What does it mean to be muslim - my present perspective as of 12/03/2011
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Peace, people,
I think it would be a wise idea if everyone shared their insights into their present understandings of the truth in threads like these. We could watch our evolution as truthseekers take fruit and ripen with this open diary mode of thinking.
As someone said, I think David_K, the quran is a universal book filled with an incredible amount of meaning - we can read the same verse over and over again and it will bring us new fruits. Does anyone other than ALLAH bring us the fruits of our own deeds!My present understanding of islam, is one who seeks the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This means that we are open to truth no matter where it comes from. The focus should be on seeing the truth in every moment and understanding how truth comes by.
1585 AND We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them without truth;60 but, behold, the Hour is indeed yet to come. Hence, forgive with fair forbearance
I do not presently know enough to make an accurate judgement about salat but I believe it has everything to do with maintaining the divine balance
557 He raised the sky and He established the balance.
558 So that you, too, never violate balance in your lives.
559 And observe the weight with equity, and do not fall short in the balance.These three verses contain the meaning of life! We are put on earth, our playground, to learn how to maintain the balance. This balance is of many types, but I will say that it's all about energy efficiency and making sure that the natural law that something 1 kilogram doesn't suddenly turn into 2 kilograms isn't broken, such as what happens with interest.
Observing this balance is crucial to the natural flow of affairs in reality. I will quote from the Tao Te Ching, a book that contains exceeding wisdom, indeed it is a good explanation of the quran itself - check it out, it's a key book in the arsenal of any truthseeker for sure, I personally hold it second to quran at this time
As it acts in the world, the Tao
is like the bending of a bow.
The top is bent downward;
the bottom is bent up.
It adjusts excess and deficiency
so that there is perfect balance.
It takes from what is too much
and give to what isn't enough.Those who try to control,
who use force to protect their power,
go against the direction of the Tao.
They take from those who don't have enough
and give to those who have far too much.The Master can keep giving
because there is no end to her wealth.
She acts without expectation,
succeeds without taking credit,
and doesn't think that she is better
than anyone else.So islam is all about taking from the places of high accumulation to feed the places of low accumulation. This is what it means to observe the balance, to keep things stable. A see-saw is only in balance when both sides are weighed down perfectly and life is a grand see-saw.
The key to maintaining the balance is to submit your will to ALLAH. This process is known as "ego loss" and the ultimate attainment of perfect union with ALLAH is known as "ego death". To submit your will to ALLAH requires that you surrender absolutely nothing! That is, the piece of nothing that you have been given, surrender it to ALLAH and he will provide you more of this beautiful nothing that we all come from. And because nothing is limitless, there is an infinite flow of this nothing awating us, should we choose to open our eyes and observe the balance.
In observing the balance, we will find that we automatically become more charitable and forgiving. These are the key tenets of islam - being a patient person, choosing the effortless fluid path of maintaining the balance, giving in charity so that you are not TOO rich for your own good, and allowing everything to flourish around you in the same way that rain does
757 He is the One who sends pleasant winds bearing good news of the forthcoming rain of His blessings. When the winds carry the heavy clouds, We drive them to a land that is dead. The water then causes all kinds of fruit and vegetation to sprout. This is how We can revive dead people and nations. Herein is a sign for those who pay heed.
So my present meaning of islam is to be the spirit of truth/love/life wherever you are, however you know best. And ALLAH is the ultimate teacher. Which brings us to his punishment
479 Any good that befalls you is from God, and any bad that befalls you is from yourself. We have sent you as a messenger to the people and God is enough as a witness.
What does this mean? ALLAH is the overseer of everything, I hold ALLAH to in a way be synonymous with the universe. Not the material universe, not the spiritual universe, not the observable universe, THE universe. And ALLAH is al-haqq, THE truth, THE reality, understand? And likewise, when we produce a bad deed, the universe sees fit to punish us for this from any direction. The punishment will immediately come as the seed of a new test in reality, it is up to us to bring fruit from it. Notice that it says ALLAH is enough as a witness, one reason is that ALLAH sees all that we do and will punish us and forgive us accordingly.
A punishment from ALLAH comes only when we break the flow, when we stop maintaining the balance, when we descend from the garden of paradise on earth to crappy old Earth. The punishment is of any scale or shape, it can be as simple as the tiredness from smoking a cigarette or you being shot dead for killing someone else.
My present focus is attempting to understand the concepts of flow, synchronicity, love, harmony and music. All of these words are intimately connected by the fabric of the command in 558. I hope this clarifies things for people )
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Peace, people,
I think it would be a wise idea if everyone shared their insights into their present understandings of the truth in threads like these. We could watch our evolution as truthseekers take fruit and ripen with this open diary mode of thinking.
As someone said, I think David_K, the quran is a universal book filled with an incredible amount of meaning - we can read the same verse over and over again and it will bring us new fruits. Does anyone other than ALLAH bring us the fruits of our own deeds!Peace OPF
We live in a universe with invincible fields and webs that can't be grasped with our five senses. And since there are things that are beyond our five senses, our senses can deceive us when it comes to understanding the reality. When are eyes see an ice cube, and it melts, its shape changes, but its substance still remains the same. But if we didn't have knowledge about the substance of water, we might have been deceived to believe that when the Ice cube melts, and it's shape changes, the substance changes as well. But the fact is that the substance remains the same. So we can easily understand that our senses can deceive us, so therefore our senses can't be trusted. Another example is the life of plants. In an observation, a researcher by the name Cleve Backster, noted a special bond between a plant and its keeper. This bond was unaffected by distance. By using synchronized stopwatchers, he could see that his plants, reacted to his thoughts and attention, from another room, from down the hall, even from several buildings away. Backster wanted to find out if his plants would react from a much greater distance, so he experimented with a female friend, to know whether her plants would remained attuned to her, on a ride with an airplane, seven hundred miles across the United states. By using synchronized clocks, he found that each time the plane touched down for a landing, the plants reacted to the female's emotional stress. So as we can see, there are things that are not visible by the human eye, and can only be mapped indirectly through science. Therefore our senses can't be trusted when it comes to reality. Reality is very different than what we believe it is. Many of the webs and systems humankind has created has nothing to do with nature. And many ideas and theories in sociology, economy, medicine and psychology are based on falsehood. They are not in alignment with nature. They belong to an invented reality that exists outside of nature. Many people believe that these man-made webs and systems are a part of reality, but they are nothing but illusions. They are separated from reality. They have nothing do to with metaphysics. This is one of my current understandings of truth.
My present understanding of islam, is one who seeks the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This means that we are open to truth no matter where it comes from. The focus should be on seeing the truth in every moment and understanding how truth comes by.
I agree.
I do not presently know enough to make an accurate judgement about salat but I believe it has everything to do with maintaining the divine balance
557 He raised the sky and He established the balance.
558 So that you, too, never violate balance in your lives.
559 And observe the weight with equity, and do not fall short in the balance.These three verses contain the meaning of life! We are put on earth, our playground, to learn how to maintain the balance. This balance is of many types, but I will say that it's all about energy efficiency and making sure that the natural law that something 1 kilogram doesn't suddenly turn into 2 kilograms isn't broken, such as what happens with interest.
This balance is about nature, and how it is maintained (without explaining to detail). When unnatural things replace the natural things in nature, the balance will be disrupted. Many diseases aren't natural. They are man-made. Cancer is man-made. And most natural disasters aren't natural. They are man-made.
Observing this balance is crucial to the natural flow of affairs in reality. I will quote from the Tao Te Ching, a book that contains exceeding wisdom, indeed it is a good explanation of the quran itself - check it out, it's a key book in the arsenal of any truthseeker for sure, I personally hold it second to quran at this time
There is also another book that is similar to tao te ching. The name of the book is Dhammapada.
So islam is all about taking from the places of high accumulation to feed the places of low accumulation. This is what it means to observe the balance, to keep things stable. A see-saw is only in balance when both sides are weighed down perfectly and life is a grand see-saw.
Interesting thought. I completely agree.
The key to maintaining the balance is to submit your will to ALLAH. This process is known as "ego loss" and the ultimate attainment of perfect union with ALLAH is known as "ego death". To submit your will to ALLAH requires that you surrender absolutely nothing! That is, the piece of nothing that you have been given, surrender it to ALLAH and he will provide you more of this beautiful nothing that we all come from. And because nothing is limitless, there is an infinite flow of this nothing awating us, should we choose to open our eyes and observe the balance.
You are right. The Quran teaches us that this life is nothing when it is compared to hereafter. The reason why people don't want to surrender themselves to the laws of Allah, might be because they think there is scarcity in this world. And because they think they if they don't follow their own desires, they will not be able to experience the worldly pleasures in the next life. For example, there are muslims who are willing to disobey the laws in the Quran, and have romantic and intimate physical relationships, just because that's the only way they can get to know someone who is christian, jew, traditional muslim, or has another belief system. They might think that if they don't break their values, the person they like will not marry them, and then they won't experience love and intimacy. But there is an aboundance of everything in the world. And the Quran teaches us that there are soulmates for muslims. So people shouldn't doubt, and believe that if they don't break their values, when they get to know someone, they will never get married. The Quran teaches us that the one who has created us the first time, can create us again. And this is logical. So there is no point in doubting that the the afterlife exists. The Quran teaches us that those who believe in God, the last day, do good deeds and reform (change things in society), will get rewarded in the afterlife. The Quran even teaches us that there will be spouses for those who come to paradise. So if someone doesn't get married in this life, then there is no problem. Because that person can get a spouse in the next life (if he/she follows the laws in the Quran).
In observing the balance, we will find that we automatically become more charitable and forgiving. These are the key tenets of islam - being a patient person, choosing the effortless fluid path of maintaining the balance, giving in charity so that you are not TOO rich for your own good, and allowing everything to flourish around you in the same way that rain does
757 He is the One who sends pleasant winds bearing good news of the forthcoming rain of His blessings. When the winds carry the heavy clouds, We drive them to a land that is dead. The water then causes all kinds of fruit and vegetation to sprout. This is how We can revive dead people and nations. Herein is a sign for those who pay heed.
The verse 757 tells us that the ressurection of mankind, is just like the land, when the rain falls on it, and make fruit and vegetation grow. This verse shows us how ressurection is possible. When energy can make dead things grow, energy can also make dead people become ressurected. A soul of a human being can survive death.
So my present meaning of islam is to be the spirit of truth/love/life wherever you are, however you know best. And ALLAH is the ultimate teacher. Which brings us to his punishment
479 Any good that befalls you is from God, and any bad that befalls you is from yourself. We have sent you as a messenger to the people and God is enough as a witness.
What does this mean? ALLAH is the overseer of everything, I hold ALLAH to in a way be synonymous with the universe. Not the material universe, not the spiritual universe, not the observable universe, THE universe. And ALLAH is al-haqq, THE truth, THE reality, understand? And likewise, when we produce a bad deed, the universe sees fit to punish us for this from any direction. The punishment will immediately come as the seed of a new test in reality, it is up to us to bring fruit from it. Notice that it says ALLAH is enough as a witness, one reason is that ALLAH sees all that we do and will punish us and forgive us accordingly.
A punishment from ALLAH comes only when we break the flow, when we stop maintaining the balance, when we descend from the garden of paradise on earth to crappy old Earth. The punishment is of any scale or shape, it can be as simple as the tiredness from smoking a cigarette or you being shot dead for killing someone else.
My present focus is attempting to understand the concepts of flow, synchronicity, love, harmony and music. All of these words are intimately connected by the fabric of the command in 558. I hope this clarifies things for people )
Allah controls everything in the universe. Allah maintains everything in the Universe. Allah created the Universe and the earth perfect, good, and beautiful. Bad things on this earth are caused by mankind. Wars, poverty, slavery, debt are man-made and don't exist in nature. The bad things that happen to our planet, is because of karma, the law of cause and effect. And the laws of requital will be activated in the next life. The Quran teaches us that Allah has always existed. Therefore it seems that there is no beginning and no end, and that the universe is cyclical. It seems that the universe is created, destroyed, and then recreated. From my understanding of the Quran, the theory of a cyclical universe which is in Hindu cosmology, is compatible with the Quran. In Hindu cosmoly, the universe never came to be at one point, but it has always been there, and will always be there, eternally in flux. Just like water that changes it's shape when it is freezed, or melted, but it's substance remain the same. The universe we live in now, is the current one. This universe is in flux, and is constantly changing. For example the Universe expands. When it ceases to exist, a new one might emerge. The current cosmological theory is that the Universe was began 13.7 billion years ago, with the Big Bang. However, if the Universe is cyclical, this theory will collapse. And the the claim that the universe began with the Big Bang will be false. If the Universe is cyclical, then it means that the Universe existed before the big bang. However, this does not mean that there was no big bang, it just means that the universe didn't began with the big bang. And that there was a another universe before the big bang. But the big bang might have been the start of a new universe, the thing which enabled a new universe to be created. So the theory of a cyclical Universe, is not against the scientific verse in the Quran which accepts that there has been a big bang.
Quran 2130
Have those who rejected not seen that the heavens and the earth were one piece, so We split them apart? And that We have made from the water everything that lives. Will they not believe?In the verse above, we can see that it confirms the Big Bang. However, there is no verse in the Quran that tells us that the universe has a beginning and a end, therefore this part of the theory of Big Bang is not compatible with the Quran. But the concept of a cyclical universe is accepted by the Quran. For example, from my understanding of the Quran, it tells us that a new earth and even a new universe. So if this interpretation is right, it means that the current universe will end, and then be recreated, ergo the universe is cyclical. There are several verses that confirms this understanding of cosmology in the Quran. Also some physicists, agree with the idea of a cyclical universe (based on their observations and their research). Perhaps I will write a short article/essay about the concept of a cyclical universe, from a Quranic point, in the future, and share the article/essay in the forum.
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Much thanks for your post David_K.
I shall reduce your first paragraph (not to dismiss it whatsoever!) to a single sentence that will take a keen mind to understand The speed of information is the speed of time.
Yes, the balance is being in tune with nature. However, there is plenty of room in nature, plenty of room for people to idle away their days, plenty of space for the rest of us to work. There is not, however, plenty of time to do things, or enough time for everyone to get what they want immediately.
For example, usury. Usury essentially forces people to work harder but for the gain to be directed towards a single entity, the creator of the debt. Things work in reverse with ALLAH however. You create a debt, you now owe that debt to ALLAH because ALLAH loaned you your human body, and if we're to work on the principles that you must hand over pieces of paper to earn respect, then hand over enough pieces of paper to pay for your body that ALLAH gave you.
And this is why it is said that even if those pertaining to evil were to give the earth and their children as ransom, it will not be expected from them. ALLAH works with the principles WE define and he throws them back in our face. We throw good at everything, we get good back. We throw evil at everything, the evil will come back either now or on judgement day. Pray for it to be now because the true face of evil that shall reveal itself completely on judgement day is not a face that you wish to see.
On scarcity, we live in a society of pure abundance. Despite this, the illusion created by usury makes us believe that everything is scarce. This article explains it perfectly - http//www.ascentofhumanity.com/chapter4-10.php - the entire book is worth priceless heaps of gold sent down from paradise in itself.
As for the universe always being here, I will tell you that it had a beginning. In the beginning there was ALLAH and from ALLAH came all things. In the beginning, there was this thing called a singularity, a point of utmost nothingness containing all possible form and truth. This was cleaved asunder by itself i.e. ALLAH, to produce everything we see here and now.
In the quran it says, should ALLAH have chosen to create a distraction, then it would have created it between themselves. Think about what ALLAH is - perfectly capable of doing everything while doing absolutely nothing. A point of pure effortlessness that gets everything done. No distraction needed!
Now the way the universe doesn't have a beginning or an end is that ALLAH is the beginning, and ALLAH is the end. ALLAH is the answer to everything, ALLAH is the meaning of life, but is ALLAH a question or an answer!
As we rewind time back to the original entity being, we realise that our definition of time goes out the window. Close to the big bang, there is no sun going round earth to say X years have gone by. Instead there is a free flowing definition of time where everything exists simultaneously in a perfect superposition until light and darkness are created.
With the creation of light and dark, there is now something called "the speed of light". And as I said, the speed of information is the speed of time but coincidentally, the speed of light in vacuum is the speed of information. The speed of information says that one metre is always one metre, from here to there is always from here to there or there to here, does that make sense? The reason a 1 metre ruler is one metre long end to end is because the speed of information is a) infinite (rapidity in physics) and b) finite (speed of light in vacuum).
Thus begins a long process of separation of truth and falsehood into pure truth and pure falsehood. There is no such thing as pure falsehood but we don't know that for sure until we separate the two. And for every new truth, there is an infinite set of falsehoods corresponding to that truth. In essence, this is what makes the universe eternal.
Now my present focus is understanding how to bridge the short story with the long. That was the short story which only informed minds may understand. This is the long story
What is existence?
(Insert big bang here - someone just divided by zero!)
Existence is X vs Y.
What is X, what is Y?
X is X and Y is Y, sometimes X=Y, other times X=/=Y
When X=/=Y let's call that P, when X=Y let's call that K
When is K=P?
(endless process of questioning and answering which eventually results in you describing the whole universe)
So bob, how was your day?Now, my understanding is that harmony/love/flow is the concept that makes the short story equivalent to the long story. This is why silence is always more peaceful moment by moment than talking too much. In the space of a silence, the meaning of life is displayed. How do we turn that silence into a complete description of the meaning of life?!
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Much thanks for your post David_K.
I shall reduce your first paragraph (not to dismiss it whatsoever!) to a single sentence that will take a keen mind to understand The speed of information is the speed of time.
Yes, the balance is being in tune with nature. However, there is plenty of room in nature, plenty of room for people to idle away their days, plenty of space for the rest of us to work. There is not, however, plenty of time to do things, or enough time for everyone to get what they want immediately.
For example, usury. Usury essentially forces people to work harder but for the gain to be directed towards a single entity, the creator of the debt. Things work in reverse with ALLAH however. You create a debt, you now owe that debt to ALLAH because ALLAH loaned you your human body, and if we're to work on the principles that you must hand over pieces of paper to earn respect, then hand over enough pieces of paper to pay for your body that ALLAH gave you.
I agree. God gave us our human body, and therefore we owe a debt to Allah. God also given us lots of provisions in this world. For example food and water. So we owe a debt to Allah. This is confirmed by the Quran.
Quran 5686
If it is true that you do not owe any
account.Then return it, if you are truthful?And this is why it is said that even if those pertaining to evil were to give the earth and their children as ransom, it will not be expected from them. ALLAH works with the principles WE define and he throws them back in our face. We throw good at everything, we get good back. We throw evil at everything, the evil will come back either now or on judgement day. Pray for it to be now because the true face of evil that shall reveal itself completely on judgement day is not a face that you wish to see.
Good point.
On scarcity, we live in a society of pure abundance. Despite this, the illusion created by usury makes us believe that everything is scarce. This article explains it perfectly - http//www.ascentofhumanity.com/chapter4-10.php - the entire book is worth priceless heaps of gold sent down from paradise in itself.
Thanks for the article.
As for the universe always being here, I will tell you that it had a beginning. In the beginning there was ALLAH and from ALLAH came all things.
If Allah always has existed, it means that Allah didn't have a beginning. I know that this sounds strange, but see it from this perspective If a carpenter builds a house, in 2004, then the beginning of that house is in 2004. But if the house always existed, it would not have a beginning. As human beings, it is natural for us to assume that everything has a beginning, since humans have a beginning. But Allah is different than everything else. And if Allah has always existed it means that Allah didn't have a beginning. And since Allah will always exist, allah has no end. In Hindu cosmology, the Universe is created, and recreated, as I mentioned in last my post. Hindu cosmology is very accurate. And if this view of a cyclical Universe can be confirmed by the Quran, through evidence, then our cosmos might have existed before big bang. The
Here is what Dick Teresi says about Indian cosmology
"Indian cosmologists, the first to estimate the age of the earth at more than 4 billion years. They came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics, and other current theories. India developed very early, enduring atomist theories of matter. Possibly Greek atomistic thought was influenced by India, via the Persian civilization."
Here is what Alan Watts says about philosophers of India
"To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, ( A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it."
- Alan Watts
In his book Cosmos, Carl Sagan wrote the following about Hinduism
"? is the only religion in which the time scales correspond? to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of the Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang".
Now the way the universe doesn't have a beginning or an end is that ALLAH is the beginning, and ALLAH is the end. ALLAH is the answer to everything, ALLAH is the meaning of life, but is ALLAH a question or an answer!
If Allah has always existed, allah has no beginning and no end. But human beings, animals, planets, stars and everything else in the universe (or multiverse) has a beginning and a end. A human being have not always existed, and even if that human being comes to paradise (in the next life), he/she will only be in there as long as heaven and the new earth exists.
As we rewind time back to the original entity being, we realise that our definition of time goes out the window. Close to the big bang, there is no sun going round earth to say X years have gone by. Instead there is a free flowing definition of time where everything exists simultaneously in a perfect superposition until light and darkness are created.
Good point. Time is relative.
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I wrote this as intro
http//www.misconceptions-about-islam.com/more.htmI have read it. It was a Good article/text.
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I believe muslim really means "surrendered to God". And this again means being natural, listening to self, growing as a human being. The word "infidel" can also be interpreted to support this. Infidel, can mean untrue, unnatural. But also someone who cheats on his wife, which is also a typical aspect of the disbeliever.
Haqq, might mean the truth, but also the true, the natural.The muslim is taught the Koran, which just reminds him of himself. He is happy, because the traits that The Quran describes as good, he himself finds as good. Meaning that this nature is already his own. A lot of hadith-rejectors, reject hadith by the very same reasoning, that they don't find good in them, and so reject them.
The Quran and Islam ultimately is a religion of human growth, and teaches dynamic thinking, and good extrapolatory interpretation.
