Salaam / peace to all
Hope all are well.
It has been some time since I last ventured on here so I thought I would introduce myself; plus my beliefs seemed to have fluctuated over the years so I thought it'd be a good idea to pop by for some healthy discussion and for some food for thought.
I live in Manchester in the northwest of England and in terms of my beliefs I would describe myself as a muslim first and foremost; I was raised in a fairly liberal non-traditional sunni household and out of my family I'm probably one of the only few that has an interest in deen/ religion/ God. I came to the Quran probably by chance in my late teens and over the years have flitted in and out with it; I remember when I first read it, I knew without a doubt that this was from God. I later came across this website and even though it was an eye opener for me, a lot of what I read on here rung true for me. It always seemed to me that the Qur'an was the sole source of guidance and that the sunnah seemed unnecessary and incongruous to the message of the Qur'an.
I think what I found lacking with this forum in the first place (and it'd be nice to hear if it's changed) was the lack of any unity or communal aspect to it. Surprising as it is as the Qur'an is very much a book addressing a community and brotherhood/ sisterhood/ ummah is one thing that attracted me to Islam.
My beliefs have varied over the years since I last came here, in an attempt to find that brotherhood (even being influenced by salafi sectarianism to some extent) however there were certain things that never sat right with me with traditional / orthodox islam. Having been exposed to the Qur'an myself (rather than through the influence of family) I had very little preconceived ideas and traditions and so could tell that the message within those pages was very different to the message of the books of hadith and the supposed sunnah.
However one thing I've learnt I guess as I've matured is that there can be unity even if we do differ on certain things (such as salat, hajj etc). I guess the essential same belief is still there; that there is no god except God.
Although I still describe myself as a muslim, I would essentially say that my current understanding is that the Qur'an was revealed to an original group of people who referred to themselves as believers (mu'minoon) not as "Muslims" and that the islam found in the Qur'an isn't really a religion per se (as opposed to "Islam" found within the hadith books). Rather islam means (as I'm sure we're all aware) submission and that muslim refers to those who submit themselves and isn't just a label. This kind of fits with the archeological evidence as well as what the Qur'an mentions; again and again God addresses the audience as "Those who believe (ya ayyu allatheena amaanu)" rather than those who submit.
lol maybe I'm rambling on... but I feel that life is a journey and that we are all trying to find our way (well I am anyway ;D) ; I much prefer learning about the Qur'an myself and communicating with God directly rather than feeling that I have to follow the crowd and adhere to the practices of 7th/8th/9th century Arabs / Persians that don't sit quite right with me. God told us to reason and use our intellect and faculties; they were given to us for a reason, not so that we could disregard them and follow the words of the priests, rabbis and sheikhs.
Anyway, it's good to see that this place is still up and nice to see that a few of the old regulars are still about (not sure if anyone would remember me; I wasn't that active back in the day either). Perhaps it'd be good if we could arrange some local meet-ups to encourage like minded discussion (of course distance permitted).
