Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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Ghalib and Rumi both did peotry, prose, and scholarly works. Rumi in particular was something of a polymath and a mystic. Here is one of his poems in full that’s one of his more popular:
Be Lost in the Call

Lord, said David, since you do not need us,
why did you create these two worlds?

Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened back, the world;
The back would please you if you’ve never seen the face.

Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
Yet clean away the mud and straw,
and a mirror might be revealed.

Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,
it isn’t wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,
you must do a little work.

My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
You return just as you left.
Where are the traces of my gifts?

We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.
This Sun doesn’t want a crown or robe from God’s grace.
He is a hat to a hundred bald men,
a covering for ten who were naked.

Jesus sat humbly on the back of an donkey, my child!
How could a zephyr ride an donkey?
Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.
Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.

Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call.
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The amount of certain types of wealth that have to be factored into zakat is narrated in the hadith. Since gold is sort of a universal currency, most people prefer to use the gold standard in calculating zakat because it has an easy price index that almost everyone can agree on, and dates, grain, and camels don’t.
 
shazirah said:
As discussed above at length, there are many miracles attributed to and around the Prophet (peace be upon him). He healed battle wounds and Ali’s sick eye. He provided water for an army in the desert and several times was noted to cause springs to well up in dry areas. The splitting of the moon before his pagan adversaries. He blinded a band of assassins so that he was able to pass among them to safety without them seeing him. An enemy came out to chase him on horseback, but he caused the horse to sink into the earth and then when the man relented and asked for mercy he rescued him. On the day that he entered Medina, a heavenly illumination fell over the city. On the day that he died, Medina became dark. There are many recorded instances of prophetic revelations that came true. Remarkably, before a battle, he predicted the exact locations that all of the enemy chieftains would die and they in fact died in those places. The sunnah is full of the testimony of the miracles God performed through the Prophet (peace be upon him) and most of them were witnessed by large groups of people.
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The miracles of the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles are chronicled in the Bible. Unless I am misreading it, the Quran explicityly says that Mohammed was only a '“warner” after being repeatedly asked why he could not perform miracles (Surah 6:37, 10:20, 11:12, 29:50-51 etc). According to the Quran, the only miracle of Mohammed is the Quran. As I am inquring into Islam, how do you expect me to disregard the authentic claim of the Quran which came from God, and instead accept the claims of some Haddiths that came centuries after the death of Mohammed. Based on my very very limited research, I understand that these Mohammed miracles were a few of several thousand claims of miracles that were circulating after the death of Mohammed. Which source do I trust, the Quran or the haddiths.
 
For example, the spiritual ascetics of India or Tibet can reach such a spiritual state when the thought of sex, becomes disgusting. Spiritual heights and carnal pleasures are not compatible for them.(One of the famous teachers of Krishna , says that when he remembers sex, he wants to spit in disgust)
Other philosophers, vice versa came to the conclusion that рaradise for men is the female body.(even found a place in a woman’s body where exactly is this рaradise…I think not difficult to guess)
What for you is the рaradise houris in the Koran ? Is that a prototype or something real?
After all, it is no secret that many Muslims perceive the Gury of Paradise in the literal sense.
Why are heavenly bliss described in such a low carnal understanding?
 
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The traditional interpretation of the miracles and circumstance surrounding Mohammed (peace be upon him) is that God performed the miracles and attributing to the action of a man is a faulty line of reasoning. Colloquially, we say that Mohammed (peace be upon him) performed miracles, but the actuality is that God is the one who performed the miracles through or in the vicinity of Mohammed (peace be upon him), so it’s part semantics and part a misunderstanding of how the Koran is different as a text versus the Bible. The Biblical authors write in narrative style, while the Koran is not narrative in structure. We have the hadith to fill in the narrative qualities. Surah 54:1-2 records a mention of the splitting of the moon and it’s fairly well accepted among Islamic historical scholarship that the many testimonies of the miracles began with the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah be pleased with them), and so was not in most cases a tradition that developed later. A lot of scrutiny as to the historical validity comes into play when considering the hadith. Shia hadith are a little less rigorously curated, but hadith recording miracles narrated by trustworthy chains of provenience are found in the Sunnah. I’ve also only mentioned the miracles that Christians might consider valid miracles, since the Koran is the greatest miracle in Islam. It’s difficult to appreciate that without understanding the original language and structure, but the Koran is a fairly erudite and sublime example of classical Arabic literature and we know that Mohammed (peace be upon him) was illiterate.

Jesus didn’t drop signs and wonders on demand either from what I can tell, but when it was necessary and appropriate. "As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.”, etc. In that particular case those people weren’t ready to receive a miracle. Some people, like the pagans that witnessed the splitting of the moon, were already so set against the truth that even a miracle couldn’t touch them. God isn’t beholden to send a sign to anyone who asks but to whom He chooses in his infinite wisdom.

Another clue as to the situation in early Islam is that the practice of witchcraft was very wide-spread in the Arabian Penninsula at the time and indeed the pagans that saw the splitting of the moon accused the Prophet (peace be upon him) of witchcraft. Perhaps it was not in their best interest to receive the sort of signs that they could simply attribute to magic, but to experience the hand of God in more subtle and meaningful ways.
 
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In regards to pleasure, we believe that pleasure in itself is a gift of God to mankind and a part of our intrinsic nature rather than simply being a factor of our biology. There are immoral ways of using that gift, but there are many moral ways to experience pleasure and we believe that that will continue in paradise with greater freedom and more abundance once we are free of the constraints of mortal life and spiritually purified. The pleasure we experience here on earth is the shadow of what we will experience in heaven, but that doesn’t mean it differs in kind necessarily. So, the houris are there as companions. Maybe sexual companions, but not necessarily. We’ll find out when we get there.
 
Have you asked your brother why he decided to convert to Christianity?
 
John 15:13 “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends”

Does the Koran contain a similar statement? What does the Koran teach as being the greatest love?
 
Yeah, we’ve talked about it. My brother has always had problems with what you guys would call scruples. Muslims are encouraged to follow the sunnah, or the practices of the Prophet (peace be upon him), but much of it is optional outside of what is explicitly commanded. It’s possible to become so caught up in the minutia (someone mentioned the complex bathroom procedure earlier that some Muslims practice) that one forgets about the central purpose of relating to and worshiping God. So, my brother has always had difficulties believing that what he does is enough for God and he feels burdened by all the sunnah (which is a lot, admittedly, even thought it’s optional in most cases,you could fill a decent sized bookcase with commentary on the sunnah). With Christianity, he feels that that burden is lifted by Christ.

Also, I have a feeling that it has at least a little to do with the fact that he’s a shy kid who has trouble making friends and his roommate is Orthodox and has introduced him to a group of people his age that have been very accepting of his interest in Orthodoxy. Knowing a little more now about Catholicism than I did, I kind of wonder if his issue with scrupulosity is going to carry over once the conversion experience has worn off, but who can say. His baptism is this weekend, so I guess we’ll see what happens.
 
The love of God for His creation is the greatest love in Islam. It’s reiterated countless times. It begins the Koran (In the name of Allah the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful - bismillah al-rahman al-rahim - where in the translated word “mercy” holds the connotation of compassion and mother-love as well as mercy). Surah Ar-Rahman is basically a love poem recounting the many ways in which God has lovingly tended and ordered the world and mankind and arranged for mankind passage back to Paradise at the end of days. Love in Islam is intrinsically about actions. It’s stated differently than in the Bible, but it’s definitely there.

Because we are to serve the will of God and the will of God is love and mercy, then by extension we are to be loving and merciful in concert with God’s wishes.
 
I can’t help but interpret his reason as being there is nothing that we can do on our own that can make ourselves right with God. We need Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, to reconcile ourselves with God.

That is a really good reason for converting to Christianity.
 
It is good to be loving and merciful! 🙂

What does the Koran teach about suffering in the world. Why does God allow suffering in the world?
 
Thanks for answering our questions.

Can you tell me about Sufism and how they relate to mainstream Islam? Are they considered heretics?
 
Iranian wrestlers will miss the World Cup in the United States. They might even be favorites in the world wrestling, but the local politics affecting the athletes. Isn’t politics interfering with sports too much?
 
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Why for example it is not allowed even to touch the Israeli athlete, and it is preferable to give up the fight instead of “participate” in it?
 
Yes, wasn’t it Muhammad himself who addressed his followers by declaring if they have ‘belief’ issues to refer to the People of the Book {meaning those who follow the Bible?
 
How binding are fatwas? @Shazirah
I want to get a sense of how Muslims view fatwas.
When a new fatwa has been issued what is the typical reaction from a typical Muslim?
Eg does one say “I’m going to follow that completely” or
“I’ll have a look and only follow the bits I believe to be correct” or
It depends on who issued the fatwa. Or
“I didn’t know a fatwa has been issued”

I guess one example would be the fatwa against terrorism. Do Muslim accept that? With complete obedience? Including the bit where it condemns terrorist as kufr? How do extremists usually bypass and explain away this fact?
 
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Although I am a man but I can’t stand polygamy.
I think that for any self-respecting woman, polygamy is hell here on earth.
It seems to me that if a religious institution encourages polygamy it is immoral even for an atheistic country.
Maybe in some cultures a woman is compared to a camel, but I don’t know how in one house I would look in the eyes of the first wife, preferring a second wife.
 
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