Ask Me Anything: Muslim Edition

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True in most areas. But in the US, many Orthodox women do not wear headcovering in church. This was not true 100 years ago.
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Yes, this true but they aren’t pushing for the priesthood either. At least not yet. 🤔
 
In Islam’s creation story, God created the angels and then the world and then told the Angels that He was going to create man to oversee his creation. He gave Adam special knowledge that even the angels did not possess. In Islamic philosophy, mankind is special creation of God, not created in God’s image because nothing can be liken unto God, but created to be closer to God than even the angels and to be in perfect communion with His will. My grandfather has always been of the opinion that God created mankind because a being composed of pure, endless mercy naturally wishes to bestow that mercy on something as an extension of its nature. So, perhaps in a sense we exist because God takes pleasure in our pursuit of Him and in his beneficence towards us, in the same way that parents take pleasure in caring for their children and seeing them grow up in their own footsteps. I think that sounds like probably close to the same thing as in the catechism.
 
Sounds very peaceful from your stand point but how can you a Muslim continue to follow your faith when your Allah allows killing going on in the name of Islam? And extremist or not, your church leaders aren’t condemning it! It’s true us Christians have different groups but if one group decides to kill for God, ALL other groups ESPECIALLY THE POPE will condem them!!! And that’s to let their people know that God loves the sinner, not the sin. How can a peaceful person stay peaceful In a religion that the leaders allow that kind of violence?
 
A large number of Imams around the world have condemned extremism, in fact. There are dozens of fatwas issues against Al-Quaida and ISIS. Mosques encourage their congregation to report radical activity and the constitution at my mosque considers radical activities or speech as grounds for exclusion from the religious community. We don’t have a centralized clergy or religious convention like many Christian denominations do to act as a large-scale mouthpiece and the media rarely publishes the story in English-speaking countries when Muslim leaders do make statements condemning extremism. Just because Western media chooses to report on the radicals and not on the majority Muslim opinion doesn’t mean that there aren’t Muslim religious leaders around the world condemning radicals and calling for peace. For years now, every third sermon just about in a mosque I’ve attended, and I travel extensively, has been about peace and persevering in the face of violence and hate. Extremists kill more Muslims than any other group of people.

If you recall, the Old Testament has entire sections on legal rules that warrant the death penalty and contains many exhortations to religious violence that seem horrific outside of their proper historical perspective. Most of those are rightly no longer valid in the modern world. We have better options and tools at our disposal than our ancestors did. The vast majority of everyday, average Muslims do not condone violence and are peaceful people. That’s true of the majority of people everywhere in my experience. The hadith specifically tell us that a person who does not show mercy to non-believers has no faith. They are hypocrites and the worst punishments in hell are for those who falsely claim to believe while not following the will of God. Unfortunately, there are people who have political axes to grind that are willing to twist the proper interpretation of Islam, but that does not reflect the teachings of Islam.
 
Yes, mercy is an important attribute of God, however, Christianity teaches that God is Love. God Loves us and it is His desire for us to Love Him.

If mercy is the reason that God created man, then what happens in heaven? Does man continue to receive God’s mercy in heaven? Does man sin in heaven?
 
The word used in the Koran to describe Allah means both mercy and love. It’s a complex concept that doesn’t have an exact English translation. Essentially, it’s an inalienable type of love, analogous to mother-love, that encompasses care, forgiveness, etc. Agape would be a similar concept in Greek, but not exact. There’s no reason why that would not continue in heaven, really.
 
Yes, there is no sin in heaven. One only gets to heaven through submission to the will of God, so essentially if you’re there, you have atoned for your sins on earth and done your best to follow God’s will. Heaven is as such that there is no longer any method of sinning or desire to sin, since all pleasures there are purified and righteous.
 
Actually do Muslims believe in YHWH as the name of God/Allah?
 
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Oh, dude, if you get me started on linguistics, we’ll be here forever! lol

Rahmah is the root word of both words used to describe Allah in the basmala: بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ, bismillahi al rahman al rahim, In the name of Allah the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. Al-Rahman is the quality of being entirely composed of Rahmah, so God is telling us that His essential nature is entirely Rahmah. Al Rahim is the quality of continuously showing Rahmah, so God is saying the He never fails or ceases to show Rahmah.

So, rahmah is often translated as “mercy” in English, but the context is more like mercy, caring, and love. The etymology of the word goes back to an ancient root that referred to the womb and actually if I remember rightly the Hebrew word for womb actually comes from the same Proto-Semitic root. So, at its basic level, rahmah refers to love and care on the level of a mother caring for and nurturing the child of her body. A mother has the power to neglect or harm her children or punish them harshly, but she doesn’t because she loves them and so she shows them mercy even in their failings. That’s the relationship of Allah with mankind and that’s why rahmah and derivatives are used more than any other word to describe God.

As for Yahweh, that’s another interesting linguistic question. Muslims consider the name of God to be Allah from Al-Ilah, “The God”. That shares the Semitic root “il” with Eloah, the singular of Elohim and Elohim has a really complicated relationship to YHWH, so it is sort of tangentially related, but Islam doesn’t include Yahweh as a name of God.
 
Does the Koran teach that a messiah will come into the world? Does the Koran teach that Jesus is the messiah?
 
Not explicitly, or at least not in the way that Christians and Jews think of a Messiah. We have the tradition of the Mahdi, that comes near the day of judgement along with Jesus to defeat a false prophet and restore a just and peaceful society. It’s more of a Shia doctrine, but many Sunni do believe in it. It’s just not a major factor in Sunni belief and it’s not a required article of faith. In that case, though, the Mahdi and Jesus are not the same person, but will work together.
 
On kafirs, most moslems regard them disdainfully as some kind of social pariahs, but anyway they use the kafirs’ products like internet & facebook.
On heaven, could you explain the concept of of heaven according to the Quran and Hadiths. Will the male moslems who are in heaven have companion of beautiful women? How about moslem women, will they have handsome males as their companions?
 
I would disagree that most Muslims regard non-Muslims with disdain. You can certainly find some who do, just as there are Christians who hold Muslims in disdain, but that’s not the representative majority of either community.

Paradise in Islam is a place of closeness to God, where people dwell in perfect harmony with all needs fulfilled and without the pains and trials of the material world. Old people will be young again, there will be no sickness or disability, etc. I think you’re referring to the houri, which are the “pure companions” spoken of in the Koran. An houri is a manifestation of the good deeds and pure intention that a person performs within their lifetime, and so both men and women will be accompanied by houri. The typical interpretation is that houri can appear as male or female as appropriate for the person they accompany. Feminine nouns and descriptions are usually used for houri, but linguistically that’s likely because the Koran tends to use male nouns as the default form of address.
 
According to most interpretations of Shia, only Muslims can enter Paradise. In Sunni, the specifics depend heavily on which theological school you follow, but the majority idea is that all Muslims will eventually reach Paradise, even if they have to be purified in Hell first. The righteous among the People of the Book can also reach heaven. Beyond that, it’s more ambiguous but the most common reasoning is that Allah allows for circumstances in which a person could never have been exposed to the truth. Since Allah reveals Himself to all people in all times and places, it is possible that a righteous person who has never had the opportunity to become Muslim would be saved. You guys have a similar idea about invincible ignorance, I think.
 
Many of the moslem suicide bombers were motivated to be the “bridegroom” in heaven. This motivatrion and partiicularly the concept of Hadiths on heaven __ I’m sorry to say __ disturb me…
Do you think there is some kind of marriage and its related activities in heaven?
 
In your opinion, what the best way for America to defend itself against more attacks by Muslim terrorists?
 
Hi Shazirah
Sorry if this is a bit off topic.
All of the Persians I’ve met dislike Arabs. Do you find this too? How do you feel about your cultural heritage in light of this?
Thanks.
 
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