Islam
Posts  1 - 5  of  5
tkola4
After Mohammed His teachings lasted 3yrs. til the big division happened. I have a lot of questions (honest ones)about when Islam changed from a theology to a type of Government. And does God care about the now human institutions developed this way. Does God forgive in Islam? I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but really want to hear an Islamic perspective and not just the rederick that get's spread about.
Save
Cancel
Reply
replied to:  tkola4
D1vidRab
Replied to:  After Mohammed His teachings lasted 3yrs. til the big division happened....
Why pick on Islam specifically! It happened in Christianity as well. Islam and Christiandoom have evolved very simmilarly and Islam is on the verge of the annalogous to the Protestant Reformation because of the many faiths that have arisen out of Islam: Shia, Sunny, Bahai, Sufis, etc!
Save
Cancel
Reply
replied to:  D1vidRab
tkola4
Replied to:  Why pick on Islam specifically! It happened in Christianity as...
Please don't take my question as an attack.I am trying to find the truth through all the crap that has been said by everybody. That is an insight I never thought of. I am non-denominational Christain, And it's the divisions in my church that make me wonder too. I prefer to go New Testament, Jesus taught love. I'm just understanding the first split to sunni, and wonder the political implications when that happened. Please, I am open to teaching...
Save
Cancel
Reply
replied to:  tkola4
D1vidRab
Replied to:  Please don't take my question as an attack.I am trying to...
Really the Sunni-Shia fight is older than Islam itself! There were conflicts between tribes of North Arabia and South Arabia that continued after Islam started and continued as a Shia-Sunni strugle. Remember that the so called New Testament for the exception of two books (in Aramean) was written in Greek for a Greek target audience and Jesus Christ encompasses many Greek religious concepts such as Prometheous (divine father/human mother) that are copletely alien to the purely semitic Old Testament, because they are oriented to the Greek slave population that conformed the lower classes of the Greco-Roman world at the time. The early Arab Musslims were heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman Bizantine culture refered by them as al-Rumi and the concept of the HAREM is not semitic but Greek (Gynesum in Greek houses!) In ancient semitic societies the female was much more free as reflected by the Queen in the rules of chess when compared to the figure-head King. It was Mohhamad's wife that ran the Cammel MOTEL that provided for their sustenance while Mohammed sat in a cave philosophizing! You cannot understand things without knowing the historical background! If Jesus was all love, why did he curse a poor fig tree for not being out of season!?
Save
Cancel
Reply
replied to:  tkola4
tungamaa
Replied to:  After Mohammed His teachings lasted 3yrs. til the big division happened....
Asalaam aleykum

Muhammad has not taught any anything BUT he is a Messenger; who conveyed to concerned from The Lord of the Universe.

Now let us go to the topic:-

after 23years his message was completed.

that we can assume as the "cards were laid on the table"

ref quran kareem:
the truth has been revealed to you; which vanquish falsehood;
whoever wishes to follow the truth..has his free choice
and whoever does not want too has his free choice.

THE BOOK

(2:2) This is the Book of Allah: there is no doubt *2 about it. It is guidance to Godfearing people, *3

*2. One obvious meaning of this verse is that this Book, the Qur'an, is undoubtedly from God. Another possible meaning is that nothing contained in it can be subject to doubt. Books which deal with supernatural questions, with matters that lie beyond the range of sense perception, are invariably based on conjecture and their authors, despite their brave show of competence, are therefore not immune from a degree of scepticism regarding their statements. This Book, which is based wholly on Truth, a Book which is the work of none other than the All-Knowing God Himself is distinguishable from all other books. Hence, there is no room for doubt about its contents despite the hesitation some people might express either through ignorance or folly.

*3. This means that while the Book is potentially for all, only those who possess certain qualities can benefit from it. The first such quality is piety: those who want to benefit should be disposed to distinguish between good and evil, and to shun evil and do good. Those who lead an animal existence, who never to consider whether their actions are either good or bad, whose cynically follow the prevailing winds, who are helplessly tossed about by the animal desires that dominate their minds, such persons are all together incapable of deriving any benefit from the guidance embodied in the Qur'an.
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ ﴿2:3﴾
(2:3) who believe in the unseen *4 , establish the Salats *5 and expend (in Our way) out of what We have bestowed on them; *6

*4. This is the second prerequisite for deriving benefit from the Qur'an. Ghayb signifies the verities which are hidden from man's senses and which are beyond the scope of man's ordinary observation and experience, for example the existence and attributes of God, the angels. the process of revelation, Paradise, Hell and so on. 'Belief in the ghaib' means having faith in such matters, based on an absolute confidence in the Messengers of God and despite the fact that it is impossible to experience them.
According to this verse, Qur'anic guidance can prove helpful only to those prepared to affirm the truths of the suprasensory realm. People who make their belief in these questions conditional upon sensory perception of the object of belief, and who are not prepared even to consider the possibility of the existence of things that cannot be weighed or measured, cannot profit from this Book.
*5. This is the third requirement. It is pointed out that those to whom belief means merely the pronouncement of a formula, who think that a mere verbal confession of faith is enough and that it makes no practical demands on them, can derive no guidance from the Qur'an. To benefit from the Qur'an it is essential that a man's decision to believe should be followed immediately by practical obedience to God.
Prayer is the first and continuing sign of practical obedience. No more than a few hours can pass after a man has embraced Islam than the mu'adhin calls to Prayer and it becomes evident whether or not the profession of faith has been genuine. Moreover, the mu'adhin calls to Prayer five times every day and whenever a man fails to respond to his call it becomes clear that he has transgressed the bounds of practical obedience. An abandonment of Prayer amounts to an abandonment of obedience. Obviously, if a man is not prepared to follow the directives of his guide, it is immaterial whether or not true guidance is available to him.
It should also be noted that the expression 'establishment of Prayer' has a wider meaning than mere performance of Prayer. It means that the system of Prayer should be organized on a collective basis. If there is a person in a locality who prays individually but no arrangements are made for congregational Prayer, it cannot be claimed that Prayer is established in that locality.
*6. This, the fourth prerequisite for a person to benefit from the Qur'an, demands that the person concerned should neither be niggardly nor a worshipper of money. On the contrary, he should be willing to pay the claims on his property of both God and man, and should not flinch from making financial sacrifices for the sake of his convictions.
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآَخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ ﴿2:4﴾
(2:4) who believe in the Book We have sent down to you (i.e. the Qur'an) and in the Books sent down before you, *7 and firmly believe in the Hereafter. *8

*7. The fifth requirement is that one should believe in the Books revealed by God to His Prophets in the various ages and regions of the world, in the Book revealed to Muhammad (peace be on him) as well as in those revealed to the other Prophets who preceded him. The door of the Qur'an is closed to all those who do not consider it necessary for man to receive guidance from God. It is also closed to those who, even if they believe in the need for such guidance, do not consider it necessary to seek it through the channel of revelation and prophethood, but would rather weave their own set of ideas and concepts and regard them as equivalent to Divine Guidance.
This door is also closed to those who believe in Divine books as such, but confine this belief to those books accepted by their forefathers, and spurn Divine Guidance revealed to anyone born beyond their own racial and national boundaries. The Qur'an excludes all such people and is prepared to open the source of its grace only to those who believe that mankind does require Divine Guidance, who acknowledge that this guidance does not come to people individually but reaches them through Prophets and Divine Books and who are not given to racial or national chauvinism but are devotees of Truth alone, and are therefore prepared to submit to Divine Guidance wherever it be found.
*8. Belief in the After-life is the sixth and last requirement. The term al-Akhirah embraces a whole set of ideas:
(i) that man is not an irresponsible being, but is answerable to God for all his conduct in this world;
(ii) that the present order of the world is not timeless, but will come to an end at an appointed hour knon only to God;
(iii) that when this world comes to an end God will bring into being another world in which He will resurrect, at one and the same moment, all the human beings ever born on earth. He will gather them together, examine their conduct and grant each one just reward for his actions;
(iv) that those who are accounted good in God's judgement will be sent to Heaven, and those judged by Him as evil-doers will be consigned to Hell;
(v) that the real measure of success and failure is not one's prosperity in the present life, but one's success or failure according to God's judgement in the Next.
Those who do not accept this set of beliefs can derive no benefit from the Qur'an. For if a man is merely in a state of doubt and hesitation with regard to these matters - let alone disbelieving them - he cannot advance even one step forward along the path charted out by the Qur'an.
أُولَئِكَ عَلَى هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ ﴿2:5﴾
(2:5) Such people are on the right way from their Lord and such are truly successful.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿2:6﴾
(2:6) As for those who have rejected *9 (these things), it is all the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them: they are not going to believe.
*9. That is, those people who do not meet these six requirements, or reject all or any one of the fundamentals set out above.

خَتَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلَى سَمْعِهِمْ وَعَلَى أَبْصَارِهِمْ غِشَاوَةٌ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿2:7﴾
(2:7) Allah has sealed up their hearts and ears and a covering has fallen over their eyes, *10 and they have incurred the severest punishment.

*10. This does not mean that their rejection of the Truth is a consequence of God sealing their hearts. What is meant is that God sealed their hearts and ears as a consequence of their decision to reject the fundamentals of faith, of their deliberate choice of a path divergent from that charted out by the Qur'an. Anyone who has worked for the dissemination of the Truth often finds that if, after full consideration, a person decides against a doctrine, his mind begins to move in a completely opposite direction so that he fails to appreciate anything that is explained to him. His ears become deaf, his eyes are blinded to the merits of that doctrine, and one gets the distinct impression that the person's heart has indeed been sealed.

><
so it the responsibilities of the Individual
the Truth has been laid down clearly><



Save
Cancel
Reply
 
x
OK