Short and long version - Becoming a believer

[Fusion]

Good morning folks.

After going through several years of now and then research, reading through many posts here and other places, having met with people from different religions and also within different secs of Muslims, living in a multi-culture and multi religion society, I am still at the same spot where I started "in search of truth ".
Yes I have a sea of data collected and you could say some clarity but still, there is this "Uncertainty", there is this "unseen" fear," not knowing the truth as well I can touch and feel".

There are people who provide a completely different narrative of the GOD, not god but an "Infinite" who can not be comprehended within any human thoughts, except direct one-to-one inner contact, or should I say meditating with the creator - to them there are no so-called prophets but enlightened people who for the good of humanity resolved into correcting society and perhaps wrote these religious books or tried to share their experiences with the world. I came across a personality on youtube by the name of sadhguru (despite the fact he is from Hindu background - concept of idols etc). but in his talk, there is logic and wisdom, which I hardly find in typical priests' talks. In the end, he has millions of followers and has established the sort of his physical kingdom and god knows what is the actual motive,.. is it the same to use religion or spirituality to rule over the mind of people.? to have blind folded followers for some later ill purpose...i do not know.

Then there are of course Sunnis and Shia who have been fighting for centuries and we can not deny outright the source of their issue, after all, they were initially the descendants of the family and companions of the prophet. Most of the so-called Quran Muslims have branched from these two unless the newly converted ones. Among these the majority are Ajamis (non Arab Muslims) spread all over the world, countries even. And their understanding and practice of Islam is beyond mine or any ones understanding if he really reads Quran in essence. What these people are practicing are rituals, practices developed over centuries and not a single word of Arabic is known (issue is not Arabic but they read Quran like parrots). These are mostly in India/Pakistan in terms of the overall Muslim population and they indulge in a completely different implementation of Islam (am talking about the majority). Probably because their ancestors have discouraged to read Quran with translation and have practiced the Taqlid concept of 4 Imams and hence the poor generations just follow a ritual based religion not understanding the soul. There are of course other countries such as Turk who established Ottoman caliphate and the adherence to Sufism version of Islam, several renowned poets come from within. Yet you witness the way they ruled, for example, unnecessary killing of other nations, sultan used to have concubines, etc, all point to the greed of power and money - similar to other nations of the world - still today.

Then we have so-called Quran Muslims who hold the belief that traditional religious clergy has corrupted religion, and Islamic guidance should only be based on the Quran, thus opposing the religious authority of the hadith literature and believing that the Quran is already clear and complete and it can be understood without referencing outside texts. Quranists claim that the vast majority of hadith literature are fabrications and that the Quran itself criticizes the hadith both in the technical sense and the general sense. My only comment here is that one can not outright throw away the hadith or the historical facts- they genuinely contain events that show how after the prophet's death his followers understood and implemented their understanding of the religion (wars, conquests, forced conversions, greed, etc.
For example the famous speech by the person who conquered spain..full of attracting the army with rewards of money, power and beautiful women.
https//revivers.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/tarek-bin-ziyads-inspiring-speech-to-the-muslim-army/
"
Remember that if you suffer a few moments in patience, you will afterward enjoy supreme delight. Do not imagine that your fate can be separated from mine, and rest assured that if you fall, I shall perish with you, or avenge you. You have heard that in this country there are a large number of ravishingly beautiful Greek maidens, their graceful forms are draped in sumptuous gowns on which gleam pearls, coral, and purest gold, and they live in the palaces of royal kings. The Commander of True Believers, Alwalid, son of Abdalmelik, has chosen you for this attack from among all his Arab warriors; and he promises that you shall become his comrades and shall hold the rank of kings in this country. Such is his confidence in your intrepidity. The one fruit which he desires to obtain from your bravery is that the word of God shall be exalted in this country, and that the true religion shall be established here. The spoils will belong to yourselves."

Coming to the point, the Quranist's view of Islam feels like a utopian world where the message of Islam and Quran was practiced, in an actual sense it was never practiced the way it should have been. Hence my understanding or anyone else for that matter will always be corrupted of how the events unfold. Should we take Quran as some wise words from God and just forget about its actual implementation into our lives? If not then how can we justify what actually happened by those who came before us. should we assume all of them were at fault? maybe this is the way God wanted to spread Islam. Similar to how Christianity has also spread in the beginning. And here we are talking about the actual meaning of the word Salat, and how do we pray and talk about rituals because we are in a very comfort zone during these times. Move the clock back centuries , we would not have time to talk about these because the daily chores will keep us so busy and the events around us from the kings or dictators that we could not have even access to a compiled version of Quran to even begin to understand the message of God.

Finally, I like to make a point that quoting Quran verses here in our comfort zone is very easy but in practice relating to our daily lives, it is very difficult to comprehend. People have real issues of health, poverty, etc and they cant be just mesmerized by some strong verses.

Therefore I failed to understand what the creator wants from us? If it's about not to lie, steal and commit bad things, then this does not require reading through every verse in the books, rather the concept of good and evil is somehow built into our DNA and if we listen to the inner voice, we already know the difference between good and bad.

So I invite everyone to share what they have understood so far and how it has affected their lives and do they really believe that they cracked the code, the meaning of life, and what is to come? Or we are just bubbles and death will end our existence completely....or there is more...

Cheers

[rh]

...rather the concept of good and evil is somehow built into our DNA and if we listen to the inner voice, we already know the difference between good and bad.

Peace,

See the following verses

And I do not absolve my inner self of blame. Surely, man’s inner self often incites to evil, unless my Lord shows mercy. Certainly, my Lord is the Most-Forgiving, Very-Merciful.

So if they fail to respond to you, then know that they only follow their desires. And who could be more astray than those who follow their desires with no guidance from Allah? Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people

[Emre_1974tr]

1- Hadiths usually do not contain the words of the prophet. Most are lies. They are gossip.

The real life stories of the prophets, the true words of the prophets and the true sunnah are only found in the Qur'an.

http//quranic.org/

2- The thing called history is a deceptive trap, mostly filled with lies.

In other words, we do not have the real hadiths of the prophets. We do not have real historical information. We don't have the real Injeel, nor do we have the real Torah.

Peace

[Sarah]

You can't judge the right path by how Muslims or so-called Muslims (you never know who really believed) of the past lived. People are people, they're not the perfect embodiment of how God really wants us to live or of God's commandments.

[Jafar]

I give my thought as comment to your posting but in reverse order, as you seem to make an approach from detailed to summary, here I took from summary to detailed.

Or we are just bubbles and death will end our existence completely

YES we are.
Everything that has a beginning will have an end.
Only that which has no beginning will have no end.

Each 'thing' however have their own unique lifecycle of Creation/Formation-Decay/Destruction.
Whatever that 'thing' is.

The infinite however has no beginning thus it will have no end either.
In the beginning everything originated from it thus attaining the illusionary state of separation and in the end everything will be coming back to it thus coming back to unification state.

cracked the code, the meaning of life

If this 'physical life' is likened as 'multiplayer online game'.

The way to cracked and completing the game is to have an attitude of
"Hi other players!, I don't know how this game works, I don't what I'm supposed to do in this game either, but whatever happened I will love you nonetheless, thanking you all for the experience".

concept of good and evil is somehow built into our DNA and if we listen to the inner voice, we already know the difference between good and bad.

BINGO!

Just additional comment, how could there be 'good' when there's no 'bad'?
Everything is thus need to be available in opposing pair for such discovery.

I came across a personality on youtube by the name of sadhguru (despite the fact he is from Hindu background - concept of idols etc).

I came across sadhguru as well, an interesting figure, which among those who shared most (if not all) of my current views.

I just want to add his interesting view about deities.
Regarding deities / idols I recently saw this

Freedom to Create Your Own God
https//youtu.be/0oxjwW27xt4

By God here it refers to "Deities" / "Deva/Devi" and not "Brahman" / "The Infinite".
It opened my eyes that in his concept, Gods / Deva / Devi / Deities are indeed created by men.
And this is in opposition to western/middle easterner ideas where men are created by Gods / Deva / Devi / Deities.

And where the west/middle east demands loyalty to only one god, here he said everybody are free to create their own gods/goddesses as they're all created by men in the first place.

By the way, I think Sadhguru is a Yogi, a different practice within the umbrella labelling of "Hinduism".
As such that Siddharta (The Buddha) is also a Yogi and Jesus is also a Yogi, there are striking similarities between those gentlemen, not exactly the same but striking similarities.

Nothing / nobody in this game or should I say this universe share the same exactly 100% view.
Because that's the reason why this universe is created in the first place, to experience many views, to experience separation.

In the end, he has millions of followers and has established the sort of his physical kingdom and god knows what is the actual motive

I initially worried about this, as such is the 'attachment' that can hinder his progress further.
See that Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, where Yoga is a sanskrit word for "Unify".

So every one who are aware that we were once united in one but experiencing a temporal separation in this illusionary game will know that the ultimate goal of the game is to return back to the unification state.

Siddharta calls it as "Nirvana", Hindus calls it as "Mokhsa" and Jesus calls it as "Returning to the Father's house".

However I saw one of sadhguru talk where he said he will die soon and once he does he doesn't really care what will happened to the temple he built and feel free to change it to anything that you wish if you see fit, sport facilities whatever.

That is remain to be proven, but an attachment to the 'game' will make one stay attached to the game and not 'moving on'.

is it the same to use religion or spirituality to rule over the mind of people.?

Religion was invented to obtain control over the masses.
To make it appealing to the masses they insert some element of spirituality inside.

As everything is available in opposite pairs, by your discovery of "Religion" you will then be able to recognize "Not Religion", as the opposing pair isn't it?

[good_logic]

It all depends on our priorities.Our priority dictates our life.What is the aim?
Forget looking for some truth for a moment, where does one get the idea of looking for some truth first? So what are you looking for?

Most of my life I was not looking for anything. I was too busy trying to make sense of what to do with my life and doing what others were dictating for me, like growing up and learning under my parents influence. Then going to school ,finding a job, complying with rules and regulations...etc.

Religion was something vague for me , I followed my parents and accepted certain traditions and compromised and wanted to fit in for the majority of my life .

It is only through some weird experiences during my late forties that I found myself reflecting on myself ,asking questions and trying to look for an aim and purpose different from "the norm" of what I was used to.

When I came to the message of Qoran , at first I dismissed this weird and complicated book that made no sense to me.. I had no idea "which god" I was finding in that book. Certainly not the one I pictured in my head through Christianity or any other religion I knew some little things about.

For me another force was now, during my late fifties, taking me into another direction and changing my whole perspective of my life and my priorities.
I found myself drawn to study history and religions .
Yet still I have to live with the same people , follow the same system, do the same chores and be in the same relationships.
i found out that the most important part is to get to know myself and tackle every doubt I come across. That is vital.

If you already believe there is a GOD , do not worry about the truth, just be honest with yourself ,peaceful with others and try your best to be good /do good,
The truth is a guidance from the creator once one decides to walk on the straight path of righteousness. If you come against GOD s message, see what it is saying to you.
Simply try your best to do/be the best you can be everyday with the help and support of your Lord /creator.
The other choice is follow your own way. ,however you see/understand it to be.
GOD bless you all.
Peace.