Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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The common theme is Islam regarding the Holy Spirit is that it is the embodiment of divine revelation, which we associate with the Angel Jibral (Gabriel). The Shia believe that all prophets experience a temporal visit from Jibral, and that the Imams would receive revelations in their dreams. Jesus is said to be born of the same type of revelatory embodiment as Jibral. So, to answer the question, there’s a component that links the Holy Spirit definitely to Gabriel, but there are also exceptional circumstances in which others experience a similar type of prophetic revelation that isn’t explicitly tied to Gabriel.
 
When is it culturally appropriate to beat your wife?
 
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Some cultures allow this, unfortunately. That doesn’t mean it’s the correct thing to do or that Islam as a whole condones it. Typically when you see an Islamic cleric condoning beating, it’s because the wider culture does as well, in the same way that Islam as a whole does not condone female genital mutilation, but it’s still allowed by mullahs in countries where it was practiced well before Islam ever got there and also by other faiths in the area. And for the same reason that slavery is wrong, but it was allowed in the cultures of all People of the Book but limited and gradually discouraged until fully eliminated. Cultures don’t change overnight.
 
If this were my list, I’d add What the Qur’an Meant: And Why It Matters, by Gary Wills.
 
Please clarify- Islam views Christ as a real, historical person.
Do you mean "Why does Islam reject the Trinity/Jesus as the Son of God/The Incarnation, Etc.
 
Muslims made up a different Jesus that is not our Jesus, and ours is the true Jesus.
 
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Would you agree that Islam follows the basic principles of:
  1. Love the Creator (and Creation) with all your heart: Protect Creation
  2. Love each other: Protect each other
which are, after all, the basic principles of Christianity and that, while Islam and Christianity have different ways of expressing this, actually the end goal is the same?
 
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How has your experience been on this forum, receiving questions from people with various degrees of understanding of your faith, but mostly little to no understanding at all? How do the questions on this Catholic forum compare to everyday questions?
 
I feel like almost everyone has been really nice and it’s been a productive discussion on the whole. 🙂 Ignorance is the source of a lot of fear and misunderstanding, so I’m learning from you guys and hopefully you guys are learning something from me. Most of the time when I’ve talked to people about Islam offline the questions and their tone have tended to be pretty aggressive, but you guys haven’t been so thanks for that. I think that since you guys have a sort of parallel tradition of what we would call jurisprudence with the catechism, you guys have a good starting framework, too, compared to some other people I’ve talked to.
 
You keep mentioning not believing in original sin but still say that Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil and sinned and faced consequences. This is an original sin if you believe that before this man did not sin. The consequences may be different but there was an event that changed things between God and man. You still have not answered if death was a consequence or do you believe we would die even without the fall? If it was a consequence of sin how do you explain Gods forgiveness and bringing man back into paradise? Do angels engage in sensual pleasure in your Theology? Or God? Why would humans in paradise?
 
How do Muslims view towards other religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and atheism; how do these groups compare to Christianity and Judaism? Are they viewed more negatively, positively? The same? Or don’t care/don’t know?
 
We don’t believe in original sin in the same sense that all people are born with sin that has to be cleansed by baptism, which is what I’m given to understand most Christians believe (I could be wrong, I’m not exactly clear on all the points). No one knows what the result would have been if Adam and Eve had not sinned, so maybe they would have died and maybe they wouldn’t. Some Muslim philosophers have proposed that it’s not clear that God intended Adam and Eve to dwell perpetually in the Garden anyway and that if they had resisted temptation they might have been able to come and go from the presence of Allah and the earthly realms like the angels. It’s just not a very relevant point of the story for us, so it isn’t much addressed. Clearly they did sin. We believe that capacity existed from the very beginning so that mankind could choose God instead of sin, and that there is no corruption in mankind that followed as a direct consequence of Adam’s choice. Everyone chooses their own corruption and everyone chooses to seek redemption as individuals.

In regards to sensual pleasure, since God made mankind to enjoy sensual pleasure and Heaven is a place where all pleasures are purified and permissible, then there will analogous pleasures in Heaven. If angels are made capable of experiencing sensual pleasure, then perhaps they do, too, but that’s really not relevant for us to know so it’s not all that important.
 
There are three tiers of people according to traditional Islam.
  1. Muslims, whom we of course believe to be following a true version of God’s Message as revealed through Mohammed (peace be upon him).
  2. People of the Book - Jews, Christians, and the Sabians (there are a lot of conflicting ideas about who exactly the Sabians were, but this is considered a catch all for any monotheistic group of people who are not explicitly Jews or Christians but who worship the Abrahamic God, so Samaritans for instance) - who Muslims are told to respect as brothers and siblings because we all worship the same God.
  3. Everyone else but most specifically polytheists and Zoroastrians (whose status as monotheists is disputed) and most especially atheists (who deny the existence of God and so are the wrongest of all in our estimation).
    Deciding exactly who fits in this group is sometimes complicated, too, because of the way Middle Eastern religions have sometimes become closed ethnoreligious groups that seem like they might fit under monotheism, but it’s questionable. Groups like ISIS have specifically targeted the Yazidis because they view them as Satan worshipers because the venerate a being known as the Peacock Angel in their religion, which bears a resemblance to Azazel/Iblis in Islam. So, like I said, untangling these categories can get weird sometimes.
The exact attitude towards category 3 has varied a lot from place to place and sect to sect. Category 3 was the main enemy of Islam in the earliest days, and there have been a lot of political and economic shenanigans by unscrupulous people who exploited the lesser protections extended to category 3 as a means to provide slaves to the Middle East. Middle Eastern Muslims tend be more uptight about polytheistic religions and atheists, while Southeast Asian Muslims tend to be less bothered about it. Conflicts between Muslims and Hindus in South Asia have less to do with religion and more to do with nationalism, race, and territory. Strangely, few Muslims really get worked up about Buddhists and I’m not sure why. From a general religious standpoint, the prevailing attitude is that as long as categories 2 and 3 aren’t actively antagonizing Muslims and are just kind of doing their own thing while being productive members of society, it isn’t a problem. We hope that one day they’ll join us inshallah, but we’re obligated to be respectful of them and their rights and freedoms. Jerks like Hezbollah and ISIS not with-standing.
 
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How do Muslims in general interpret Lakum dinukum walyadin (for you your religion for me my religion)?
How do extremist interpret this or do they just ignore this?
 
shazirah said:
The interpretation I’ve heard from the imams I know are that it has to do with equity in the marital relationship.

Men are required by sharia law to provide for the basic household needs of their family, in return, their wife has an obligation to honor them and treat them with respect.
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shazirah said:
in practice women usually have a lot more financial power over the household than men do,
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shazirah said:
To even this out, sharia gives men certain entitlements in their families - namely that they have a right to sexual relations (within reason…) and to peace within the home (so, if a man makes a reasonable request, the woman is required to honor it…
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What’s a bit curious for me is that equity is achieved by assigning different kinds of rights to each, rather than requiring a greater symmetry. Eg. The woman, but not the man, is obligated to meet reasonable requests for sex.

If the man is failing in his obligations, what right in response does the woman have?
 
I’m still here, it’s just been a heck of a weekend.

Wahhabists and other radicals tend to interpret that surah as being period specific. Polytheistic tribes made an offer to Mohammed (peace be upon him) that they would become Muslim for one year if he would join their faith for one year. They believe that this is an example that Muslims should set themselves entirely apart from all unbelievers. That’s the extreme version of the idea that Allah has told us to be set apart and not to mix our faith with other faiths or allow it to be diluted or become syncretic, even though we can live side by side in harmony with other faiths. Modernists interpret it both as a call to remain true to our beliefs while showing tolerance of others.
 
Rau said:
What’s a bit curious for me is that equity is achieved by assigning different kinds of rights to each, rather than requiring a greater symmetry. Eg. The woman, but not the man, is obligated to meet reasonable requests for sex.

If the man is failing in his obligations, what right in response does the woman have?
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Women and men are created different but complimentary in Islam. So, there are different responsibilities within family life. Men are also required to meet reasonable requests for sex, and in fact they’re required to stay with their wife until both are satisfied and, if they have more than one wife, they have to spend equal time with both wives without favoritism unless attempting to correct bad behavior by the second method of correction.

If a man is failing in his obligations, then his wife has a right to speak with him about it and if he refuses to honor his marriage obligation, she can divorce him and take with her the full bridal mahr and dowry along with any children of the marriage. So, while men can more easily declare a divorce and have a right to obedience from the wife, almost the only case in traditional Islam where a woman doesn’t have the upper hand in a marital dispute is if she commits adultery. Women were at a physical disadvantage in the tribal warfare environment that early Islam existed in. It would be extremely easy for men to take advantage of that, even as men were expected to die to protect their female family members and children. So, sharia evened the playing field by issuing additional checks and balances to prevent the abandonment and abuse of women, while still giving women the responsibility of honoring the sacrifices of their men. Paul enjoins men to love their wives as Christ loves the church, and for women to obey their husbands in response. We have a similar idea, it’s just that it was codified into the law of the initial Islamic nation.
 
shazirah said:
No God But God, by Reza Aslan. I like it because it’s approachable and it’s written from a scholarly perspective and not an ideological one, so it’s a really good unbiased source of information
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Follow up. I consider myself to be a bit above average in my understanding of comparative world religions. In the first few pages of this book there were things I’d never learned before. Thank you again!
 
So your brother is muslim and is thinking about becoming Catholic? How does your family feel about this. I am also looking into Catholicism and come from a muslim family
 
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