Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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A lot of Muslim forums tend to be pretty sedate. Internet is spotty in much of the Muslim world, so you see more activity on Facebook and social media platforms because those are easy to access from phones. Reddit has several active Islamic forums, so that would be a good bet. I check /r/Islam fairly often. It’s Reddit, though, so beware of trolls.
 
shazirah said:
like the people at the Greek Orthodox church kissing the icons before the service
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I am a mom who used to have a big, fancy career. I traveled about half of the time, and I missed my son. Every night I would look at a picture of him and give that picture a little kiss. If you walked into my room and saw that, you’d likely think I was simply loving a family member who is not with me. Same for the icons, they are pictures of family members who are not right here with me, so, I show my love with a kiss.
 
TheLittleLady said:
I am a mom who used to have a big, fancy career. I traveled about half of the time, and I missed my son. Every night I would look at a picture of him and give that picture a little kiss. If you walked into my room and saw that, you’d likely think I was simply loving a family member who is not with me. Same for the icons, they are pictures of family members who are not right here with me, so, I show my love with a kiss.
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That’s beautiful, and exactly how I think of icons and statues.
 
shazirah said:
When I go to Mass, I just feel sort of confused and deeply uncomfortable.
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What about the Catholic, not Orthodox Mass makes you uncomfortable? Does it have something to do with your brother being Catholic, and not the Mass itself?

To be honest, when I go to Protestant churches I have the same feeling. In Catholic Churches I know and feel God is there, but when I go to Protestant churches it just feels like a concert or something less sacred.

Has there been any trouble in your relationship with your brother because of his faith in Jesus as God?
 
shazirah said:
When I go to mosque or do my daily prayers, I feel the presence of God. When I go to Mass, I just feel sort of confused and deeply uncomfortable.
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That is entirely understandable just as it is likely to be the exact reverse for a Catholic attending at the Mosque.
 
shazirah said:
Some people who hold to extremely strict interpretations of the Koran say that all non-Muslims will go to hell.
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Does Islam have a teaching on the punishments in hell. Will there be fire in hell and will hell last forever?
 
There is a hadith in which a man approached Mohammed (peace be upon him) and asks what the first thing Allah created was, and the response given was that the first thing God created was the Light of the Prophets, which turned before God before there was ever a heaven or hell, angel, Jinn, or human. That light was formed by God into everything that exists, and all Prophets carried a little of that light to spread among the people of the world. So, Mohammed (peace be upon him) is sometimes called the Light of the World, for the same reason that Jesus might be called the same thing.
 
Yeah, I get it that it’s sort of a remembrance of the saint, etc. It’s just that even so it’s still uncomfortably close to idol-worship by Islamic standards. Sufis have some similar traditions and that’s actually one of the big reasons they’re considered heretics by many Muslims.
 
Nah, it’s definitely the Mass itself. It seems overly complicated to me and, like the icons, the Eucharist is sort of bizarre from a total outsider perspective. Part of it might be the whole body and blood idea because consuming blood is haram for Muslims, so the idea kind of squicks me even if I don’t believe in transubstantiation. There’s this section of the Mass around the time that the priest holds up the wafer and cup that reminds me of a dua and it’s sort of jarring to see it used in that way. I do like the Sanctus, though.

I have someone avoided ever going to a Protestant church, but I hear stories and yeah, it sounds like the total opposite side of the spectrum.

As for my brother, I don’t think there’s been any trouble between us. Being the oldest, I’m sort of the “fix it” sister when one of the younger kids is in trouble, so I’ve just been trying to help him explain things in a way that’s not going to upset the family unnecessarily, figure out what to do going forward, and make sure he has someone to talk to about it and that he knows he can still come home and it’ll get sorted out.
 
Here’s sort of our version of the 10 commandments from the Koran:
Say, ‘Come I will tell you what your Lord has really forbidden you. Do not ascribe anything as partner to Him; be good to your parents; do not kill your children in fear of poverty’ - We will provide for you and for them - ‘stay well away from committing obscenities, whether openly or in secret; do not take the life Allah has made sacred, except by right. This is what He commands you to do; perhaps you will use your reason. Stay well away from the property of orphans, except in the way that is best, until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice’ - We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear - ‘when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in Allah s name.’ This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed. This is my path leading straight, so follow it, and do not follow other ways they will lead you away from it- 'This is what He commands you to do, so that you may refrain from wrongdoing. ’ - Surah 6:151-153
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So (1) Liken nothing unto Allah, (2) honor your parents, (3) do not kill your children (note: female infanticide was pretty rampant in pre-Islamic pagan cultures, so this was to leave no doubt about the status of children), (4) do not commit obscenities of any kind, including adultery, (5) do not commit murder, (6) do not steal, especially from people who are given to you in care, (7) do not cheat others, (8) do not lie, (9) keep your word
 
I’ve written some about that further up, but the short answers are that Hell is described as a place of fire and molten metal, and that Sunni believe at least all Muslims will be universally saved and that the possibility is open that everyone might be saved from Hell eventually, but we don’t really know. Shia are hard line about Muslims only going to Paradise, so everyone else would go to Hell, and that Hell is eternal.

Personally, Allah being perfectly merciful, I hold out hope for universal salvation.
 
shazirah said:
Nah, it’s definitely the Mass itself. It seems overly complicated to me and, like the icons, the Eucharist is sort of bizarre from a total outsider perspective. Part of it might be the whole body and blood idea because consuming blood is haram for Muslims, so the idea kind of squicks me even if I don’t believe in transubstantiation.
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Thank you for your reply, actually in the early Christian Church if you weren’t a Christian you couldn’t really attend that part of the Mass, and still today if you are a Catechumen (Catholic in training) you have to leave for that part of the mass. The point is until you can know from the inside what is going on and why we do things, it will just be confusing. Once you know why everything is done it all makes sense.

We don’t actually consume human blood in its species, Jesus’s blood is under the species of bread and wine. No Christians actually had the species of blood, it was always wine, but substantially always Jesus. Again, it is another Theological point which is mystery, meaning you must be initiated into the whole context to understand it well.

The accidents of bread and wine remain, but it is no longer bread and wine in its substance. If you are wondering about the difference about substance, accidents, and species then you could look into philosophy.
 
Jesus isn’t a creation, when He is called Light of the World, it is not that.
 
I appreciate your mentioning liking the Sanctus, sister…the ties that bind Christians and Muslims clearly are rooted in our worship of the One, True God…obviously Christians take it much further and define Him as 3 in 1, etc. But the Sanctus is really about praising and worshiping Him, which I would venture to say might be consistent with Muslim prayers (no?)…when I’ve read Muslim prayers, much seems very inspiring and beautiful up until where you mention that Mohammed is His messenger.

Nevertheless, we can achieve much respect and build bridges by focusing and our great God and praising Him alone.

One argument though, that I’ve posed to Muslims over the years that really hasn’t been answered is, why Islam and not Mormonism? Both faiths were founded by a man claiming singular, divine experience and revelation. I would venture to say that most Christian believers for that reason are Christian…NOT because one man could not have God’s revelation, but RATHER because so many witnesses attested to seeing Christ killed and then raised…the weight of many versus the weight of one, and the willingness of the many to die for their faith.
 
shazirah said:
Shia are hard line about Muslims only going to Paradise, so everyone else would go to Hell, and that Hell is eternal.
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First of all, thank you kindly for taking the time to answer all these questions. I have read about half of them and I am trying to catch up. I see more and more Muslims in this area and I do have to admire the modest dress of Muslim women, which contrasts rather sharply with some of the indecent dress of some non-Muslims. However, I am somewhat terrified by the official Shia belief in the afterlife, even though you have indicated that you may not agree with parts of it.
According to the Shia belief about going to Paradise, would that include Sunni Muslims going to Paradise also? And if a Christian or Jew does good charitable works during his lifetime and leads a decent family life, faithful to his wife and children, then according to the official Shia belief, that person will go to eternal fire and damnation in hell because he was not a Muslim? And he will never, ever get out of this horrific torture by fire? But at the same time, the Shia Muslims teach that Allah is all merciful? I am very much afraid of fire and experience pain even if my finger gets close to the flame. And now you say that since I am not Muslim, then according to the official Shia belief, I will have to spend all eternity suffering with my whole body being horribly burned in fire and splashed with molten metal? This is very terrifying for a non-Muslim to hear that this is the official Shia teaching.
 
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Much of the Muslim world doesn’t have the extreme immorality and spiritual corruption that modern life in the West has. What do you think is the root cause of Western immorality? What can Islam teach the West?
 
I understand that you are a translator and not an arabic scholar and you do not claim to be an expert on Islam. That is fair enough; I am not an expert on Christianity either. So lets us leave the scholars alone and just have a friendly exchange between a low-level Moslem and a low-level Christian. So our discussions will be cordial and none confrontational. That way we can appreciate where each of us is coming from and have the opportunity to more closely examine and question our beliefs. Who knows, you may convert me to Islam or vise versa or we may remain unconvinced by the other.

So here we go.

1 Moslems believe that Mohammed healed people and performed miracles. This contradicts Quran 29:50 where Mohammed clearly says he is not a miracle worker when asked specifically why he does not perform miracles. As an outsider trying to understand Islam, I am confused; do I believe in the claims of Moslems that Mohammed performed miracles or do I believe in the Koran in which Mohammed says he can not perform miracles. Moses asked God what he (Moses) could show the Israelites to prove that he had met God and God asked him to to perform three miracles to prove that Moses was God’s prophet and God’s chosen one. When the Jews questioned the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah, He said “If you do not believe me, believe in the miracles that I do”. On the other hand Mohammed says I cann’t do miracles. Miracles are only with God. I am only a plain warner" Since the Koran is believed to have come directly from Allah, I will accept what the Koran says and reject whatever moslem scholars make.

2 As you indicated, classical-era Islam believed that even if Jesus was crucified, it did not kill him because he was raised to heaven in defiance of the attempt. Well, this is conjecture. This belief flies in the face of the numerous predictions of the death and ressurection of the Messiah that are found in the Old and New Testament. To wipe all these biblical references, eye witness accounts and thousands of historical documents with the claim of one person (Mohammed who came 600 years after Jesus and who could not perform miracles and therefore could not prove he was sent by God) stretches the imagination. How can the conjecture of Muslim scholars be more believable than what is written in the Books (Torah and the Bible) which Islam accepts to be authoritative.

3 It would have been possible for a mere person to produce the Koran and do the things that Mohammed (peace be upon him) did without God’s direct guidance. Well well well. I will put it to you that if I write some fiction, NO ONE can duplicate it because no one can be me, with the same life experiences, physicological makeup, ubringing etc etc etc. I am sorry this is a very lame and unacceptable proof that the Koran came from God.

4 Inferiority of Women. I beg to disagree. The Koran is authorizing the man to plow his wife however he wishes for himself!!. The wife is just like an object, to be used when and as the man pleases. I will say that she is lucky to get half the inheritance. I cann’t accept that it is a “poetic language that doesn’t express inferiority at all”.
 
Thanks for your reply. Does the Koran state that the Torah and Gospels need to be followed? If so, do the Muslims have a version of the Torah and Gospels that they believe has not been altered?
 
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