Saturday, November 06, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Problem of evil solved
I must say that I find those people who try to confine God into one defintion as irrational because how can God be confined to one word or description? It's like getting the Television to define a man. The TV cannot describe what it cannot understand.
So those people who say God is one thing are lowering the majesty of God according to their minds.
In Islam, we describe God as he describes himself and we do not describe God according to the limits of our imagination. God is not love according to the Islamic belief and this in itself solves the problem of evil question. Al-Wadud means the one has given believers permanet friendship. If God had described himself as love then he would've said Al-Hubb which he did not.
There are people who have commited grave wrongs against other people and have not punished for them and the day of judgement is the day that they will get their due. That is the day that the judge of all judges will manifest his justice. That day is the day of judgement and that day when God/Allah will judge.
New International Version (©1984)
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
Mathew 12:36
So those people who say God is one thing are lowering the majesty of God according to their minds.
In Islam, we describe God as he describes himself and we do not describe God according to the limits of our imagination. God is not love according to the Islamic belief and this in itself solves the problem of evil question. Al-Wadud means the one has given believers permanet friendship. If God had described himself as love then he would've said Al-Hubb which he did not.
There are people who have commited grave wrongs against other people and have not punished for them and the day of judgement is the day that they will get their due. That is the day that the judge of all judges will manifest his justice. That day is the day of judgement and that day when God/Allah will judge.
New International Version (©1984)
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
Mathew 12:36
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Shylock Doesn't like pork!
In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice
Act One
Scene 3
When asked to dine by a Christain he replies, "Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into....but I will not eat with you..."
Act One
Scene 3
When asked to dine by a Christain he replies, "Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into....but I will not eat with you..."
Monday, May 03, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Rustem Pasha a slave in Islam
When he died in 1561 he left 85 farms, 476 watermills, 1700 slaves, 2900 war horses, 1106 camels, 5000 embroidered coats, 8000 turbans, 3000 coats of mail, saddles and golden stirrips, 5000 books, 800 copies of the Quran and two and a half million ducats in cash.
Could slaves anywhere else in the known world at the time own anything like this? NO way, but this was a slave in the Muslim world.
P.80 The Ottoman Empire 1450-1700 Andrina Stiles hodder and Stoughton
Could slaves anywhere else in the known world at the time own anything like this? NO way, but this was a slave in the Muslim world.
P.80 The Ottoman Empire 1450-1700 Andrina Stiles hodder and Stoughton
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sheikh Shahidullah Faridi
Belief in God
By Shaikh Shahidullah Faridi (r.a)
(The writer (1915-1978) was an English convert to Islam who became a Shaykh of the Tariqa Chishtiyya, living a life of simplicity in Karachi, Pakistan, where his holiness gained him the love and devotion of thousands of Muslims from all walks of life. May Allah show him His mercy, and grant him light in his grave. Amin.)
It is mistakenly imagined by some that belief in a Supreme Being as the Creator and Controller of the universe is a mere emotional aspiration, a superstition of ancient times, irrational and illogical, and exploded by modern science. It is believed that scientists (physicists, biologists and others) have erected some theory which both refutes and replaces the traditional belief in God. Such ideas have only a very superficial grounding, and are the result of ignorance or an indifference to both the fundamentals of religious faith and the scope of the physical sciences. It is a significant fact in the history of world thought that very few people have ever made it their business to refute the existence of God. The views of the universe which are considered to be anti-religious are almost all agnostic, not atheistic, that is to say, they attempt to ignore the existence of God instead of denying it. This is true of certain views of modern science as well as of the ancient non-religious theories. The universe in which we live comprises an evident system of causes and effects, of phenomena and their results, and it is possible to discuss them indefinitely and construct theories about them, giving a superficial appearance of completeness. This is done, however, only at the expense of ignoring fundamentals or claiming that they cannot be known. If one were to search for a convincing statement based on firm principles that the existence of a Supreme Being is impossible, one would not be able to find it.
The reason for this state of affairs is that belief in God is at once instinctive, rational, evidential and intuitional, and it is only by deliberately neglecting to consider it that the non-religious attitude is maintained. It is instinctive in that man has an innate feeling of his own inadequacy and helplessness, which accompanies him from the cradle to the grave, a feeling accompanied by the complementary desire to seek refuge and support with a being who controls all those forces before which he feels himself inadequate. We put this feeling forward as instinctive, although it will immediately be perceived that it is also evidential. The weakness of man before all the uncountable influences over which he has no control is a fact so obvious as to require no discussion.
What is less well grasped by some who have claims to intelligence is that belief in God is fully supported by reason and logic, the principles on which all human intelligence stands. For instance, it is a basic requirement of reason that an effect cannot exist without a cause. However hard we press our mental faculties, we cannot conceive rationally of a causeless effect, and if we wish to postulate one we can only do so by temporarily putting our reason on the shelf. Reason leads us to the conclusion that just as the elements which compose the universe are effects of certain causes, the universe itself must be the effect of a cause, a cause which is itself mightier than and outside the universe. Non-religious thinkers have to ignore the origin of the universe and postulate something existing in the beginning without any known cause. This postulate is essentially non-rational and therefore unscientific, but it is a necessity for those thinkers who have unconsciously or deliberately decided not to consider fundamentals. Of these there are even some who openly proclaim their refusal to discuss or admit any metaphysical concept. This kind of attitude, however, can only be upheld by abandoning reason. Reason itself guides us inexorably to the conclusion that there is an ultimate cause, the Cause of causes, beyond this universe of time, space and change; in fact, a Supreme Being.
Another of the basic demands of reason is that diversity cannot exist without a fundamental unity. Whenever the human mind is confronted with diversity, it immediately sets to work to synthesise it into unities, then to synthesise these unities into higher unities and so on until it can go no further. The ultimate result of a rational consideration of diversity is to arrive at a unity of unities, a Supreme Unity, the producer of all diversities, but itself essentially One. Whichever fundamental of reason we select, if we follow its path we are led inevitably to the same goal - belief in God, the Supreme Being.
Besides the conclusion arrived at by purely rational processes, man is led to the belief in God by observation and experience. One of the principal reasons for man’s refusal to recognize the existence of God is the intellectual arrogance produced by his appreciation of his own powers of analysis and synthesis, of harnessing physical forces by his ingenuity, and of constructing complex machines to do his work for him. But pride is caused by concentrating too much attention on one’s own virtues and blinding oneself to one’s defects. What are the best of man’s mechanical inventions but a poor and crude imitation of what already exists in an infinitely finer form in nature? By copying in an elementary fashion some of the functions of the human eye, he has been able to evolve the camera; but what comparison has this machine, made out of lifeless materials, to the living stuff of the eye, and to the refinement, brightness, clarity, flexibility and stability of its vision, its immediate connection with the mind which sifts and appreciates all it sees, all without a complicated system and controls, and directly under the command of the human will? Take any organ of the body and study it - the heart, the brain - and it will immediately be obvious that it is quite outside the scope of man’s ability to conceive and fashion such an instrument. The petty imitations of man are attributed to his great cunning, artistry and intelligence. Is it then reasonable, logical or scientific to attribute the infinitely finer and more perfect instruments of nature to such vague and blind energies called by names such as the ‘life force’, or ‘matter in evolution’, and leave them undescribed and unexplained? If logic has any validity (and if it has not we had better stop thinking altogether and become animals), the intelligence which conceived and wrought myriads of such delicate and astonishing devices must be infinitely superior to the human intelligence (even the human intelligence is one of its products), and have control of all the materials and workings of the universe. Such an intelligence can only be possessed by a Supreme Being, the Creator, Fashioner and Sustainer of all things.
If we ponder our own place in the world, we find that we (as well as all other beings) are kept in being by a most intimate combination of forces and conditions, which is so delicate that even a small dislocation would cause our total destruction. We live, so to speak, continually on the brink of annihilation, and yet are enabled to carry on our complex existences in comparative immunity. We cannot live, for instance, without daily rest; both the human body and the human mind are constructed to need it. This fact is not in itself surprising, but what is surprising is that the solar system collaborates with us in our human frailty and provides us with a day and a night exactly suited to our needs. Man cannot claim to have compelled or persuaded the solar system to do so; nor can the solar system claim to have modelled human physical and mental energy to conform to its own movements. Both man and the solar system are evidently linked in a total organisation in which man is the beneficiary; the organiser of these inexplicable concordances can only be a Supreme Controller of the universe and mankind. Sweet water is a necessary condition of human existence; it is equally necessary for those plants which produce man’s staple foods, which themselves depend on each other. If sea water were to invade our rivers and wells or rain down from the sky, is there any doubt that we should all die of hunger and thirst in a few days and the whole world become an empty desert? Yet sea water is only held back by an invisible barrier over which we have no control, and the sun and the clouds co-operate in order to desalinate our water for us and so give us life. This linkage of interdependence and concurrence could be extended indefinitely by taking examples from the physical world, and to describe it as ‘fortuitous’ is only begging the question; moreover it is a contradiction in terms. Fortuity is the name for something which does not come within any known system or regulation, an apparently meaningless and haphazard occurrence. To call a system which is a balanced and cohesive organization fortuitous is obviously self-contradictory and fallacious. A ‘fortuitous system’ is, simply, an absurdity. If we observe carefully we can see that the whole of the universe is interdependent and interlinked and therefore not fortuitous but planned. Belief in God means, precisely, belief in a Planner of the universe.
A basic element in human consciousness - a suprarational element - is a sense of value and purpose in respect to life. Even the worst of men is prevented from becoming completely bestial by this feeling, and in the best of them it dominates their whole existence. The senses of good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, fitness and unfitness, truth and falsehood are such that however attacked by the missiles of constructive analysis, they remain intact within their intuitional fortress. In all ages and conditions, man has not been able to divest himself of the idea that behind its external effect, every action possesses a quality by which it may be judged and graded in the scale of final values. In addition to the consciousness of the existence of these values, there is the feeling that it is the purpose of man’s life to attain those qualities which reflect the highest of them, that not only are they excellent in themselves and worthy of being acquired, but that they must be acquired, and that he has been created to acquire them. The natural sense of qualitative purpose, if allowed to develop freely without the cramps of agnostic prejudice, leads him to the conception of an absolute good and an absolute truth as the ultimate standard of human existence, and from there (for a quality cannot exist except in a being who is qualified by it) to a being who is the possessor and author of these qualities, the Supreme Purposer.
The decisive vindication of the existence of God is evidential. At various junctures in world history and in widely distant places, certain men have arisen and proclaimed that they have been inspired by God to give His message to mankind. These men were not mad; we have historical records of several of them, including all or part of the message they insisted that they were called to deliver, and it is obvious that they were men who were intellectually and morally highly impressive. They did not come all at once so that we could attribute them to a sort of historical fashion. They came spaced throughout history usually at a time of great moral degeneration. If we examine their message, we find that apart from differences of expression, attributable to the milieu in which they lived, they not only bear remarkable similarities but are basically identical. They have stated that God had conversed with them in some inspirational manner, and had ordered them to proclaim His Existence as the Creator, Maintainer, Controller and eventual Destroyer of the world, to describe His Mercy and Justice, and to warn mankind that it is only by remembering and worshipping Him and following the moral and practical principles that He has laid down for them that they can achieve success and happiness here and hereafter. The last of these prophets was Muhammad of Mecca, who stated that there would be no prophet after him, and it is a demonstrable historical fact that no-one has been able to establish a claim to prophethood since. Now those who discuss or refuse to discuss the existence of God almost invariably rely on rational or anti-rational arguments and rarely, if ever, consider the evidential factor. The two basic elements in human knowledge are, firstly, our own observations and conclusions, and secondly, the evidence of others. Among the branches of knowledge the whole of history, for example, and most of the average man’s acquaintance with science, are only known from the evidence of others, unless he himself is a specialist in the subject. When specialists in a certain branch of knowledge continuously assert that a certain thing is a fact, it becomes a necessity for the rest of mankind, who are unable to acquire this knowledge directly, to accept it as such. In the field of direct inspiration from God, and knowledge of His qualities and works, we have the repeated evidence of people in history who have affirmed their apprehension of Him and that they have been charged with conveying His message; not only that, the realities of the divine and spiritual realism as described by these prophets have in various degrees been corroborated and confirmed by the spiritual experiences of an uncounted number of their followers right up to the present day. These corroborators have been the saints and mystics of their various communities. This continuous and widespread evidence of the existence of God, the central and original evidence of prophets, and the derivative and confirmatory evidence of their followers, all based on modes of direct and intuitional perception of His Being, cannot with any reasonability be denied or ignored. To deny or ignore them is patently illogical and unscientific, and against the basic principles of the acquirement and dissemination of human knowledge. In addition to being instinctive, intuitional, and logical, belief in God has irrefutable evidence to prove its verity.
By Shaikh Shahidullah Faridi (r.a)
(The writer (1915-1978) was an English convert to Islam who became a Shaykh of the Tariqa Chishtiyya, living a life of simplicity in Karachi, Pakistan, where his holiness gained him the love and devotion of thousands of Muslims from all walks of life. May Allah show him His mercy, and grant him light in his grave. Amin.)
It is mistakenly imagined by some that belief in a Supreme Being as the Creator and Controller of the universe is a mere emotional aspiration, a superstition of ancient times, irrational and illogical, and exploded by modern science. It is believed that scientists (physicists, biologists and others) have erected some theory which both refutes and replaces the traditional belief in God. Such ideas have only a very superficial grounding, and are the result of ignorance or an indifference to both the fundamentals of religious faith and the scope of the physical sciences. It is a significant fact in the history of world thought that very few people have ever made it their business to refute the existence of God. The views of the universe which are considered to be anti-religious are almost all agnostic, not atheistic, that is to say, they attempt to ignore the existence of God instead of denying it. This is true of certain views of modern science as well as of the ancient non-religious theories. The universe in which we live comprises an evident system of causes and effects, of phenomena and their results, and it is possible to discuss them indefinitely and construct theories about them, giving a superficial appearance of completeness. This is done, however, only at the expense of ignoring fundamentals or claiming that they cannot be known. If one were to search for a convincing statement based on firm principles that the existence of a Supreme Being is impossible, one would not be able to find it.
The reason for this state of affairs is that belief in God is at once instinctive, rational, evidential and intuitional, and it is only by deliberately neglecting to consider it that the non-religious attitude is maintained. It is instinctive in that man has an innate feeling of his own inadequacy and helplessness, which accompanies him from the cradle to the grave, a feeling accompanied by the complementary desire to seek refuge and support with a being who controls all those forces before which he feels himself inadequate. We put this feeling forward as instinctive, although it will immediately be perceived that it is also evidential. The weakness of man before all the uncountable influences over which he has no control is a fact so obvious as to require no discussion.
What is less well grasped by some who have claims to intelligence is that belief in God is fully supported by reason and logic, the principles on which all human intelligence stands. For instance, it is a basic requirement of reason that an effect cannot exist without a cause. However hard we press our mental faculties, we cannot conceive rationally of a causeless effect, and if we wish to postulate one we can only do so by temporarily putting our reason on the shelf. Reason leads us to the conclusion that just as the elements which compose the universe are effects of certain causes, the universe itself must be the effect of a cause, a cause which is itself mightier than and outside the universe. Non-religious thinkers have to ignore the origin of the universe and postulate something existing in the beginning without any known cause. This postulate is essentially non-rational and therefore unscientific, but it is a necessity for those thinkers who have unconsciously or deliberately decided not to consider fundamentals. Of these there are even some who openly proclaim their refusal to discuss or admit any metaphysical concept. This kind of attitude, however, can only be upheld by abandoning reason. Reason itself guides us inexorably to the conclusion that there is an ultimate cause, the Cause of causes, beyond this universe of time, space and change; in fact, a Supreme Being.
Another of the basic demands of reason is that diversity cannot exist without a fundamental unity. Whenever the human mind is confronted with diversity, it immediately sets to work to synthesise it into unities, then to synthesise these unities into higher unities and so on until it can go no further. The ultimate result of a rational consideration of diversity is to arrive at a unity of unities, a Supreme Unity, the producer of all diversities, but itself essentially One. Whichever fundamental of reason we select, if we follow its path we are led inevitably to the same goal - belief in God, the Supreme Being.
Besides the conclusion arrived at by purely rational processes, man is led to the belief in God by observation and experience. One of the principal reasons for man’s refusal to recognize the existence of God is the intellectual arrogance produced by his appreciation of his own powers of analysis and synthesis, of harnessing physical forces by his ingenuity, and of constructing complex machines to do his work for him. But pride is caused by concentrating too much attention on one’s own virtues and blinding oneself to one’s defects. What are the best of man’s mechanical inventions but a poor and crude imitation of what already exists in an infinitely finer form in nature? By copying in an elementary fashion some of the functions of the human eye, he has been able to evolve the camera; but what comparison has this machine, made out of lifeless materials, to the living stuff of the eye, and to the refinement, brightness, clarity, flexibility and stability of its vision, its immediate connection with the mind which sifts and appreciates all it sees, all without a complicated system and controls, and directly under the command of the human will? Take any organ of the body and study it - the heart, the brain - and it will immediately be obvious that it is quite outside the scope of man’s ability to conceive and fashion such an instrument. The petty imitations of man are attributed to his great cunning, artistry and intelligence. Is it then reasonable, logical or scientific to attribute the infinitely finer and more perfect instruments of nature to such vague and blind energies called by names such as the ‘life force’, or ‘matter in evolution’, and leave them undescribed and unexplained? If logic has any validity (and if it has not we had better stop thinking altogether and become animals), the intelligence which conceived and wrought myriads of such delicate and astonishing devices must be infinitely superior to the human intelligence (even the human intelligence is one of its products), and have control of all the materials and workings of the universe. Such an intelligence can only be possessed by a Supreme Being, the Creator, Fashioner and Sustainer of all things.
If we ponder our own place in the world, we find that we (as well as all other beings) are kept in being by a most intimate combination of forces and conditions, which is so delicate that even a small dislocation would cause our total destruction. We live, so to speak, continually on the brink of annihilation, and yet are enabled to carry on our complex existences in comparative immunity. We cannot live, for instance, without daily rest; both the human body and the human mind are constructed to need it. This fact is not in itself surprising, but what is surprising is that the solar system collaborates with us in our human frailty and provides us with a day and a night exactly suited to our needs. Man cannot claim to have compelled or persuaded the solar system to do so; nor can the solar system claim to have modelled human physical and mental energy to conform to its own movements. Both man and the solar system are evidently linked in a total organisation in which man is the beneficiary; the organiser of these inexplicable concordances can only be a Supreme Controller of the universe and mankind. Sweet water is a necessary condition of human existence; it is equally necessary for those plants which produce man’s staple foods, which themselves depend on each other. If sea water were to invade our rivers and wells or rain down from the sky, is there any doubt that we should all die of hunger and thirst in a few days and the whole world become an empty desert? Yet sea water is only held back by an invisible barrier over which we have no control, and the sun and the clouds co-operate in order to desalinate our water for us and so give us life. This linkage of interdependence and concurrence could be extended indefinitely by taking examples from the physical world, and to describe it as ‘fortuitous’ is only begging the question; moreover it is a contradiction in terms. Fortuity is the name for something which does not come within any known system or regulation, an apparently meaningless and haphazard occurrence. To call a system which is a balanced and cohesive organization fortuitous is obviously self-contradictory and fallacious. A ‘fortuitous system’ is, simply, an absurdity. If we observe carefully we can see that the whole of the universe is interdependent and interlinked and therefore not fortuitous but planned. Belief in God means, precisely, belief in a Planner of the universe.
A basic element in human consciousness - a suprarational element - is a sense of value and purpose in respect to life. Even the worst of men is prevented from becoming completely bestial by this feeling, and in the best of them it dominates their whole existence. The senses of good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, fitness and unfitness, truth and falsehood are such that however attacked by the missiles of constructive analysis, they remain intact within their intuitional fortress. In all ages and conditions, man has not been able to divest himself of the idea that behind its external effect, every action possesses a quality by which it may be judged and graded in the scale of final values. In addition to the consciousness of the existence of these values, there is the feeling that it is the purpose of man’s life to attain those qualities which reflect the highest of them, that not only are they excellent in themselves and worthy of being acquired, but that they must be acquired, and that he has been created to acquire them. The natural sense of qualitative purpose, if allowed to develop freely without the cramps of agnostic prejudice, leads him to the conception of an absolute good and an absolute truth as the ultimate standard of human existence, and from there (for a quality cannot exist except in a being who is qualified by it) to a being who is the possessor and author of these qualities, the Supreme Purposer.
The decisive vindication of the existence of God is evidential. At various junctures in world history and in widely distant places, certain men have arisen and proclaimed that they have been inspired by God to give His message to mankind. These men were not mad; we have historical records of several of them, including all or part of the message they insisted that they were called to deliver, and it is obvious that they were men who were intellectually and morally highly impressive. They did not come all at once so that we could attribute them to a sort of historical fashion. They came spaced throughout history usually at a time of great moral degeneration. If we examine their message, we find that apart from differences of expression, attributable to the milieu in which they lived, they not only bear remarkable similarities but are basically identical. They have stated that God had conversed with them in some inspirational manner, and had ordered them to proclaim His Existence as the Creator, Maintainer, Controller and eventual Destroyer of the world, to describe His Mercy and Justice, and to warn mankind that it is only by remembering and worshipping Him and following the moral and practical principles that He has laid down for them that they can achieve success and happiness here and hereafter. The last of these prophets was Muhammad of Mecca, who stated that there would be no prophet after him, and it is a demonstrable historical fact that no-one has been able to establish a claim to prophethood since. Now those who discuss or refuse to discuss the existence of God almost invariably rely on rational or anti-rational arguments and rarely, if ever, consider the evidential factor. The two basic elements in human knowledge are, firstly, our own observations and conclusions, and secondly, the evidence of others. Among the branches of knowledge the whole of history, for example, and most of the average man’s acquaintance with science, are only known from the evidence of others, unless he himself is a specialist in the subject. When specialists in a certain branch of knowledge continuously assert that a certain thing is a fact, it becomes a necessity for the rest of mankind, who are unable to acquire this knowledge directly, to accept it as such. In the field of direct inspiration from God, and knowledge of His qualities and works, we have the repeated evidence of people in history who have affirmed their apprehension of Him and that they have been charged with conveying His message; not only that, the realities of the divine and spiritual realism as described by these prophets have in various degrees been corroborated and confirmed by the spiritual experiences of an uncounted number of their followers right up to the present day. These corroborators have been the saints and mystics of their various communities. This continuous and widespread evidence of the existence of God, the central and original evidence of prophets, and the derivative and confirmatory evidence of their followers, all based on modes of direct and intuitional perception of His Being, cannot with any reasonability be denied or ignored. To deny or ignore them is patently illogical and unscientific, and against the basic principles of the acquirement and dissemination of human knowledge. In addition to being instinctive, intuitional, and logical, belief in God has irrefutable evidence to prove its verity.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Violent verses of the Bible 2
Check this out these are the verses in the bible.
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 (New International Version)
Deuteronomy 7
Driving Out the Nations
1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. [a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 7:2 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 26.
Judges 21:10-24 (New International Version)
10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. 11 "This is what you are to do," they said. "Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin." 12 They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
Ezekiel 9:5-7
>
5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city.
'So they began by killing the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.'
Ezekiel 9:5-7
you can also go to this website and check out the attrocities commited by the ppl who believe in this god who wants blood, the zionist jews and christians
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://w ww.davidicke.com/oi/extras/09/Israel/16.jpg&imgre furl=http://www.davidicke.com/israel&usg=__HqYfHL abKU0lu7vjgjJjt1CnZL0=&h=512&w=826&sz=58&hl=en&st art=42&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=yZ6sn7oHs35teM:&tbnh=89& tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnorman%2Bfinkelstein% 26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enGB355%26s a%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1
Click on label below for more verses.
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 (New International Version)
Deuteronomy 7
Driving Out the Nations
1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. [a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
Footnotes:
Deuteronomy 7:2 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them; also in verse 26.
Judges 21:10-24 (New International Version)
10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there, including the women and children. 11 "This is what you are to do," they said. "Kill every male and every woman who is not a virgin." 12 They found among the people living in Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.
Ezekiel 9:5-7
>
5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city.
'So they began by killing the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.'
Ezekiel 9:5-7
you can also go to this website and check out the attrocities commited by the ppl who believe in this god who wants blood, the zionist jews and christians
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://w ww.davidicke.com/oi/extras/09/Israel/16.jpg&imgre furl=http://www.davidicke.com/israel&usg=__HqYfHL abKU0lu7vjgjJjt1CnZL0=&h=512&w=826&sz=58&hl=en&st art=42&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=yZ6sn7oHs35teM:&tbnh=89& tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnorman%2Bfinkelstein% 26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_enGB355%26s a%3DN%26start%3D21%26um%3D1
Click on label below for more verses.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Friday, February 05, 2010
Islam and Suicide
What does Islam say about suicide?
Islam's philosophy of life and the values that it wants to promote are all based on a particular point of view regarding the life of this world. Islam holds the life of this world as a temporary testing time for humans.
For as long as one lives, he/she is being tested. The end of this temporary life is not the extinction of man. A person shall then open his/her eyes in another world. That world shall be place of reward and/or punishment for the deeds done in this life. The second life shall not be temporary in nature. The pleasures and pains of the second life shall last forever. In the life of this world, man is being tested with different kinds of situations - good times as well as bad times. The good times that come our way are not necessarily a reward and the hard times that we have to face are not necessarily a punishment. These are all primarily a part of the test.
The Qur'an says:
Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good, and to Us you will be returned. (Al-Anbiaa 21: 35)
".........Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful! " (An-Nisa 4:29)
"......if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind ...." (Surah Al Ma'idah 5:32)
For all the blessings that one enjoys in the life of this world, he/she is expected to be grateful to his/her Creator and to rejoice and proclaim His beneficence and providence. While during all the hard times that come his/her way, he/she is expected to be remain steadfast in Allah's obedience, never losing faith in His wisdom and mercy.
The beginning (i.e. the birth) and the end (i.e. the death) of this test for an individual is controlled by the Almighty Himself. He gives life and death to an individual according to His own absolute knowledge and wisdom.
Keeping the above explanation in mind, it should be easy to understand that Islam holds suicide to be haraam (i.e. prohibited). Suicide implies lack of trust in God and a lack of faith in His benevolence, mercy, love, wisdom and knowledge. In effect, suicide implies lack of faith in God Himself. When a person commits suicide, he/she practically declares that he/she does not believe that God knows about his/her sufferings, and if God has knowledge of his/her sufferings, he does not care enough to relieve him/her of these sufferings.
A person practically declares that God has unjustly inflicted pain upon him/her, which he/she is not willing to bear.
A person practically declares that he/she does not have faith, confidence and trust in the mercy and wisdom of God, as he/she does not have confidence that God will end his pain in time, and therefore he/she has to end his/her sufferings himself/herself (by taking his/her own life).
Thus, in effect, suicide - in most of the cases - is a clear sign of negation of the faith of a person in his Merciful, Omniscient and Wise Creator and is therefore prohibited in Islam.
Some sayings of the Prophet Mohammed(Peace be upon him) related to suicide:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling
himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 446)
Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak: The Prophet said, "Whoever intentionally swears falsely by a religion other than Islam, then he is what he has said, (e.g. if he says, 'If such thing is not true then I am a Jew,' he is really a Jew). And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire." Narrated Jundab the Prophet said, "A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 445 )
Please take some time to pass this on to Muslims and non-Muslims you know,
so that there is no misconception in people's mind regarding Islam or Muslims
on suicide.
© The Revival 2001
Islam's philosophy of life and the values that it wants to promote are all based on a particular point of view regarding the life of this world. Islam holds the life of this world as a temporary testing time for humans.
For as long as one lives, he/she is being tested. The end of this temporary life is not the extinction of man. A person shall then open his/her eyes in another world. That world shall be place of reward and/or punishment for the deeds done in this life. The second life shall not be temporary in nature. The pleasures and pains of the second life shall last forever. In the life of this world, man is being tested with different kinds of situations - good times as well as bad times. The good times that come our way are not necessarily a reward and the hard times that we have to face are not necessarily a punishment. These are all primarily a part of the test.
The Qur'an says:
Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good, and to Us you will be returned. (Al-Anbiaa 21: 35)
".........Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful! " (An-Nisa 4:29)
"......if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind ...." (Surah Al Ma'idah 5:32)
For all the blessings that one enjoys in the life of this world, he/she is expected to be grateful to his/her Creator and to rejoice and proclaim His beneficence and providence. While during all the hard times that come his/her way, he/she is expected to be remain steadfast in Allah's obedience, never losing faith in His wisdom and mercy.
The beginning (i.e. the birth) and the end (i.e. the death) of this test for an individual is controlled by the Almighty Himself. He gives life and death to an individual according to His own absolute knowledge and wisdom.
Keeping the above explanation in mind, it should be easy to understand that Islam holds suicide to be haraam (i.e. prohibited). Suicide implies lack of trust in God and a lack of faith in His benevolence, mercy, love, wisdom and knowledge. In effect, suicide implies lack of faith in God Himself. When a person commits suicide, he/she practically declares that he/she does not believe that God knows about his/her sufferings, and if God has knowledge of his/her sufferings, he does not care enough to relieve him/her of these sufferings.
A person practically declares that God has unjustly inflicted pain upon him/her, which he/she is not willing to bear.
A person practically declares that he/she does not have faith, confidence and trust in the mercy and wisdom of God, as he/she does not have confidence that God will end his pain in time, and therefore he/she has to end his/her sufferings himself/herself (by taking his/her own life).
Thus, in effect, suicide - in most of the cases - is a clear sign of negation of the faith of a person in his Merciful, Omniscient and Wise Creator and is therefore prohibited in Islam.
Some sayings of the Prophet Mohammed(Peace be upon him) related to suicide:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling
himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 446)
Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak: The Prophet said, "Whoever intentionally swears falsely by a religion other than Islam, then he is what he has said, (e.g. if he says, 'If such thing is not true then I am a Jew,' he is really a Jew). And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire." Narrated Jundab the Prophet said, "A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 445 )
Please take some time to pass this on to Muslims and non-Muslims you know,
so that there is no misconception in people's mind regarding Islam or Muslims
on suicide.
© The Revival 2001
The Prophets private life
The Private Life of The Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam
A Model of Perfection from Islamic Philosophy of Human Life
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri
The Qur'ân and Ahâdîth in various places state that the Book and the Messenger sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam are the best guidance for humankind. This model of perfection now has to be sought for. We find that the model of perfection is best illustrated through the personal and private life of the Holy Prophet:
Hadrat Khadîjah al-Kubrah radîyallâhu `anhâ was the most affluent lady in the whole of the Arab world. Her merchandise was even sold in the commercial centres of Syria. When she married the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam, she placed all her possessions at his disposal and made up her mind to spend all her wealth on his mission. Therefore, this marriage, in addition to other rewards and benefits, also introduced economic well-being into the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam.
The Qur'ân states in respect to this: "Allâh found you an orphan and made you wealthy. Now if an orphan comes to you, do not be annoyed with him and chide him not who asks (that is, give the one who asks whatever he wants) and keep proclaiming the bounty of your Lord."
The Qur'ân itself has furnished the proof of his affluence. But at the same time he is advised to adopt a mode of conduct and behaviour, which shall transform his private life into a universal model of perfection for the human race. The verse not only makes clear reference to his wealth, but also advises him to distribute the divine blessings among the needy and poor. A detailed study of his life reveals that he implemented this Qur'ânic advice in every aspect of his private life and distributed his wealth among the victims of want and destitution. In his obsession to help the needy and the destitute, he turned his own life into a tale of constant suffering: he would starve himself to feed the starving people he would go without bread to feed those who had no bread. If he found anyone in need of even a morsel of food, he would pass a morsel to him and would live on the pleasure of his Lord. But his sacrifice was not forced and constrained. Rather it was voluntary - a natural call of his soul, a cry of his conscience because he was charged with the fire of human service. And the way he helped humanity has no parallel in the history of human kind.
1. Nu`mân ibn Bashîr radîyallâhu `anhu narrates: "O people, is your food not enough for your needs? Surely, I have myself observed your Prophet. He rarely even had a dry date with which he could fill his stomach."
2. Hadrat `Â'îsha radîyallâhu `anhâ narrates: "The Holy Messenger of Allâh sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam till his death never had his fill even of the barley loaf on two consecutive days."
3. One day Hadrat Abû Hurayrah radîyallâhu `anhu met some people. They had cooked meat with them and invited him to share it. However, he apologetically declined the invitation and said: "How can I eat this meat? The mode of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam is before my eyes. He departed from this world in a state that he never even had his fill of bread made from barley."
4. Hadrat Abû Talha radîyallâhu `anhu narrates: "We went to Allâh's Messenger sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam and told him that we had gone without food for many days. Each one of us uncovered our bellies and showed him a stone tied to our stomachs. Upon seeing this, the Messenger of Allâh sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam lifted the piece of cloth from his stomach and we found that he had two stones tied to it (to liquidate the effects of starvation)."
The Holy Prophet never kept anything for later consumption.
5. Hadrat Anas radîyallâhu `anhu reports: "The Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam never saved anything for the next day."
At this point one may wonder what had happened to the wealth and capital he earned through trade, through the services rendered to Khadîja al-Kubrâ radîyallâhu `anhâ and as spoils of war. The simple answer is that he spent all of his wealth on the economic restoration and rehabilitation of the poor and needy. This act of benevolence and charity was not an occasional occurrence but was a permanent feature of his life. It was so thoroughly and consistently established in his life, that he himself starved in order to feed others. He would roam the narrow streets to settle others into pleasant places. He embraced poverty to rehabilitate the poverty stricken and impoverished people of the world. He went hungry to save those who were at the end of their resources. He kept a bare cupboard to set up the poor and destitute in well established settlements. In fact he preferred to spend the last penny in his pocket and the last crumb of food on his table on people who were in dire need of money and food. The motive behind this sacrifice was the sanctity of the individual. Man's greatest treasure is his self-respect. People who are hard pressed by adverse circumstances are in danger of losing their sense of self-respect. The Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam dedicated his entire life and wealth to the uplift and economic recuperation of the poverty stricken, destitute and broke people. What could be a greater and more glorious example of personal sacrifice than the one illustrated and sanctified by the mode of conduct of the Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam himself. Critics of Islâm who have scant knowledge of its fundamentals and of the life of its propagator, crack up socialism and downgrade Islâm. They should study in depth and without prejudice the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam and discover for themselves the radical justice of Islâm and the inexhaustible spirit and stock of charity and sacrifice which marked the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam.
A Model of Perfection from Islamic Philosophy of Human Life
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri
The Qur'ân and Ahâdîth in various places state that the Book and the Messenger sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam are the best guidance for humankind. This model of perfection now has to be sought for. We find that the model of perfection is best illustrated through the personal and private life of the Holy Prophet:
Hadrat Khadîjah al-Kubrah radîyallâhu `anhâ was the most affluent lady in the whole of the Arab world. Her merchandise was even sold in the commercial centres of Syria. When she married the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam, she placed all her possessions at his disposal and made up her mind to spend all her wealth on his mission. Therefore, this marriage, in addition to other rewards and benefits, also introduced economic well-being into the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam.
The Qur'ân states in respect to this: "Allâh found you an orphan and made you wealthy. Now if an orphan comes to you, do not be annoyed with him and chide him not who asks (that is, give the one who asks whatever he wants) and keep proclaiming the bounty of your Lord."
The Qur'ân itself has furnished the proof of his affluence. But at the same time he is advised to adopt a mode of conduct and behaviour, which shall transform his private life into a universal model of perfection for the human race. The verse not only makes clear reference to his wealth, but also advises him to distribute the divine blessings among the needy and poor. A detailed study of his life reveals that he implemented this Qur'ânic advice in every aspect of his private life and distributed his wealth among the victims of want and destitution. In his obsession to help the needy and the destitute, he turned his own life into a tale of constant suffering: he would starve himself to feed the starving people he would go without bread to feed those who had no bread. If he found anyone in need of even a morsel of food, he would pass a morsel to him and would live on the pleasure of his Lord. But his sacrifice was not forced and constrained. Rather it was voluntary - a natural call of his soul, a cry of his conscience because he was charged with the fire of human service. And the way he helped humanity has no parallel in the history of human kind.
1. Nu`mân ibn Bashîr radîyallâhu `anhu narrates: "O people, is your food not enough for your needs? Surely, I have myself observed your Prophet. He rarely even had a dry date with which he could fill his stomach."
2. Hadrat `Â'îsha radîyallâhu `anhâ narrates: "The Holy Messenger of Allâh sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam till his death never had his fill even of the barley loaf on two consecutive days."
3. One day Hadrat Abû Hurayrah radîyallâhu `anhu met some people. They had cooked meat with them and invited him to share it. However, he apologetically declined the invitation and said: "How can I eat this meat? The mode of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam is before my eyes. He departed from this world in a state that he never even had his fill of bread made from barley."
4. Hadrat Abû Talha radîyallâhu `anhu narrates: "We went to Allâh's Messenger sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam and told him that we had gone without food for many days. Each one of us uncovered our bellies and showed him a stone tied to our stomachs. Upon seeing this, the Messenger of Allâh sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam lifted the piece of cloth from his stomach and we found that he had two stones tied to it (to liquidate the effects of starvation)."
The Holy Prophet never kept anything for later consumption.
5. Hadrat Anas radîyallâhu `anhu reports: "The Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam never saved anything for the next day."
At this point one may wonder what had happened to the wealth and capital he earned through trade, through the services rendered to Khadîja al-Kubrâ radîyallâhu `anhâ and as spoils of war. The simple answer is that he spent all of his wealth on the economic restoration and rehabilitation of the poor and needy. This act of benevolence and charity was not an occasional occurrence but was a permanent feature of his life. It was so thoroughly and consistently established in his life, that he himself starved in order to feed others. He would roam the narrow streets to settle others into pleasant places. He embraced poverty to rehabilitate the poverty stricken and impoverished people of the world. He went hungry to save those who were at the end of their resources. He kept a bare cupboard to set up the poor and destitute in well established settlements. In fact he preferred to spend the last penny in his pocket and the last crumb of food on his table on people who were in dire need of money and food. The motive behind this sacrifice was the sanctity of the individual. Man's greatest treasure is his self-respect. People who are hard pressed by adverse circumstances are in danger of losing their sense of self-respect. The Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam dedicated his entire life and wealth to the uplift and economic recuperation of the poverty stricken, destitute and broke people. What could be a greater and more glorious example of personal sacrifice than the one illustrated and sanctified by the mode of conduct of the Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam himself. Critics of Islâm who have scant knowledge of its fundamentals and of the life of its propagator, crack up socialism and downgrade Islâm. They should study in depth and without prejudice the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam and discover for themselves the radical justice of Islâm and the inexhaustible spirit and stock of charity and sacrifice which marked the life of the Holy Prophet sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallam.
Friday, January 29, 2010
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