lots of replies...
How come the only way i can get people's attention is to be brutally truthful? I had more comments this time than i think i have ever had excpet for when Juju was born. I have been explaining Islam to everyone for a long time and if you read all the entrries you'd understand what I'm meaning and I hate writting hte same thigns over and over again but this time i will make an exception because i know how you all think of me as but you're all wrong and the reason taht your wrong is because you're basing your ideas off something you don't know the other side of. You dont know Islam and You dont know what it means and the sacrifices you ahve to give up for Islam but how worth it it is. I'm not done trying to give up things (like cussing) for the sake of Allah I keep trying. SOimetimes i Succeed and sometimes i dont. But I always try.
Reply to:
'But the last thing i want to say is that it's better to be a bad Muslim than a good Non-Muslim.' What do you mean? How can you say such a twisted thing like that? What defines bad and good? Not reglion. Any organized religion has faults because it was made up and it is administered by humans. Religion is based on fear - think about it for a minute.
Think about how many evil things has happened in the name of God and then tell me he (or she) is great. I trust you believe it and you are welcome to your religion ( for me it wouldn't matter wht religion you picked) they are all corrupt.
Why did you even visit America if we are all so evil and if Allah thinks the Muslum are the choosen people why are you so poor and the Americans so rich. Why are Americans rewarded and Muslims punished? These are serious questions and I am not meaning to be mean only to understand. I hope all is well and the Raja Shirley is in good health. Pamela
Now let me explain deeper the phrase a bad Muslim is better than a good non-Muslim since that is the source of so much anger. What defines good and bad IS GOD. No one else. Nothing else BUT GOD. For Islam is created BY GOD not by man. That is the point of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad recceived the Qur'an from GOD not from another man. God gave the Qur'an in parts to the angel Gabriel and Gabriel told it to Muhammad who sent it to his people the arabs. SO Islam is based from God's word and the rules of Islam come from the Qur'an. Our rules come from GOD. And only from GOD. Religion is not based on fear. Islam is based upon giving oneself to Allah and God's Rules. His NUMBER ONE RULE IS TO WORSHIP ONLY HIM WITHOUT PARTNERS OR ANYTHING NEXT TO HIM AS EQUAL, AND THAT HE IS IN NO PLACE AND IS NOT BOUND BY ANYTHING HE CREATED, AS IN HE IS NOT IN HEAVEN NOR ABOVE IT OR IN US OR IN THE TREES AND SUCH. Those that don't follow this number one rule will go to Hell. Because this is a crime of God not to believe this. This crime is worse than any crime man can do like steal, cuss, kill, lie, fornicate, adultery, etc.... so if you don't follow this number one rule it doesn't matter to God what else you do. SO even if you try to not do anything "wrong" in your life but you dont follow this number one rule you will still have to pay the price of the crime and the price is Hell.
Therefore a bad Muslim is better than a good non-Muslim because Even bad MUSLIMS follow the number one rule. THat's not to say if they steal and lie and kill they wont spend some time in hell maybe even 50 years but in the end they will be removed and purified once their crimes have been payed for. Those that break the number one rule will never leave Hell.
Yes people of all religions have done bad things in the name of religion and for their own reasons and this has nothing to do with God HimSelf. God IS Great and Powerful. He gives us the chance over and over and over to follow the number one rule. FOr example when people get into bad car recks and suddenly get religious they search out the truth some find islam and some find other things. They all ask that same first question "Why me?!?! WHat did I do to deserve this car wreck?" It is Allah's will for some bad things to happen to people so they can learn from them, those that are already Muslims beleive that bad things happen to help us remain firm in our faiths and if we accept the bad things with patience and faith we will get extra good things in Paradise.
I am so poor and the American's so rich because it's Allah's Will. I am being tested with Poorness and i accept that. I could at any second divorce my husband and marry a Saudi Prince it i wanted there are thousands of rich men that would love to marry an American. I CHOOSE to stay Poor by being true to my husband who happens to live in a country with a terrible economy. And America is so rich because for the most part it will do anything to stay rich. Look at Bush trying to control the oil in Iraq for instance no mater he's killing not only huis pown poeple but Iraqis and other Allies as well. Lets not go into Politics though. Many Muslims are Poor and Many are rich but they all are ebing tested by Allah in their own way. Like the Poor man may have 6 kids and no money and the rich man might be Bill Gates with no kids. It's all from ALLah. What you do with your money is waht matters, help the poor, help yourself learn what is the right things in the world, etc... And Allah has created hundred and thousands fo civilizations that rose to the highest hights and they were conquored by Allah's WIll by the poor poeple next door. ANd they in turn became rich and then were conquored. This is Life and Allah's Will. (This is IN the Qur'an by the way).
I visited America because that is where my Parents live. If they lived in Antartica that is where i'd visit them. My husband happens to live in Lebanon so that is where i live if he lived in China that is where i will live. A country is only as bad or as good as it's rulers and it's rulers beliefs. Saudi's rulers are corrupt and any other country and dont follow the real rules of Islam. It is them that is wrong and doign wrong not their religion and not GOD. GOD is never Wrong. Or else he wouldn't be GOd now would he? So even though people do bad things and profess to be from Islam doesn't mean ISlam is wrong because in the end it's the number one rule that matters not anything else.
FOr example I cuss (and have gotten a lot of grief for it) and I know it's a sin. My being bad is not because GOD is bad or Islam is bad it's because I'm bad for not obaying God's rules. But I have the correct beleif and I know that in the end I will cure myself of these bad things and be an even better person for it. I say shocking things to everyone in hopes that they will go searching for the truth themselves and really research things they are curious about. I dont' mind explaining things in detail for those that want to understand. But those comments that are barabric in style are really nothing but disagreeing in a bad way. ALthough I admit I've done commenting like that myself because sometimes we dont know how to express our anger properly. I think you yourself Pam have done that kind of comemnting to me before and I'm glad this time you're more trying to understand than judge. I want you guiys to understand Islam and the beauty of it and to realize that maybe the lives you think you're leading that are right may not be and you have the choice to change it if you want, and if you dont want to then at least you know your options.
As for the rest of my friends i know you all soemtimes are uncomfortable because of the topic of what i say and it's your right to be. But at least read what i say I'm not forcing you to be Muslim or to agree with me. You could spend all your day telling me about your religions and at the end of the day either i accpet them or I dont it's up to me. I'm just telling you waht i feel and what i think. Yes i rag about my life sometimes but at the end of the day of course I'm happy. ANd for the record my in-laws sometimes think I'm crazy because of the American things i do like drink cold water and eat ice cream in winter. Not because of my beliefs. They know I'm right and they can't say anything about that. We fight about how to raise children and relationship problems which is common in any society.
Rajaa is doing good and she's happy and learning to count to ten in Engliah and Arabic and she's singing her songs. She's also learning to recite Qur'an and she's trying to pray with us (we dont force her to she does it by herself because she sees us do it) Children dont have to pray formally until Puberty when they become accountable for their actions and beliefs.
Marisa you asked me about the burial rituals of Islam and first i think it's interesting we both have G-ma andersons. In Islam when someone dies we are told by GOD that their souls is taken out of them through the top of their heads AND IT HURTS AS IF A THOUSAND SWORDS WERE THRUST INTO YOUR HEAD. Then your soul is taken to be questioned about it's beliefs, who is God, what is your Prophet you followed, etc.. meanwhile the dead's family bends the body over the knee and removes the wastes like poop and pee and such. Then the body is washed from head to toes in the proper obligatory bath. Then the Body is wrapped in two or three clean sheets. If it's a woman the head is wrapped in an extra sheet like wearing hijab. if it's a man it's just wrapped once. Once covered the ends are twisted closed and the body is taken to the masjid (mosque) and set in the front of everyone. They all line up and pray a funeral prayer which differs slightly from the normal prayers. Then the body is taken to it's grave where the soul returns to it. The body is put in the deep grave with it's face facing the Qibla (the direction of prayers, which is the Kabaa in Mecca, SAudi Arabia) and then the dirt is put inside. Inside the grave the person is either tortured for it's sin by insects or angels ment for the task of torture. Or if they were very good people with few sins they are emnt to feel like their graves are large as rooms and they see their place in PAradise until the day of Judgement. We beleive that some bad Muslims are tortured in the grave for their small sins and then they go to Paradise and really bad Muslims are tortured and spend time in Hell before they go to Paradise. Meanwhile the family gathers at the dea's house and for three days they read Qur'an and make prayers for the dead and the dead';s family and anyone who knew the dead person comes to visit. After three days it isn't kind to tell someone you're sorry their relative died because after the third day ALlah says he seals the heart to the highest levels of grief and to remind the person is to remove the seal. Not that you can't keep grieving but it fades faster if others dont always tell you how sorry they are. Of course there are exceptions like if a person was traveling and didn't know and returned and then made condolances to the family. But we don't creamate the body at all. If for some reason like killed in a fire and there is no body we still pray and make a grave for that person's soul. To creamate the body is really a bad thing for us because we believe our bodies are loans to us from Allah. He has given us these bodies to use and we have to take good care of them and not put harmful or intoxicating substances in them and not to cut, burn, pierce, tatoo, etc... expect for cases of medical emergancies to save your life. SO to burn your body after your done with it's use is like someone loaning you a book and when you're finished with it you burn it instead of returning it. Seems kinda pointless. SO those that have no bodies or are creamated on the day of Judgement will be given their bodies back made anew by Allah for either their time in Paradise or Hell. It's easy for Allah to make them new again. In Hell people's bodies will be burned and frozen and their skin will come off and Allah will make them new skins to be burned or froze or tortured again and again for eternity.
I want to make another small point: If you ask a fetus or baby in it's Mother's tummy if there is a life after the womb it will say of course not because it doesn't know anything about the outside world. How could it unless someone when in there to tell it. IN this life we are preparing for the next life which is Paradise for those that follow the Number One rule. We only know of the next life to come because Prophets have receieved word or Orders from Allah through the Angels or in case of Moses directly. We have been told of the next life and it's our duty to prepare for it. If we could tell New borns in ways they know to prepare for this life they might come out knowing how to walk and talk faster. But we can't but we can change ourselves for the next life.
Poeple wonder what this life's purpose is and Islam teaches(from GOD) that it is to Worship God and Only God and to follow the instructions from the Prophets who were instructed by GOD. Nothing else matters. Not your fight with your mother not your going to college not your children and not your spouses and certainly not your money. In the end it is just you worshiping God. On the day of Judgement your family can't help you. It is your own deeds that send you to the Good or the bad. ANd hopefully you made good ULTAMATE decisions.
Reply to:
'But the last thing i want to say is that it's better to be a bad Muslim than a good Non-Muslim.' What do you mean? How can you say such a twisted thing like that? What defines bad and good? Not reglion. Any organized religion has faults because it was made up and it is administered by humans. Religion is based on fear - think about it for a minute.
Think about how many evil things has happened in the name of God and then tell me he (or she) is great. I trust you believe it and you are welcome to your religion ( for me it wouldn't matter wht religion you picked) they are all corrupt.
Why did you even visit America if we are all so evil and if Allah thinks the Muslum are the choosen people why are you so poor and the Americans so rich. Why are Americans rewarded and Muslims punished? These are serious questions and I am not meaning to be mean only to understand. I hope all is well and the Raja Shirley is in good health. Pamela
Now let me explain deeper the phrase a bad Muslim is better than a good non-Muslim since that is the source of so much anger. What defines good and bad IS GOD. No one else. Nothing else BUT GOD. For Islam is created BY GOD not by man. That is the point of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad recceived the Qur'an from GOD not from another man. God gave the Qur'an in parts to the angel Gabriel and Gabriel told it to Muhammad who sent it to his people the arabs. SO Islam is based from God's word and the rules of Islam come from the Qur'an. Our rules come from GOD. And only from GOD. Religion is not based on fear. Islam is based upon giving oneself to Allah and God's Rules. His NUMBER ONE RULE IS TO WORSHIP ONLY HIM WITHOUT PARTNERS OR ANYTHING NEXT TO HIM AS EQUAL, AND THAT HE IS IN NO PLACE AND IS NOT BOUND BY ANYTHING HE CREATED, AS IN HE IS NOT IN HEAVEN NOR ABOVE IT OR IN US OR IN THE TREES AND SUCH. Those that don't follow this number one rule will go to Hell. Because this is a crime of God not to believe this. This crime is worse than any crime man can do like steal, cuss, kill, lie, fornicate, adultery, etc.... so if you don't follow this number one rule it doesn't matter to God what else you do. SO even if you try to not do anything "wrong" in your life but you dont follow this number one rule you will still have to pay the price of the crime and the price is Hell.
Therefore a bad Muslim is better than a good non-Muslim because Even bad MUSLIMS follow the number one rule. THat's not to say if they steal and lie and kill they wont spend some time in hell maybe even 50 years but in the end they will be removed and purified once their crimes have been payed for. Those that break the number one rule will never leave Hell.
Yes people of all religions have done bad things in the name of religion and for their own reasons and this has nothing to do with God HimSelf. God IS Great and Powerful. He gives us the chance over and over and over to follow the number one rule. FOr example when people get into bad car recks and suddenly get religious they search out the truth some find islam and some find other things. They all ask that same first question "Why me?!?! WHat did I do to deserve this car wreck?" It is Allah's will for some bad things to happen to people so they can learn from them, those that are already Muslims beleive that bad things happen to help us remain firm in our faiths and if we accept the bad things with patience and faith we will get extra good things in Paradise.
I am so poor and the American's so rich because it's Allah's Will. I am being tested with Poorness and i accept that. I could at any second divorce my husband and marry a Saudi Prince it i wanted there are thousands of rich men that would love to marry an American. I CHOOSE to stay Poor by being true to my husband who happens to live in a country with a terrible economy. And America is so rich because for the most part it will do anything to stay rich. Look at Bush trying to control the oil in Iraq for instance no mater he's killing not only huis pown poeple but Iraqis and other Allies as well. Lets not go into Politics though. Many Muslims are Poor and Many are rich but they all are ebing tested by Allah in their own way. Like the Poor man may have 6 kids and no money and the rich man might be Bill Gates with no kids. It's all from ALLah. What you do with your money is waht matters, help the poor, help yourself learn what is the right things in the world, etc... And Allah has created hundred and thousands fo civilizations that rose to the highest hights and they were conquored by Allah's WIll by the poor poeple next door. ANd they in turn became rich and then were conquored. This is Life and Allah's Will. (This is IN the Qur'an by the way).
I visited America because that is where my Parents live. If they lived in Antartica that is where i'd visit them. My husband happens to live in Lebanon so that is where i live if he lived in China that is where i will live. A country is only as bad or as good as it's rulers and it's rulers beliefs. Saudi's rulers are corrupt and any other country and dont follow the real rules of Islam. It is them that is wrong and doign wrong not their religion and not GOD. GOD is never Wrong. Or else he wouldn't be GOd now would he? So even though people do bad things and profess to be from Islam doesn't mean ISlam is wrong because in the end it's the number one rule that matters not anything else.
FOr example I cuss (and have gotten a lot of grief for it) and I know it's a sin. My being bad is not because GOD is bad or Islam is bad it's because I'm bad for not obaying God's rules. But I have the correct beleif and I know that in the end I will cure myself of these bad things and be an even better person for it. I say shocking things to everyone in hopes that they will go searching for the truth themselves and really research things they are curious about. I dont' mind explaining things in detail for those that want to understand. But those comments that are barabric in style are really nothing but disagreeing in a bad way. ALthough I admit I've done commenting like that myself because sometimes we dont know how to express our anger properly. I think you yourself Pam have done that kind of comemnting to me before and I'm glad this time you're more trying to understand than judge. I want you guiys to understand Islam and the beauty of it and to realize that maybe the lives you think you're leading that are right may not be and you have the choice to change it if you want, and if you dont want to then at least you know your options.
As for the rest of my friends i know you all soemtimes are uncomfortable because of the topic of what i say and it's your right to be. But at least read what i say I'm not forcing you to be Muslim or to agree with me. You could spend all your day telling me about your religions and at the end of the day either i accpet them or I dont it's up to me. I'm just telling you waht i feel and what i think. Yes i rag about my life sometimes but at the end of the day of course I'm happy. ANd for the record my in-laws sometimes think I'm crazy because of the American things i do like drink cold water and eat ice cream in winter. Not because of my beliefs. They know I'm right and they can't say anything about that. We fight about how to raise children and relationship problems which is common in any society.
Rajaa is doing good and she's happy and learning to count to ten in Engliah and Arabic and she's singing her songs. She's also learning to recite Qur'an and she's trying to pray with us (we dont force her to she does it by herself because she sees us do it) Children dont have to pray formally until Puberty when they become accountable for their actions and beliefs.
Marisa you asked me about the burial rituals of Islam and first i think it's interesting we both have G-ma andersons. In Islam when someone dies we are told by GOD that their souls is taken out of them through the top of their heads AND IT HURTS AS IF A THOUSAND SWORDS WERE THRUST INTO YOUR HEAD. Then your soul is taken to be questioned about it's beliefs, who is God, what is your Prophet you followed, etc.. meanwhile the dead's family bends the body over the knee and removes the wastes like poop and pee and such. Then the body is washed from head to toes in the proper obligatory bath. Then the Body is wrapped in two or three clean sheets. If it's a woman the head is wrapped in an extra sheet like wearing hijab. if it's a man it's just wrapped once. Once covered the ends are twisted closed and the body is taken to the masjid (mosque) and set in the front of everyone. They all line up and pray a funeral prayer which differs slightly from the normal prayers. Then the body is taken to it's grave where the soul returns to it. The body is put in the deep grave with it's face facing the Qibla (the direction of prayers, which is the Kabaa in Mecca, SAudi Arabia) and then the dirt is put inside. Inside the grave the person is either tortured for it's sin by insects or angels ment for the task of torture. Or if they were very good people with few sins they are emnt to feel like their graves are large as rooms and they see their place in PAradise until the day of Judgement. We beleive that some bad Muslims are tortured in the grave for their small sins and then they go to Paradise and really bad Muslims are tortured and spend time in Hell before they go to Paradise. Meanwhile the family gathers at the dea's house and for three days they read Qur'an and make prayers for the dead and the dead';s family and anyone who knew the dead person comes to visit. After three days it isn't kind to tell someone you're sorry their relative died because after the third day ALlah says he seals the heart to the highest levels of grief and to remind the person is to remove the seal. Not that you can't keep grieving but it fades faster if others dont always tell you how sorry they are. Of course there are exceptions like if a person was traveling and didn't know and returned and then made condolances to the family. But we don't creamate the body at all. If for some reason like killed in a fire and there is no body we still pray and make a grave for that person's soul. To creamate the body is really a bad thing for us because we believe our bodies are loans to us from Allah. He has given us these bodies to use and we have to take good care of them and not put harmful or intoxicating substances in them and not to cut, burn, pierce, tatoo, etc... expect for cases of medical emergancies to save your life. SO to burn your body after your done with it's use is like someone loaning you a book and when you're finished with it you burn it instead of returning it. Seems kinda pointless. SO those that have no bodies or are creamated on the day of Judgement will be given their bodies back made anew by Allah for either their time in Paradise or Hell. It's easy for Allah to make them new again. In Hell people's bodies will be burned and frozen and their skin will come off and Allah will make them new skins to be burned or froze or tortured again and again for eternity.
I want to make another small point: If you ask a fetus or baby in it's Mother's tummy if there is a life after the womb it will say of course not because it doesn't know anything about the outside world. How could it unless someone when in there to tell it. IN this life we are preparing for the next life which is Paradise for those that follow the Number One rule. We only know of the next life to come because Prophets have receieved word or Orders from Allah through the Angels or in case of Moses directly. We have been told of the next life and it's our duty to prepare for it. If we could tell New borns in ways they know to prepare for this life they might come out knowing how to walk and talk faster. But we can't but we can change ourselves for the next life.
Poeple wonder what this life's purpose is and Islam teaches(from GOD) that it is to Worship God and Only God and to follow the instructions from the Prophets who were instructed by GOD. Nothing else matters. Not your fight with your mother not your going to college not your children and not your spouses and certainly not your money. In the end it is just you worshiping God. On the day of Judgement your family can't help you. It is your own deeds that send you to the Good or the bad. ANd hopefully you made good ULTAMATE decisions.