what sect
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if you belonged to a sect before you came to the Qu'ran, did you belong to?
I was...some kind of Sunni...not sure which fiqh I followed, I was more of a "I'll follow whichever teachings I agree with, regardless if my beliefs comprise those from different fiqh"
of course I was very ignorant of the Qu'ran back then.
My first exposure to Islam was the NOI. I was a member of the NOI for years but I felt it wasn't right. The NOI is basically a money cult and its members are actually "forbidden" to attend orthodox mosques. I finally left the NOI and started studying the Qur'an on my own without their influence and it was becoming clear to me. As I started attending regular mosques, most of which were Sunni, I became Sunni. But after I would listen to how Sunnis put more emphasis on following the Prophet's traditions and personal habits, that didn't sit too well with me either. After letting go of Sunni Islam, I became a Qur'an only Muslim.
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welcome to the forum, Ren.
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welcome to the forum, Ren.
Thank you for the welcome!
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welcome
I am a God-alone Christian. Thinking back, I think I always have been. Even as a child I had the belief that Jesus was more a prophet than anything else, I have always questioned the concept of "Son on God", "God incarnate" etc.
welcome back, Rev. John!
Where have you been?
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hey all..been visiting this site for a very long time...but never really posted anything..i belong to a shia background...have been a very strict shia believer until someone i met forced me to reevaluate my views on religion...ever since then its been a long journey to discovering the true islam, but it feels so right..i cud never justify some of the things i just had to accept as part of my faith...like not praying during certain days of the month coz women are "impure"...and praying to other people in an effort to get closer to god, coz He listens to them more than us...i stumbled upon this site and thank god got most of my questions answered...this realisation of the TRUE islam has liberated me from the idolatrous beliefs of my family..it makes me closer to God, and it makes me feel like i have a direct connection with Him..and He is there for me nomatter wat. the Only Quran path is hard, i have regular disagreements with my family, and have often been reprimanded and told that im not a muslim and i shud change my corrupted views if i want to get in heaven...it has come to the point where i just keep quiet and follow God alone.. one of the problems also is finding the right guy..my family marries into shia AND syed only...and i cud never live with and raise a family with a guy who associates partners with God or has the strict sunni or shia views..but the problem also is that i have yet to meet some guy in person who believes only in quran and follows Allah alone..so i guess im doomed for single life =s..oh well ill pray to God to help me make most of it! )
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welcome to the forum, rraza.
I was fortunate in that I was not intimately involved in a sect. My family was nominally Shia but did not really practice. My extended family in Iran practiced a bit more but my immediate family here in the U.S. just believed in God and tried to do good. As you typically can't completely divorce yourself from your culture, my immediate family still mentioned Shi'i concepts here and there in passing so I was familiar with it, but they did not practice. In fact, my parents did not force any belief on me at all. I thank them to this day for that. They always told me to read and study for my own, to find my own path.
So that's what I did. Read the quran for myself at a pretty early age. Not having the requisite background, many of the secondary concepts flew over my head, but the basics became ingrained in me. It became quite obvious to me that Shi'i Islam was not the way. Making friends in high school who were Sunni exposed me quite a bit to that 'side' of Islam. By early college, I suppose I 'became' Sunni; it was the next step in my growth. I thought if not Shi'i, must go Sunni. But I never stopped studying and questioning. It wasn't long before my studying/questioning made me realize that Sunni Islam was clearly at odds with the quran as well. I realized the whole idea of Shi'i/Sunni was a false dichotomy, that there weren't only two choices. My intuition always told me to measure these various concepts against the quran, to have the quran be my gauge against which other beliefs stood or fell. That intuition let me to shed the Shi'i perspective, and later shed the Sunni perspective.
Realized what I subconsciously knew all along why even bother measuring these beliefs against the quran, why not cut out the middle man, and just use the quran for its own sake? Haven't turned back since.
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welcome to the forum, rraza.
I was fortunate in that I was not intimately involved in a sect. My family was nominally Shia but did not really practice. My extended family in Iran practiced a bit more but my immediate family here in the U.S. just believed in God and tried to do good. As you typically can't completely divorce yourself from your culture, my immediate family still mentioned Shi'i concepts here and there in passing so I was familiar with it, but they did not practice. In fact, my parents did not force any belief on me at all. I thank them to this day for that. They always told me to read and study for my own, to find my own path.
So that's what I did. Read the quran for myself at a pretty early age. Not having the requisite background, many of the secondary concepts flew over my head, but the basics became ingrained in me. It became quite obvious to me that Shi'i Islam was not the way. Making friends in high school who were Sunni exposed me quite a bit to that 'side' of Islam. By early college, I suppose I 'became' Sunni; it was the next step in my growth. I thought if not Shi'i, must go Sunni. But I never stopped studying and questioning. It wasn't long before my studying/questioning made me realize that Sunni Islam was clearly at odds with the quran as well. I realized the whole idea of Shi'i/Sunni was a false dichotomy, that there weren't only two choices. My intuition always told me to measure these various concepts against the quran, to have the quran be my gauge against which other beliefs stood or fell. That intuition let me to shed the Shi'i perspective, and later shed the Sunni perspective.
Realized what I subconsciously knew all along why even bother measuring these beliefs against the quran, why not cut out the middle man, and just use the quran for its own sake? Haven't turned back since.
Same thing with me, very fortunate of having parents who did not push anything on me.
Funny little story, I'm taking a course in university called "clash of cultures" its taught by Professor Barrie Wilson
You can visit his website here, www.barriewilson.com
And my mom today when questioning me about taking this course said "You know, as long as you are honest and self-regulatory you are fine, religion is an outdated concept"
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thanx eveyrbody for the warm welcome...well i have been coming on this site for about a year and a half now...luckily i am at university outside my home country so living alone has really allowed me to spread my wings and get to know myself a lot more without external influences... the other day i even tol dmy mother wi ud never marry into a shia family, so she shudnt expect me to...she said as long as ur happy and the guys froma muslim background she dusnt care...wish i cud say the same for my dad...but thats another story..
personally i find myself in a bit of a conflict....im westernised i guess..but pray regularly, read the quran and pray everyday for guidance.. i just dont seem to fall into a category... not a traditional "muslim"...yet very staunch abt things God tells us to do like pray, fast ,be gud to ppl.actualy try to go out of my way to do that..eveb though i believe alcohol isnt FORBIDDEN in islam..i still wud never try it and definitely never have it in my home..i have guy friends and i hang out with them,b ut never let anyone cross limits..
i know im rambling but just curious whether anyone else is in a similiar position..i dont identifymyself with most muslims i meet..they are too ignorant of the quran and too hotheaded about inconsequential things like not letting women go to the mosque..or wishing to kill ppl who defame prophet muhammad etc.
im starting to think whether ill ever meet someone who knows the priorities in islam, and is kind and gentle and has a personality like the TRUE sunnah of the prophet pbuh. muslims are either too into hadith and all that stuff (the ones who claim to be religious) or just not into anything..dont pray, drink gamble have casual sex....think im having trouble relating to ppl here...i come from pakistan..now in australia..and ironically in both places i have had the same problem. pakistan was actually even worse coz ppl push their beliefs onothers. -
welcome to the forum, rraza.
I was fortunate in that I was not intimately involved in a sect. My family was nominally Shia but did not really practice. My extended family in Iran practiced a bit more but my immediate family here in the U.S. just believed in God and tried to do good. As you typically can't completely divorce yourself from your culture, my immediate family still mentioned Shi'i concepts here and there in passing so I was familiar with it, but they did not practice. In fact, my parents did not force any belief on me at all. I thank them to this day for that. They always told me to read and study for my own, to find my own path.
So that's what I did. Read the quran for myself at a pretty early age. Not having the requisite background, many of the secondary concepts flew over my head, but the basics became ingrained in me. It became quite obvious to me that Shi'i Islam was not the way. Making friends in high school who were Sunni exposed me quite a bit to that 'side' of Islam. By early college, I suppose I 'became' Sunni; it was the next step in my growth. I thought if not Shi'i, must go Sunni. But I never stopped studying and questioning. It wasn't long before my studying/questioning made me realize that Sunni Islam was clearly at odds with the quran as well. I realized the whole idea of Shi'i/Sunni was a false dichotomy, that there weren't only two choices. My intuition always told me to measure these various concepts against the quran, to have the quran be my gauge against which other beliefs stood or fell. That intuition let me to shed the Shi'i perspective, and later shed the Sunni perspective.
Realized what I subconsciously knew all along why even bother measuring these beliefs against the quran, why not cut out the middle man, and just use the quran for its own sake? Haven't turned back since.
ur lucky! i struggled hard..and the worst thing i guess is when u cant really look upto ur parents to guide u spiritually and realise their not as perfect and knowing as you thought they were hmm
but i know how to look at things from both sides i guess and thats a strength for me.. even now im always searching for the truth...and hopefully that will always be the case..
its refreshing talking to someone from a shia background who believes in God alone have u been to iran much? -
I never belonged to any sect. When I started researching Islam many years ago, the issue of hadith seemed dodgy to me pretty much from the start. And the more I learned about it, the less credible it appeared to me. About five or six years ago I came across this site and did a lot of reading; it really helped me to see that there were people out there with similar thoughts, who used a logic-based and textual approach rather than relying on scholars, their interpretations, and narrations that contradicted the Qur'an.
peace
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ur lucky! i struggled hard..and the worst thing i guess is when u cant really look upto ur parents to guide u spiritually and realise their not as perfect and knowing as you thought they were hmm
but i know how to look at things from both sides i guess and thats a strength for me.. even now im always searching for the truth...and hopefully that will always be the case..
its refreshing talking to someone from a shia background who believes in God alone have u been to iran much?Yeah, even now I don't consider myself to have "found" the truth. I firmly believe truth is a process, not an achievement. I look back on what my beliefs were at the age of 18, 21, 25, etc. and they were never static. There's a clear evolution. Now, at 28, I'm still constantly learning and growing. Even as recently as a few months ago, my views on certain things changed dramatically.
I think there are a few ex-Shias on our site, rraza, so you should feel at home. peace
I've been to Iran twice (at the age of 10 and 24); I was born in the States. Both times I went there were bittersweet experiences. Glad to see my family and see a lot of the history, but sad at the state of affairs there.
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welcome
I am a God-alone Christian. Thinking back, I think I always have been. Even as a child I had the belief that Jesus was more a prophet than anything else, I have always questioned the concept of "Son on God", "God incarnate" etc.
I was a God alone Christian too Rev. John, thanks to my mum really. I wasnt raised to believe Jesus was God, and the son if God only in the sense we are all children of God, so when I read Quran it made sense to me.
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I was an atheist my whole life until about 7 months ago. I started researching code 19 and it let me to believe that the Quran was written by God eventually. I had Rashad's first version of his translation, so I didn't buy into the whole him being a messenger bit at first.. But eventually I started to believe he was a messenger. I guess even before believing he was a messenger, I could have been considered "sectarian" because I believed in HIS tafsir and hadith which can be severely distorted and / or false. Really that's not different than believing in the Sunni hadith / tafsir.
Alhamdulillah I found the errors in my ways and realized that Rashad was a charlatan and code 19 was a hoax. I still thought the Quran is legitimate scripture though. And I thought about becoming Sunni even for a few days (but never studied any hadith or anything), but again God guided me to the right path...
Now all I believe in is the Quran. I like to hear different viewpoints in the tafsir, but I don't trust anyone to be the truth in all cases.. I learned my mistake by trusting Rashad.