Saturday, March 20, 2004
Hello again. Or as we say among ourselves Salamu Alaikum (May You have Peace or in more archaic English Peace be upon you)
So what is Islam all about?
Well, you've probably got some ideas formed about this beautiful and true religion, from reading stuff in books or newspapers, or seeing stuff on TV or movies, or talking to people. I can't tell what these ideas are or whether they are the same as mine or not, so I guess it is probably best just to tell you what I think.
Islam is about living in the world in harmony with the reason we were created. Islam's standpoint is that there is only one God who created us all and who did so in order for us to follow the path he leads us towards.
Now for us to be happy and satisfied, we need to surrender (Islam means surrender or release) ourselves to this concept. The concept that there is one God only and that we are here to try our best to reach him.
Already I have created a few areas needing clarification.
The first is this God issue.
In Islam, God is one, indivisible, unmatchable, (Allah) HE is the creator of all that is. He is infinite in all directions of time, ie has always and will always exist, he is omnipresent and omnisicient, everywhere and all-knowing. Reason I state this, is because I know there are different views or interpretations of the word God in various cultures and religions.
Second is the idea that we were created with a purpose. To me that is manifest. It would seem completely unreasonable to assume that creatures as complex as humans could appear on Earth as a matter of coincidence or chance. We are the evidence of a purposeful creation. What the purpose is, Allah makes clear. (We'll come back to this one in a bit).
Third, the idea of happiness and satisfaction. Well, no less manifest as far as I am concerned is the fact that there is a lot of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the way the world is going. So Islam can supply answers? Sure, absolutely, all the answers to all the questions. (Again we will come back to this one in a bit)
Fourth. This question of surrender. What this is a a fairly sophisticated (but not unreachable) intellectual-spiritual-philosophical-paradigm shifing notion. Thing is this. The idea that we are created for a specific purpose and that our happiness and satisfaction lies in following that purpose is fairly alien. Basically, we do not want to follow some pre-determined purpose, we want to make up our own minds on what we want to do and pursue (in reality, Islam does not ask us to follow some pre-fixed, but more on this is a bit -sorry ber with me!), and "surrendering" to this new notion is quite tricky.
OK, more later. there are, er........one, two, three, four things I promised to get back to in a bit. As a Muslim, I will keep my promise. Keeping promises is a key element of sincerity which is an important cornerstone of Islam.
So what is Islam all about?
Well, you've probably got some ideas formed about this beautiful and true religion, from reading stuff in books or newspapers, or seeing stuff on TV or movies, or talking to people. I can't tell what these ideas are or whether they are the same as mine or not, so I guess it is probably best just to tell you what I think.
Islam is about living in the world in harmony with the reason we were created. Islam's standpoint is that there is only one God who created us all and who did so in order for us to follow the path he leads us towards.
Now for us to be happy and satisfied, we need to surrender (Islam means surrender or release) ourselves to this concept. The concept that there is one God only and that we are here to try our best to reach him.
Already I have created a few areas needing clarification.
The first is this God issue.
In Islam, God is one, indivisible, unmatchable, (Allah) HE is the creator of all that is. He is infinite in all directions of time, ie has always and will always exist, he is omnipresent and omnisicient, everywhere and all-knowing. Reason I state this, is because I know there are different views or interpretations of the word God in various cultures and religions.
Second is the idea that we were created with a purpose. To me that is manifest. It would seem completely unreasonable to assume that creatures as complex as humans could appear on Earth as a matter of coincidence or chance. We are the evidence of a purposeful creation. What the purpose is, Allah makes clear. (We'll come back to this one in a bit).
Third, the idea of happiness and satisfaction. Well, no less manifest as far as I am concerned is the fact that there is a lot of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the way the world is going. So Islam can supply answers? Sure, absolutely, all the answers to all the questions. (Again we will come back to this one in a bit)
Fourth. This question of surrender. What this is a a fairly sophisticated (but not unreachable) intellectual-spiritual-philosophical-paradigm shifing notion. Thing is this. The idea that we are created for a specific purpose and that our happiness and satisfaction lies in following that purpose is fairly alien. Basically, we do not want to follow some pre-determined purpose, we want to make up our own minds on what we want to do and pursue (in reality, Islam does not ask us to follow some pre-fixed, but more on this is a bit -sorry ber with me!), and "surrendering" to this new notion is quite tricky.
OK, more later. there are, er........one, two, three, four things I promised to get back to in a bit. As a Muslim, I will keep my promise. Keeping promises is a key element of sincerity which is an important cornerstone of Islam.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
and so it came to pass that a friend told me about the blog and said if I wanted to tell people about Islam, I should blog it. So here I am. Where to start is always a bit of a question. I guess first off I should say I am a fairly new Muslim. I mean I was born Muslim but never really paid much attention until the past few years. Also I should say that I am not like a scholar of the religion in any way. All I know is that since I have "become" Muslim, life has been way better every which way. Thing is, as humans we need the relation with the superior being (Arabic name = Allah), we need to connect with, speak to, listen to and reach towards God. And in comparison to other religions (which I flirted with briefy before picking Islam as the most intelligent choice), Islam is the surest, fastest, most direct path to God.
More next time.
More next time.
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