From monk to muslim
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Harmony upon you brother,
Welcome to the forum.
Be whole
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I have been reading this message board for over a month now so it is time to introduce myself. I'm a 47 year old Dutchman living with my British Pakistani wife in England and in my twenties I used to be a catholic monk for 2 years.
I read the quran for the first time in my early thirties and 5years ago I did online shahada after the attacks on Gaza made me a muslim. I did a public shahada at an Islamic society so I could marry my wonderful wife 3 years ago and did my best to be a Sunni Muslim. After 9 months of praying 5 times a day I had a nervous breakdown and left islam for a while. Two months ago I told my wife I would be a muslim again but this time on my terms.
I now pray twice a day and the beard is gone. I owe this site a lot for now I can be muslim without losing my sanity!Congratulations.
God bless.
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I don't wonder that you had a nervous breakdown. Straitjackets can have such results.
I like the "on your terms". That is very important. We cannot believe in the place of others or other's ideas, we have to beleieve being ourselves and truthful to ourselves. I trust now you are liberated from the "you chould this, you should thats" and can be sincere and at peace.
Salaam
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Yes, salat has been my entry into quranism. The idea that God demands from us that we pray five times a day is preposterous!
All, thanks for the welcome.
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Peace,
Yes, salat has been my entry into quranism. The idea that God demands from us that we pray five times a day is preposterous!
Good that you have that view now. Do not let yourself be persuaded by evil forces. You have understood something important.
Be whole
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I owe this site a lot for now I can be muslim without losing my sanity!
Welcome bro and be thankful of God. This website has many flaws, including my own. You shouldn't be thanking websites brother. peace
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Yes, salat has been my entry into quranism. The idea that God demands from us that we pray five times a day is preposterous!
All, thanks for the welcome.
Salam brother
If you try to think a bit deeper, in sha Allah you will also understand that - the idea that God demands from us that we pray two times a day - and that too by mystically coding the instruction in the scripture in highly ambiguous wording - is equally preposterous, if not more! Allah does not demand from us any ritual - what Quran repeatedly commands us to do is to establish respect (akimus salaat) for the One who gave us the gift of our life - in our lifestyle. The salaat ritual is merely a ritual expression of that respect in a manner practiced by a community. Performing the ritual - without truly respecting Allah (by being responsible towards His creations like fellow humans, other creatures - and the universe in general) - is merely claps and dance. The few select verses of Qur'an that seem to indicate salaat as a ritual are simply endorsement of the practice of salaat ritual coming down to us through generations from our forefather Abraham.
If twice a day ritual suits you - good for you, but don't let the form or frequency of prayer be the criteria for you to judge others. Because that would be putting the form of salaat over its substance - neither Abraham, nor Moses, nor Jesus, nor Muhammad would teach us to do that! If you do that you will be - once again - acting like those who split into sects.
Like our forefather Abraham you seem to have moved away from the stars (Bible) - to the moon (Sunnah) - to the sun (Quran). I hope and pray, you will make the final leap to understand that the stars, the moon, the sun are all there to guide mankind ? they are not our destiny ? our destiny is to the One who gave us our life in the first place ? and we submit to Him by upholding our conscience and intellect which happen to be our direct link with Him. Allah is my Master and your Master, so let us be slave to Him. That is the straight route.
May Allah guide us all.
Regards,
Arman -
I agree with you armanazis, sholat should be translated as rescpet. I dont know in english what word that making a work word into thing word, what is it on english. For example, working, its a work word, and worker, it is a thing. I forget what I should say for such a thing.
On arabic there is appendix "ta" to tell that such a thing is a female object.
Ayaah = Sign
Ayaat = Sign(object/female)Solaa = Respect
Solaat = Respect(object/female)I dont know how to explain it on english.