From Malaysia: Still searching but here?s my story?
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Salam bro Max,
Its good to hear of a Malaysian finding his way to this forum. Strangely i just stumble on your post today since it have been here more than half a year.
I could relate to your story about debating with your parents on this.My mom brought me to an Ustaz few years back supposedly to tunjukkan "jalan yang lurus"(show me the "straight path". Too bad the mosque where the Ustaz was located is near to a tahfiz school. Luckily i came prepared with a laptop to help me to search for Quran verses. Even the Ustaz cant answer most of the questions raised. I saw my mother wiping her tears when i was debating the Ustaz. Then the ustaz gets tired of me he round up his students from the tahfiz school to "interrogate" me. It was me alone with my laptop and about 6-8 students sitting in a circle asking standard questions like "how do i pray" and stuff like that. It was so bad till i need to call my dad to bail me out. Lesson learnt Dont be a "hero" in front of these people, they will mark you and call you names especially in their ground and when you are alone. giveup
We should get together sometime for a kenduri or something.. D
Salam
ashraf -
Salam Ashraf,
Hahaha...trust me, the last thing I want is to be a hero! I think Ive reached the stage where I am relatively at peace with my beliefs and what others believe. There was a point where I couldnt resist myself from jumping into a debate to prove how/why everyone else got it wrong brickwall. Nowadays, Im a lot more pragmatic.
I'm sure you have been following many of the current issues relating to 'Islam' in our country. Sigh, we are digressing bro? its sad to see our beloved country, what was once a harmonious mutliracial multireligious society degenerate into blind following racist bunch of ppl?(sorry had to let it out somewhere..)
I guess on hindsight, we always had it coming, but we ignored the subtle signs..
Well, have a good (belated) merdeka and a fruitful ramadhan...
(PS of cos, we should meet up!, just as long as you dont bring along any JAIS ppl, hehe.. j/k)
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Salam,
Wow, I've been left out for about a year!
Hmmm... I've met Dalia before.
Ashraff, nteresting story. Bailed by your dad just like my father but he was really in the lock up in Penang.
and...Max, welcome. nice to meet you.
I hope that I could meet all of you at one time someday, insya allah.
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Salam all
wow, more malaysians! yeay!
nice to meet you ashraf, come2 lets organize la some kind of get together@Haseena, we need to have another get together la, definately! Want to eat some more of you dad's cooking!
@Max, yes, you are right, its not easy and I'm gonna take my time, but my parents kind of know about my stand as i sometimes discuss it with my bro in law and they heard it, pernah kena marah sekali jugak, hehhee p
anyway... we have created a group in Facebook - Malaysian Quranic Society, Feel free to join! it will be great to get more input from different people
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Salam,
Dalia, yes. My bapa will LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVEEE it. We must and make sure that our friends could join us as some are from other states including you.
I thought of 'turun' JB in 2 weeks. Haven't gone to my sister's place since she started working there. I'll call you, Insya allah.
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Peace,
Nice to see more God Alone people in countries near me (I am from the Tom Yam Gung country and I like Mee Goreng).
bravo
Glory to God. We are nothing without Thee - O Lord Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and all that's in it and all beyond it - Glory to Thee O Lord. Limitless Is Thy Glory. Thank YOU - O Lord - Thank YOU. IT IS YOU ALONE WHO CREATE - YOU ALONE WE GLORIFY - GLORY BE TO GOD ALONE.
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Salam to all.
Together, we are in the process of searcing for truth in our life. Some from Christian to Islam. Some from Islam to Christian. Some from Atheist to Buddhists. Some from Sunni Islam to God Only. But, the thing is sometimes the journey seems endless. Let's say, we have come to point B from A. At point B we start to think again and say "Is this what I have been looking for? or is the this the answer?" It seems we are still in the circles or in the box.
Well, this is normal as a human being. In Quran, God says, there are no compulsion in your beliefs. We are open to choose any beliefs.
I came from Islamic sunni backgrounds. My families, relatives are all sunni hardliners. Many years ago (high school), I have start to think and argue about my sunni beliefs, which is straight from my heart. No influence from anybody. Then come the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the thinking of Kaum Muda in Indonesia and many other "Islamic factors" in the region, I start to have doubt about our so called "Islamic" religion and all the way to history of Taliban and AlQaida in the early part of 21st century.
Since early days, I doubt everything in sunni muslims mindset. Examples
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Shafiee school of thought is the best among the Imams. I asked the teacher ?Did Imam Shafiee ever said this?? My teacher stop for a while. He said ?No. The ulamak said.?
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Ulamak says, other religions are pagan based, because they use something to pray to God. I asked my teacher ?How about Kaaba in Mecca? Is there any difference?? My teacher replied ?Kaaba is House of Allah. It?s just a symbol of unity for muslims to worship God. ? I said ?The concept of symbol is pagan. God never accept symbol in order to serve Him.? My teacher looks angry but confused.
Just a few examples. So, thank God, I have managed to finish reading a book written by Aidid Safar titled ?Mental Bondage in the Name of God?. I wish to share with all of you regarding this thought provoking book. There are no compulsion to accept 100 percent of this book, but I suggest that you all read the book from start to finish. If possible more than once. Don?t read just a glance, because I knew some people in the blog just read a few pages, and come to an emotional conclusions. Read from start to finish with high sense of academic and intelligence.
My personal view This book seems can settle everything in our mind be it issue of solat, who is Muhammad, what is kaaba, what is ramadhan actually etc.
Brothers and sisters can download the book in pdf from www.aididsafar.com.
Salam to all and love you all brothers and sisters. -
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Salam,
Message 114. Thank you for your sharing. Mental Bondage in the Name of God. I have the original version of that book but was banned in Malaysia.
Dalia, remember I showed you a book? Thats the one. I think its with you.
Doubts we had was cleared by reading that book. The launching of that book was the final meeting of all our elder generation believers (eg. my dad).
Anyway, we can still meet to discuss topics. I would say that to strenghten friendship as I just started getting to know friends like Aimi, Ashraff, Dalia, Farouk. Actually, I really want to have gathering at least once in a year for us to meet.
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Salam Haseenababu,
Thanks. If I'm not mistaken, Aidid Safar is not the author's real name and somewhere in the website mentioned he is a Malaysian, but left the country. I'm still not sure he's whereabout. That's okay, but for me this book is very thought provoking and of highly academic nature especially in terms of our intrepretation of the Quran. This book really gives me real meaning of God's message contrary to what have been practiced since hundreds and hundreds of years ago from our great great fathers and grandmothers and from our childhood till now. Even though we cannot 100 percent force people to accept his view, but I personally view the book seriously by research and learn Arabic language bit by bit, in order to capture the true meaning of Quran. Aidid Safar is very true indeed in his view, that we cannot just intrepret one sentence in Quran as single meaning, but should be across the board from first surah till the end of Quran. His book really link to all aspects of history since Abraham times.
Personally, my mind and heart is very happy and wide horizon now since reading this book and gives me full confidence. It's true and we can see what happens to Muslims now. Chaos. Terrorist acts in the name of God. Kill each other in the name of sects and even shooting in mosques. Controversial use of Allah name. Death during Haj. Just imagine we muslims say pagan about other religion, but we ourselves bow towards the big pagan cube in Mecca where Abraham himself never set foot there. All these are rubbish and useless in our life. We can see the logic, where there are too many contradictions in ulamak views and sects. Simple, contradictions mean something is wrong. And Quran message never contradicts and we must never be fool by the writings of people like Bukhari, Tarmidzi where all these men are Persians and even Jews and involved in Jewish conspiracies.
I'm very happy to see all of you here. At any time, I speak to God in my mind and hearts to guide me on the straight path.
Salam to all.