My Perspective on Islam

saminshah:
I agreed with you that the concept of dar-ul-harb shuld be revisited, especially by those who have rejected dar-ul-islam to come to this same dar-ul-harb.

Naqshbandi:
``God has set a seal on their hearts and on their ears; and there is a covering on their eyes; and for them shall be a big punishment.(7) ``
What kind of God is it who has first discriminated against me by setting a seal on my heart and my ears and then gives me a big punishment for the consequences of His own act of discrimination in the first place?

And you still call him The All Merciful? Does your Aqueeda mean that you should not use any common sense logic provided by Allah or anyone else?

sameerjb

``Muslims need to create a critical balancing mass of atheists, agnostics, liberals, nominal Muslims, westernized, alcohol drinker, pork eater, coke-pepsi-burger folks and even fornicators.``........ some of us have been performing these public services for years without any acknowledgment from a thankless ummah !.......... but we have done our duty and, i must add, had some fun along the way!........

............ but you do make a very valid point ........ the problem with islam is that it demands mindless conformity within very confined limits that are defined by misogynist mullahs and the imaginary god that they serve .......... most muslim societies are stifling, oppressive, medieval and doenright scary ............ so i was pleasently surprised by what i saw in dubai a few weeks ago - i actually saw muslims co-existing peacefully with other people without trying to impose their silly religious views and customs on them ............it was refreshing..........

I have been following these discussions about ijtehad, reformation and reinterpretation of scripture, liturgy and dogma in social gatherings, media and now on internet for more than ten years. I have been very disillusioned by the passion for change restricted to theological arena. In my opinion, this happens to be the most difficult goal-oriented route route.

What saminshah has said is essentially, Islamailies sect`s point of view and it has taken centuries for them to reach at this level. I recall an interview with Taliban`s information minister on TV in which he used a term, ``Allah knows better`` very often. In Islam, god is absolute in all respects and if he said something without specifically making it time dependent, it is meant to be for all time to come. Minister was asked about the common sense and intelligence with regard to role of women in society. His reply was that even his common sense or collective consciousness of society or collective determination of the intellectuals of Afghan society reach a conslusion that is religious injunction by god and delivered by prophet means everybody is wrong because god can not be wrong. Challenging god is impossible in monotheistic religions; even pope can not do it. The things need to be done are easy said than done. That is inherent in theology because it can not deny the supreme power to invisible hand who communicated through prophets.

Muslim societies are weakest, failing and falling back in the comfort of religion in dealing the problems of the modern world. It has to do with ego also. A society is not going to collectively agree that they are a failure in the modern world. Instead, they will stick to their arrows and camels because they can not be taken away from them. They take more and more comfort in pleasing Allah with more and more failures.

The problem is and the solution is not theology. Scinetifically all theologies are bogus. But it is difficult to convince billions of people that they are fooling themselves with rituals and wasting time and energies. Therefore, like theological solution of reinterpretation etc, scientific solution is also not feasible. The problem of Muslim societies are in fact sociological. Their performance is poorest in comparison to their neighbors. All over Africa and in subcontinent, Muslims performed poorly in moving along the modern world. The social indicators clearly point to poor education, larger family size, lower status of women, time, money and energy spent on performing rituals etc. That is why, I am convinced that the answer lies in sociology and not in science, theology, history or anthropology.

As I said before, Muslims need to create a critical balancing mass of atheists, agnostics, liberals, nominal Muslims, westernized, alcohol drinker, pork eater, coke-pepsi-burger folks and even fornicators. Some of these habits might be deemed injurious to the health of individuals but their influence on Muslims society is bound to be positive. The society need a pull in the opposite direction to offest or drag orthodox, conservative, extremists, fanatics and islamists towards center and compete with wild-eyed educated alcohol drinkers in education, in healthcare, in contribution to society, in arts and so on. The challenge must be from within the society for everybody to see the benefits of modernization in the form of better food, better housing and better living standards. I understand fw people will die of cyrrhosis, some with drug over doze, some will pierce their eyebrows and tongues and increase in prostitution and crimes but this is small price to be paid by few thousands for the sake of millions or hundred of millions.

So instead of reinterpretation and reformation, open society with religion kicked out of politics (strongest point from Islamic point of view) serves Muslims better. Let there be alcohol, music, dance, dating, flirting, schools, hospitals, movies etc because this is the best strategy to wake up Muslims from dreaming about heaven and nightmares of hell excessively. All they need is to decrease influence of Islam in daily life. The answer to sociological problems lies in sociology and not in twisting theology.

ALBAQARAH (2)

``The Cow``

(Revealed at Medina, Verses 286)

In the name of Allah, The Merciful, The All-merciful



Alif Lam Mim (A.L.M.); (1)

this is the Book, **no doubt in it**, a guidance to the godfearing, (2)

who believe without seeing, establish the Prayer and expend of that We have provided them; (3)

who believe in what has been sent down to thee and what has been sent down before thee, and they are sure about the Hereafter. (4)

Those are upon guidance from their Lord, and those are the ones who shall prosper.(5)

Those who disbelieve, it is equal for them whether thou warn them or warn them not, they will not believe. (6)

God has set a seal on their hearts and on their ears; and there is a covering on their eyes; and for them shall be a big punishment.(7)

echoboom wrote:

``A mad mulla-cum-sane scientist is evil. A mad scientist-cum-sane mulla equally evil. But a Rasputin-cum-Dr.Strangelove?``

how on earth did you get from my request to a interactor not to slander a Sahabi (Hazrat Khalid ibn Walid) to the above?!

Whether you consider me a good muslim or not is of concern to me but i am neither a mad scientist nor a mad mullah nor rasputin nor dr. strangelove!

This is nothing new. Orientalists have always tried their hardest to discredit the Quran Sharif. Hazrat Pir Karam Shah Sahib al Azhari has answered these and other allegations in his masterly tafsir Zia ul Quran (Zia ul Quran Publications, Lahore).

**
Many hadiths report that Allah`s Messenger and many of the Sahaba were already Hafiz of the Quran during the worldy lifetime of Allah`s Messenger (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam). Therefore if the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam had not already told them the exact order of the Qur`anic verses how were they memorising it all and becoming hafiz and reciting it during tarawih and othe prayers?!

Allah has promised to protect His Word in the Quran itself therefore no amount of revisionist thinking or orientalist meddling can ever bring even the slightest doubt into the hearts of the believers regarding the authenticity and miraculous nature of the Quran Sharif.

Mr/Ms Samin Shah:

you did not understand why dost-mitter applauded you because you are NO Saminashah --

I see -- you love building your own premises and then fly high with your sweeping generelizations like the following gems:

``Some people do protest any war,``

`` especially left-leaning folks living in the western world and leftists/communists in the Third world countries also do protest almost any war.``

I agree with you -- everybody should love war --

ah those hateful leftists they are such habitual war potester offenders -- they should be hanged by the nearest pole for promoting HATRED against War Mongering -- and for exhibiting shamelessly Fascist-Despising BIGOTRY.

``But it was puzzling to me why Most Muslims staunchly supported Iraqi Dictator`` --

I thought most Europeans, most Asians, most Africans Muslims or NonMulsims supported Iraq -- NOT Saddam -- unless in your mind theya are the same..

``It is concept which work in diehard Islamist mindset. nothing wrong in saddam who kills Muslims at rate of tons until he is Muslim. but when some infidel country invaded even to save Kurd or shiya or Bangladeshi there was lot of hue and cry``

I guess ONLY a diehard Islamist mindset would not agree with your perfectly reasonable argument: Because Saddam kills Iraqis WHY NOT Bush should kill Iraqis .......

and let me tell you samin shah -- it`s a great personal relief to know that your are NOT Saminasha:-)

Concept of Islamic brotherhood (ummah):

Understanding and analyzing diehard Islamic mindsets is not an easy job! Islam is the only religion which teaches Islamic brotherhood, that is, only a Muslim is the brother of another Muslim and a non-Muslim can not be a brother of any Muslim. Needless to mention that it was the same theory (Islamic virus) worked behind the mindsets of entire Arab nations who could not see any fairness for Bangalees freedom in 1971. They all supported marauding Pakistani military who were raping and killing millions of Bangalees (not so good muslims) only to save Islam. I will try to analyze some pertinent symptoms of Islamic brotherhood which was instrumental/pretext to the phenomenal Jihadi protests against Iraq war by all Muslims around the world.
In general many people of many countries including USA and Britain (real perpetrators) protested against Iraq war. Some people do protest any war, especially left-leaning folks living in the western world and leftists/communists in the Third world countries also do protest almost any war. Leftists are staunch enemy of America, because they consider America destroyed their dream of communism, that’s why. Now all Islamists do hate America because Islamists consider America as the biggest obstacle to their ardent dream of establishing real Islam on Allah’s earth. Islamists also can not tolerate America and the west because they blame west for their own failure.
We have seen this kind of protests during Vietnam War. Of course, Islamic folks did not bother/mind Uncle Sam’s utterly unjust war in Vietnam, because in those days of whipping communists by America, Islamists were having honeymoon with the Uncle Sam. Same was the case when NATO was whipping and beating hard on the back of Milosalav’s Sarbia, because at that time—it was Christian brothers whipping another Christian bad guy. Nothing was wrong in it! But it was puzzling to me why Most Muslims staunchly supported Iraqi Dictator. I demanded and still claim that this was just because Saddam is a Tyrant but Muslim Dictator. If he was not a Muslim dictator, or America attacked North Korea, no Muslim would ever bother about this war at all. Why I believe so? . It is concept which work in diehard Islamist mindset. nothing wrong in saddam who kills Muslims at rate of tons until he is Muslim. but when some infidel country invaded even to save Kurd or shiya or Bangladeshi there was lot of hue and cry.

#28 by dost-mittar on August 10, 2003 10:52am PT
Saminashah#27
Hear, hear!!

sorry i cant understand wht u wanna say

#23 by Saminasha on August 9, 2003 4:47pm PT
#20

To my doppleganger ``Saminshah``

sorry i m samin shah

Saminshah:

Precisely the point you make disheartens me to the point where I feel that no reform of the Muslim is possible. ``Do unto others as you would have them do unto you`` does not apply to Muslims. A Muslim cannot be obliged at a personal level, and you can never expect to be treated with the same amount of kindness that you may have granted him. The value system just does not work this way.

You see everything emanates from God so if you satisfy their dire need, they are thankful to God for making you the source of this satisfaction. The maximum you can expect is their prayer that may God reward you for your kindness. In other words there is no personal gratitude nor an obligation to return the favor as an individual or to the society in general. This lack of personal accountability to your fellow man is perhaps the greatest impediment to the creation of a moral and just society in Islamic countries.

Saminashah#27
Hear, hear!!

To start reform in Islam first we must reject some concepts.
There is concept of darul harb Territory of War .this concept must be rejected
As soon as possible by ummah.when this concept is rejected I think almost all
Problems are gone which today Muslims suffers.

second is jihad a akhtar.it also very dangerous consept must me rejected also.

Third is veil. Which is living jail for woman.

In that concepts darul harb is most dangerous one.
Thanks to liberal and non-discriminatory immigration policy of the infidels, millions of Muslims, living in many Islamic countries under abject poverty, misery and helplessness were able to migrate to these Kufur states (like the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand….etc) to improve their lot; and many of them were able to do so.
Naturally, their host county would expect them to be thankful eternally for offering them this rare opportunity. Most Muslims have no problem in expressing such gratitude and loyalty to their adopted country. Nonetheless, such is not the case with the diehard Islamists. Let us ask the question of loyalty to an diehard Islamist who has migrated to a western country like the USA or Canada or Australia. What answer shall we expect?
If ask a few Islamists in Australia such a question. Their answer stunned me completely. We was appalled by their audacity and their show of ungratefulness. The blithe answer they gave was: It is not the Australian Government or its immigration policy that has brought them here (Australia). It was Allah who brought them in Australia. they told this place is darul harb. It is our duty to convert them is darul Islam. This type of concept
Bring skepticism of other races

How that work in mentalities. politicalize religion with state affairs.
It always ending with some stress. Laws of democracy is built by man
Not good as law of god. sound reasonable and music in ear. But at implementation
We can get difference between law by man and low by heaven. Even
Law created today will have to reform after 10 or 20 years because of
Changing ground realities how can law mad in 7th century can implement
as it is. why muslim get problem with every localities. today you can
see them fight everywhere because they cant mix up with other faith
Because of tie with religion in every step of life.

A correction: I meant ``perspective`` than ``personal`` in my last few lines.