Is it okay not to list my faith on Facebook?

Red_Eyes

Hello,
I use to list my religious views as Islam on Facebook but I didn't wanna get discrimination or people looking at me wrongfully I believe as they may compare me to radicals and so since I wanted to be viewed only as human I took off the religious listing and left it blank.

I have though been looking at the verse that states
"Whoever rejects God after having believed; except for one who is forced while his heart is still content with belief; and has opened his chest to rejection, then they will have a wrath from God and they will have a great retribution" 16116

This has bothered me. The way I interpret this is that if you do kufr about God unless your are forced to while fully believing you are not blameworthy and if you have fully opened your chest to kufr then you are blameworthy.

I've seen interpretations include telling others that you are of a different faith other than islam with the interpretation of forced to do this being that you might be killed.

Kufr which I believe means the covering of the truth would make me think that if one is forced it allows you to do that about God. However there is also the fact that I believe kufr can be done to oneself which leads one to go into apostasy and thus this what has bothered me is that does simply hiding my faith on Facebook count as telling others you not of this faith (thus might appear as an apostate? )

Thanks

Karimah

Ok this is strictly my opinion, but the way I see it is that if you choose not to disclose your religion on facebook that's just you being private about one aspect of your life. So I hardly see it as sinful. I think you should do what you feel is right in your heart, unless someone can specifically give a quranic response regarding this issue.

Red_Eyes

Ok this is strictly my opinion, but the way I see it is that if you choose not to disclose your religion on facebook that's just you being private about one aspect of your life. So I hardly see it as sinful. I think you should do what you feel is right in your heart, unless someone can specifically give a quranic response regarding this issue.

Well here is my issue. I can think of two interpretations to 16106.
1)The common one I hear based on kufr is translated by many to mean disbelief and rejection. This as a result makes it sound that you cannot disbelieve in God unless you are forced to while believing, which by that interpretation I believe it means that you cannot tell others that you have left the faith unless you forced to while believing.

If this is the case, does me simply removing my status/hiding my status of my religious views count as telling others i've left the faith or rejected God? I hid it to keep my views from the public so they don't put on the negative images the media has given islam on me. As well it's not like i've said I have publicly said I left the religion or said i'm a part of another religion on Facebook.

2)The other interpretation is one I have where I understand kufr to mean "covering the truth". If you factor that in with 16106 it sounds like you cannot cover the truth about God unless you are forced to while still believing. Thus I would think an example of this can be one who is getting tortured to leave the religion and thus that person professes a lie about God which as a result makes it appear that have left the faith as well.

If this is the case, it doesn't apply to me at all I think as me not listing my religious views on Facebook is not covering the truth to others in any way.

Though I am rather unsure of what is what and which interpretation to go by if these are the interpretations. What does everyone else think?

Man_of_Faith

Peace,

You can use an English word instead of "Islam" to refer to your religion, as it does not make it a different religion. There is only one religion anyway and Islam as a group is a man-made invention. My religion is the way of God. Perhaps the name Faith in God is enough? Peace seeker? I understand it is difficult to find a definition which does not sound dull in English, but if we try enough we might find one.

Islam is Arabic and God is not restricted to this language. If you live in an English-speaking country God probably does not mind you using English to define his religion.

God bless you

Red_Eyes

Peace,

You can use an English word instead of "Islam" to refer to your religion, as it does not make it a different religion. There is only one religion anyway and Islam as a group is a man-made invention. My religion is the way of God. Perhaps the name Faith in God is enough? Peace seeker? I understand it is difficult to find a definition which does not sound dull in English, but if we try enough we might find one.

Islam is Arabic and God is not restricted to this language. If you live in an English-speaking country God probably does not mind you using English to define his religion.

God bless you

That doesn't answer my question though. I wanna know if I chose to keep it hidden on Facebook, if it's fine to do so.

Man_of_Faith

Peace,

In case you choose not to show your faith on Facebook then that is up to you. God will not punish you for concealing and keeping your faith to avoid comments from misinformed people. My suggestion was to make it possible for you to propagate Islam under a neutral banner.

You shall only not be frightened to stand up to your belief if people are telling you to do things which are not righteous in God's eyes. Live as a role model and people may adopt your lifestyle.

Islam has a bad stamp on it and that is a known fact. That is why it may be advisable to untie yourself from this. God did not force people to learn or propagate Arabic terms, it just happens that this book was revealed in Arabic.

Hope my post did explain what you asked for and also things you did not ask for. If you read things irrelevant to you then I apologize, I often write too much.

God bless you

Jafar

Yes of course it's ok..
And it's not sinful at all, since all religion are man-made anyway..

God judge you by your deeds and by what's in your heart, not by your religion, nationality, ethnicity, lineage, favorite football clubs.. etc..

unknownuser

Yeah @Red-Eyes

If you live in Islamophobiatic area, you may not list "Islam" in your facebook status for your kindness (except you are brave enough).

"astray" acording to the amateur is "the people who have different opinion/view than us"

the_path_of_light

Your faith is between you and the Creator. My friendly advice is not to worry about what others think of your facebook status. The type of people who would be offended by such a thing are likely not the type of humans you'd want to spend a lot of time with in the first place.

peace

Lillian

I simply put my faith as monotheist.

Red_Eyes

Well ley me ask you guys, how do you interpret that verse?

I see a lot say that simply saying you aren't a muslim or of a different faith unless you are forced to whule you believe is what that part of 16106 means however, I see the word "kufr" is used which I understand means covering the truth so it appears to me more that that part of 16106 means that you can't cover the truth about God unless you are forced to while still believing.

So how do you guys interpret that?

Peachy

Is "rejection" the same as choosing to not disclose something on a website where listing your religion is completely optional?

If I don't list my country or gender on Facebook, or display my birthday, am I "hiding" them from people necessarily? Maybe I just don't feel it's relevant.

Rejection to me sounds more like if I asked a Muslim, "Hey, are you a Muslim?" and they responded with, "Nope, I'm not."

Facebook isn't really ASKING you anything, nor is anyone on the site, it's merely an optional way to add to your description, and really, as far as Facebook is concerned, is inconsequential. Not that our faith isn't serious, but Facebook I just don't take very seriously is all.

StopS

Hello,
I use to list my religious views as Islam on Facebook but I didn't wanna get discrimination or people looking at me wrongfully I believe as they may compare me to radicals and so since I wanted to be viewed only as human I took off the religious listing and left it blank.

I have though been looking at the verse that states
"Whoever rejects God after having believed; except for one who is forced while his heart is still content with belief; and has opened his chest to rejection, then they will have a wrath from God and they will have a great retribution" 16116

This has bothered me. The way I interpret this is that if you do kufr about God unless your are forced to while fully believing you are not blameworthy and if you have fully opened your chest to kufr then you are blameworthy.

I've seen interpretations include telling others that you are of a different faith other than islam with the interpretation of forced to do this being that you might be killed.

Kufr which I believe means the covering of the truth would make me think that if one is forced it allows you to do that about God. However there is also the fact that I believe kufr can be done to oneself which leads one to go into apostasy and thus this what has bothered me is that does simply hiding my faith on Facebook count as telling others you not of this faith (thus might appear as an apostate? )

Thanks

I see this as being 2 separate issues.

Facebook. What is Facebook? A social network site. What defines you on Facebook? Your personality or your belief? Do you list all your facets? I hope not. So in my eyes, putting a non-defined or ill-defined term as descriptor on a social networking site is wrong.
Sentences in the Koran are usually subject to interpretation. The specific interpretation you chose is different from what I see there. I see the threat to apostates that they will have to face the consequences of leaving Islam. Why would you attribute that to yourself?

If you play chess, go league bowling and believe Earth is flat, would you mention the flat-Earther belief as the determining factor in your existence right from the start as confrontation?