May Peace be upon you.

I'm glad to hear that you will study the Qur'an even further. I've been on studyquran and find the site very helpful. I too am aiming to study the Qur'an. May God guide us onto the Straight Path and increase us in knowledge and faith, if He so wills.

I don't know why I haven't checked in on this topic for a while. Thank you for your reply Wakas. sun

Bump. I would like feedback from an admin, if possible. I think that my request is more than reasonable considering how many African Muslims there are.

In christianity/judaism there seems to be the concept that 2/3's of the heavenly host of angels fell from grace with God and lost their wings when thrown out of paradise to join Satan on earth and in hell. However, in Islam there seems to be the concept that only the angel that became Satan fell from grace, lost its wings, and became the devil and leader of the jinn.

I'm trying to understand this nuance so please correct me if I'm mistaken...

Actually, according to Islam, Satan was never an angel - he is an entirely different being from angels. We believe that there are angels, who are made of light, obedient to God, yet they have no free will and therefore cannot disobey God. Jinni are beings made of fire, and have free will. Satan is a jinn and used to be pious and was at the same ranks of some angels. Humans also have free will. Therefore, according to Islam, it's not possible for angels to fall from grace.

Peace,

I think that it would be good to have an African section too. I am in South Africa. Neh22, where are you?

Imraan

May peace be upon you.

Thank you for your response Imraan.
I live in Canada but my family came from Somalia so I identify strongly with Africa. I would like to get to know Qur'an only Muslims from all over, including Muslims from Africans cultures. I think it would be nice to have an African section here - after all, Islam is the biggest religion in Africa. If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to choosing to follow the Qur'an only and are there many such Muslims in South Africa?

lol Yes, it is a mistake. I meant "also reject the hadith". P

Wa Alaykum Al Salaam welcome

Great story. I agree, reading the Quran carefully clearly exposes Hadith and other man made systems.

Thank you. Indeed! If only others chose to evaluate the Truth carefully for themselves!

welcome sunDON'T BE LONELY!!!!!! I FOLLOW YOUR BELIEF EXACTLY, LIKE, TO THE LETTER! I am a single mom, 47 years old, went through the same challenges you did, with the exception that i was raised catholic, but right now, at this very moment, i am exactly at the same place you are-no hadeeth, no rakkah, and biggest sin is sometimes not praying, because i fall asleep or dont wake up early enough-i am disabled, many meds, so at times, i am just toooooo tired, but God knows i love him very much, and i am soooooo happy to meet yoy here, so now, you are not alone! write me anytime! p.s. i occasionally wear hijab just because i like it!

Thanks, Hanifa. haha I like wearing the hijab or something similar to it sometimes too! May God guide us all if He so wills.

Welcome. peace

Thank you, sister.

yay Welcome!!! It is so nice to meet you! Thank you for your story! I was at the same Judaism/Islam crossroads at one point too! Please hang around and see that you aren't alone! welcome yay sun

Nice to meet you too! I do intend on hanging around for a while. Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. sun

Salaam alaykum sister!

I hope that you find solace in meeting others like you here!

Peace,

I think some of you are forgetting that the Arabs were originally black and mostly woolly haired (except for tribes like the Shanuwah/Izdashanuwah who were very black but had straight hair. Aboriginal/purer Arabs are still black and mostly woolly haired and can still be found in significant numbers in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, yemen, Oman, Kuwait and Southern Iraq. www.savethetruearabs.com You can also check out these videos

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mff_vwfi_o4

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOXF3IsrB70

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzTtV0tLrco

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN50GXtyI8M

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvJ0F299kFQ

I also have a long list of quotes from lisanul-arab to post for anyone who reads Arabic. The Somalis are related to the aboriginal Arabs. Their indigenous cultures are also strikingly similar. ALso the ancient Egypians claimed to have come from Punt and the are Ethiopia which they callled the land of the gods. All Roman observers said that the ancient Egyptians were black adn wooly haired like the Ethiopians.

Godbless,
Anwar

Agreed, except that the Land of Punt is modern-day Somalia, specifically the Puntland region which is located in northeast Somalia, as the frankincense that the Egyptians traded for with the Puntites is native only to that region. My mother and aunts regularly use that incense, it's like an ordinary everyday thing for them, which those ancient people use to covet.

Salaam alaykum.

I reject the term "traditional" Muslim. The Muslim ummah began with Prophet Mohamed and he certainly did not write the hadiths. He only shared surahs and gave advice, not tell others to follow conjecture. To refer to them as "traditional" Muslims suggests that their views is traditional and thus closer to how Islam was in the beginning, when really the hadith is just conjecture. I don't mean to offend you with this, just giving my viewpoint on that.

I don't think we should follow conjecture. As long as we don't identify ourselves as anything else except as simply Muslim (ie. "submitters to God&quot instead of Quranist, Shia, Sunni, Sufi, or anything else, then our consciences should be clear because we're not separating ourselves. I can only speak for myself and I don't tell others that I am different from them because I reject the hadith. I don't ask whether they do or don't but if the topic comes up, I will say what is true, but I don't try to separate myself. If others choose to not consider us part of the ummah because we disagree about the hadith or because we don't consider ourselves Sunni, Shia, or part of any sect, then we are fine. I don't consider Muslims who reject the hadith as part of a certain sect. We are simply Muslims, "submitters to God", who follow God in His instruction to consider ourselves part of one ummah (ie. simply Muslim), not to follow conjecture, not even out of peer pressure.

I forgot to add that at one point, the former empire that Ethiopians ruled was mighty. It at one point conquered Egypt. It may have always ruled Yemen, during Queen Sheba's time (who was Ethiopian), as people sometimes argue that she was Yemeni but she was Ethiopian. The effects Africans have on Yemeni people and culture (ie. their customs, way of socializing, etc) is clear as well as on their features.

Peace,

Here is a very interesting article on the Arab nations

http//www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=24981

I stumbled upon this as I looked for linguistic evidences to connec Somali, Soqotri, Mahri and Himyarite. In the article there is evidence that Yemenis are not more than than mainly an African and Persian mix, with remnants of the original african still present in isolated Areas and throughout the gulf states and the island of soqotra.

These people made up a big constitution of the Arabs.

Check out this article as well

http//www.unilorin.edu.ng/newsite/INUAGLECTURES/abubakre.pdf

If you want to read the Html version do a google search using these words

hajjam Arabic yoruba hausa

Godblesss,
Anwar

Reading carefully you will see evidence for this as well as Yemenis migrated north, and how ge'ez had to be used to interpret south Arabic.

I still haven't been able to make the Somali, Himyarite, Soqotri and Mahri connection. Hopefully I can get some good information on these issues.

Godbless,
Anwar

Salaam alaykum.

It is true that the Yemeni are mixed with Africans. I am Somali, my country is close to Yemen (takes less than a day to boat there) and Somalia and Yemen dispute about the rightful ownership of island of Socotra (it's "Socotra" or "Soqotra" not "Soqotri&quot. Anyways, I've met many Yemeni individuals who I mistook for being Somali. And I've never mistaken anyone but Eritreans, Nubians, and Ethiopians as being Somali (and one Kenyan woman who belonged to a tribe who was originally from Somalia or Oromo). They sometimes look startingly like Somalis, but the difference is that they are characteristically and proportionately shorter than us on average. Those on Soqotra do speak Arabic, some speak Somali as well. Their traditional dress is that of a macawiis (strictly a Somali cultural clothing, the Yemeni and Arabs do not wear this), and they do look very much Somali much of the time. So it's clear that they have both Somali and Yemeni ancestry. Yemen is also in dispute over another island with Eritrea. I forgot its name but I believe it's in the same situation as Soqotra. The Yemeni are descended from Somalis and Eritreans (Eritrea used to be part of Ethiopia by the way, in case someone tries to include Ethiopians in this) as well as Arabs and/or Persians.

Salaam alaykum.

Let me tell you something. Ayaan Hirsi was raised in Kenya, with mainly Saudi Arabian influences. Apparently, those who raised her felt that in order to be closer to Islam they must embrace Saudi Arabian culture. That's an erroneous assumption and shows that they cannot differentiate between culture and religion.

Therefore, raised that way, while being told "this is true Islam" and in her book, it is clear that she uses the way she was raised as her main basis of rejecting and insulting Islam. That shows that she did not choose to learn more about Islam from the Word of God but rather through culture and extremism. How can one be regarded as being intelligent when they choose to judge without learning about it, objectively, from the truest source (the Qur'an)? Therefore, I do not regard Ayaan Hirsi as an intelligent woman or even as an honourable woman. She has lied, including to the Dutch government and officials, many times. I feel nothing but apathy towards her. It's for God to give her whatever reward or punishment He wills to give her on Judgement Day.

Salaam alaykum, everyone!

I'm very happy to have come across this site. sun I've always felt very alone, no other person I know rejects the hadith and follows only the Qur'an. This is very long, so I doubt anyone will read all of it but I will write it out anyway.

I started on this path long ago. It seems now to me that I was slowly being led in this direction. I was always keen on learning the Qur'an when I was little. I would always pester my parents for any information. My cousin would buy me books about the Prophets, so I would quickly finish those books. I don't think I realized it at the time, but I think I've always believed in God. I can't remember a time when my mother ever told me there was a God. One day, when I was four, I was upset and was crying, sitting with my head resting on my knees in the dark of the hall. I was afraid of the dark but soon felt comforted by God it was, I strongly believed then and even today, and feel into a restful sleep. I think that God was always there, comforting me, helping me, even if I didn't realize it sometimes.

When I was 11, I went to Islam camp, where I had two camp counselors - sisters - who I think were either from Israel or Palestine or even from somewhere else. I can't remember. They told me and other campers that their mother was raised Christian. But she learned about Islam and converted. She allowed her daughters to choose whatever belief they want, it was their choice. They learned about as many religions as they could, as they always felt that there was a Creator, and both chose Islam. I began wondering whether I was Muslim only because of my upbringing, because my family was. I certainly felt as though I believed but how did I know know that if I was born into a Christian, Hindu, or atheist family that I would not be Muslim?

So I began to learn about other religions, taking on an agnostic stance (ie. believing there is a Creator but unsure about my religious affiliation). I was sure that God would have sent the Truth down to us. I doubted that there was more than One God, that didn't make sense to me. My choice came down to Judaism and Islam, as those two religions were what I felt were truly monotheistic, did not attribute human or other creation qualities to God, and were close to what seemed like the Truth. I chose Islam in the end because in more than one sect of Judaism, a person has to spend years learning just to prove to religious "experts" that they were Jewish enough. I do respect the religions and Jews but that did not sit well with me, especially when I see faith as being between God and the believer, there is no medium that we must appeal to.

Anyways, it was still a long time until I started to read the Qur'an in a language I understood (except a few surahs while reading it in Arabic, but didn't particularly focus in on the meaning). When I was 15, my parents hired a woman to teach my siblings and I how to read and write in Arabic, in order to read the Qur'an (yet she didn't teach us how to understand it in Qur'anic Arabic). Meanwhile, she would teach us things from the hadith, such as wearing a hijab, and certain things that seem to go against the teachings of the Qur'an. She urged me to pray, in the very common way everyone else prays, including saying salaam to the angels, praying for the prophets, etc. I wanted to wait, until I knew the meaning of what I was saying in prayers and until I knew the meaning of prayer but she pressured me to do so.

I felt as though I was praying but not really understanding, although I stuck to my prayers. My teacher became ill so I stopped seeing her, as she couldn't teach anymore. I think it was when I finished high school and got into university, in my second year of school when the Islam club at my school gave out free copies of the English Qur'an that I really began to read to find its meaning, for myself. Before then, I would read a bit online for my own learning or to use verses to help other Muslims online or sometimes to refute a Islamophobes' argument (ie. that Islam teaches terrorism, astagfurrallah) but there was something about having a copy, in my hands, to read any time I feel.

So I began to read and read. While reading the Qur'an online was special, reading it more regularly, in my hands, more thoroughly really changed my perspective on life and the universe and on what I thought Islam was. I'm in my third year of university now and I think I've probably read every surah once, some I've read multiple times. The Qur'an showed me that the hijab is not necessary, that we can pray on our periods, showed me that the way people pray now is not the absolute way we must all pray (ie. I don't pray in rakahs now, I don't greet the angels, I don't mention the Prophets unless referring to how God guided them and I hope He would guide me too, etc), that Jesus won't come back before Judgment Day, and that we have no Saviour but God. It showed me that Islam - submission to God - is in everything we do, say, in nature, in the simple things, it showed me that religion is a part of everything. It was humbling. A good Muslim isn't a proud Muslim, they are modest, just, truthful, honest, and submit only to God. And to be honest, Muslims today that I've known, who have taught me previously, did not at all show me this side of Islam. Only through God's Words did I learn this, as well as reflecting and looking inside, as what I read provoked thought. Nothing in the Qur'an condones following the hadith. Everything I read seemed to prove to me that was the wrong path to go down. So that's what led to me to reject the hadith, although I was always skeptical of the hadith, as it sometimes contradicts itself and the Qur'an.

I don't claim to be a perfect Muslim or to be complete now that I follow only the Qur'an. I am human, vulnerable to temptation and sin and I have sinned. No, I have never drank, slept around, or any of that, but I sometimes don't pray, sometimes I am rude to people in certain situations. I still struggle, but that is part of my inner jihad.

However, I do feel lonely. No other Muslim I know shares my beliefs. They seem to follow the hadith - usually, it seems, more than they do follow the Qur'an - or else they don't care about religion (certain individuals have confessed this to me, as they are Muslim mainly in name because of family). So many Muslims feel that the hadith is the way to go. Sometimes I think that if they just read the Qur'an and I mean really read it, absorbing every word, that they would understand. The Qur'an says that God is the only friend we need, I should feel content with that, I know. However, I am glad that there are more of us than I ever imagined. I don't feel so alone now. Subhan Allah. So I am thankful for this community and may God guide us all, inshaa Allah.

I noticed that there is only categories for North America, Europe, and Asia/Middle East. I am African and know that there are some African Muslims who also reject the Qur'an. I think it would be nice to see an African category in that section, where Muslims can discuss issues in African communities and societies affecting how Muslims there feel about following only the Qur'an and/or the hadith. Thanks. )