I'm back from the dead

[A_Submitter]

I agree with the essence of your message, hanslan. We should be personally asking for God to guide us.

The problem is... What if God does not ever answer you?

salam

He doesn't answer those who have set up partner with Him. Have you read in Quran about the people in the sea with ships...they wanted to be saved so they implored God alone. He saved them, but when they were saved, they set up partners with Him again.
Also, patience is important, and other things such as maybe it's something bad for you...
Read this, good article

http//www.free-minds.org/why-are-prayers-unanswered

Salam

[Timotheus]

peace

indeed i respond to the call of the caller when he calls, so let them respond to me and believe in me so that they might be rightly guided.
God will not change the conditions of a people untill they change what is within themselves..

the choice is ours, God has unlimited grace, mercy and provision at our disposal, but as he mentions in the quran he only send it down in limited proportions, to enable us to complete our purpose, or otherwise be stuck in limbo waiting because we havent..

a good teaching i was blessd with recently is that he sends down enough provision for his will to be accomplished, always, he will not send down too much provision to someone with evil intentions, only enough so that they are eventualy purified from their evil, or destroyed by it, likewise for a righteous person he sends down enough to bring out there righteousness.

i cant recall the exact verse but something along the lines of 'we will test you to bring out your true qualities'

patience is a virtue, something i struggle with much, but, besides all else, strive to know yourself, and once you know and can truthfully accept your strengths and weaknesses, and work on all of them to bring them out into gods perfect righteous will, then things become alot easier.

peace

[hanslan]

I agree with the essence of your message, hanslan. We should be personally asking for God to guide us.

The problem is... What if God does not ever answer you?

He does answer you but not in the way you expect. Silence is golden meaning we are to persevere following the Quran. We need to start the change slowly but certainly. First we don?t see any change even within ourselves. We must first accept that we cannot change anything around us because what is around us is the pre-set setting, only with god?s will things change. We can only change our perception of things as ?good? or ?bad? or everything as ?truth?. This is the freedom granted to us, our absolute choice and our guide to that decision is from our understanding of the Quran at that point in time. We need to make a deliberate choice of seeing positive even in adversity and it can go really extreme as in the parables in the Quran. Seeing positive need to be followed through with positive action despite adversity (or silence from god) you face, but there must be no violence in the actions you make.

Essentially the Quran teaches you to be a positive thinker first and follow through with positive actions. We also need to avoid violence and oppression in mind and action towards ourselves and others. Once this becomes natural to you, the world will start to change it just seems like on a hot day you can ask from god for some shade and some clouds suddenly blocks the sun.

You see god responds in all kinds of ways BUT the most common way is normally not noticed. The positive change within you is god?s response to your decision and action towards positive perception and actions. If you choose to be negative, then god will also respond accordingly where you will become more deep in negativity, despair, confusion, hopelessness and eventually you give up of god?s grace. It all starts from the choice you make and the eventual action to follow through. The choice and follow through action must be align.

To test faith, despite positive mind set and follow through actions the outcome is still negative. This is a signal for you to change the follow through action. Understand the story of Ayub where despite his positive mindset and follow through actions, god inspired him to change his action to cure him of his situation.

In short, the test is always about our perception and our trust in the Creator that made us. If you say you trust the Creator/god, then you need to follow his guidance through the Quran and nothing else.

Anyway if you are thinking about god responding to you directly like he did with moses, it is not an impossibility but to get to that point is totally god?s choice. The fact that if you are able to see positive and do positive actions despite adversity is already a good sign that god has responded to you by giving you the fortitude to do so and it only comes with perseverance.

Everyone has their own journey, I?m just sharing more common ones where one remains substantially a normal human being (but with an elevated status) not the mystical journeys some do encounter which in my opinion more perilous because it is easier to fail on those journey. To be on those journey one needs to be masterful of the Quran?s spiritual teachings where many have failed or trapped by the stories in surah Al-jin.

My advice is go back to the Quran, but this time take time to understand and contemplate, follow that which is clear to you and ask for fortitude and guidance, persevere everyday, perceive everything positively and follow through with positive action.

Salam

[reel]

Brothers, I have simply asked what about me is not being Muslim or on the converse what do I have to do in order to become a Muslim (according to your Quran-only definition)? I am yet awaiting an answer. I'm not being argumentative here but none of you have given me an explicit answer other than implying that I'm supposed to read the Quran for myself and then subject the sacred text to my own interpretation.

You are free to believe in what you like, but for the question you asked above this is the answer
Submission to God. If you do it through Quran then you will see victory. If you keep something in the middle of you and God you will go in circle like the rest of the sectarians. Quran has some instructions to get connected with Allah. Read the verses and make an effort to apply them to your life. And when I say this I do not mean doing rituals, but making changes in thought pattern and everyday actions. The idea of Muslim seems to be more about creating a sound state of mind than being a bot. Once the verses are practiced, you will become aware of what you are missing out and how things come to fruition.

[Shadowscholar]

Thank you for your replies, guys. I appreciate it! bravo

By the way, I used to see some Sunnis frantically debate with you folks... But they've stopped now, haven't they? Did they give up?

[Jafar]

I have to ask, when you advise me to submit to God alone, what do you really mean? How am I not submitting to God alone being a Sunni? Am I missing something here? Don't I already believe in the Quran?

?If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future."
Lao Tze

Submitting to God alone Accepting / be at peace with your past, present and future..

Yes you can submit to God Alone even when you're a Sunni (Or Shiites, Jews, Christians, Buddhist, Atheist etc..) the labelling / social identity really doesn't matter. And Holy Books (Quran, Bible, Harry Potter etc..) has nothing to do with it either...

Thus the indicator of whether you're a "God Aloner" can ONLY be recognized by YOU.. yourselves... are you at peace?

The problem is... What if God does not ever answer you?
He always answers, you just have to listen better.

True.. and sometimes you don't like the answer...
Especially if the answer is not inline to your liking thus supporting your 'ego'...
Nonetheless.. are you able to accept it? be at peace with it? although it doesn't suit to your liking..

[Adam_The_Warner]

G'day y'all...

It was about 3 years ago when I first posted here an introduction of myself. Although I matured way more than I could ever conceive necessary (and come to think about it I may still need maturing for somebody in my 30s), I cannot help but add my thoughts on this forum because I support the "Protestant" or sola scriptura principle concerning the Quran even though I'm somewhat a Sunni...

But a Sunni who is suffering major crises of faith (yes, crises in plural), so my belief in God has been on the edge lately. I am wondering what keeps you guys going when you are in the minority of the Muslim World? What do you do when you suffer doubts in God, the Sacred Scriptures, and in the Greater Good? I have to ask because there ought to be a community of Muslims that can give me better answers than "Just be patient, pray, read the Quran and fast more (than only in Ramadan)".

I have to add, although I really don't like talking poorly about anybody or groups, like I said I have matured from being a close-minded literalistic Sunni Muslim... I gotta ask what makes you guys oppose the mainstream current of the Muslims around you who are generally along the lines of Sunni, Sufi, Shia and the non-practising Muslims who come from such backgrounds? I am sick and tired of assimilating with other Muslims when I disagree with them or I'm tired with them in many matters, doctrines and interrupting practices. I'm tired of their judgemental attitude and how they have little qualms about condemning others around them to Hell (after all, downtown Sydney we are the minority in the Australian population).

Last night I saw Imam Zaid Shakir, Shaykha Safia Shahid and Dr Shadee Elmasry https//www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/programs hanging out with their associates at a local Sydney caf? following their afternoon talk at the main Sydney mosque which was priced at $70 per ticket. Now I am mentioning this so you don't think I'm just an invisible Sunni popping up out of nowhere... I am quite active in my field of religious participation but down the spiral of secularism because of being tired of over one decade of routine robotic rituals combined with lack of divine intervention and intellectual stagnation. I also attend an Anglican Church every Sunday in addition to typical boring Friday prayers (which is full of Middle Eastern politics and repetitions of the usual lectures).

Follow the words of God, Quran, Gospel, Psalms, Torah, and all other Revelations that we can find in the Bible.

Stay away from sects such as that "Sunnis", "Roman Catholics" and the "People of the Talmud".

You mentioned the term Sola Scriptura? Then live by it right? And i think the "friday"/day of assembly prayer is mentioning the day of the Sabbath, since it told us in that verse not to work. And we know which day we rest on if we read the Torah.

[Adam_The_Warner]

Salam,

some beliefs of Sunnis is idol-worshipping, and they also follow books that are not from God but from humans and their devils.
For example, Sunnis reverence prophet Muhammed so much they have made him a partner with God. When you bear witness, do you mention Muhammed besides God? During Salat, is it for God, or is it also for Muhammed and the angels? Is it God alone who can save you from Hell, or is Muhammed an intercessor besides God, while in Quran it's stated that all intercession belongs to God? Why hasn't God mentioned Bukhari and Co, and why do people follow hadiths and then claim it's from God? Same goes for other sects too, such as Shia, instead they have made "Ali" the most important.

There are so many things that they have forgotten to submit to God alone.
I recommend you check the articles section of Free-Minds. Many good articles that explain it better than me.

http//free-minds.org/articles
Choose category

Salam

Why would someone still want to worship Bukhari, Muslem, Ibn Madja, Tirmidhi, Abo Dawood and Nasai after seeying the Guidance and the Light? Why would someone want to stay a "sunni" after seeying the quran alone movement?

Every sect does have its own version of doctrines that are being spread in the name of Mohammed. How can you ever claim to be the right one, and how can you ever claim to have the words of Mohammed, since the Quran alone is sufficient and fully detailed? Why would someone ask for the words of a human being after receiving the words of God? Isn't that idolatry?

I still see some influence of the books of Bukhari, Muslem, Ibn Madja, etc. in you. Do you consider them as prophets? Those books contradict each other, let alone the Quran.

[Adam_The_Warner]

I agree with the essence of your message, hanslan. We should be personally asking for God to guide us.

The problem is... What if God does not ever answer you?

Have patience, how long did the prophets wait for things to happen? And we should know that God is Holy and that we should Holy ourselves also.

[Shadowscholar]

We should be Holy as God is Holy... Isn't that advice from the Bible?

[Man_of_Faith]

We should be Holy as God is Holy... Isn't that advice from the Bible?

And what does it mean then? Yes, it means that we should imitate the way of God.