Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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I don’t think that’s offensive at all. 🙂 It’s actually kind of cool.
 
Sometimes culture and pride affect how people interpret the Koran and sometimes schools of tradition have formed that are much more influenced by existing culture than the radical nature of the Word of Allah, but I actually see it getting better around the world. There are even a few female imams now and I heard a woman giving the call to prayer just recently! Islam has always considered women equal to men from the earliest days:
Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so - for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward. Al-Ahzab 33:35
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God made us complements to each other, equal in dignity and in His sight.

Women also have a long history of doing pretty much whatever they were called by God to do. Khadijah, the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) first wife, was a businesswoman. His youngest wife Aisha was a scholar of Islam and politics and recorded many of the hadith. Nusaybah bint Ka’ab fought with shield and sword to protect the Prophet (peace be upon him). He appointed Umm Waraq to lead the people of her home in prayer.
In this case, the best translation of “home” is likely her village, because it is said that there were so many people in her home that they needed a muezzin to gather everyone for prayer. If women can do all of these things with the approval of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and Allah, then I think it’s safe to say that women can do whatever God calls them to do. The men who would like to prevent this will answer to Allah and I’ve found that Allah typically knows how to show people their own pride.
 
Most Muslims look on Catholicism as being a particular branch of Christianity. Christianity is sort of taken as a group by most Muslims, although people who are more educated in the beliefs will likely pick out sects of Christianity that are closer to Islam than others. I’m no where near that level of religious education, though. When I was growing up, I didn’t realize Christianity came in different flavors. When we moved back to the US, I thought the Methodists across the road were a completely different religion than the Baptists next door.
 
My question is somewhat different to what I have read here.

What is the Muslim view on dogs. I know my friend once mentioned he is not allowed to pray in the clothes he is wearing after a dog touched it? But can you give me more clarification? Can Muslims have dogs as pets and so on?

Regards
 
Many thanks for your previous answer.
Another question:
When a person decides to become a Muslim, does he/she go through like a catechism class and a period of time to learn what Muslims have to believe it before he is admitted?
What is the minimum amount of Arabic one has to learn as a Muslim if one’s native language is not Arabic?
 
Dog saliva is considered unclean according to the hadith, which means that you have to wash before engaging in any activity that you would need to be ritually clean for like prayer. The same is true for most animals, as that’s interpreted as just a common sense rule.

Other hadith discourage owning dogs that are merely pets and not working animals and forbids keeping a dog inside of a house. However, the Companions of the Cave in Islamic history were protected by a dog, and so the role of the dog as a useful and loyal animal is established, too. There are traditional stories in which kindness to dogs is encouraged. In one story, a prostitute passes by a well and sees a dog dying of thirst, so she used her own shoe to dip water out of the well for the dog and Allah forgave her sins because of her kindness and mercy. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was known to have a fondness for animals and while on campaign when he came across a dog and her puppies actually posted a soldier nearby to make sure no one disturbed them. So, while pets are not common in the Arab world, Muslims can own dogs as long as they respect the rules of cleanliness.

Actually, from the stories I’ve read, Mohammed (peace be upon him) was a cat person. lol He had a follower who was called the Father of Kittens and the man had a cat that saved the Prophet (peace be upon him) from a snake. So, in Islamic legend, he placed his hand on the cat’s head to bless it and tabby cats carry the mark of his fingers in remembrance to this day.
 
The only thing required for a person to become a Muslim is to speak out loud and believe sincerely the shahada, which is: La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad rasoolu Allah. It translates to “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the Messenger of God”. Some imam say that you need to testify in both Arabic and your native tongue, but the Arabic version is the only thing that most consider to be required. For it to be valid, one has to believe that the Koran is the literal and revealed word of God, that there is a true Resurrection and Judgement and that it will come, that the prophets, the books, and the Angels truly exist, and agree to only worship God and no others with Islam as their true faith. If a person doesn’t believe the things he’s testifying to, then they are not Muslim - which means that no one can truly be forcibly converted and anyone who tries to force the matter is committing a grave sin.

It’s not required that a Muslim do anything other than that to convert, but its recommended that they join a mosque community and take instruction from an imam about prayer practices and Islamic scripture and law. Allah accepts the sincerity of a Muslim person even if they never do anything but recite the shahadah and truly make an effort to pray and live a life pleasing to God. That’s the minimum.

As far as the minimum amount of Arabic, understanding the shahada and the prayers is the most that most non-Arabs ever learn. Most mosques have Arabic programs to help people learn how to read the Koran, because it actually is important to understand the original meanings that don’t get carried through fully into other languages. As a linguist myself, I really can’t underscore that point enough.
 
What would you say is the best method to learn Arabic as a secondary language? I’ve always been fascinated by Arabic but honestly have no idea where to begin.
 
Thank you for the informative answers. Islamic rulers therefore allowed more than four wives for political reason and to ensure successors.

As for humanitarian and ‘practical’ reasons of men allowed to marry four wives:
Other than their wives, are Islamic soldiers and commanders allowed to take slaves as spoils of wars?

What is Islam view on international law like the Geneva Conference?

What is female circumcision? Does it has any bearing on marriage and sexual pleasure?
 
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shazirah said:
Not being a religious scholar, that’s a little bit out of my field but the general perspective of many Muslim scholars is that the Biblical Gospels are not true, unadulterated eye-witness accounts.
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Well, what about the Quran?

Who, for example, saw the angel that purportedly inspired the writing of the Quran?

For us, we need two or three witnesses to something before it will be accepted. We have the four witnesses of the Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What witnesses do you have to believe that an angel appeared to Mohammed?
 
The best way is to do an immersive course with a teacher, but Rosetta Stone is pretty good as self-learning goes. Arabic is pretty easy to learn as languages go and then once you have the basics, you just have to get the vocabulary down to read the Koran. There are only about 60 main necessary vocabulary words to be able to read with a reasonable amount of proficiency.
 
This still leaves me confused. If something isn’t explicitly a sin then how can it keep someone out of Paradise? I’ve never heard of Islam having anything like Purgatory or Limbo.
 
Slavery existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, but Islam actually reduced its scope and the rules are complex. In early Islam, it was haraam to enslave a free person under Islamic rule, so slaves were either born or taken through conquest. In regards to Islamic practice and law, both slaves and free people were considered equal. Early Islam also established a number of rules to ensure that slaves were treated fairly and humanely. Muslims were encouraged to free slaves, as freeing ones slaves was seen as one means of atoning for sin. Essentially, the idea that if one shows mercy, one will be shown mercy. For reasons less to do with religion than politics, slavery made a come back in medieval Islamic times, but still with restrictions. In regards to sexual behavior, it was permissible for men to have slaves as concubines, but there are a whole lot of other rules about that, too. Children born of that relationship were free Muslims, the woman could never be sold, etc. Basically, it was allowed but not encouraged and really sort of frowned upon in early Islam, which is why modernists believe that Allah intended for it to be a measure to gradually stamp out slavery instead of promoting it.

Islam as a religion doesn’t hold a view on Geneva, as Islam has its own tradition of human rights thought. However, most majority Muslim countries follow the rules of the convention in regards to international relations and what scholars have ruled on the subject see fiqh and the Geneva provisions as being compatible and agreeing on all major points.

Female circumcision is a pre-Islamic, primarily African practice but also in some parts of the Middle East that people often confuse for Islamic practice. As the greater body of Islam sees sexual pleasure for women as being just as important as that of men and the hadith that is generally given to support FGM has poor historical validity, the majority of scholars do not believe the practice is supported by jurisprudence. Add to that that Coptic Christians in Egypt and other Christians in Africa practice it, it’s pretty clearly a cultural practice that has been justified after the fact by people with an interest in continuing it.
 
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Did anyone see God dictating to Moses? Did anyone but Moses see the Burning Bush? Did anyone see the Angel talking to Mary?

We don’t necessarily need eyewitness to believe and for good reasons. If you look at modern bodies of knowledge about eyewitness accounts, they’re pretty faulty. People are not perfect recorders of what they’ve seen and manipulate their testimonies for all number of reasons both innocent and sinister. Besides, the Biblical gospels were not all written by eyewitnesses and they copy from each other and change the order of things to suit a narrative. Muslims don’t believe that the true Gospel is an account of the life of Jesus. The Gospel that we believe in was given to Jesus before he ever attracted the first disciple and was a perfect revelation that was subsequently lost. Possibly, it could be the Q source that theoretically helped inform the Biblical gospels, but it bears only passing relation to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Just as we believe that there existed a perfect revelation of the Torah to Moses that was subsequently changed through the centuries.
 
We have a similar concept to the Jewish idea of Sheol, or the grave. No one enters Hell or Paradise until the day of Judgement, but souls are thought to get a taste of what awaits them, so wicked people will suffer in the grave and people who were good will be relieved of their suffering. There does exist a middle ground, then, where someone can be simply dead. We don’t know what would happen to a good person who was in debt when they die at the Last Judgement, just like no one really knows what would happen to people in Limbo from what I gather, but we can hope for their salvation and we can do whatever we can to help alleviate the problem.
 
That’s understandable. Thanks for clearing up the confusion on this.
 
Thank you once again for your informative answers.
I wish to get a sense of how important the caliphate is to Muslims.
Eg for Catholics the institution church and the Pope is very important to us such that I think the whole Catholic faith falls apart if the Popes cease to exist. Not so for the Protestants.
So how important is the caliph for Muslims?
Eg
What do people think of the Umayyad caliphate when muawiya “usurped” the Rashidun caliphate and establish a dynastic succession which is not what Mohammed intended. I mean Muawiya’s family was one of the last to convert to Islam and fought against Mohammed in the past. Is he a good or bad Muslim? Does bloodlines/legitimacy matter?
What about when the caliphate ended with the Ottomans, was it a huge thing for Muslims when for the first time in Islamic history there is no caliph? Or do people not place too much significance of it?

Sorry if I get any historical facts wrong. Please correct me if that’s the case.
Many thanks. Shukran!
 
Thank you for taking the time to answer those questions and to make clarification. Those were fine answers. Will come back if I have any more questions.

God bless.
 
From my experience with Arabic, start with children’s materials for the basics and build vocabulary. Learning to read Arabic is easy too.
 
What is your perspective on the sufis? do you believe that they are kafirs?
 
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