Can't we mention any God's messenger in our salat?
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Shia/Sunni/Christianity/... are Religions. Those who are the staunchest supporters, promoters and defenders of Religion have a certain mindset. This mindset will not allow the clear-sightedness, flexibility and openness that is required to be able to be guided by Allah at any greater length. Religion is a system of resistance and rejection. Religion is a manifestation of exclusivity, rigidness and anti-development.
The tawheed of Religion is not the same as the tawheed of the deen of God. They are just using the same word, but are totally different things with different reasons and world views behind. Same with salaa, zakaa etc etc etc etc. The problems do NOT lie in these concepts. The problem (cause of disagreement between people) lie in the interpreters worldview. Your worldview depend on how blind or peaceful you are.
You guys are essentially discussing totally different things, but using the sames words, and then arguing about the words. It's like parallel monologues.
peace
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Fare thee well,
So we can conclude that religions are crap, right Zulf?
All over the world people are oppressing others because they do not follow their religion and also breaking the fundamentals of God's system, peace and no compulsion, at least Christianity and Islam have that as a main divine slogan, at least if you interpret the books Quran and New Testament of the Bible. The violence as far as I have understood Quran is about self-defense.
The problem is that those who follow these religions do not really do as their scriptures say, particularly Muslims that have such a splendid scripture that is so easy to get clear guidance from. Still even many Christians are better believers than Muslims. The main problem is not the scripture but the people. And they seek identity in empty labels.
And these groups are all obsessed with a particular Messenger, like Jews Moses (or David), Christians with Jesus and Muslims with Mohammad (and Shia Muslims with Ali and company too). Although Muslims do not admit it they treat Muhammad just like Christians treat Jesus, ie like a deity.
God bless you
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Peace bro,
This is a general post to share my ideas, and not really a response to what you specifically wrote... )
I wouldn't blame religion either actually. I blame all of us, all humans, for failing to open our eyes and bringing forth constructive qualities like compassion, mercy, justice, humbleness, reason...
The problem is not religion. Religion is not fooling us. It is we who are so disconnected that we let ourselves be fooled. We are so ignorant and blind, wandering in darkness, that we cannot tell good from bad, destructive from constructive.
I don't even blame the religious texts, whether they're called books of testaments, qurans, volumes of hadith, vedas, talmuds, blablabla. To blame a text is to escape responsibility. It is WE who CHOOSE to do what we interpret from the texts of choice. First we choose or "choose" a text, then we choose to act on our interpretation. This interpretation REFLECTS OUR INNER STATE. If I have no problems burning a "witch" or stoning someone, then that's on ME, not on the text. Religion is not to be blamed, as they are no more than ink on paper. The only real thing is our thoughts and actions, which give real ripples in the world around us. We are personally responsible for all we say, do and think. None other and nothing else can be blamed. In the end it is we who are blind and disconnected enough from God to be fooled into falling down further into sin.
When we choose to blindly follow a text and a certain standard interpretation of it, then we also shut the door to the guidance that is available to all of us in the form of intuition, hunches and common sense. Is it difficult to feel compassion in a real life situation? Are we only robots who pretend to follow guidance in religious texts? If so, then we are totally disconnected from ourselves and from the path to God. What do we take ourselves as? Aren't we all living, spiritual beings? Isn't there great and marvelous potential in all of us? Why do we then blinding hand over all thinking to authority and texts? When we stop thinking and feeling, then we won't be able to extract much of worth even from divinely inspired texts, such as AQ.
I'm sick of seeing debates between followers of different religions. They are just small battles of petty egos. To prove one religion better than another, is to prove one group better than another, is to judge one person better than another, is stinking ignorant arrogance. There's always a competition, comparison, defensiveness, putting the other one down and yourself up. This is NOT the way to God.
Things were created with diversity. Let's celebrate it. Let there be real freedom. Let's not put anyone down. Let's do good and let's be working towards peace... not just outer peace but FIRST and foremost also inner peace. Without inner peace, there will not be outer peace. Also, we can never shove our own insights and epiphanies down someone else's throat. Ultimately everyone has to learn for themselves. Compulsion in "religious matters" will not lead to anything good. The only compulsion there is is the deen, and that deen is not something that can be enforced by human beings. The real deen is a system woven into the very fabric of the universe... like natural laws by bigger. Islam, the Religion, is not a deen. Islam may be a "way of life" as it so popularly it is called, but it is not the deen, obviously.
Cheers