Commentary: Islam was a religion of love, and the Taj Mahal proves it

[CopyBoy]

It might strike you as surprising that one of the most famous buildings in the Muslim tradition is a monument to love. What’s the first word you think of when you hear “Islam”? Go ahead, be honest. Probably, you didn’t think of “love.” It might be the last thing on your mind. Probably, the first words that you reflexively associate with Islam are the opposite. But there was a time, a very long time, when love, for friends, for intimates, and for God, was the central theme of the Muslim faith, and in the way some Muslims today say “Islam is a religion of peace,” they’d have said “Islam is a religion of love.”
Struggling to make sense of God’s demand that we worship Him exclusively, early Muslims quickly seized upon an analogy to love, a passionate and consuming love that left no room for the other; so powerful was the image and universal the sentiment it declared, that the next great debate seemed to be about whether the lover merged himself into God, and forgot his own personality and reality or instead remained besotted by God, but still a complete and whole person. Does the moth, as the poets would have said, merely revere the candle, or perish inside it?

washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/02/12/islam-was-a-religion-of-love-and-the-taj-mahal-proves-it/

 

[Elizium23]

Islam’s Allah is distant, unknowable, capricious, and alone. Compare this with the True God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son (John 3:16) no surah in the Quran can possibly compare with this and other evidence of God’s willingness to love and His condescension to human form for our sake.

 

[Tabby]

The Taj Mahal proves that Muslims love; it does not prove that Islam is “a religion of love.”

 

[jeffrey_erwin]

Islam’s Allah is distant, unknowable, capricious, and alone. Compare this with the True God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son (John 3:16) no surah in the Quran can possibly compare with this and other evidence of God’s willingness to love and His condescension to human form for our sake.

Pope St John paul II to Muslim youth, Morocco, 8/19/85:
“. . .We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings His creatures to their perfection.”

and Homily on 3/12/00:
“Let us ask pardon. . .for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards followers of other religions.”

 

[SuperLuigi]

Would it be too much or unacceptable if we just avoid characterizing religions and other groups in terms of “love” and “peace” and let such merits stand on the Truth?

 

[Elizium23]

Pope St John paul II

Glad you brought him into the conversation! Let’s see what else he said about Islam; this is from Crossing the Threshold of Hope.
St. John Paul the Great:

Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside. Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the World, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection(p. 92).

 

[boomerang]

You know that old hymn, “And they’ll know we are Muslims by our love, by our love,
Yes, they’ll know we are Muslims by our love…” Right? You know that song?

**It doesn’t exist. **

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Yeah, sorry… I don’t buy it.

Individual Muslims are capable of love; but the fruits of Islam are more than apparent in our world, and they definitely aren’t love or peace.

 

[jeffrey_erwin]

Glad you brought him into the conversation! Let’s see what else he said about Islam; this is from Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

And He continues:
“Nevertheless, the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect. It is impossible not to admire, for example, their fidelity to prayer. The image of believers in Allah who. . .fall to their knees in prayer remains a model for all those who invoke the true God. . .”

 

[CaptFun]

Glad you brought him into the conversation! Let’s see what else he said about Islam; this is from Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

Thanks for posting the former Pope’s words. I remember reading them in that book long ago. Quite straight forward and true.

As for the Taj Majal and its existance somehow proving that Islam was hmmm: was?) a religion of love? Two thoughts.

We should always praise whatever is excellent, good and true wherever we find it.

And

independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/craftsmen-who-built-taj-mahal-preserved-their-names-in-stone-552330.html

The chief architect is known to have been Ustad - or Master - Ahmad Lahori. Shah Jahan is said to have had his eyes put out

on the Taj’s completion so nothing could ever be built to rival it.

That account always gives me a chill … and sticks with me more than the story of Shah Jahan’s love for his dead wife.

Not the best example to be used here IMO… though the TAJ is an incredibly beautiful building.

 

[Servant19]

Islam’s Allah is distant, unknowable, capricious, and alone. Compare this with the True God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son (John 3:16) no surah in the Quran can possibly compare with this and other evidence of God’s willingness to love and His condescension to human form for our sake.

As a long standing Catholic dear Elizium, you should know that both Islam and Catholicism worship the same “True God”…

It might be also pertinent to be aware that when Islam says that God is “unknowable” it means “incomprehensible” just as with Catholicism’s de fide teaching that “Gods Essence is incomprehensible even to the blessed in heaven”



.

 

[TonyBS]

Islam’s Allah is distant, unknowable, capricious, and alone. Compare this with the True God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists in a communion of love among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son (John 3:16) no surah in the Quran can possibly compare with this and other evidence of God’s willingness to love and His condescension to human form for our sake.

Muhammad Love has reached my Heart, it is knowable, all embracing and complete as also is the Love of Jesus the Christ.

Notice the word IS, as they both still are.

Regards Tony

 

[Elizium23]

It might be also pertinent to be aware that when Islam says that God is “unknowable” it means “incomprehensible” just as with Catholicism’s de fide teaching that “Gods Essence is incomprehensible even to the blessed in heaven”

These are not equivalent teachings. Islam holds that Allah’s will cannot be truly known to us, all we can do is submit and hope for the best.

 

[TonyBS]

These are not equivalent teachings. Islam holds that Allah’s will cannot be truly known to us, all we can do is submit and hope for the best.

Do you think Gods Will is Truly and Fully Known to a Christian!

Regards Tony

 

[josh987654321]

Pope St John paul II to Muslim youth, Morocco, 8/19/85:
“. . .We believe in the same God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings His creatures to their perfection.”

and Homily on 3/12/00:
“Let us ask pardon. . .for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards followers of other religions.”

That would be okay, if you yourself knew the Quran and could quote the passages from that book that would condemn some of the horrible things that some people have done and are doing and claiming to be following it.

That’s all I ask, please help me find versus from the Quran that condemns/rejects what some of these people are doing in the Middle East.

Does the Hadith in fact allow for child marriages (Pedophilia)? does it allow the Death Penalty on those who leave Islam? Slavery? Jizya Tax? because this is only like 1/10th of some of the horrible things I hear about and considering I haven’t read the Quran and don’t know a great deal about Islam, this stuff is alarming, and I am not hearing the other side quote from the Quran to condemn this stuff, which is the first place I would go if Islam and the Quran condemned it and taught peaceful and loving doctrines.

I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[josh987654321]

The Taj Mahal proves that Muslims love; it does not prove that Islam is “a religion of love.”

Those are my thoughts too. It would have to be quotations from the Quran and their teachings that prove whether Islam is a religion of love or not. As St. Augustine said* “never judge a philosophy by it’s abuse.”*

I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/02/12/islam-was-a-religion-of-love-and-the-taj-mahal-proves-it/

C’mon. The Taj Mahal is architecture, not theology. It’s a tribute of Shah Jahan to one woman and the Shah’s love for that ONE woman. All else is politically-driven revisionism and accommodation. To quote Wikipedia: “Upon his accession, he adopted new policies which steadfastly reversed Akbar’s generally liberal treatment of non-Muslims. . . .Shah Jahan began to impose his interpretation of Sharia provisions against construction or repair of churches and temples . . .” A religion of love you say?

 

[josh987654321]

As a long standing Catholic dear Elizium, you should know that both Islam and Catholicism worship the same “True God”…

This has been so quoted out of context in many threads I believe. Catholic Answers has a good article on it I believe.

Do Muslims Worship the Same God Catholics Do?

Ask a Saint – He Knows

Pope St. John Paul II strikes the balance beautifully, concisely, and without compromise between acknowledging what Muslims get right, and challenging where they go wrong, in his excellent book, Crossing the Threshhold of Hope. After pointing out that the Church has a “high regard for Muslims who worship one God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of heaven and earth,” he then observes after reflecting on Islam and the Koran:

Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God’s self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside. Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the World, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection(p. 92).

St. John Paul first acknowledges the truth that Muslims get it right when they profess faith in one God. Then, and only then, does he point out they have it as wrong as wrong can be when it comes to what God has revealed to us in Scripture about who he is, and, I would add, what he asks of his people by way of his commandments.

P.S. I would ask that people please quote this article when they wish to quote the Catechism in saying that ‘we worship the same God’ as I believe that phrase from the Catechism is greatly misunderstood and misused.

I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[Elizium23]

Do you think Gods Will is Truly and Fully Known to a Christian!

Through Divine Revelation and His Church, God has made the essential elements of His will for us known to all. Through Sacred Tradition and prophecy, He continues to make His will known to those who will listen.

 

[TonyBS]

Through Divine Revelation and His Church, God has made the essential elements of His will for us known to all. Through Sacred Tradition and prophecy, He continues to make His will known to those who will listen.

Question was Fully Known as you have stated that “Islam holds that Allah’s will cannot be truly known to us” which is basically saying the same us “essential elements of His will for us, known to all”

Is it “Fully Known” or Only “Essential Elements”.

Regards Tony