Religious Discussion and Q&A Thread

[amar_kun]

Since this is a manga forum, it was decided to limit the number of discussion thread concerning relatively sensitive subjects (i.e.: religions, government/politics, multi-national corporations, etc.). Thus, I merged the existing Islam Q&A Thread and Christian Q&A Thread into Religious Discussion and Q&A Thread.
And I would also like to remind everyone to keep it peaceful and friendly, there will be no bashing or making any ambiguous statement here. Keep it nice and clean, ok?

Thanks
Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

P.S.: Sorry for hijacking your post, amar.

Assalamu alaykum (May Peace be Upon thee) everyone!

I am Amar, and I am one of your friendly muslim forumers. Feel free to ask me anything about Islam or Muslim. I will try my best to answer your queries! Cheers

To all other muslim forumers out there, feel free to to come here to help me answer the questions or just hang out here with me!

update~

btw i've found a link to an online book titled "A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam" This book is quite popular as it always be given free copies in nearly all 'introducing islam exibition'. hope you all enjoy it

weblink : http://www.islam-guide.com/

pdf link : http://www.islam-guide.com/islam-guide.pdf

Well, having amar-kun posting a Islam Q&A, I think that MH deserves a thread on Christianity too. We are looking for mutual understanding here, aren't we? I am not a pastor or a Christian scholar, but I will try my best to answer any questions that you have. Other Christians are welcomed to answer the questions too.

[Az3r]

Alaikum salaam...

I just want to say good job, Amar. I hope this thread can be a way to change the perspective of Islam by non-moslem people after so many misperception, and for moslems to show that you are proud of being one.

[amar_kun]

welcome to the thread Az3r.. i hope the existance of this thread will make the brotherhood in islam between us stronger, regardless location, race, language barrier that we have.. because we share one thing in common, and it is the most important thing in our life.. OUR FAITH

[PaperYomiko]

Hi amar-kun, nice thread. It's true, there are a lot of misconceptions about Islam. I was in a class once, and a girl asked the professor, 'Wait, so where is Islam?' She thought it was a country... *sigh*

But anyway, I do have some questions for you

The first, I took a class with a very good English professor (same one as above, actually) who is Muslim, and she told me her greatest trouble is balancing her faith with her job, everyday life, etc - she never has time to pray...five times a day, I think it is? And her mom always got mad at her for that. So anyway how do you balance everything? Do you have time to pray everyday, and how often do you go to mosque?

The second question is, can you read Arabic? Or speak it? I've heard it's very difficult to learn, but I think it's a very pretty language

I may think of more questions, but right now I need some dinner

[amar_kun]

Hm.. thanks for your question! okay, i will try my best to aswer it .

before i answer ur question, let me tell you the history of our prayers.

during the first 11 years of prophethood, there is no 5 compulsory prayers like we have today. during that time, prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) and his followers only pray twice a day (just like his great-great-great grandfather, prophet Abraham did); 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening. this may be because many of the followers are oppressed by the unbelievers. so they have to hide whenever they wanna pray.

however, 1 night Angel Gabriel went down to earth and meet prophet at his house. then the historical journey of Isra' Mikraj happened. Isra' means the journey of Prophet Muhammed and Gabriel from Mecca to Jurasalem. Mikraj means their journey from earth in Jurasalem to the 7th Heaven to meet God Almighty. there is a very interesting story about this journey, i hope you all can read it during your freetime in the internet.

back to the topic, when Prophet Muhammed met God, He asked Muhammed and his followers to pray 50 times a day. Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) accept it and going back down to earth. However, in his way down, he met Prophet Moses (pbuh) in heaven. And Moses said "Ask for reduce. I'm sure your people unable to do it". So prophet Muhammed asked for reduce and God reduce it to 5 times a day. Since that night, all muslim pray 5 times a day.

in my opinion, it was not too hard to pray 5 times a day. every prayer has its own fixed time, so you can plan your activities around the prayers. there are:
1) fajar (morning) prayer. i usually pray this when i woke up from sleep. usually at 6.00 am
2) zuhur (mid-noon) prayer. i usually pray this just before having my lunch. usually at 1.20 pm
3) asr (noon) prayer. i usually pray this just before i'm going to play soccer. usually at 5.00 pm.
4) maghrib (evening) prayer. i usually pray this just after having my bath. usually at 7.30 pm
5) isha' (night) prayer. i usually pray this just after having my dinner. usually at 9.00 pm

so basically, my live evolve around my prayer. so if a muslim pray 5 times a day, he/she will be very God conscious because all of their time are just an interval between his/her prayer. i personally think this will make be a very discipline person as my life is already scheduled around my prayer.

however, if you overslept, unconscious, or unintentionally missed your prayer, you are allowed to do it (i.e repay) again. no problem in that

as for me, when i was young, i just pray once or twice a day. however, i started to pray 5 times a day when i was in a boarding school. i was 13 then. until today, i tried my best not too miss my daily prayer. my hostel is quite near to Leeds Grand Mosque. I pray there for my Asr, maghrib and isha' prayer. at noon i am in my university and i eat and pray there.we muslim eat halal food and there is quite hard to find delicious halal food in campus except in the prayer room. for Fajar, usually i just pray in my own room.

for the second question, the answer is yes, i can read arabic fluently. back in malaysia, we were thought to read arabic alphabet as early as when we started to read ABC in school. We must know to read in arabic because our holy book, the Koran (alQuran) is written in arabic. even though there are many translations of Koran, but there is only ONE version of it, and it is in arabic. there is not a single word has been change in Koran since the day of Prophet Muhammed spread Islam which is about 1400 years ago.

however, i only learnt how to read arabic, not to learn the language itself. this is because in malaysia, we have 2 types of school: 1) science school 2) religious school. those who in science school learn english and science, and when they excell they go uni in US, UK, Canada etc etc. for those who in religious school, they learn Arabic, AlQuran, Islamic Law and when they excell they when to Saudi, Egypt, Syria etc etc. so the main point is, i can read arabic but cannot understand it. lol. shame on me. however now that i'm in uk and i have a lot of friends who converse in arabic, i started to learn a few simple words from them. InsyaAllah (with God will) i will try to take arabic class during the summer break.

i hope this will satisfy your query. dont be shy to ask any other questions.

[Ichimaru Gin n Tonic]

And it's not that hard to spare 10 minutes for 5 times a day to pray. I used to missed it alot, intentionally, because i was too lazy. But now, praying doesnt feel hard at all or like a waste of time.

[amar_kun]

And it's not that hard to spare 10 minutes for 5 times a day to pray. I used to missed it alot, intentionally, because i was too lazy. But now, praying doesnt feel hard at all or like a waste of time.

yeah.. very true Ichimaru Gin n Tonic. the prayers do not take too much time. it also can be done anywhere you like. at your office, your school, your house, and even near your football pitch!

[PaperYomiko]

Thanks for the info guys! I think I've heard about the fifty prayers before, but I can't remember where. Anyway, I suppose if you can find the time for your daily prayers, I don't have much of an excuse not to meditate everyday

By the way, what is halal food?

[rabb]

Alaikum salaam

I'm glad that someone made a thread like this; in my personal opinion, there is far too much ignorance displayed in people nowadays towards people in other religions. As an American, I was pretty much brainwashed by the media and teachers (since the first world trade center bombings back in.... I want to say '93, but I'm not sure if that's right) that all Muslims are evil, and hate us, and whatnot. after 2001, it got a lot worse, as you can imagine, but fortunately i had a history teacher that taught me to use my own brain instead of mindlessly accepting what i hear from other people. I eventually took an interest in learning other religions (nowadays, I count Christianity as "other", because my own beliefs are too separated from theirs), but I'm a lazy guy, so it wasn't exactly the most active interest ever. so i have a few questions for you. it's kinda late right now, so i can only remember one, but i thought of couple others while reading about your prayers my first question (a two parter) is what does the Koran say about the pilgrimage to Mecca, and what happens if a person doesn't make that trip before they die? like a teenager killed in a car crash or something?

now, if I read right, you make the pilgrimage to Mecca, because the prophets (peace be upon them) *feels slightly weird for having said that. like an atheist who crosses them self at a church since everyone else does it* made the journey to Jerusalem. if thats the case, why must you journey to Mecca instead of Jerusalem?

an finally (for now >_>: "peace be upon him", do you say that because they are prophets, or because they are dead?
in the south they have this thing about saying "bless his/her soul". you can pretty much insult anyone, as long as you end it with "bless their soul". not even close, i know, but i thought I'd mention it.


assalamu alaykum and alikum salaam are the only Islamic phrases I know >_>. you can thank the movie Kingdom of Heaven for that >_> and even from that, i only knew the pronunciation, I'm coping the spelling from you guys. also, I'm sorry if my ignorance offended you in anyway. also, i was told my handle, Rabb, means Lord, or Allah, or something similar, in Islamic. if it does, please understand i don't mean to be assuming, nor did i choose this name for that reason. I've actually been using it since back when i thought y'all were evil. <_<;

[amar_kun]

halal food is food which is permissible to eat for muslim. actually we muslim can eat nearly everything that the others eat except for a few condition

1) All meat (chicken, cow, goat, sheep, etc) must be slaughtered using the name of Lord. So we can eat meat slaughtered by Muslims, Jews and Christians
2) no pork
3) Blood
4) fanged, clawed, beast who is carnivore
5) alcohol

actually, during the time of prophet and companion, they just follow the rules without knowing the science behind it. they do it because God says so in alQuran. however with the technology we got nowadays, the scientists were able to do experiment about the logic behind the slaughter.

to put it simply, mammals contain uric acid in their blood. and uric acid is not good for ur health. so by slaughtering them, 98% of uric acid will come out from their artery and vein at their neck.. so we will get rid of uric acid and it will be much healthier for us.

secondly, by slaughtering the animals, their blood will rush out of their vein and this will reduce their pain to minimum. blood then will not reach their brain and by the time they dead do dont even realize it since it will be very painless death. anyway, that's what i read in a newspaper article a few years back.

about alcohol, i think everybody knows the hazard effect of drinking it excessively.. while there is a good benefit to drink little alcohol (like increasing ur high density cholestrol, good for ur heart) but i'm afraid nearly all people never follow the recommended weekly alcohol intake. most people just drink beyond the limit. in UK only, the NHS (national health service) have to pay 10 billion pounds for alcohol related disease. wow..

---

ok now let's start answering your question.

what does the Koran say about the pilgrimage to Mecca, and what happens if a person doesn't make that trip before they die? like a teenager killed in a car crash or something?

pilgrimage is an important act of worship to us and it is one of 5 pillars of Islam. Since it will be quite incomplete if I answer it without saying the other four, so I will tell you about the other pillars of Islam as well.

i cant find any quranic verse for this, but there is a lot of Prophetic saying (sunnah) about this matter. the sayings goes like this:

on the authority of Omar, who said : One day while we were sitting with the messenger of Allah there appeared before us a man whose clothes were exceedingly white and whose hair was exceedingly black; no signs of journeying were to be seen on him and none of us knew him. He walked up and sat down by the prophet. Resting his knees against his and placing the palms of his hands on his thighs, he said:"O Muhammed, tell me about Islam". The messenger of Allah said: "Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammed is the messenger of Allah, to perform the prayers, to pay the zakat, to fast in Ramadhan, and to make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to do so." He said:"You have spoken rightly", and we were amazed at him asking him and saying that he had spoken rightly. He said: "Then tell me about eman ."He said:"It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and to believe in divine destiny, both the good and the evil thereof." He said:"You have spoken rightly". He said: " Then tell me about ehsan ." He said: "It is to worship Allah as though you are seeing Him, and while you see Him not yet truly He sees you". He said: "Then tell me about the Hour". He said: "The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner." He said: "Then tell me about its signs." He said: "That the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress and that you will see the barefooted, naked, destitute herdsman competing in constructing lofty buildings." Then he took himself off and I stayed for a time. Then he said: "O Omar, do you know who the questioner was?" I said: "Allah and His messenger know best". He said: "He was Jebreel (Gabriel), who came to you to teach you your religion."

narrated by Muslim

so there is 5 main act of worship in the life of muslim
1. testimony of faith "there is no God but God, and Muhammed is His messenger
2. pray 5 times a day
3. pay the zakat (it's paying some of your money to the rulers. and the ruler will use it to give to the poor. it's about 2.5% of your annual income.)
4. Fast in Ramadhan, the fasting month
5. pilgrimage to the House of God (Kaabah, in Mecca)

okay, not let me explain to you about #5. actually as it is told in the Hadith (prophet sayings), pilgrimage is only compulsory if you are able to do so. there is also a very strict impertation of 'being able to do so'. being able means you are able to do it financially (with your own earn hard money), health, and travelling companion (for women).

so it is ok not do pilgrimage if you are not able to do so. so if you die before doing this, it wont be a sin for you. besides, the compulsion of pilgrimage came 20 years after spread of islam. so what happens to the muslims who die before that? will they be sinned for not doing pilgrimage? nope.

there is a reason in everything you do in islam. the scholars have listed a few reason for pilgrimage.

1) for the unity of all muslim. on that day, all muslim from all across the world regardless their race, language, colour, assembled together, wearing the same kind of cloth, doing same kind of worship. on that day, king has no privillage over a citizent. everyone is equal (this phenomenon has change the view of a great muslim thinker, malcolm X about racism which he endured during his life).

2) to unite ourself with the prophet before Muhammed pbuh. actually Kaabah was built by prophet Abraham pbuh and prophet Ishmael. they built it because God asked them so that all believers will have the same destination whenever they prostrate to God. It is also said that 90 degrees above Kaabah, far far up away, there is located 7th heaven where God Almighty resides. so by visiting Mecca, muslims will realize that this religion is not another new religion but a continuation of prophets from Adam pbuh until Muhammed.

there is a few other reasons but i think this is what i could gather up for now. i hope other fellow muslims could some more add to the list

if thats the case, why must you journey to Mecca instead of Jerusalem?

this question is quite hard to just answer it in simple word. i will try my best to answer it.

jerusalem is considered one of most holiest place in islam. it is the place of birth of many prophets. this is because, before prophet Muhammed came, Israelite are the chosen people to convey the message of God to humanity. So many prophet came to them and guide them to the straight path. however, they kinda rebellious against many prophet, and they kill quite a number of them. God get angry to the Israelite and He send a final prophet, but not from israelite anymore, but from arabs. However, Muhammed came not only for arabs, but he came for all mankind. Since this is a religion of God, so one cannot be a racist by just conveying the message only to your own race.

in the beginning of islam, God ask prophet and his follower to pray in the direction of Jerusalem. even though Kaaba is the house of God built by Abraham, the pagan arab ruled mecca at that time, and they put a lot of statues all over Kaabah and worship them. since many of the followers are paganist before, so God asked them to postrate to the direction of Jerusalem, the place of the prophets, so that they dont mix belief of postrating towards statues which they did before they convert to islam. God want to purify their heart and postrate only to Him.

however the jewish priest in Medina start to mock prophet because he pray the same direction as they are, jerusalem. a few years after that, when the belief is strong enough in the heart of the muslim, God asked them to change the direction to Kaabah in Mecca again. Since now their faith is strong, so they will not mix up again with their paganist tradition which they did before Islam. however, a few years after that, Muslim conquered Mecca and purify the Kaabah of all the statues. Since then there is no longer statue in Kaabah.

"peace be upon him", do you say that because they are prophets, or because they are dead?

we say that because they are prophets. this is kind a respect we pay to them for the efforts they made and challenges they have to face in order to spread the words of God.

by the way, i enjoyed watching 'Kingdom of Heaven'. i am a big fan of Saladin and I hope there will be more films of Saladin coming out. and yes you are right about rabb means Lord/God. it's ok with me for you to use that nickname. it is the intention which is counts.

[Ichimaru Gin n Tonic]

CMIIW, but most amphibious creatures (turtles, crocodiles, frogs) are also forbidden to be eaten, but it does not apply to lobster, shrimps. Insects are also forbidden, but (also cmiiw) locust are ok.

And the financially capable for pilgrimage means that (1) you must be able to pay for your trip, (2) you must be able to pay for your living expenses during the pilgrimage and (3) you must be able to ensure the welfare of the people that you left during the pilgrimage (i.e.: parents leaving their children to go to Mecca).

[amar_kun]

thanx Gin kun for putting up the points that i forgot.. it always nice to have somebody to back you up.. one hug for you

[Azurel]

halal food is food which is permissible to eat for muslim. actually we muslim can eat nearly everything that the others eat except for a few condition

1) All meat (chicken, cow, goat, sheep, etc) must be slaughtered using the name of Lord. So we can eat meat slaughtered by Muslims, Jews and Christians
2) no pork
3) Blood
4) fanged, clawed, beast who is carnivore
5) alcohol

w'salam

I thought I share mine ^^

-Prohibition of animals that are considered repulsive
Examples: Lice, flies, maggots and other similar animals
(so you can't take part in Fear Factor )
-Prohibition of animals that live on both land and in water
Examples: frogs, certain crab, certain turtles and crocodiles
-Prohibition of pests
Examples: Rats, centipedes, scorpions and other similar animals.
(Again, no Fear Factor!!)
-Prohibition of animals forbidden to be killed in Islam
Examples: Ants, bees and woodpeckers.
-Prohibition of carnivorous animals and birds of prey
Examples: Lion, tiger, eagle etc
-Prohibition of any alcohol
Examples: wine, liquor, alcohol, beer, champagne, vodka regardless of whether it is taken in small or large portions
-Prohibition of blood
>.> You can't drink blood so NO VAMPIRISM ALLOWED
-Prohibition of carrion
Can't eat meat of animals which died of natural cause or accidents so no roadkills for dinner
-Prohibition of swine or any ingredients from it
No pork, ham, pork oil etc

[TechnoMagus]

Oh, a nice thread!

Peace be upon you and on his Prophet's Name.
Ok, some questions....

1) Catholics have Scripture and Tradition part of their faith. I believe you also have your counterparts? In fact I find it quite troublesome when some extremists insist that some customs and tradition are implied to have been written in the Qur'an. Could you give some examples of Islamic tradition that seems to have been ingrained and treated as canon from the holy book? (like the thousand virgins in paradise? how about male circumcision and shaving of pubic areas?) How rigidly must Traditions be followed?

2) How is it economically feasible to print the holy book and not pay for it?

3) Halal is also much similar to kosher food by the Jews, so you can eat also kosher food too? In fact I think with the exception of the alcoholic prohibition, kosher is much stricter than halal (no meat dishes with milk, no cooking utensils which have been cooked with non-kosher food and no scaleless fish) but i'm not a Jew so I'm not so sure....

4) What are the consequences for "accidentally" eating pork and non-halal food? Particularly, some Moslems i knew (males) are particularly "weak" on the alcoholic prohibition...

5) Are we non-Moslems still on the pain of death for entering the holy cities of Mecca and Medina?

6) Are there any other sects besides the Sunni and Shia's ? How different are these other sects?

[amar_kun]

Oh, a nice thread!

Peace be upon you and on his Prophet's Name.

Peace be upon you, TechnoMagus

Ok, some questions....

1) Catholics have Scripture and Tradition part of their faith. I believe you also have your counterparts? In fact I find it quite troublesome when some extremists insist that some customs and tradition are implied to have been written in the Qur'an. Could you give some examples of Islamic tradition that seems to have been ingrained and treated as canon from the holy book? (like the thousand virgins in paradise? how about male circumcision and shaving of pubic areas?) How rigidly must Traditions be followed?

Actually there is a huge debate about tradition/cultures of the Muslim, and how they try to label it as ISLAM. actually this gave problems not only to non-muslim but also to muslim themselves.

to put it simply, Islam accepts anything good from the culture as long as it does not against the teachings of Islam. however re-labelling one culture as islam cant be tolerated as it will give confusion to everybody, whether they are muslim or non-muslim.

i found a good video in youtube concerning this issue. i hope you will take your time watch this because the commentator talk various aspects of this issue in a funny and interesting way. Culture vs Islam - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT3ol-iuCGU

2) How is it economically feasible to print the holy book and not pay for it?

i am not so sure about it. usually we just bought it at the islamic bookshop and it cost us about 5 pounds or less. however during islamic expo or islamic awareness week in university or college, free copies of alQuran with translation will be distributed to people. currently the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible of printing all the alQuran with translation in various langauge (Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Latin, Korean, Malay etc etc). All of them is free.

3) Halal is also much similar to kosher food by the Jews, so you can eat also kosher food too? In fact I think with the exception of the alcoholic prohibition, kosher is much stricter than halal (no meat dishes with milk, no cooking utensils which have been cooked with non-kosher food and no scaleless fish) but i'm not a Jew so I'm not so sure....

Yes, halal food is very similar to kosher. In fact, kosher food has stricter rules than halal. So there is no problem for a Muslim to eat kosher food, except that kosher food cost a bit expensive than halal food. (i know about this from a jewish friend in my course in uni)

4) What are the consequences for "accidentally" eating pork and non-halal food? Particularly, some Moslems i knew (males) are particularly "weak" on the alcoholic prohibition...

Err, what do you mean by 'accidentally'? if that means unintentionally, then you will be forgiven for what you've done. However, if you intentionally doing it over and over again, then it is a sin for you. And you must repent for the sin and swear not to do it again. God will always accept a sincere repentance from His devoter. As the prophet pbuh said, "God will never bored to accept repentance of a devoter until the devoter itself bored to repent"

5) Are we non-Moslems still on the pain of death for entering the holy cities of Mecca and Medina?

I am not too sure about that. This rules only started by the government of Saudi Arabia a few years ago.

Actually, during prophet Muhammed pbuh times and generations that follows, non-muslim are free to stay in Mecca and Medina. Even during the conquer of holy city of Mecca (on the year 630 AD, 22 years after prophethood) Muhammed pbuh said, "Today I forgive all your sins against me, and you are free to stay here or to leave". Remember that all the Mecca people at that time, the pagans, used to torture and kill Muslim which made them to migrate to Medina. However the prophet hold no grudge against them and this touch the hearts some of them and made them to revert to islam

i still dont have the opportunity to go to mecca, so if i got the opportunity to go there one day, i'll try to ask the imigration office the logic behind not allowing non-muslim from entering mecca.

update~

i've found a cool link in youtube. it's a documentary by discovery channel about mecca. Enjoy!
Link: The Discovery Channel : Inside Mecca

6) Are there any other sects besides the Sunni and Shia's ? How different are these other sects?

Basically the two are the biggest sect in Islam. Since I am a Sunni, I will tell you abit about the sunnis. We have 4 biggest school of jurispundence/Imams. Basically our faith is still the same, but we only differs in very very small issues like how to take ablution, how to put our hand during prayers.

Wallahu'alam bissawab (God knows best what is correct)
wow! there is more and more people coming to this thread. i am sooo happy