Questions about Islam (Ask Away!)

[Dumuzi]

I created this thread to answer all questions you might have about the religion of Islam. Please, feel free to ask about anything you want. I don't mind it at all, and I'm open to discuss anything on your mind.

I am not a religious scholar myself, however I have great access to a lot of different sources about Islam. I'd also add that Arabic is my mother tongue and I have been reading the Qur'an and reading about Islam in general all my life.

I will try to always support my answers with evidence from our sources.

In a nut shell, go ahead and ask away anything you want about Islam!


So anything on your mind?

[Medusa]

How do you think most Muslims might feel you belonging to a pagan forum? I mean just in general.

[Dumuzi]

[quote author=Medusa link=topic=96.msg411#msg411 date=1286658111]
How do you think most Muslims might feel you belonging to a pagan forum? I mean just in general.
[/quote]

Generally speaking, most Muslims complain that there aren't enough Muslims out there talking to non Muslims about Islam.

You know, when people out there have very little knowledge of the religion of Islam, I don't really blame those people. I blame the Muslims for not doing their job, so to speak.

So I know that Muslims would feel glad that there's someone here amongst all those non Muslims who can at least explain and talk to people about Islam.

If you read the Qur'an you'll find a lot of verses telling us how to communicate with others. And it's those verses that I try to follow when I discuss religion with other people.

Invite (people) to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good counsel. And argue with them in the best of manners. Surely, your Lord knows best the one who deviates from His way, and He knows best the ones who are on the right path. [16:125]

[Dez]

Not a question, but I just had to share this, D...

We had house-guests last night (yeah, I know, with moving and the forum down I didn't have enough on my plate :P ) who are from Utah, on their way to visit Yellowstone. After dinner, the husband got on a rant about how Mohamed was actually a general, and the Koran was his military instructions, and it's just a lie to say that Muslims believe in peace, or that any of them don't subject women.

Obviously, that's a rather interesting mash of misinformation, which is common in conservative media in America right now, so would you care to comment?

I do have to say, I was very proud to be able to politely share that I have a friend in Egypt, and the way I have seen him live his religion, and not only his respect for women, but the fact that his parents are *both* professionals. It honestly made my day

[Dumuzi]

[quote author=Deseret link=topic=96.msg1754#msg1754 date=1286911182]
I do have to say, I was very proud to be able to politely share that I have a friend in Egypt, and the way I have seen him live his religion, and not only his respect for women, but the fact that his parents are *both* professionals. It honestly made my day
[/quote]

Aww, that was really awesome of you to say. Totally made MY day!

Obviously, that's a rather interesting mash of misinformation, which is common in conservative media in America right now, so would you care to comment?

Ha, it's OK.

Your guest was actually correct. Amongst the many things Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was, besides being a messenger of god, was also being a fighter.

But the question here is, when and why were Muslims told to fight?

The period from the first time Muhammad received revelation, till it ended and he died, was about 23 years. The first 13 years of those 23 years, Muslims suffered from oppression and persecution for their religion and were driven out of their homes. I am sure as a Mormon you know what it's like to be persecuted because of your religion, especially because of your early history.

I am not going to go into all the verses in the Qur'an that talk about fighting, but I'd like to share with you a couple of verses that show to you the reason we fight, and why Muhammad picked up his sword to fight against oppression and persecution, if that's OK with you.

It's not about believing in peace or not. We are peaceful towards those that wish to be peaceful towards us, as the Qur'an puts it.

So why were Muslim given the permission to fight after 13 years? Here are the verses I want to share:

Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory.

[They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only because they say, "Our Lord is Allah." And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might. [22:39-40]

I'd like to point out that the verse isn't just talking about Muslims being persecuted because it mentions monasteries, churches and synagogues even BEFORE it mentions mosques.

So yes, Muhammad lifted up his sword to fight, but he did so for several reasons, including defending people similar to your guest's ancestors.

[Gwen]

I had the pleasure of taking a dhikr class from a Moroccan Sufi sheik last semester in seminary. He said that people like to think only of Allah as good, but that that risks saying to Allah, "If you are only good, why do you let these bad things happen to me?" He said that love is the "dessert" of Allah but that you have to eat your vegetables too--that Allah contains and does all things, both those that we perceive as good and those that we perceive as bad. (He took this as far as saying that if you brag that Allah is good and because you are obedient, He will only send you good things--then Allah will say, "Oh, you will tell me what I can do?" and send bad things until you accept everything as from Him.)

What do you think of this theology? I have no idea whether it's Sufi-specific (or even Moroccan-Sufi-specific), common throughout Islam, or somewhere in between.

[Dumuzi]

[quote author=Gwen link=topic=96.msg1824#msg1824 date=1286921451]
What do you think of this theology? I have no idea whether it's Sufi-specific (or even Moroccan-Sufi-specific), common throughout Islam, or somewhere in between.
[/quote]

I'd first like to point out that being Sufi is not a different sect than Islam. There are a lot of respectful Sufi scholars out there, and it was thanks to the earlier Sufi scholars that Islam spread in most of Asia.

Granted, there are people that deviated from Islam, but we don't consider those to be true Sufis so to speak.

I do somehow agree with the quote you shared with us. Here is how we look at it:

As Muslims we accept everything from god. A Muslim who only worships god when he is rich but then rejects him when he is poor, is not a real Muslim. Likewise, a Muslim who keeps praying to god when they are poor but forgets about god when they are rich, is also not a real Muslim.

It's just that sometimes we love something when it is actually bad for us (like lots of money that might corrupt an individual) and sometimes we hate things that might end up being something really good.

Meh, now that I read what I wrote I don't know if it's really related to what you said. But yeah, hope that made sense!

[Gwen]

I know that Sufism is Islam--I've just been under the impression that it's a branch (or a series of branches) within Islam. Is that not strictly so?

Your response does make sense. I've been curious because in Christianity there are many approaches to "why does God let bad things happen to good people?" including that everything that we perceive as good and as bad comes from God for a purpose; that God isn't all-powerful and s**t happens sometimes that He can't stop; that the Devil is involved and powerful; that God is all-powerful but that in choosing to abdicate some power so that we can have freewill He allows us to face either the fruit of our choices or the "evil" actions of others... etc. I was curious how common the "it all comes from God" perspective (which I've heard some Christians criticize as overly fatalistic, not that I agree with them) was in Islam.

[Shahaku]

Islam does branch off from Judaism right? As in they came before Islam just like they came before Christianity?

If so, does that mean that whole group shares the same creation stories? And what about the old testament of the Bible? Is it used in Judaism and Islam as well? Sorry I know some of these questions relate outside of Islam, but I've just never understood exactly how the three fit together.

[Dumuzi]

Hi Shahaku!

First of all, welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy it here

[quote author=Shahaku link=topic=96.msg2129#msg2129 date=1286984273]
Islam does branch off from Judaism right? As in they came before Islam just like they came before Christianity?
[/quote]

Nope.

I understand that this is something that a lot of people don't know about Islam. And bare in mind that I'm only explaining to you the Muslim point of view about this issue.

Islam is not a new religion. Islam is the religion that was preached by all prophets of god. We believe that God revealed the same message to all of his prophets to convey to all humans. The prophets of god were all Muslim and preached the same message all the way from Adam till Muhammad.

Muhammad is only the last prophet of a chain of prophets, and was only confirming the same message that was preached by all the prophets before him. Those include Moses, Jesus, Abraham, David, Isaac, Noah and many, many more.

In that sense Moses and Jesus were Muslim and preached about the religion of Islam. Islam means Submission (to god) in Arabic by the way.

You have to realize that Moses never spoke about a religion called Judaism. Likewise, Jesus never mentioned the word Christianity. Those are labels and religions that were created after them. However, we believe their original message was that of submission to the will of god.

If so, does that mean that whole group shares the same creation stories? And what about the old testament of the Bible? Is it used in Judaism and Islam as well? Sorry I know some of these questions relate outside of Islam, but I've just never understood exactly how the three fit together.

We do believe in the Torah and the Gospel as books revealed by god to Moses and Jesus. But we don't believe those are the same books as the Old and New Testament. Those are books that were man made, after the time of Moses and Jesus.

It is true that there are similar stories in the Bible and in the Qur'an. But you'll notice they are also different. We believe the Qur'an is explaining and setting right the truth that was distorted by some people in the Bible.

For example, both the Bible and the Qur'an speak about the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, however both books give different accounts and details about the story.

Hope that clears things up for you!