Islam spreading fast?
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Dear God, the only God in the universe, our protector, saviour and Almighty. We pray to you to help us in our endevours to correct the wrongs in our earthly religions, to bring together all those that believe in you and you alone, help those that have lost their way and have lost sight of the message you gave Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and others. Open the eyes and minds of those who put others beside you , help us to show them the truth and bring understanding between all the religions of this world. All our God-alone brothers and sisters in all religions ask this as one voice.
Amen! yay
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Amen! yay
Hey, wasn't "amen" the name of an ancient Egyptian god? confused
By the way, good prayer, John... bravo
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Dear God, the only God in the universe, our protector, saviour and Almighty. We pray to you to help us in our endevours to correct the wrongs in our earthly religions, to bring together all those that believe in you and you alone, help those that have lost their way and have lost sight of the message you gave Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and others. Open the eyes and minds of those who put others beside you , help us to show them the truth and bring understanding between all the religions of this world. All our God-alone brothers and sisters in all religions ask this as one voice.
Peace Rev.John
Thank you for that prayer, I knew you be best to deliver it. May God bless you and hear our prayers to lead us in the right path.
Peace
Hope
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Peace,
These are some Turkish atheist forums with thousands of members for example
Large numbers of Turks do in fact embrace secular ideologies as opposed to Islamic ones, largely due to the strong nationalistic ideologies prevalent in Turkey.
Many Iranians seem to leave Islam, both in Iran as well as abroad. Over the years, I have personally heard hundreds of Iranians say that they are atheists.
Large numbers of Iranians also end their association with Islam due to their disillusionment with the Islamic Revolution.
Furthermore, elites in most countries around the world tend to abandon religion in general for various reasons as well, unless that religion is completely tied into the culture, in which case lip service is merely paid to the religion.
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Hey, wasn't "amen" the name of an ancient Egyptian god? confused
Then why do people say that in prayer?
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Hey, wasn't "amen" the name of an ancient Egyptian god? confused
It may have been. As regards the etymology, Amen is a derivative from the Hebrew verb aman "to strengthen" or "Confirm". Amen Ra, Amun Rhah, Amin rhae, etc etc.. its all just phonetics. The catholics insist that todays meaning is "may it be so, or let it be so", but the catholic encyclopedias will willingly tell you that it originates in Egypt
"Finally, we may note that the word Amen occurs not infrequently in early Christian inscriptions, and that it was often introduced into anathemas and gnostic spells. Moreover, as the Greek letters which form Amen according to their numerical values total 99 (alpha=1, mu=40, epsilon=8, nu=50), this number often appears in inscriptions, especially of Egyptian origin, and a sort of magical efficacy seems to have been attributed to its symbol. It should also be mentioned that the word Amen is still employed in the ritual both of Jews and Mohammedans."
http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/01407b.htmFor the sect hunters, you will note that the number 99 is not exactly unfamiliar in Islam, nor is 33, that is; if you ask someone from the sunni branch of things.
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Peace
When we use the word amen, what do we really mean? Is it "to strengthen" or "Confirm" or "may it be so, or let it be so". In my opinion we are basically saying it to mean any of these. If we say it because we are trying to pray to an Egyptian God then it is for wrong reasons and not good. So here the intension is what is important otherwise we should not name the days of the week Monday, Tuesday etc and the months January etc as they also have origions to names of ancient gods. http//www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/days.html http//www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/months.html
You may argue we use the days and months names in our daily lives and not in prayers. The fact is we use them, so when I say April do I mean Greek goddess of love and beauty? No I am specifying a time/month of the year. I can understand why people may not use the word but I say its all down to intension and what we really intepret the word to mean when we say it. Don't forget all languages are invented so no one can have a copy right to them ;DPeace
Hope
PS. Do all muslims understand what they are saying in their prayers (namaz/salaat)?
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Peace
When we use the word amen, what do we really mean? Is it "to strengthen" or "Confirm" or "may it be so, or let it be so". In my opinion we are basically saying it to mean any of these. If we say it because we are trying to pray to an Egyptian God then it is for wrong reasons and not good.
Languages change. If todays use dictates a "may it be so, i confirm my faith" kind of thing, then that is what it is. Because if we start to clamp down on this left over from much older times, perhaps we should change the names of the days in the week as well. Moon day? Freya's days? Thor's day? etc....doesn't sound islamic to me. How about the months? We use all kinds of strange words that used to mean one thing, but changed. In the grimoire department we find holocaust that went from meaning a "massive burnt offering to a deity" to mean the nazi extermination of jews ...unless of course that nothing changed, in which case that whole thing takes on a wholly new unpleasant glow...languages change, so I believe it is important to look at what people do rather than what they say. Especially in regard to their religions. Eating flesh, drinking blood. You would think that this came straight out of voodoun but you know well where those words are said and that it is entirely metaphorical.
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The Freemasons still use the old English term "So mote it be" meaning "so may it be", giving an ending to the prayer by basically saying "let's hope it happens" the same as "Amen"
Who's a freemason?
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Not quite a religion as it accepts members from all religions. More a fraternity of men that want to do good.
Are they free minded?
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Are they free minded?
Some of them are, others not so much. Same as any other gathering of people really. Their foundation is free minded. It used to be a simple workers guild (masons..stone builders, obviously) and was infiltrated by intellectuals who needed a refuge from the catholic church, or perhaps rather, the church of the day sum total (protestant as well as catholic). The foundation of the free-masons are one of debate, reason and science. I have no problem with masons at all. I have a problem with their organization, which I suspect has it's fingers in more things than just building childrens hospitals.
John I do not agree that it is not a formal religion. It has formal beliefs and ritual. I insist that people should be valued on their actions and not their words. Know thy tree by it's fruits, right? )
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Know thy tree by it's fruits, right? )
I learnt a new idiom today. yay
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Peace Hope4,
When we use the word amen, what do we really mean? Is it "to strengthen" or "Confirm" or "may it be so, or let it be so". In my opinion we are basically saying it to mean any of these. If we say it because we are trying to pray to an Egyptian God then it is for wrong reasons and not good. So here the intension is what is important otherwise we should not name the days of the week Monday, Tuesday etc and the months January etc as they also have origions to names of ancient gods.
I completely disagree, and these are opposing concepts. The word "amen" is not a Hebrew word, it was never instructed to the Jews by Moses or the prophets, and the word "ameen" (commonly used in Islaamic prayers) never occurs in the Qur'aan, not even once. Therefore, regardless of the way people "intend" to use it, it's still an innovation, and it's not Islaamic, not Qur'aanic, and not even monotheistic. In the case of prayers, the wording is very important, regardless of your personal intention, especially when it comes to citing false references or acknowledging false gods in your service to God alone. Saying "amen" (or "ameen" is just as bad as saying, "...in Jesus' name" at the end of your prayers. There's literally no difference between the two, and both can be viewed as forms of idolatry, regardless of the intention of the reciter...
Days of the week and months of the year are traditional and cultural factors, while saying "amen" after a prayer is a religious matter. Over the years, its transformed from an innovation to a 'general custom' to a 'divine law'. In fact, nowadays, most Christians, and Muslims too, will consider you as being in grave error if you don't say "amen" (or "ameen" at the end of your prayer, especially in a congregational atmosphere. Some may accuse you of blasphemy, and others will declare that your prayer is incomplete and unacceptable to God, simply because you didn't say something that He never told you to say in the first place.
Peace,
Ahmad
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Peace,
I think the consensus here is that the former "Islamic Empires" were merely Empires like any other empire in history with the same expansionist, brutal, and greedy tendencies as any other.
The only difference being that the rulers happened to identify as Muslims. And as we all know, identifying as a Muslim does not imply that you will act like a Muslim.
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Peace Sarat,
I think the consensus here is that the former "Islamic Empires" were merely Empires like any other empire in history with the same expansionist, brutal, and greedy tendencies as any other.
The only difference being that the rulers happened to identify as Muslims. And as we all know, identifying as a Muslim does not imply that you will act like a Muslim.
I guess I could be wrong, but did you mean to put that in this thread?
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=9599241.0
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Peace Hope4,
I completely disagree, and these are opposing concepts. The word "amen" is not a Hebrew word, it was never instructed to the Jews by Moses or the prophets, and the word "ameen" (commonly used in Islaamic prayers) never occurs in the Qur'aan, not even once. Therefore, regardless of the way people "intend" to use it, it's still an innovation, and it's not Islaamic, not Qur'aanic, and not even monotheistic. In the case of prayers, the wording is very important, regardless of your personal intention, especially when it comes to citing false references or acknowledging false gods in your service to God alone. Saying "amen" (or "ameen" is just as bad as saying, "...in Jesus' name" at the end of your prayers. There's literally no difference between the two, and both can be viewed as forms of idolatry, regardless of the intention of the reciter...
Days of the week and months of the year are traditional and cultural factors, while saying "amen" after a prayer is a religious matter. Over the years, its transformed from an innovation to a 'general custom' to a 'divine law'. In fact, nowadays, most Christians, and Muslims too, will consider you as being in grave error if you don't say "amen" (or "ameen" at the end of your prayer, especially in a congregational atmosphere. Some may accuse you of blasphemy, and others will declare that your prayer is incomplete and unacceptable to God, simply because you didn't say something that He never told you to say in the first place.
Peace,
Ahmad
Peace Ahmad Bilal
I stand corrected and what you say makes sense. Just need to reprogramme myself as old habits die hard.
Peace
Hope