Muslims, what exactly do you believe?

[Art321]

Hello!

Since I really want to know, I wish to ask the Muslims if they could please guide me through what they believe.

1. What exactly does Islam teach?
2. How is this different from the Judaism or from the Catholic Church?
3. What do you think will happen at the end of time?
4. How is the Prophet Muhammad different from any other prophet?
5. Is it true that Islam teaches that women are to be treated less than a man?
6. Who exactly is the leader of Islam?
7. What exactly are the Five Pillars of Islam? Is it true that there is a sixth known as Jihad?
8. What exactly do you believe that those verses in the Quran where it commands you to kill non-muslims?

That’s about it. I wish to make this clear, that I DID NOT start this thread to attack your beliefs.

 

[aspirant]

I will let real Muslims answer the questions, but if you’re interested in exploring questions like these outside the forum as well, I would recommend the book How to Understand Islam by Jacques Jomier as a helpful introduction for Christians.

 

[Art321]

I will let real Muslims answer the questions, but if you’re interested in exploring questions like these outside the forum as well, I would recommend the book How to Understand Islam by Jacques Jomier as a helpful introduction for Christians.

Thank you, aspirant. Now any Muslims out there? Care to please answer my questions?

 

[Kadaveri]

Hello!

Since I really want to know, I wish to ask the Muslims if they could please guide me through what they believe.

Greetings.

1. What exactly does Islam teach?

This is too big a question to answer properly, Islam teaches a lot of things. Most basically, Islam teaches that there will be a Last Day where the souls of mankind will be judged by God, and that God has sent us revelations through His Prophets to warn us and teach us how to prepare for it.

1. How is this different from the Judaism or from the Catholic Church?

There is no significant difference between us and the Jews except that all mankind are called to accept Islam to be saved whereas the Jews do not call others to their faith. Also we accept Jesus and Muhammad as Prophets, whereas Jews do not. There is a much wider gap between us and the Catholic Church, the fundamental differences between us are that we do not accept the doctrine of blood sacrifice is required for atonement from our sins, nor do we accept the Trinity or that Jesus is God.

1. What do you think will happen at the end of time?

That all of mankind will be brought before God and judged, going to Paradise or Hellfire.

1. How is the Prophet Muhammad different from any other prophet?

He was sent to all mankind rather than just to one nation, he is also the last Prophet.

1. Is it true that Islam teaches that women are to be treated less than a man?

No. Men and women are not considered to be ‘equal’ in Islam in terms of having the same roles, but they have equal dignity.

1. Who exactly is the leader of Islam?

Nobody. Islam has no formal clergy. The closest thing Islam has to a ‘leader’ is the Caliph. It should be noted that the Caliph is nothing like the Pope, he is a temporal political leader and has no theological or spiritual authority as such. The office of Caliph has been vacant since 1924, which many believe to be the main reason why there’s been so much chaos in the Muslim world since then.

1. What exactly are the Five Pillars of Islam? Is it true that there is a sixth known as Jihad?

The Five Pillars are 1. bearing witness that there are none worthy of worship but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God, 2. performing five ritual prayers a day, 3. Giving 2.5% of your annual income to the poor, 4. Fasting during daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, 5. Going on pilgramage to Mecca at least one in your life if you can afford to do so. Jihad is a part of Islam, but it is not a pillar.

1. What exactly do you believe that those verses in the Quran where it commands you to kill non-muslims?

There are some verses in the Qur’an which speak of events during the life of the Prophet Muhammad when he had become the de facto leader of an Islamic city state surrounded by Pagan Arab enemies where Muslims were instructed to take up arms to defend the state, and they are to be understood in that context, not distorted into some kind of general command to attack non-Muslims.

That’s about it. I wish to make this clear, that I DID NOT start this thread to attack your beliefs.

No such intention taken. Peace.

 

[Art321]

This is too big a question to answer properly, Islam teaches a lot of things. Most basically, Islam teaches that there will be a Last Day where the souls of mankind will be judged by God, and that God has sent us revelations through His Prophets to warn us and teach us how to prepare for it

.

Ok.

There is no significant difference between us and the Jews except that all mankind are called to accept Islam to be saved whereas the Jews do not call others to their faith. Also we accept Jesus and Muhammad as Prophets, whereas Jews do not. There is a much wider gap between us and the Catholic Church, the fundamental differences between us are that we do not accept the doctrine of blood sacrifice is required for atonement from our sins, nor do we accept the Trinity or that Jesus is God.

May I ask why it is that Muslims reject Jesus as the Messiah and as God?

No. Men and women are not considered to be ‘equal’ in Islam in terms of having the same roles, but they have equal dignity.

This confuses me. I was once presented with some information that said men treated women like second class citizens in the Islamic world.

Nobody. Islam has no formal clergy. The closest thing Islam has to a ‘leader’ is the Caliph. It should be noted that the Caliph is nothing like the Pope, he is a temporal political leader and has no theological or spiritual authority as such. The office of Caliph has been vacant since 1924, which many believe to be the main reason why there’s been so much chaos in the Muslim world since then.

May I ask who was the last Caliph? And why is it that there isn’t another?

The Five Pillars are 1. bearing witness that there are none worthy of worship but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God, 2. performing five ritual prayers a day, 3. Giving 2.5% of your annual income to the poor, 4. Fasting during daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, 5. Going on pilgramage to Mecca at least one in your life if you can afford to do so. Jihad is a part of Islam, but it is not a pillar.

Then what is a Jihad? and why is Mecca so important? What exactly does it represent?
Also I heard that Islam has a holy week like in Christianity, so what exactly is the holy week about?

There are some verses in the Qur’an which speak of events during the life of the Prophet Muhammad when he had become the de facto leader of an Islamic city state surrounded by Pagan Arab enemies where Muslims were instructed to take up arms to defend the state, and they are to be understood in that context, not distorted into some kind of general command to attack non-Muslims.

Ok.

Thank you for your post.

 

[Art321]

Come on! Any Muslims wish to answer the questions in the previous post?

 

[Kadaveri]

.May I ask why it is that Muslims reject Jesus as the Messiah and as God?

We accept him as the Messiah. We reject him as God because we believe that he was a human Prophet sent to the Jews to call on them to return to the proper practice of their religion. We also do not accept that God manifests himself on Earth.

This confuses me. I was once presented with some information that said men treated women like second class citizens in the Islamic world.

Firstly, there are 57 Muslim states as well as 200-250 million Muslims living outside them as minorities, it’s a mistake to talk about ‘the Islamic world’ as if it were a monolithic block, it is not. But to the answer it’s true that in some Muslim countries women have little rights, but a much stronger correlation can be found in the economic and political situation in those countries than in the religion of the country’s inhabitants.

May I ask who was the last Caliph? And why is it that there isn’t another?

The last official Caliph was Abdulmecid II. It’s a very long and complicated story but I’ll try to explain briefly what happened. The last Caliphs of Islam were the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, which was the world’s last Islamic state. A previous ruler Abdulhamid II controversially dissolved the Ottoman Parliament in 1878 after a Russian invasion and unrest in the Balkans, and effectively made himself a dictator. This situation continued until 1908 when huge opposition to the Sultan’s actions spearheaded by the secular nationalist Young Turk movement forced Abdulhamid to return most of his powers to the reinstated Parliament.

Later in 1913 the Committee of Union and Progress, an authoritarian vanguardist faction within the Young Turk Movement overthrew the government in a military coup, forced Abdulhamid to abdicate and instituted a single-party regime. The CUP then persecuted non-Turks in the Empire (most notably Armenians and Arabs) and disastrously took Turkey into the First World War on the side of the Germans, mainly because they wanted to conquer the Turkic regions of Central Asia from Russia and create a united Turkic nation state. The Arabs rebelled against Ottoman treatment and joined forces with the British and French in overthrowing Ottoman rule what later became independent Arab states, and the Ottoman Empire was soundly defeated and was occupied by European powers, and a new Sultan, Mehmed VI, was appointed, who surrendered much of the Ottoman Empire’s lands to Britain, France and Greece.

An Ottoman resistance movement was founded to challenge this capitulation, lead by former CUP members like Mustafa Kemal, which by 1922 succeeded in forcing the European powers to remove themselves from what is now modern Turkey; though they failed to kick them out of what is now modern Iraq, hence why the today’s border between these two states is so illogical, it’s simply an armistice line between the Ottoman resistance and the British occupiers. Mehmed VI was forced to flee the country in disgrace, and the Sultanate was abolished. The Turkish National Congress then elected a new Caliph (though not a Sultan), Abdülmecid II. He acted as Islam’s Caliph until 1924, when he was forced to resign and expelled from Turkey by the ruling People’s Republic Party, which was in the process of eliminating its potential opponents as it went on to attempt to create a totalitarian atheistic ethnic-nationalist state in Turkey, and ruled the country until the first democractic elections in 1950 when it was overwhelmingly voted out.

Then what is a Jihad? and why is Mecca so important? What exactly does it represent?Also I heard that Islam has a holy week like in Christianity, so what exactly is the holy week about?

Jihad means ‘to struggle’ or ‘to strive’, and in an Islamic context means to exert yourself for God, and in this sense has quite a broad meaning. In terms of Islamic jurisprudence, Jihad refers to fighting against oppression, the greatest Jihad said to be speaking the truth before a tyrant and getting killed for it, this Jihad can include physical fighting.

We believe Mecca (along with Jerusalem) to be a place marked by God from the beginning of time to be centres for worship of Him. It is also the birthplace of Muhammad and where his mission of Prophethood began. There is holy month in Islam (Ramadan), but I don’t know of any ‘holy week’.

 

[Art321]

We accept him as the Messiah. We reject him as God because we believe that he was a human Prophet sent to the Jews to call on them to return to the proper practice of their religion. We also do not accept that God manifests himself on Earth.

Firstly, there are 57 Muslim states as well as 200-250 million Muslims living outside them as minorities, it’s a mistake to talk about ‘the Islamic world’ as if it were a monolithic block, it is not. But to the answer it’s true that in some Muslim countries women have little rights, but a much stronger correlation can be found in the economic and political situation in those countries than in the religion of the country’s inhabitants.

The last official Caliph was Abdulmecid II. It’s a very long and complicated story but I’ll try to explain briefly what happened. The last Caliphs of Islam were the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, which was the world’s last Islamic state. A previous ruler Abdulhamid II controversially dissolved the Ottoman Parliament in 1878 after a Russian invasion and unrest in the Balkans, and effectively made himself a dictator. This situation continued until 1908 when huge opposition to the Sultan’s actions spearheaded by the secular nationalist Young Turk movement forced Abdulhamid to return most of his powers to the reinstated Parliament.

Later in 1913 the Committee of Union and Progress, an authoritarian vanguardist faction within the Young Turk Movement overthrew the government in a military coup, forced Abdulhamid to abdicate and instituted a single-party regime. The CUP then persecuted non-Turks in the Empire (most notably Armenians and Arabs) and disastrously took Turkey into the First World War on the side of the Germans, mainly because they wanted to conquer the Turkic regions of Central Asia from Russia and create a united Turkic nation state. The Arabs rebelled against Ottoman treatment and joined forces with the British and French in overthrowing Ottoman rule what later became independent Arab states, and the Ottoman Empire was soundly defeated and was occupied by European powers, and a new Sultan, Mehmed VI, was appointed, who surrendered much of the Ottoman Empire’s lands to Britain, France and Greece.

An Ottoman resistance movement was founded to challenge this capitulation, lead by former CUP members like Mustafa Kemal, which by 1922 succeeded in forcing the European powers to remove themselves from what is now modern Turkey; though they failed to kick them out of what is now modern Iraq, hence why the today’s border between these two states is so illogical, it’s simply an armistice line between the Ottoman resistance and the British occupiers. Mehmed VI was forced to flee the country in disgrace, and the Sultanate was abolished. The Turkish National Congress then elected a new Caliph (though not a Sultan), Abdülmecid II. He acted as Islam’s Caliph until 1924, when he was forced to resign and expelled from Turkey by the ruling People’s Republic Party, which was in the process of eliminating its potential opponents as it went on to attempt to create a totalitarian atheistic ethnic-nationalist state in Turkey, and ruled the country until the first democractic elections in 1950 when it was overwhelmingly voted out.

Jihad means ‘to struggle’ or ‘to strive’, and in an Islamic context means to exert yourself for God, and in this sense has quite a broad meaning. In terms of Islamic jurisprudence, Jihad refers to fighting against oppression, the greatest Jihad said to be speaking the truth before a tyrant and getting killed for it, this Jihad can include physical fighting.

We believe Mecca (along with Jerusalem) to be a place marked by God from the beginning of time to be centres for worship of Him. It is also the birthplace of Muhammad and where his mission of Prophethood began. There is holy month in Islam (Ramadan), but I don’t know of any ‘holy week’.

Thank you for the response, Kadaveri. Your responses have helped me understand Islam a bit. Now may I ask what Ramadan is all about?

 

[rdscheirer]

Kadeveri,

 

[Art321]

Kadeveri,

What?

 

[rdscheirer]

Kadaveri,
Your responses are wonderful, but for the rest of us just read “What Mohammed Meant” It will chill your spine. On 9/12/2001 I was talking to an Anesthesiologist who is from Egypt who lauded the bombers for achieving paradise. She and her husband had been in the USA for over 20 years but her “Mohammaden- kill them all- mentality had not left her”.

My take on the two sides:

Muslim- kill all the unbeleivers

Judeo/Christian- be kind to the foreigner and sojuourner in your midst, love your neighbor as yourself.

K ,which is the better philosophy; to assure peace in this world before you are judged by the God who said to be kind to the foreigner and sojourner in your midst, or to await final damnation for the violation of " Thou shalt not kill".

 

[Art321]

Kadaveri,
Your responses are wonderful, but for the rest of us just read “What Mohammed Meant” It will chill your spine. On 9/12/2001 I was talking to an Anesthesiologist who is from Egypt who lauded the bombers for achieving paradise. She and her husband had been in the USA for over 20 years but her “Mohammaden- kill them all- mentality had not left her”.

My take on the two sides:

Muslim- kill all the unbeleivers

Judeo/Christian- be kind to the foreigner and sojuourner in your midst, love your neighbor as yourself.

K ,which is the better philosophy; to assure peace in this world before you are judged by the God who said to be kind to the foreigner and sojourner in your midst, or to await final damnation for the violation of " Thou shalt not kill".

While what you say may be true, please don’t post these things in this thread. This was not the point of creating it.

 

[Art321]

Can any fellow Muslims please answer my question in post 8. I would really appreciate it.

 

[aspirant]

About Ramadan, from a Muslim source.

 

[Art321]

About Ramadan, from a Muslim source.

Thank you.

 

[rdscheirer]

Art321 - I replied in the way I thought the thread was going- I apologize if I took the theme off thread.

 

[Art321]

Art321 - I replied in the way I thought the thread was going- I apologize if I took the theme off thread.

Don’t worry! No harm done.

 

[planten]

Hello!

Since I really want to know, I wish to ask the Muslims if they could please guide me through what they believe.

1. What exactly does Islam teach?

 

[Ahimsa]

I would say that, unlike much of Judaism or Christianity, Islam quite explicitly teaches that other revelations of God have also occurred, even outside of the “Abrahamic” traditions.

The great characteristic of Islam is that it requires its followers to believe that all the great religions of the world that prevailed before it were revealed by God; and thus Islam lays down the basis of peace and harmony among the religions of the world. According to the Holy Quran, there is not one nation in the world in which a prophet has not appeared: “There is not a people but a warner has gone among them” (35:24).
One is further told that there have been prophets besides those mentioned in the Quran: “And We sent messengers We have mentioned to thee before, and messengers We have not mentioned to thee” (4:164).
The Quran, however, not only establishes the theory that prophets have appeared in all nations; it goes further and renders it necessary that a Muslim should believe in all those prophets (2:136, 177, 285), and though the faith of Islam is summed up in two brief sentences, *There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Apostle, *yet the person who confesses belief in Muhammad, in so doing, accepts all the prophets of the world, whether their names are mentioned in the Quran or not. Islam thus claims a universality to which no other religion can aspire, and lays the foundation of a brotherhood as vast as humanity itself.

 

[planten]

For Art321:

1. What do you think will happen at the end of time?

At the end of time, there will be bad times. Kadavri has replied well

1. How is the Prophet Muhammad different from any other prophet?

Prophet Muhammad is same as any other prophet. The difference is there as follows:
Muhammad is the last law bearing prophet. His law (Sharia) will remain till the end of times.
He is the grand prophet by whom the prophethood of all prophets is proved. He is the seal (Khaatam) of all prophets. The prophethood of all prophets is authenticated by Muhammad and his seal.
Muhammad informed mankind about all previous prophets. He came in the name of Allah. He received words from God and spoke them onward before the people.
He is the prophet for all mankind for all times now. No prophet will ever come now after Muhamamd with any new law that may replace the law given to Muhammad.
The previous prophets were for their own nations and their own times. Muhammad is for all mankind for all times.
Muhammad the like of Moses and he is the like of Jesus too.
All prophets before Muhammad predicted and informed theri nations about the coming of Muhammad. Abraham prayed for the coming of a prophet from amongst the children of Ishmael.
The book given to Muhammad (Quran) is a living miracle. It contains all the good things of all previous revealed books. It is a masterpiece and a great guide against Shirk (Polytheism)… It uproots polytheism.
Muhammad was a mortal. He was not a god. He came and lived and guided and died. But the blessings of his teachings still continue. His followers get communications (messages, Wahi) from Allah even today.

1. Is it true that Islam teaches that women are to be treated less than a man?

I hope not. They have equal rights in their own sphere. The present day Muslims may be setting a very example about the rights of women. But that is not from islam. That is all against islam. Women enjoy great pleasure and happy life in islam.

1. Who exactly is the leader of Islam?

There are many sects in many countries. Most of the leaders are political leaders. There are few sects who have spiritual leaders such as Ahmadis, Agha Khanis, Bohris and a few more. But main muslims sects do not count them as Muslims.
I can say that the Muslims (mainline) do nothave any leader, any Imam. That is the root cause of their bad state today. They are praying in large numbers. They are paying poor money. They perform Hajj in large numebrs. But their efforts are all wasted because they do not have leader.

More later…