Hi and peace on all folks on this really cool platform!
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Hi again,
I am very thankful to God for bringing me to this discussion forum. My journey here, I feel, took longer than it ought to have... but, I guess learning to humble myself before my cherisher and sustainer took a while... and, in a way, still continues. I am thankful in any event.
I was born a Muslim, did not practice Islam, in a meaningful way anyway, for over 22 years of my life. Then, I got into Islam. Now at 26, I can say, boy, was that a crazy ride. Well worth it!
I was a Baptist Christian for two years before those four years that changed my life. I reside in India presently, however, when I was in Canada, I got into Sunni Islam as that was the dominant practice of many Muslims at my university, and technically, since I was born into a somewhat "Sunni" home, I didn't mind. However, by the grace of my cherisher, I fell in love with philosophy, or the love of truth.
Allah, in the Qur'an, from what I understand, asks to be called on by the most beautiful names. From the Sunni tradition, Al'Haqq... or the truth, is just one of the names I learned. And, the Qur'an is one lovely text, because the English translations are still well reasoned and the translations still contain profound arguments (I cannot read and hardly know any Arabic, so I still have to explore the nuances of the Qur'an). For me, my love for philosophy, turned into love for our creator.
It was through a lot of "googleing" and other crazy means that I "stumbled" upon free-minds.org. That added a whole new dimension to my search for meaning towards the somewhat unreasonable skepticism towards our cherisher. The impetus, from what I recall, for all of this, was my paster in my 'modern' Christian days. Unexplained, he turned into a highly skeptical agnostic, as if overnight. Philosophy, Aristotle's in particular, and a host of other 'ilm' or knowledge, gave me some grounding and paved my path to Islam. peace
Kudos to the free-minds.org team, brothers, sisters, the works! Sincerely!
I must say however, that some articles need a little bit of polishing and some need rewrites, as I have become very particular about clarity and the shortcomings of the English language.
Please do see my blog, and if you decide to, I request that you pardon my errors since much of what I've written is somewhat sophomoric, however, there are a few entries that I feel are well thought out. It documents my progress, in a way..., and it's got a link to free-minds! bravo.
I only used the free minds website as a reference source, for instance, it was only today that I learned how to use this platform... ha haa . So I can't wait to dig in and see what this forum has to offer for consideration. So there you go!
Please pardon my long intro, I am just too thrilled. Ha haa
Alykum As'salaam or Peace on you from the source of it!
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peace and welcome rahi welcome i read your blog a little and i would say i agree with you about the hymns especially david's psalms which are name-checked in the quran itself. a question i wondered too is do you know if the quran was sung when it was first recited? i asked a sunni muslim once and he said it isnt technically sung but to my ears it is. he said there was one or two different meters one could recite the quran with and only those specifically. he couldnt tell me when they were first developed or if it was recited like this in the first place. i just remembered thinking about this when i read your post. peace
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Hi flameindecent
welcome to the forum...
I hope you will enjoy being here, and share your knowledge with us. When i first found Islam through God alone( Islam based on Quran alone), i prayed for god to show me the right way if i felt doubt or got stagnant in my faith. And i was patient, because i believe patience is the key to complete understanding and growth in Islam. I have an article here on free-minds about the History of Hadith that i think might interest you. Scroll down to the end of the thread in the link below, and there you will find my article
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=16838.msg169055#msg169055
I think almost every article here in free-minds has some great knowledge in it that the other article does not contain, so to get the best results, i recommend reading every article on free-minds.org
I recommend reading the articles in these great sites about Islam based on Quran alone
www.rationalreality.com
www.19.org
www.ourbeacon.comAlso check out these sites if you have not done it yet
www.submission.org
http//www.quran.org/yuksel.htmI have checked your blog by the way, and i can see that you have a link there to an article about hiphop. Hiphopmusic is great. Especially Pac, and Immmortal T. Which artists do you listen to, do you have any favorites?
Peace and Respect
David -
peace
I have an article here on free-minds about the History of Hadith that i think might interest you.
Interest me? Buddy... it changed my entire way of thinking and life... I must say!!! And I am very thankful to my sustainer for showing those critically important articles on the hadith. I was skeptical before those articles myself, as I knew that Bukhari attested to several so called "false" hadith at the start of his collection. And the sheer number ought to been evidence enough. But thanks, I'll try and give your article a read, if I have not done so already. yes
In a way, I still have soooooo many hadith almost ingrained in my way of thinking that I had a lot of unlearning to do. That took a while, and there are still days I think about the hadith, not as a way of life, but with the lens of philosophy. Especially, ethics or moral philosophy normative prescriptions! I never write about it, because what I have found with God alone is something so "freeing" and unique! I feel in tune with so many prophets and it's hard to explain.
In any event, I'd like to write about the moral philosophy about hadith someday, unless God wills otherwise, because I like, and find it challenging, to address secular audiences. And, I would like to draw more Sunni's to this way of life (the 'deen' of cherisher or "Allah or God" alone, in other words), as it is extremely consistent with Islam, which they, and I earlier, claimed to adopt. Islam has just gotten a whole lot better for me... I pray that it does for the rest of my family as well.
Ha haa, and yes, I'm a fan of both the beauty and the sound of nature first, then comes the rest. Too many to list actually, though I like the philosophically inclined tracks and tunes. So, some hip-hop (like OutKast), I still listen to rock once in a while, a tune or two from Pink Floyd, Nirvana etc., but that's rare now. I practice tai-chi, so I have recently started listening to soundtracks that fit with it. So, tunes from the movie Hero with Jet Li and so on...
Many thanks for the welcome! I appreciate it.
On you be peace peace -) and God willing we stay in touch.
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Dear Kurt, Peace on you!
will look forward to hearing more from you and your opinions on topics here
Thanks, and I sincerely look forward to sharing on all the interesting and amazing topics here. I just cant wait to dig in. I still cant believe that this community exists! Ha haa
I appreciate all the support.
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Hi and Peace on you dc2!
a question i wondered too is do you know if the quran was sung when it was first recited?
Well... from historical record we know a few things. The Qur'an is the only text in history, from what I have learned, that has evolved a way of reading or reciting it. In other words, it is not a song, it is like a song... only better. Put differently, your vocal cords better be ready for some of the verses, if you'd realllllly like to pronounce it the way it "ought" to be pronounced in Arabic. Trust me, it's no easy task for even a well trained singer.
There are three, perhaps more, but I only know of two ways of this Arabic vocal recitation. One is the rhythmic recitation, in slow measured paces, that literally feels like the Qur'an rolls off the tougue. This is called 'tarteel' apparently. The other, is each word in Arabic is stretched to its maximum, from what I understand. All methods, ought to fit with our Salat however (not too loud, not too soft... but audible).
The function of the 'tarteel', apparently is to aid native Arabic speakers, and perhaps those who know Arabic, a way of dwelling on the verses as they are being recited. It's pretty wonderful (I just know a small selection of Arabic verses and their meanings), and I like the tarteel "method".
Now, this I learned on a paid for service on a Sunni website. It was enlightening to know that it's the only text in history to have evolved such a mechanism of "how to read a text"... God's text in other words!
The source for the 'tarteel' method in the Qur'an is chapter 73 verse 4. Please pay close attention to the translations of this verse in particular. They're all over the place. wow
Please try this link if it's not on your bookmarks already http//yaqb.org/
Personally, I think the Yusuf Ali translation gets to the semantics the best... do check it out when possible.
Next, for those long stretches of the vocal chords... sample the Qur'an for free at this link
http//www.islamicity.com/mosque/arabicscript/Ayat/1/1_1.htm
This is a Sunni website, however the audible Qur'an thankfully, is free! And the recitation takes some getting used to (your personal preference for voice etc. may differ from mine... which may be a good thing incidentally).
And thanks again for the welcome!
On you be peace and sincerely,
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Welcome to the site Rahi.
I like yourself love philosophy and has helped me immensely in keeping and being true to myself. I feel like its a program like a computer has to clean out the corrupted traditions and upbringings and to start and look at things objectively, kind of like an anti virus ;D Of course there are somethings that cannot be explained objectively i.e dreams but thats where Al-Quran helps us in clarifying and giving clues.
Look forward to your input in this forum.
I would highly recommend this book by Allama Parwez....it shifted my views and clarified alot of things for me that I didn't question or overlooked like Why evil exists etc
http//deenrc.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/kitab-ul-taqdeer-book-of-destiny-by-ga-parwez.pdf
http//www.deenresearchcenter.com/
PEACE
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Hi Prince - thanks for the welcome and peace!
I had a quick look at those links you suggested. They look good. I still have much to read and learn... and especially from the Quran.
Many thanks and peace
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Peace dear readers!
I learnt once, in my Salat, that my condition before God, is helpless, but deserving compassion. By extension, that could be the human condition. There is obviously nothing that I can say in my defence before my creator, for various and obvious reasons.
Having said that..., I have been worshipping God alone for a while now, however, it is only recently that I am beginning to make the distinction between sincere belief in God alone. The experiences, I might add, have been both acutely humbling at times and extremely rewarding often, spiritual and otherwise.
To be sure, I have had several times in my past believed in God alone. There have been times, however, where I have needed reassurance. Regrettably, my impatience, likely, impeded my belief in God alone, independent of the Hadith and other topics discussed at Free Minds. I have before, and pray, going forward, continue to experience the joys of worshipping God alone, the one who cares and supports.
I am sure, many of us have had similar experiences.
Again, I am glad to be at this website, though I find the "truth seeker" index somewhat arbitrary. I just think that could very well be "truth seekers" out there who are already running at the burnout level, but are just not on this platform for discussion, debate and generally enriching each others knowledge, about God, related and other issues.
I still think that it's good, because, I guess the 'truth seekers' at the burnout level, here, have been at this platform for a while now, and hence, have a reasonably good understanding of the purpose and subject matter that this platform has to offer.
Does anyone know if that index is just a function of 'posts' and 'replies'... just curious that's all! hmm ha haa...
Thanks for reading, God bless and best wishes.
peace