Who is a Muslim?

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Though it did seem that you were responding to the post about the (alleged??) live in boyfriend.

Would you consider Christians, Jews and Parsis muslim if they belive in the prophethood of Mohammad? If the answer is No then how are Qadianis, Shias and Aga Khanis any different?

If the answer to the above mentioned question is Yes then it would be a different matter.

Since I neither an Islamic scholar nor do I claim to be one, I have no opinion on the above.

I guess the first step would be to define the basics. For example does being a muslim mandate belief in one God? The answer being yes would imply that all monotheists are muslims. Now if the next step would be belief in the prophethood of Mohammad, then the population would be reduced somewhat. Number three would probably be the finality of this prophethood. Now I dont know if that is mandated, but if it is then anyone who believes in another prophet after Mohammad would be excluded from the definition of being a muslim. Of course one can take it further down to imamat or lack of imamat and methodlogy of prayer, etc.

Dear Sattar & Rizwan:

To me, religion is something personal entirely between an individual and the Creator. I firmly believe that this world would be a far better and peaceful place had we confined these circular unverifiable theological issues to our respective private domains. What I have never understood is the rationale to shove our beliefs down the throat of others.

Having said that I must add: dear friends you two are intentionally or deliberately bit too scant while explaining the central creeds of Qadiani religion.
For example you have never mentioned that:

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad also claimed to be the Messiah, whose advent was awaited by Jews, Christians and Muslims, and to be an avatar, or reincarnation, of the Hindu god Krishna. Furthermore, it teaches, among other things, that Jesus feigned death on the cross, escaped to India where he resumed his ministry, died aged 120 and was buried at Srinagar in Kashmir.

Question is why don’t you people call/consider yourself as Qadiani-Hindu or Ahmadi-Christian or Qadiani-Jew? Why this honour reserved only for Muslims?

Then, there are at the most 20 million adherents, mainly on the Indian subcontinent, in West Africa and Indonesia. More or less as many as there are Sikhs. Using the definition, criteria and benchmarks given by you to judge the authenticity of prophets. What about Guru Nanak? Do you consider him too a prophet of God. Where do you place him? Before Mirza sahib or after?

See, to be honest, most of your references, or distortion of the Islamic scriptures at best.
As I am not a practicing Muslim myself, I have no penchant for indulging in never-ending discussion of right and wrong in this regard. Otherwise, the arguments produced by you can easily recycled and fire back.

Take care.
PS. I have a lot more inside stuff to present, in case you don’t feel satisfied.

#159 by Romair on March 5, 2004 8:20pm PT

that was below the belt!!!

#168 by hamidm2 on March 6, 2004 7:13am PT

hamidm aur bhi gam hain zamane mein ....
This round goes to you. Cheers!!!

Chivalrous Hamidm:

Thank you for your candid views.

I will still go for the Bloomingdale and spray my favorite fragrance ``declaration`` on it and wrap it in a pretty paper and put it in a fragranced box and tie a sweet ribbon around the box and have a neat card on the top and wish the best wishes.

Thank you again.

calling sattar2....sorry to ruin your most original line for picking up women on the internet (i.e. holding scholarly religious discourses, and cleverly toss cute asides to women posters). You can carry on discussing gods and prophets with Romair....I promise I wont interfere....

Ispahani #67 you write ``50 yrs ago, I saw Queen Elizabeth II , Emperor Haille Sellasie of Abysinnia ``

Did you catch them making out? If not, then this is not news.

hamidm 168: ``............. so basically what we have here is members of the flat earth society arguing over whether the earth is square or rectangular .............``

This remark makes absolutely no sense.

No one is saying the earth is flat or rectangular. A better analogy would be comparing it to finding out whether life ever existed on Mars. And to define the criteria, under which we can accept any discoveries, related to this, to be legitimate or illegitimate, as well as defining the qualifications of the scientists making the statements.

You seem to be convinced, that life never exisited on Mars, without requiring any proof. You have made up your mind, already. The rest of us still want to do some research.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

.......... is the earth rectangular?

romair mian, in his infinite fauji wisdom, just pointed out something :``Whenever one discusses an issue, it is done within the framework of a domain. What is being discussed is not who can declare him/herself to be a prophet, in general. What is being discussed is how and why and when and where prophethood is/can be declared withing the context of one particular religion, i.e Islam. ``

............. so basically what we have here is members of the flat earth society arguing over whether the earth is square or rectangular .............

.........sorry for interrupting........ guys, carry on with your discussion ......... and zahraj, stop picking on me ...... my life is miserable enough trying to serve three women who wear pants ............two of them were awarded a drivers license by the state and the third one is constantly telling me i don`t know anything .......... and you cannot knit love into a sweater from bloomingdale...........................

It is precisely the point that when it comes to religion it is all so subjective.
Hence so basic a thing as ``Who is a Muslim`` is defined by every one by his own understanding. Actually the experience of the Divine is quite personal , subjective and unique in my opinion. That is why I think nobody can and should tell anybody else that what it feels like being with the divine. That is my main reason to think that it is good to keep the religion as a personal matter and use reason and experience for wordly matters.

Chivalrous Hamidm:

How about taking a short cut and heading out to the Bloomingdale ?

Would that be equally effective or a hand made sweater carries its own charm ?

I will appreciate a candid response.

Regards.

hossp #161 I know Ispahani is above and beyond. He speaks Aramaic, just like Jesus Christ.

Freethinker:

Based on the two pointers that were highlighted by Saleemi, I would say they are applicable to believers vs. Muslims in particular. Most of the believers believe in a supreme power. Also, they do believe in prophets. But all believers are not Muslims.

Yes, amongst all muslims you can they that Saleemi`s argument is a common denominator.

My two cents.