General Issues / Questions

Lol. Walk away zone, walk away...the pull of the abyss is strong I know ;D peace Peace SC. Thanks for your wise words. I feel the pinch. Zone.

Peace zone 3163 They are in varying stages with Allah, and Allah sees what they do. 3179 Allah would not leave us in the present stage 8419 You shall surely experience from one stage to other 4226 And He listens to those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, and gives them increase of His Bounty 1720 Of the bounties of thy Lord We bestow freely on all- These as well as those The bounties of thy Lord are not confined to anyone. 1287 And never give up hope of Allah's Soothing Mercy "truly no one despairs of Allah's Soothing Mercy, except those who have no faith." Regards BalaChandran Thanks new moon Very true verses indeed. drfazl

Peace, It was a thoughtful post, Lambda. And I reacted when you said that Bukhari allegedly saw Muhammad in a dream which contradict the Quran. The dead do not have any contact with this world says the Quran. But you are right, if we are too attached to our label it is easy to get into pointless discussions as in the case with your mother and this Sunni muslim. They were not discussing religion, just flaming each other for various problems in existence attributing them to their respective sects. Many stray people are impossible to discuss with and they will not change their ways. But you often need to focus on the general Message of the Quran because people always argue about the details, at least when you initiate talk about the religion. Focus on things which are less likely to be able to be misinterpred, so-called dumb-proof facts. It may help to ask rhetorical questions. Remember, many people may refuse everything you say in pride at the moment of discussion, but may privately ponder on it afterwards and eventually may find what you originally said to be true. God bless you

Peace, In fact I am not sure if I ever referred to myself as 'Christian' when I was one. I usually only said that "I believe in God" or something similar to that. Perchance I felt that it was silly to call a religion Christianity when I did not believe that Jesus was God's son. The reason I opened the book of Quran so late was because I thought it was an invented book due to its followers running around with AK-47's and yelling "Allahu Akhbar" which I felt had nothing to do with God's religion. It was a coincident that I encountered the Quran in 2009 when I met my wife. I could see that my prejudices had prevented me from discovering the Truth earlier and that Muhammad seemed to have been a modest gentleman and not a grumpy bearded man. People down here constantly ask me about my Faith and when I reply that I am a muslim they always ask "shia or sunni?" and I frown and repeat "I am a muslim". Sometimes they do not buy my answer and say something like "come on, you need to be either shia or sunni". This habit of referring ourselves as belonging to specific groups runs deep in man. God bless you

Peace, It depends on how you interpret the word 'deity'. God is certainly a One as God says that in Quran. This is the definition for atheist according to Longman a?Ethe?Eist / e?cist / noun someone who does not believe that God exists If you believe a God created the Universe and all within the folds of it, then you are no atheist but theist, or more accurately monotheist if you follow the teachings of Quran. On the other hand, since I pondered upon creation some years ago I consider it illogical and irrational to be an atheist due to the fact that quite some intelligence is required to create the complex universe in which we live. Even if the universe would be, as some atheists argue, eternal, a kind of "background intelligence" is needed. If the "Big Bang" reoccurs as some sort of phenomenon then still some intelligence is required to make all this mass assemble in harmonious measures. God bless you

It is dizzying. I have seen in the last days at least three kings of Egypt purported to be the "pharaoh" of the exodus. Salaam

giveup Sorry supportpeacenotwar for offtopic Aww, it's ok. I have come to understand the ways of this forum. jedi

Interesting. Thanks. peace Sajda.

Please read the Four Lessons of Liao Fan which explores this. Liao Fan is a man who did precisely this. http//www.buddhanet.net/liaofans.htm Then perhaps you shall see the true severity of your deeds. You shall see that for example with the 20% tax you pay on your "money", you are directly purchasing bullets and missiles to kill children with your own two hands. This burden is yours. They who shoot the missiles shall not bear that burden, this burden is yours. You killed those children with your own two hands; even though you did not touch them or see them. This is the shirk that we commit every day. It is purely your choice to put "money" towards this. It is purely your choice to submit to tyranny. To submit to tyranny is to submit to satan. To submit to satan is unforgivable, in God's own words. All else is forgivable, except the decision of a sovereign being to submit to tyranny. ONLY the decision itself is unforgivable - the results of the decision are transient, the entire heavens and Earth shall pass and decay, it is only here for trial. But this very decision is worthy of hell for a very long time. If you looked at the true extent of your deeds, you would see many dead bodies and rivers of blood. You went to the Iraq protests. You actively strive for Palestine perhaps. Then you go home and turn on your TV. And pay for the bombs to kill both the Iraqis and subjugate the Palestinians. Net effect of deeds MURDER If you looked towards the food you ate you would see a mountain of shit higher than the sky, a mountain of screaming creatures oozing with pus, pain, torture and deprivation, screaming out to God If you looked towards the clothes you wear... you would see prisons upon prisons full of cages upon cages of sweaty pained starving children, stitching away for a miserable price Then one day you step on an ant or kill a fly. And you shed a few tears, "I was so good and pure and perfect and innocent but now I killed this ant, and I am eternally tarnished" rotfl Of course for most of us hopefully our good deeds leads to many more live bodies and many rivers of living blood to overcome such a thing. Except... And if We make him taste mercy from Us after distress that has touched him, he would most certainly say This is of me, and I do not think the hour will come to pass, and if I am sent back to my Lord, I shall have with Him sure good; but We will most certainly inform those who disbelieved of what they did, and We will most certainly make them taste of hard chastisement. (4150) But those who are unaware of this, those who in their ignorance wander onwards working for major corporations under the idea of being powerless... they eat up evil every single day yet kiss their wives to sleep and fast and do their "salat" and all around think of themselves as "Good Muslims". And this is not one in a hundred... this is 8 or 9 of every ten people you meet. {1} I swear by the time, {2} Most surely man is in loss, {3} Except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin on each other patience. peace

Adzan means calling, appeal, dua, petition, so we can do calling with anyways beside like Sunni-Shia did.I mean we can did adzan/prayer calling by use invitation, bell, phone, fb etc The word adzan "" appeared 53 times in the Quran, but none of them referring to prayer calling. Example 1270 So when he furnished them with their provisions, he placed the measuring bowl in the saddlebag of his brother, then a caller (mu'adhinn) cried out (adhana) ?O you in the caravan, you are thieves!? There are verses in the Quran mentioning about prayer calling, but none of them using the word adzan. Example 558 And if you call (naadaytum) to the contact prayer, they take it for mockery and play. That is because they are a people who do not comprehend. Salaam

Peace AK47 and all. I will no comment with your post, but I sympathize with you.Sajda and huruf's posts is good, you mat take their advices. But I suggest you just keep pray to Allah, then try open the Quran translataion by order or randomly.I'm also did like this, if I have problem then I open my Quran randomly then suddenly I found the verses which answering my problems, I know if Allah always blessing me.Recently I listen and read two pastor's stories who convert to Islam after opening Quran randomly then found the verses which answer their confusion. Salaam

What is being described as "Tao" by Lao Tze in Tao The Ching is the same as "Allah" by Muhammad in the Quran. is the same as "YHVH" by various authors in the Bible is the same as "Heavenly Father" (Abinu Sebashamayim) by Jesus in the Gospel is the same as "Ahura Mazda" (Shiny/Bright Wisdom) by Zarathustra in Aveshta is the same as "Brahman"/"Ohm" by unknown author in the Veda and Gita The difference between the east and the west on this "Everything that is" entity is that "Tao" is not personified. While Allah, Yhvh, Heavenly Father, Ahura Mazda is personified. Read on Tao The Ching for those who are interested.. It's always "Follow the way of Tao", "Achieving the balance of Tao", "That's Tao" and never "Pray to Tao", "Do X otherwise Tao shall be angry", 'Tao condemn people of X" etc.. But in essence Tao The Ching teaches / recommend people to be 'in harmony with Tao', or in other terms 'peacefully accept the will of Allah/Yhvh/Heavenly Father/Ahura Mazda".. That's the true islam, which is actually an attitude (dien). As thus the phrase of "The Tao of Islam" is quite strange, it's as strange as "The Brahman of Honest" or "The Ahura Mazda of Compassionate". Once you break down the true meaning of the word "Tao" and "islam". Salam / Peace

Peace there is no point in arguing about this, if anybody wants to believe that he needs man made history books, which are full of conjecture, to prove that God the all Knowing is telling the truth, is OK. to you your belief and to me my belief. I don't have the time to look for more evidence. in the end, only God makes the blind see. All I can do is warn you that it is not for A Believer to question the veracity in the narratives contained in the book of God. We know nothing, and He the Almighty knows our past, present, and future. 488What is with you two groups concerning the hypocrites, while Allah has made them fall back for what they earned. Do you wish to guide those whom Allah has sent astray? And he whom Allah sends astray - never will you find for him a way . may God increase our wisdom.

I have no idea. I hope someone can help shed light on this. Peace -- not sure why the need to tell her that or does she need to do the same?

Well it's still talking ill of politicians and other public figures so I would think it can relate to those verses and the thing that i'm wondering is that the verses I stated in this topic doesn't exclude public figures as far as I understand. So if indeed there is nothing wrong, I want an explanation about the verses as I may be possibly be taking these verses incorrectly, but i'm not sure and need some explanation and understanding. What you are reading is not the Quran. It is a translation of the Quran. A translation is never perfect, it allways contains errors, is allways inaccurate etc.

Dear Ephraim.. Thank you for bringing that reference to my attention. I had no idea of its existence, and I will definitely look into it some more in the future. There is one problem however with the term "Semitic". I do not believe this term denotes any particular people. It is a racist term that was invented by an Austrian Zionist during the 18th Century. It simply means "descendant of Sam, son of Noah". So why should the descendants of Sam be special, while those who descended from Noah's other sons (Ham, Japeth, Kanaan) be considered inferior? This is all done for religious and political propaganda (to claim racial superiority). Is there something we are all overlooking when it comes to history? Yes...our entire history was written by a bunch of soulless, murdering, plundering, inhuman criminals, who worship Satan openly. Their occult practices and rituals have been exposed, and humankind is slowly awakening to who the masters of this world really are. In fact, I doubt very much that these "elite" even belong to the human race. The ancient Ethiopians understood very well where the "Land of God" was. (The place where the divine presence first made itself known and manifested to human beings). The Egyptians knew it as well, and they called the land PWN-PWNT, and designated it as "Land of our Ancestors". The Hieroglyphs clearly depict the Egyptian armies sailing the Red Sea in order to reach Pwnt. The Egyptians also colonized Arabia (not only the Ethiopians). The "Misr" mentioned in the Quran was probably an Egyptian colony. I have been mocked and ridiculed often for claiming this (even by Arabs), but I really don't care. I have a feeling that this will be proven irrefutably once the evil puppet regimes of Arabia are deposed of, and the Peninsula is finally open to archeologists as it should be. (Which will probably not be during my lifetime). I believe that humankind emerged from South Arabia then crossed into Africa (Ethiopia - Somal). Not the other way around. However, you said that you don't have time for a blog. But you could eventually just create a blog and copy paste elements from your book on it in no time, in order to make it even more known and available. Maybe I'll do that after I've made a final revision of the books. Thanks to everyone for the support.

I read multiple translations (Ahmed Ali, Yusuf Ali, Picktall, Asad). I use Islamicity for searches. I also read the one here and other translations. Also use corpus quran.com and word for word translation at http//islamicstudies.info/wordtranslation. Also I read tafsirs. I look at the verse, the context and the chapter trying to understand what it is about. by reading different translations, you will notice how something is translated. Have come to see that None of the translations of the koran are accurate. Keep in mind that those who translated are not free from bias, influence, and such. When I read the Koran, I try to understand from the Quran only and use the faculties that God gave me. This is my approach.

The Abdel Haleem translation I use most says "I swear I shall fill hell with you and all who follow you!" (71 If all who follow Iblis are sentenced to hell, because they will not repent, then isn't it simply saying that Iblis will be sent to hell if he keeps on doing the same thing. The issue here though is that the Quran does also say that hearts can be sealed - it says how some will not return and there are references to and warnings about those whose hearts turn as hard as stone or harder. As this is used many places in the Quran, you'd have to check all of them to verify whether this means that some are on a path they've chosen from which they can't return because it is so damning and their hearts do not return to repentance because of this. i.e. their free will lead them there. I've tried to give my contribution and its apparently fallen short of what you want Paper rain, but it others here are asking you the questions you want or saying the things that seem right to you. So I will leave my questions and comments off this thread 1. the style of response caused problems earlier 2. that all took up a lot of time that I could have used to say a bit more or just explore this topic for my own personal understanding. Peace! In addition to what I wrote here, I've had another glance through this thread and it epitomises a lot for me. Not about Paper rain or any member but what we are all doing or not doing. So no this is not a personal attack or about anyone. So please do not take it that way. It's a little off topic but what came to mind so I think we have to accept that human beings sometimes go "off topic". The Quran is straightforward enough in many many places. Sometimes we want to take time and remain cautious on a topic and thats ok, in fact, I think that makes sense. However, the Quran has a beautiful simplicity about it that some people may or may not ignore. There are more 'complex' ideas - but again I don't think it requires us to dig and dig. Some research is necessary which can lead us to what is considered unconventional. Most of all, if Allah swt tests us and the Quran contains tests in itself, then it seems strange to say that it is only those who follow knowingly follow corrupt hadith who have not tried to do what the Quran asks. The emphasis on co-operation, fairness to all and the way the Messengers and Believers were treated in the past - and people seeking evil and going against clear revelation were favoured above others. It all comes together, and competing and pitting this and that about what's within the Quran really does not seem to be one them. Discussions are fine yes, but that's something different. Interestingly, the Prophets and other mentioned Believers don't really seem to be people who people are the time were supposed to learn anything in particular from other than they recite a message and they practice it. But still, I doubt the people at the time imitated Isa, or Muhammad, how would that help each of us learn our own individual lessons? Now that those generations have passed, we have a glimpse into the experiences and can understand a bit about the human experience, possibly. Once again, individuality is emphasised. In terms of the message Age isn't what gives you an appreciation or understanding of the Quran, it seems to be much more a readiness to accept our own flaws and learn the Reminder. Most of all, it teaches us that our knowledge is from Allah swt and that He is the true Friend and Guide. These are some musings, if you don't like them, then you don't have to read them.

Peace, I pray daily, at dawn and before bedtime, at noon and afternoon, and at nightfall. And sometimes I pray in the morning. They are habits for me and I believe we should contact God (this is my understanding of the word salat anyway) regularly throughout the day. But the timing is not holy for me. For example, if I go to work at 4 I pray before that even if traditional timing is at 5. The prayers themselves are not identical, I usually say something different in my prayer and open connection to God. But I make sure I have the intention to seek His Nearness and Guidance as well as protection from the evil one and his followers. I implore God about my needs in life and that He will guide me straight and I thank Him for what good He does for me and that He will make known to me my errors I do so I can become better. I do not think habits are bad as long as we are conscious about them and not just let them be there because they seem compulsory. If one only rambles a series of monotonous words to God in their prayers they may turn dull and I am sure this is not the intention with them. However, we need to stay steadfast and patient with our prayers because they may only seem like a monolog no one listens to but there is the One who hears all of them, even if it feels useless to try to contact the Lord. Do not be afraid of speaking freely to God, this is part of the reason we pray, to get help in our everyday life. Have some short stereotypical wordings to read for God, for example, the first chapter of Quran or the Jesus prayer (see the Gospel 7 verses), they seem perfect to me, but apart from that make variations to to adapt to the needs of your present situation. I think habits were prescribed so we do not forget about God, but if as long as we are always mindful of God it is okay. The habits do not mean forever condemned if broken as long as we frequently commemorate God. Total loss of remembrance of God is however the great sin. God bless you

A single speck of darkness amidst infinite Light, renders that Light imperfect. The Light of Lights whom I know, that Light of Lights is wholly perfect.