your suggestion yet my study of the Quran is sufficient to the point where I understand that even though you may like to believe what you just stated above there is a very good reason for hunger and thirst. It simply tells you that you need energy and hydration. Yet, I agree that we aught to strive to end hunger and thirst of our brother and sister human beings that are not getting what they need to survive. handshake

Peace Arnold Oh some of them know how to adapt to new situations alright when it suits them, and is highly destructive, such as fatwas on suicide bombings on civilians, use of chemical agents such as Ricin in London, poisoning water supplies in western cities, and probably use of nuclear weapons if they had their hands on some, etc...

Peace all, angel said To be frank i?m personally not particular impressed by what Muslims in the past have achieved. People from other cultures/religions in the past have contributed a lot to the world. i agree with you in the sens that each culture has contributed. This is what should be taught in schools... elke

Peace Almarh0m, It's not their fault that most people choose not to use their brain!

But this "beautiful" creature, at times, can be as ugly as he/she can be (inside or outside)! Exalting the human being won't do much good. I think what you meant was "wonderful". Yeah yeah, I know it's "all" relative (as in the eyes of the beholder), but then what's the point? Anwar Azim Salam. When i said that The GOD created all humans beautiful, that's what i meant. Human is born on the outside as well as on the inside. We have such a weapon, called the brain and we can do such things with this little organ that sometimes people don't appreciate enough the brains alone. We have legs we're clueless how the snake feels when it has to move across the burning sand on its belly or through the vast rainforests. Human being has a face with our face we send messages, we look at people and they know what we are saying even though we don't open our mouth. Then we use the lips, tongue, cords and a mouth to spread the word. Does anyone ask him/herself how we can understand each other? How is it possible that so many different languages came to existance? Who translated the language first? I mean, how did for example two people from two different countries understood each other. A German came to Paris and how did he understand the French guy? How did translations of the languages start? Isn't that a miracle? Human subconsciousness. Human memory. Human psyche. Human eyes. Human eyes talk without moving that much while the tongue can use thousand words and start a war. A human being can make a bomb and destroy a city. Same human being can also build a city with his two hands. How can two little arms make a city? Isn't that a miracle itself' Human being, beautiful creation. We can be all we can be. We can choose. We can be good. We can be bad. We can kill and love, we are on the way to live a better life or the worst. Peace.

peace khimar i just added on the "see also" down part of the .Quran. source "quran alone", it has to be there,i wonder if u ever thought of it,or put it there,after all it needs to be there no matter what...unless someone erases it,wikiwar!!!!! lol nope but i still get lost on how to post there,unless you tell me in details, i dont think i would get it,im new to wiki membership and dont know how it works,i see letters,words,paragraphs all over the place! & take care peace

All the above sound like American Civil Liberties Union Approved Politically Correct Terms for "GOD" )- Lol ;D.

Salam Nabster, Yeah, it's a real furstration, I just hope that I am not and never will turn into one of these people! ( Salam al-Quraishi, Well, since you're already here... this place will prevent you from doing so!

actually, someone did write a re-buttal of her book calling it "The Trouble with Irshad Manji"

i have added a couple of lines. what do you want me to expand up and i will endeavour to do it.

I have watched this programme and it's really good! I stream it off the net!

Not sure where the deletion tag is, but I added my comment.

Salam lilyfleur, Lily, if you are not afraid of what people think of you, then why are you so worried about what "MOST" think when the "hear the word" Muslim? Much love and peace be upon you sis. peace Peace again Brother M_Mehdi, You're right. Enjoy your weekend. Your Muslim Sister, with peace and love, lilyfleur

Peace bro "phoenix", NO that verse is NOT ENTIRELY AN ALLEGORY. The first part where it says "GOD is the Light of the heavens and the earth" is NOT an allegory. Notice how GOD just after that phrase finishes uses the term "mathalu" and then goes to allegorically describe on what He means so as to give us an example with what we can easily perceive. What i understand from that later part is that the source of GOD's light lies at an infinite point, which btw is the only possible explanation because you can keep asking where does something come from and since it is only logical that something has to come from a previous something there has to be infinite regression whether we want it or not. GOD Bless! P.s Light/Em waves is the simplest substance.