Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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Well, the Muslims I’ve met said it like this: The Blessed Virgin Mary is the only woman in the Koran that is given an explicit name (I’m not entirely sure if this is exactly how they say it), so my Muslim friends consider the Blessed Virgin Mary of great importance. Then, my Muslim friends also grant without a doubt that Jesus was a great and very important prophet (again I am not entirely sure - I know there is a hierarchy of importance for prophets in the Koran that I somewhat understand).

Anyway, I have never met a Muslim that in anyway disregarded Christian faith. Those that have a prayer life and go to the mosque are very nice people and I appreciate them. I’ve had Muslim friends since my childhood through my adulthood and I love some of them very much.

[Can you just please explain this: Do people not go to heaven in Islam? Those that are saintly don’t go directly to heaven after they die?]
 
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What is sin? At the root level is it clear that rebellion against Allah is rebellion against Allah?
 
Mary is definitely important, she’s widely considered to be the greatest of all women. At the same time, as exemplary as she is, to us she’s not the Mother of God, so it’s not quite the same.

In islam, when people die they go to the grave to await Judgement day, not to hell or heaven directly. Sufis have a much more complicated view of the afterlife, because of their particular doctrine on the saints, which is one of the reasons that some people think Sufis are heretics. In general, though, no one enters Paradise until after the final judgement.
 
Why is the Muslim world not as secular as the rest of the world? Do you think this has been to the benefit of Islam?
 
Yes, sin is at its root pretty common sense stuff to figure out. If you’re willfully hurting yourself or others, if you’re putting things other than God first in your life, or if you’re behaving generally deceptive ways, etc. If you know that something is prohibited and you do it anyway by choice. In Islam, you can’t unknowingly commit a sin. If you don’t know that something is prohibited, then it’s only a sin after you’re informed and you persist.
 
What is the Black Stone? From what I understand, it’s an old pagan idol …?
(Please correct me if i’m wrong)
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I missed this one, sorry! The Black Stone, according to Islamic tradition, is a stone that fell from heaven to tell Adam where to build the first place of worship to God. It fell into pagan hands at various points when the Kaaba was used as a site of idol worship. Tradition has it that the Black Stone fell out of the Kaaba, was carried away, and then recovered, and that the tribes who lived in the area were squabbling over who had the right to put it back. They couldn’t agree, so the tribal elders decided to sit and wait for the first stranger to arrive and have an impartial party resolve the dispute. That stranger happened to be Mohammed (peace be upon him), and after hearing the dispute, he had each of the tribal elders take up the side of a blanket, placed the Black Stone in the middle, and then all of them carried the Stone back to the Kaaba and Mohammed (peace be upon him) placed it back in it’s place.
 
Sunni Muslims are not allowed to lie to anyone except in the case of taqiya, which for us is limited only to matters of preservation of life. So, a Sunni is not allowed to lie to either a Muslim or a non-Muslim in any other context. Shia and other minority sects are allowed to lie if, by doing so, they are protecting themselves or their community from persecution. In that case, lying is discouraged but permissible.

You could read the Koran in about 30 hours at a moderate pace.
 
Hi Shazirah,

It is interesting to hear all of your answers to questions. I am beginning to see that a lot of Christian beliefs were kept by Islam, while others were rejected for more Jewish type beliefs. The pious customs are almost identical to the Orthodox Christian pious customs. I love that you understand the holiness of women not revealing their bodies for the whole world to see, and some Orthodox women still have this modesty. But I would like to know some theological foundations of the faith.

How do Muslims understand the creation of man? Do they believe like Christians in Adam and Eve being made in the Image and Likeness of God? If so, do they believe that only after sin, did man begin to have passions, innocent (like hungering and being tired) or evil (like anger and lust)? Was there a fall? Does Satan exist and cause them to Sin?

Thank you.
 
shazirah said:
Yes, sin is at its root pretty common sense stuff to figure out. If you’re willfully hurting yourself or others, if you’re putting things other than God first in your life, or if you’re behaving generally deceptive ways, etc. If you know that something is prohibited and you do it anyway by choice. In Islam, you can’t unknowingly commit a sin. If you don’t know that something is prohibited, then it’s only a sin after you’re informed and you persist.
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Do Muslims teach / follow something like the ten commandments, or borrow the ten commandments outright? Do they have a list of sins, like the seven deadly sins, or something similar?
 
I think it’s because Islam originally was a nation, not solely a religious movement, so the tradition of thinking of Islam in those terms has persisted even beyond the last of the rightly guided Caliphs. People in political power have used religion as a means of concentrating power towards a ruling class. The Middle East also has kind of a unique cultural and political environment. I recommend Islam and the West by Bernard Lewis and Islam &
Modernity by Fazlur Rahman as a good starting point on untangling the history of the situation. They’re slightly out of date now given that they were written in the late 80s - early 90s, but still a really good framework for starting out.
 
@shazirah thanks for the replies, most of my Muslim friends are man of prayer and faith but don’t have the formal knowledge to answer these questions clearly. Also about lying, your answers will help me set things straight whenever I encounter the issue coming from Christians or Muslims.

I will say in general, whenever I meet a Muslim we first agree upon:“There is only one God”. And:“We believe the same God”. From there on, our dialogue is not hindered by our differences. And this first agreement upon our faith serves to remind both we are under mutual obligation. [Your answer about lying helps me with this.]

[And thank you for your patience with me. My first posts weren’t written in a correct tone, I’m sorry for that.]

I would recommend you take a few minutes to read the yearly texts from the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue addressed to the Muslims. These texts are important in setting some principals in what should be our mutual friendship and understanding.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/index.htm
 
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I live in the US, but I travel in the Middle East a lot. I particularly hate going to Saudi Arabia, because I always end up arguing with some jerky cop about my hijab and chador. Since I’m not a Saudi citizen, I’m not legally obligated to wear the abayah and niqab, but I’m ethnically Arab so they always hassle me about it.
 
The creation story for Muslims is very similar to that of Christians ans Jews. We believe that nothing can be made liken unto God, so we don’t have that particular tradition of being make in the likeness of God but man was made to be closer to God than the angels and that’s what upset Iblis and caused him to rebel in his pride. Islam doesn’t have the concept of original sin, so humankind is much like it was when it was created - the passions and needs we have are meant to keep us alive on earth so we don’t see them as bad unless they are put to bad purpose. Deciding to use one’s gifts appropriately is part of the willful submission to God.

Two things in the Islamic creation story that don’t appear in the Jewish and Christian accounts that I’ve always found really interesting: First, when Allah created Adam out of dust, he originally asked the angels to bring him a handfull of dirt, but the angels failed because the newly created earth cried out to remain in tact as God made it. So, a clever angel swept up a bunch of dust from around the world to substitute for a handful of dirt and that’s why all of Adam’s children have different skin, hair, and eye colors. Second, Iblis was cast out of the Garden for his arrogance, so when he tried to sneak in to tempt Adam and Eve, he found that he couldn’t enter through the gate. Instead, he had to convince a gullible peacock to carry him into the Garden in its mouth and that’s why the peacock in Islamic cultures often represents someone who does evil through hapless stupidity.
 
shazirah said:
In Islam, you can’t unknowingly commit a sin. If you don’t know that something is prohibited, then it’s only a sin after you’re informed and you persist.
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That’s is also true in catholic theology. Acts that can be morally judged must be knowingly chosen.
 
Since you mention Iblis who I’m guessing is equivalent to Satan/Devil in Christianity, you do believe that he caused Adam and Eve to sin then? Did this sin cause the death of humans?

What does the eternal life of those in Paradise and Hell entail? Why do I always hear of Muslims being promised virgins in Paradise? Are sex and procreation and eating and drinking and pretty much the same things that happen now in Paradise?
 
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adgloriam said:
I will say in general, whenever I meet a Muslim we first agree upon:“There is only one God”. And:“We believe the same God"
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I think that Catholics can agree that there is one God, but Muslims believing in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one God is a bit of a stretch. They believe in a “lonely God” as some say, not a God of three persons, just like the Jews. So theologically I don’t see them agreeing to belief in the same God. If they do, great, they are on their way to becoming Catholic.

The God of Islam is indeed comparable, merciful, omnipotent, and the judge of the world. God is transcendent but unlike the God of Islam, we believe he actually came down to earth, became man and lived among us with the same human nature as us, while still having divine nature.

You can only believe in what you know. We believe in God to the extent that we know him. Muslims do not know Jesus as we know Him or simply do not accept that God became man, therefore they don’t believe in the same God, or at least not the full picture of God.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith claimed in no uncertain terms that because of this, unfortunately no, we do not believe in the same God.

Same with the Jews, they know an incomplete version of God, yet know God because he revealed himself to them in the Old Testament, but they reject Jesus.

Unfortunately also, the Church teaches that Muslims profess to know God, but really don’t know God in his fullness, only an adapted version of Jewish and Christian revelation, with obvious additions by Muhammad and his followers.
 
I know all of this. Do cite the official documents (and include the links), You’ll find what I said is sufficiently valid; those distinctions are uncalled for in an introductory conversation. [And I follow John Paul II speeches, in his order, in what I said.]
 
shazirah said:
a bunch of dust from around the world to substitute for a handful of dirt and that’s why all of Adam’s children have different skin, hair, and eye colors.
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@shazirah, you know my faith doesn’t permit me to believe this. But I appreciate the story and idea and find beauty in it.
 
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