General Issues / Questions

May your soul be protected, brother SAbboushi, What I am glad over is that the tinkering has led to further understanding and not so much into further questions. Delving into the very foundation of Arabic was a wise decision in my opinion rather than remaining in confusion left with a lot of words and meanings propagated by people void of knowledge that are also quite arrogant on their stance. Admittedly I "recycled" what they knew to discover the meaning of the letters involved in words, but at least I thought on my own and some words/letters I have actually corrected myself. And through these means I have also found more upright translations of passages that seem atrocious and verging on oppressive. One word I am glad to have discovered its true meaning is 'kafar', even if I have changed my opinion several times on it, and now I no longer consider it to be in opposition to God, but rather be void of sound judgment, such as the fools in the "Islamic State". What I have known for quite some time is that it does not translate as "disbeliever" or lack of faith in God. Heck not even belief exists in the realm of God because God does not deal in belief but is a rather confident being. Only opposite case is to be without knowledge, self-insight. A question is the final judgment on the promised day when a person was completely oblivious of the fact there is a creator during his or her lifetime and how God will judge then, if this person was like God in deed and behavior while ignoring the fact that there is a creating force in this universe that also is the universe itself. It is among my only questions I have and according to my realization it may not be that these people are doomed to Hell just for lacking knowledge or being misinformed and hence drawn the wrong conclusions. What I find that God will look on the most is just what was the deeds and behavior of this soul when it was still present on Earth. Be of one with God

Peace Titani Is this your own translation? It look like brilliant work. And nice to have by the hand. Thanks a lot.

What I think is that we as humans, can judge people based on our perceptions of them. It's a survival tool, it's how we live by choosing who to stay in our lives and not. Of course God is the best judge because he can see what we can't. We cannot get right into the psyche of people and see every thought, every memory and emotion. As humans, we do do judge and it's not to be taken to heart but as a trait of humanity. Someone might judge me as a shy person, but another person may call me confident. It depends on everyone's own perception really. For instance, you may judge someone on how they behave and talk with you. If you cannot understand them, you classify them as weird. Does it mean they're strange? It may be or may not be- according to Allah.

Harmony, I would not necessarily have to use the word Islam or the root s -l -m but I can use words from English or similar to present the faith of God for people, particularly since I know islam is not a label but a description for a certain behavior and being. The problem would be, for example, to make Christians separate Jesus from God but it is equally difficult to do the same with Muhammad for those who label themselves Muslim. I need no label identity and knowing God's label" is "is that is" and Rabb (foundation for). God has no proper name and so goes for the name of the faith as well, i.e it does not exist other than in a highly descriptive way. The word Islam is marking the state of mind and does not equal to submission but rather to be in harmony of that or described as symbiotic, or perhaps a descriptive "whole with God". You cannot force God by submission unless changing comes from your own heart and you are responsible for your deeds and you have to work on your character and God will not do that for you as you control your mind and soul. God helps, but then you ought to become "one in God". The will to change must be realized by no one but yourself. You cannot imagine that God will just give you a free ride if you indulge in a lot of rituals and proclaim "submission", particularly when you do little to do like God, for example, be goodly and kind spreading the light. Being goodly and peaceful, spreading the light, is what is Islam so if you can just describe this in English to others then you have no need to use Muslim or Islam when discussing things with people. And use synonyms in English for hakmat and ketaab talking about justice and fair living for that is exactly what the words imply. Instead of masadeqeen you can speak of spreading the light. Then you teach God's faith without the label Islam. What is "quranic aspect"? People had the same decree of God and what kind of justice and being to live by much earlier than when the scripture called Quran was presented. You may run into problems if you begin proclaiming non-existent teachings and conjecture which did not occur for people except those who materialize God and indulge in Pagan style of ritualism which needs for God to be an item for worship, or if you adopt the same biased interpretation of the text as in their traditions and inability to read the scripture properly. And particularly it will be hard to convince atheists when God is a neanderthal item rather than the most advanced and abstract entity in existence and not separate from us but rather it is the foundation/platform for the whole world, the living and only thing eternal. We are nothing without God, we must just realize it. Thus is why God speaks of removing the light who else can get it back and the answer is no one can but "is that is", eternal. We must face it that religion has tainted the image of God and made it look pathetic and repairing the deluded projection into the brains of those who call themselves atheist is not an easy task. In ways I do not blame those who take that stance and I am only glad that I found God through myself and philosophies, for had I sought religion I would likely have ended up atheist. Many of them have taken a adversarial stance and changing the intention of a human in the first place is difficult for man is stubborn and leaning on arrogant. I have absolutely no lack of empathy for those who judge Islam as evil because so many make a mockery out of the very label they assign for themselves. Just look at taking a word which one of innate meaning the being of a soul or to be masadeqeen, spreading light. Murdering innocents and all sorts of oppression, is that spreading light? I often teach people that Quran does not really teach what they do and many people can accept that. Knowledge of Quran is very bad for bystanders and it is no wonder they think it is from Satan without further information because people often judge by what they see. It is just unfortunate that Quran is associated with such a group of fools. Be of one in 'is that is'

Why censor outrageous claims? And how do we define the term in a place like this? I don't see anyone trolling here. What seems outrageous to us maybe normal to the ones who hold onto them as facts. We don't live the same life. Also Allah supports freedom of speech and expression. He suggests what to do if we don't want to discuss something that goes against our belief 2855 Whenever they (believers) hear vain talk of ridicule, they withdraw from it decently and say, ??To us our deeds and to you yours; Peace be upon you, we do not seek to join the ignorant. 668 When you see them engaged in vain discourse about Our verses, turn away from them unless they engage in a different subject. If Satan ever makes you forget (i.e. your mind gets engrossed in their discourse,) then as soon as you recollect, no longer sit in the company of the people who confound the truth with falsehood. We have no right to force our belief on another person 1099 If your Lord willed, all who are on earth, would have believed (by not providing free will). Would you then, compel people to become believers?

N?, jag titulerar mig inte heller n?got s?nt d?r. Jag ?r faktiskt innerligt tr?tt p? allt vad religion heter... dvs n?r man s?tter namn p? olika religioner och sekter. Jag ?r ocks? tr?tt p? kampen om religi?sa titlar, om att ?terta en titel eller namn. Jag kanske ?r opraktisk och inte lever i verkligheten, men jag v?grar alla slags titlar f?r mig sj?lv, f?r de kommer aldrig att g?ra mig r?ttvisa. B?ttre d? att bara kalla sig m?nniska, och sedan ber?tta om sina synvinklar som man har f?r tillf?llet. Ju mer jag unders?ker koranens text, desto mer framst?r v?rldsreligionen Islam, tillsammans med alla andra religioner, som egoistiska och hj?rnd?da hobbyverksamheter. Urs?kta mina grova ord, men n?r folk medvetet undviker att ifr?gas?tta en sak, s? ?r det i praktiken samma som hj?rnd?d... eller i alla fall avsaknad av tankeverksamhet. Religi?sa m?nniskor framst?r f?r mig mer och mer som lika materiella och ytliga som de som bara sysslar med prylar och kroppar. Religion ?r bara en annan typ av hobby och verklighetsflykt. Till?ggas skall ju givetvis dock ocks? att det finns massor med underbara m?nniskor som ?r inne i religionerna, och faktum ?r ju ocks? att alla har en resa att g?ra, en resa i sig sj?lv, fram?t och upp?t. Ingen ?r perfekt... och det ?r de m?nniskor som krampaktigt insisterar p? att de har r?tt och de andra fel, som har avskyr. Jag avskyr de som splittrar m?nskligheten. Detta ?r arrogans. Arrogans m?ste tv?ttas bort. Vi har alla arrogans i oss till olika grad och inom olika omr?den, men det g?r att tv?tta bort, men d? beh?ver vi hj?lp fr?n Den Ende Hj?lparen. Dessutom tycker jag det ?r s? oerh?rt f?nigt att folk inte fattar att anledningen till att miljoner m?nniskor i ett land till h?r en viss religion, medan miljoner i ett annat land tillh?r en annan religion, har just med den geografiska platsen de f?ddes p? att g?ra. Dessutom g?r religion i arv i familjer. ?nd? ?r alla, oberoende av religion, ?vertygade om att just deras religion ?r den r?tta. Hur kan detta vara s?? Ingen av dem har ju valt religion (bortsett fr?n de f? som konverterar). Jag har st?tt p? folk som inte ens vill erk?nna den geografiska aspekten i det som best?mmer vilken religion man tillh?r. M?rkligt. Folk t?nker verkligen inte. De bara gissar och hittar p? sagor. M?nniskan upph?r aldrig att f?rv?na mig. Fridens gott folk.

There are levels of nearness to God. That is what the levels are. Paradise is one level of that nearness, and as far as I have understood, we all, everything in creation is meant to go back to God through all the levels that may be in their nature. But Paradise is already as you say perfect contentment. So if we attain that, worry for us is over. All worry is in the level of our material existence. And I agree that Hell and Paradise are in us. we do not go there we have them on ourselves. The Qur'an warns us in two instances, that I remember, of the fire whose fuel are men and stones. As it says the first time it speaks about them in al baqara, they are parables. But that fire where the fuel are ourselves, and stones, we can figure what it means hardened people, hardened hearts closed to anything that opens them up in order to receive anything form outside. Why should be the first sura of the Qur'an be called f?tiha. We must open, we must open to joy and suffering, to knowledge and courage. We cannot close up ourselves to protect us, we become stones. That is what I understand. And we see examples of that in real life. People so "consumed" in their covetousness or their hate or whatever other passions that consume... they are consumed in a battle against the impossible. They will never be allpowerful, allprotected, allsure, allknowing... They will never be God. They become shaytans uncapable of surrendering to their own humanity and postrate to what God made of them and not to what they want to make of themselves. The first step, I feel, to go anywhere good is to accept our humanity, our nongodness and on the other hand take blessings and pleasure in our being God's. Can there be anything more fulfilling than being God's. When we fall in love we are happy that we are of the person we love. That person will be limited like us, but on the other hand is also a parable of being in love with what seems to us beautiful, or adorable. It is a reflection for our own use of where for us lies real hapiness, in being our Lover's in being drowned in love. Mystics are all about that. Of course, for most of us that "far" Lover is not as convincing as our "nearer" human lovers, but there is no love that does not come from the Source of Love, of everything, and those human lovers or loved are part of our learning and recognizance of God. It is all part of our way back and as such we should take it and be thankful for it. And of course, as you Crow say, we have a Guide for our lives till the next stage, we have a guide to contend with everything, and guides are for that, in order to get to our appointed destiny in the most profitable unscathed way. We do not want to consume in our narrow ambitions as material beings, we do not want to become burning stones nor fuel of a fire. We want peace, cotentment, indeed. But those, peace and contentment, we can already start here, being contented with whatever God puts in our way, be it unrequited love, be it hardship, be it children that break our hearts, or sickness and desease. And be thankful un humble for the good things, and be generous with whatever we have, be it kind words or kind ears, be it money and wealth, because everything comes from the same hand that hands out everything else. Salaam

In concurrence with Huruf and Good Logic, I agree the answer must be that Man was created for the purpose of worshiping God. That being said, though, it still does not answer the question of why Man was created when the angels- and jinn, if you go that route- were already in place. The ever-present 'why' creeps in each and every time why the need for Man if angels were already on-duty 24/7, why the need for Man if the jinn were already created (and, presumably would have had the Word revealed to them long before Man was considered). This goes back to the argument I have tried to counter if the answer is that Man was created to worship God (and thus be a witness to his greatness) and the angels and jinn already existed, why did he need more eyes on him? Huruf provided the insightful hadith that read, in part, "God said I wanted to be known and created Man". At this point, though, one might ask, "Known to whom?" The point I am making is that we (not the readers individually) might criticize the man or woman who has mirrors all over their house and admires themselves in those mirrors each and every day- we may call them vain or narcissistic. But if we consider that Man was created essentially to be a mirror for God, aren't we at least implying the same about him? It is an extremely difficult conundrum for me to unravel, and if my thoughts seem to be heretical or blasphemous, they are certainly not intended to be. In the end, the simple answer to why Man was created is- and must be- that we were created in order to worship God according to the Book he has revealed to us. Period. As to God's motives, thoughts, needs, or what have you I am resolved not to venture any further answers on pain of accidentally attributing falsehood in speaking of God.

Salam, We have examples in the Quran for righteous women, ranging from dedicated mothers to ruling queens. It's up to the individual and their circumstances to see what role they play. I might also add that when reading the Quran as a whole, there is definitely a theme that women are the care takers of the fabric of family, morality, and education in our society. Allah will guide those who are looking for a path )

Harmony upon you, Satan/shaytaan seems to be a definition or title for a certain behavior or being rather than a name. There are many shaytans, so there cannot be one particular Satan it seems. Like many other "religious" terms I find that this one is yet another misunderstood word. You also call people that are devilish Satan in real life in some cases or devil. It is quite synonymous with evil. What is remaining of Ebless is the question, because it seems that he was given respite, but I also do not think that he is visibly here but more like part of our minds. He has little own control except from like a phenomenon generally called "whispers of Satan". But anyone really devilish is a Satan, which could mean that the spiritual mind contains what is of Satan. I think he is like a virus in our minds and able to spread and contaminate our souls completely if we succumb to our own vain desires and the illusion of this world. Be whole The same what you wrote is on my mind,i also think that the arabs from old,that compile the ahadiths had a misconcept of shaytan.Some narrow minded People gave satan the opposit form of everything around us. Most People are eating with the right Hand,so left is devil...Most man are good...a lot of woman are bad and will be in Hell...you know all this hadith-tales. I also think that it is the mind where he get Access to us,i have some verses in mind where it says that we have angels to the left and right,front and back(wrighting/saving angels?)and i think that satan gave a speech of where he will attack us from the right,left,front,back from above and underneth. Yes,MOF the spiritualmind contains satan,the most dangerous weapon of satan is wispering cause it is your voice in mind,and without guidance from scripture we are lost. stay connected

The next step should be; he should apply the same 'critical thinking' to Bukhari's books.. apply the same standard to himself.. lol very true...but I thought the questions were extremely dumb. Just now popped in the head, if someone needs hadith books to know the legitimacy of Quran then probably he sees Allah<Bukhari.

Salam, what kind of counseling are you looking for? Religous, marriage, financial?

NO STATE - ANARCHY! (2256)

You can eat as much craps as you want but i would like to advise you to make a Research of crabs and their eatings. For me they belong to "khinzir al bahr" like lobsters and others. Thats my view. stay connected

Thank you for your offer of help to burnian Its my pleasure Because Muslims speak and lives in the illusion of the mutasyaabihat. . . they have rituals, not life In other religions, there are rituals also and some of them are actually more difficult than what we do. Sunnis and Shias brought the headache onto themselves. Majority of the things they think are rituals have no basis in Quran.

The fault of not following this or that teaching of the Qur'an does not in and of itself make one a 'disbeliever'- HOWEVER.... looking at this or that teaching of the Qur'an and simply denouncing it as false, in my personal opinion, DOES (in my opinion) make one a 'disbeliever'. We must acknowledge the teachings of the Qur'an, and accept them as the Word of Allah, and recognize them as being truthful and the standard to which we should all strive, even if we personally do not 'like' the teaching. HAVING SAID THAT... I'm not about to go for the throat and pronounce takfir on that person- I may be wrong in my observation of that person, and he or she may just need a little nudge to get back on the straight path. I might not agree with the way they are practicing their understanding of the faith, but declaring one is a DISBELIEVER is not my place.

Yes, for those who have failed the test. . .but the forerunners (about "balance between good and evil&quot A company of the former peoples And a few of the later peoples (ie. after Muhammad) 5613-14 that's the test for mankind.

The winds are also proofs of warnings And the fire... I think the fire is a sign related with "the warning". Salm.

joeblow welcome What do think of mashe'at of the creator as mentioned in the story of Moses? Do you think taqdeer = mase'at? In Al-Quran taqdeer of Allah is mentioned there is no mention of taqdeer of man as far as I can recall. Taqdeer of Allah is his calculation and power for example as in 695 He is the Cleaver of the Daybreak, and He hath appointed the night for stillness, and the sun and the moon for reckoning. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Wise. Peace

Peace sushi1992, You make some good points/observations in your post. I agree with your views. There might be a purpose/wisdom behind why Mary was commanded to abstain from speech. Like you said, abstaining from speech can help someone be living with themselves without needing external communication - a bit like a meditation session. Perhaps this might give a person a unique calmness and deep clarity, so that they can grow in spiritual direction. I believe that there is a purpose/wisdom behind every commandment in the Quran. Definitely. I mean the thing is after fasting in the sense of not eating, many people really stuff themselves after the count. Even more so people actually eat extra big meals at night time to make sure they are not too hungry during the day. I don't think the same can be done with talking. You can't really get a tonne of speech out of your system just to prepare for a day of no speech. It definitely makes me sense to abstain from speech... It also helps you cope with yourself and be at peace with yourself more. The traditional Muslims nowadays who fast and then eat crazy amounts of food... Well I just think... What was the point???