Salamun alaikum,

I used to love the apocrypha. My favorite was the Infancy of Christ. If you have cable and on demand you should check out banned from the bible. I think that hearing so many competing stories really gives you a since of the people writing them and justifies following one book and not separate teachings.

I understand about the Quran "clicking" to me it felt almost familiar in ways that I never got with Chritianity. I grew up in a mixed religious household. My mom was loosely Christian and my Pop-pop was Muslim. Since he lived with us and my mom was a single parent he was like my dad. Islam just kinda felt more right to me.

Hope you find some good things here.

Everything, and all, comes from Judaism!
Why?... Because the Torah is the only Scripture that is proven it came from God!
All righteous Xtians and Muslims acknowledge that Moses (Musa) received it from God, and all Xtians and Muslims say that true religion is based on Tanah! (Old Testament)

You are making several assumptions. First you are assuming that the Torah we have it is the same as Moses recieved it. Second you equate the Torah to the Tanakh as if the were the same. Lastly you assume that there isn't a single Christian or Muslim that doesn't accept the validity and authority of the Tanankh.

The Torah and Tanakh are not the same. The Torah is the first five books of the Tanakh which include 19 others. Jewish theology stipulates that some of these books were not written by prophets. The Tanakh was a continuously evolving book. Some scholars believe that it was not codified completely until after the death of Jesus.

There is dispute over whether Moses wrote the Torah as we have it. How could he have if he dies in the first half of Deuteronomy and the book continues?

Lastly all Muslims are supposed To believe the Quran over the Old Testement. Anyone who has read both know they don't always agree.

Everything, and all, comes from Judaism!
Why?... Because the Torah is the only Scripture that is proven it came from God!
All righteous Xtians and Muslims acknowledge that Moses (Musa) received it from God, and all Xtians and Muslims say that true religion is based on Tanah! (Old Testament)

You are making several assumptions. First you are assuming that the Torah we have it is the same as Moses recieved it. Second you equate the Torah to the Tanakh as if the were the same. Lastly you assume that there isn't a single Christian or Muslim that doesn't accept the validity and authority of the Tanankh.

The Torah and Tanakh are not the same. The Torah is the first five books of the Tanakh which include 19 others. Jewish theology stipulates that some of these books were not written by prophets. The Tanakh was a continuously evolving book. Some scholars believe that it was not codified completely until after the death of Jesus.

There is dispute over whether Moses wrote the Torah as we have it. How could he have if he dies in the first half of Deuteronomy and the book continues?

Lastly all Muslims are supposed To believe the Quran over the Old Testement. Anyone who has read both know they don't always agree.

Salaam

Welcome. I hope you will increase your knowledge here. I'm glad you have such a supportive family. My family is either Sunni or Christian. They respect my beliefs but I've been trying to get them over to my side with little to no avail.

And pig flesh is very similar to human flesh. When body farms run out of human cadeavers they use pigs. Also it is possible for humans to have pig organs transplanted into them. Pigs can't sweat so they are more susceptible to various ailments. Since they are relatively close to us in genetic make-up they can pass diesease to us easily. (Remember swine flu?) That being said i actually like pigs. They are very bright and kinda cute as piglests. I just would never want to eat any.

I must be one of the ugliest women in the world with my education and traveling and dreams of law school. Not to mention I show my hair and wear deordorant. Worst of all I have no children which ofncourse makes me worthless. And here I thought that Allah created Man and Woman from one spirit and women and men could do the same things except what He has forbidden of made physically impossible.

In my experience trying to mask or ignore the feelings never works in the long term. I always find that if I spend a day accepting the way I feel but not succumbing to those feelings it gives me a sense of power. Next I try to find the things I feel positive about. Then I call my support network of friends and family. The reason I don't call them first is because it can be hard for people to help me when everything seems so dark and negative. When I already have a bit to build on it helps me and the people who want to built me up.

I also like to talk to God. I will sit in a room by myself and speak aloud, not in my head, and address everything to Him. It helps me out immensely.

I hope you feel better and if you ever want someone to talk too feel free to PM me.

I agree with a lot of previous statements. My interpretation is that God weighs every act you do. If the good outweighs the bad you can gain entry into Jannah but not all acts are weighed the same. If you die in the state of shirk, it outweighs every good deed you have done. Shirk is not just disbelief in God but also disbelief in the the oneness of God. Ancient Greeks were mushriks because they did not believe in the existance of one God. But trinitarians are also mushriks because while they believe in God, they associate other things with him thereby denying his power. Even though they believe that the others are manifestations of a supreme deity.

Shirk is an act that you MUST repent for. Allah does not accept those who do not accept him. The Quran makes it clear that people go to and from belief. The verses are a warning. You can't cover your bases by worshipping multiple deities. You either believe in Allah or you don't and if you don't, then likewise you don't deserve a spot in his paradise. But if you repent and change your ways Allah is most merciful and most forgiving.

Okay I'm really confused about your translations

Surah 109 1

Think and express, O you lethargic in unwise actions; ones who are hiding sufficient and fulfilling knowledge, due to denial of facts and ingratitude to all benevolence.

Surah 109 2

Here you translate qul as think and express. I can live with that. Then you translate l-kfirna as a few things. I have no idea how you got these translations. I understand that kafir can be translated into one who hide or conceals, but where does "ingratitude to all benevolence" and "lethargic in unwise actions" come in?

Neither I am an object of worship, nor are you worshippers or servants.

Surah 109 3

Since you were not to be worshippers or servants, why would I be an object of worship?

Surah 109 4

Since I am not a worshiper, why do you all became worshiper?

Surah 109 5

Since you were not to be worshippers or servants, why would I be an object of worship?

Okay here's were thing get really weird for me. Verse 2 La= not/no you have it as "since I am not". I don't understand. confused

I translate the first clause as no/not I worship and the second clause "ma tabudna" what you worship. Ma as a pronoun can also be translated as that, as, or is. But "why would"??? You also selectively chose to add servant(s) to your translation to fit your needs. maybe because "why would I become an object of worship or servant (or service)" would make very much since. Nor would god declaring himself not a servant after repeated stating that he is lord or the entire universe. Does your understanding lead you to believe that we DO NOT have to serve God?

In this verse is a lot of repetition so I won't go into each line because so many of the words are repeated. We have ( by my count) eight conjugations of a'budu and through verses 2-5 only five unique words meaning what, you, I, not and, and not respectively. Each verse is short compared to the translation you are providing. I am not denying you hypothesis overall but I don't think that your translations are very forthright.

I find that really odd. I came across some beauty pageant contests for kids. In my opinion, these contests and making a little kid wear full hijab is not nice. It sexualises these kids. They are so young, they do not have to be competing based on attractiveness of physical features or the other extreme of hull on hijab. None of them makes sense to me, and I am deeply disturbed by them both.

I found it quite disturbing as well. I asked about it since little girls don't have awrah. The response I got was that if they didn't observe hijab until pueberty they wouldn't see the point of it. The teenage girls who had worn hijab still didn't see the point of it. Whenever I had the chance I would kick all the guys out so they could take them off. They loved it! I would braid their hair. One of my pre kindergarden boys told me that if I didn't cover my hair everyone would laugh at me. I found it strange that something so obvious and expected wasn't communicated well at all. Futhermore the expectations for boys (covering from navel to knees) wasn't enforced. What resulted was boys in basketball shorts and girls in jeans, t-shirts full length abayas and shoulder length headscarves in the middle of summer.

A few years ago I gave myself a stick and poke tattoo. Yes I repeatedly stuck myself with a needle covered in ink. It's really small but unislamic so I have been thinking about getting it covered with quranic calligraphy. I have heard varying things about tattoos. For the record its not anywhere that people will generally see so it's not for vanity. I just don't feel good with a symbol of shirk on my body.
Thoughts, opinions and constructive critism welcom

Salamun Alaikum
I'm new to this forum. A bit about myself. I grew up in a mixed religeous family but I was a sunni for most of my youth. At pueberty I distanced myself from sunnism because I found as a female, I was treated more as an issue than a member. I considered myself a former Muslim for about half of my life but I never completely removed myself from all the teachings.

After college I worked with Somali youth were for the most part al strict Sunni. The girls had to observe hijab at age 1 or 2 and I spent a lot of time fixing them and finding saftey pins. They (and I) were suprised by how much I knew about Sunnnism. Suddenly I was the coolest qaalo ( Somali word for kafir) they knew. My path to true belief began there. It started with Learning Arabic but changed into something much deeper.

I live in Philadelphia which has a huge Muslim population but I still feel deeply isolated. Most Muslims here try to out sunni each other. I want to take Arabic classes at the masjid thats only about 15 blocks from my house and one of the more highly regarded in the city, but they are salafi and all the women are expected to wear Black abayas, jilbabs, khimars and (for married women) niqabs. A few women wear sun glasses in addition to the niqabs.

The men judge themselves by the size and color or thier zeibibas and number of wives. And almost all I have met quote hadith more than Al Quran. I can barely get someone return my salaam unless my hair is covered. It makes for a lonely life.