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Reverting to Islam



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Ehres

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Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Just saying, to get it out of the way, I wasn't intending to slander the Church (regardless of denomination), and I'm not making this thread about Christianity. I was saying that for me, Christianity is not the way. When I was younger I went to a Church of England school so went to church on many Sundays, and nothing about it inspired me. Thanks.

I understand that Islam is not something you can jump in and out of. That is why I want to be absolutely 100% sure before I take my oath. There will always be naysayers about Islam and I am not going into it with the idea that I'm gonna 100% agree with everything. It's a journey and a way of life, not a brainless cult. The first thing the angel who delivered the Qur'an said to the Prophet (PBUH) was, "Iqra" -- "Read". Inform and educate yourself, know Allah through your own hands and eyes and not the mouth of somebody else. This is why I'm asking questions.
 

Forever Atlas

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It's good that you're looking around, but I have one suggestion: Especially when making big decisions such as this, do not let your emotions be the guiding force.

Emotions can change on a whim. Make sure you think with your head and do research in depth to make sure your choice is right - Which it seems you are doing.
 
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So for a while I've been checking out Judaism and whatnot and while some of you may feel that I'm jumping around concerning my faith, I think I am trying to find the right one. While Judaism offers a great basic outline for how to live a fruitful life, over the past two years I've come to realise that, living in an environment full of Muslims, I feel much more at home and welcome there than I ever have in any Jewish environment.

Judaism, I am beginning to feel, is empty. And I think Christianity (no disrespect) is dead. I attended my nephew Christening last month and the service was so slap-dash that I felt dissatisfied. It was standing in pews, reading off some sheets and that was it. Even the priest wanted to be out of there, and did not take the service seriously.

But when I think of ALLAH, I feel peaceful. Yes, there is discussion about whether or not the god of Islam is the same as the god of Judaism and/or Christianity, and honestly I am confused. I would like to think they are but whenever I think of YHVH or GOD, it does not feel as filling as it does when I think of ALLAH.

My heart clenches when I think of Allah. It hurts so much because I feel such overwhelming love. Even now, thinking of it, I am beginning to cry. I feel that Allah is overwhelming in the most beautiful way, and it makes me happy. Listening to azans (calls to prayer) I get the same feeling in my heart, and it is as if my mouth was made to say the name of Allah.

Looking at it from a different angle, I get why Muslims are so devout. It's love. I want to experience the Qur'an from myself, but even when I read Torah I don't feel this sense as I do when I listen to azans. Simply looking at Allah's name in Arabic feels wholesome.

Is this Allah guiding me to the right path? What would the Muslim brothers and sisters say? Am I being rewarded with a sense of love and tears when I listen to the prayers? May I be helped, insha'Allah.

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Perseveranze

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Hey, I came across your thread on Google, hope you don't mind me giving my 2 cents.

Firstly, I am a Muslim, so I'll reply from that perspective to balance the replies out a little.

But when I think of ALLAH, I feel peaceful. Yes, there is discussion about whether or not the god of Islam is the same as the god of Judaism and/or Christianity, and honestly I am confused. I would like to think they are but whenever I think of YHVH or GOD, it does not feel as filling as it does when I think of ALLAH.

We believe in the same God as Christianity and Judaism, however we attribute different things to God.

The Qur'an states;
And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender. [29:46]
However, the Jews and Christians make attributions to God that Islam disagrees with. For example, the Christians say that God has a son or that God is a man (referring to Jesus), whilst both the Jews and Christians put limitations on God like He can get "tired" or be "unaware" etc. They also consider God to be "masculine", likening Him towards humans. (If you're wondering why I say "Him" and "He", then read this).

Islam doesn't reject God sent both Moses(pbuh) and Jesus(pbuh) to deliver messages to to their people - however it makes emphasis on the distortions (by Jews/Christians) of the messages that these prophets brought through time.

In Islam, God is One, He doesn't have a gender, in fact, there's nothing in creation that is comparable to Him. Nor do we believe He has any limitations, or that it would be befitting for God to come down to earth as a human and die on a cross.

A description of the Islamic God can be summed up with various verses from the Qur'an, which can be seen here. (or English narrative here)


Is this Allah guiding me to the right path? What would the Muslim brothers and sisters say? Am I being rewarded with a sense of love and tears when I listen to the prayers? May I be helped, insha'Allah.

If you remain sincere and accept His guidance, then no doubt you will feel closer to Allah(swt).

Let me share with you what we call "Qur'anic Gems". During the time of the Prophet(pbuh), people would ask him questions hoping to get an answer from God. Through the prophet Muhammad(pbuh), God indeed does answer, as we can see throughout the Qur'an with the following examples;
THEY WILL ask thee about the new moons. Say (Muhammad)…
THEY WILL ask thee as to what they should spend on others. Say (Muhammad)….
They will ask thee about fighting in the sacred month. Say (Muhammad)…..
THEY WILL ask thee about intoxicants and games of chance. Say (Muhammad)….
And they will ask thee about [how to deal with] orphans. Say (Muhammad)….
As you can see from the above, the key word being; "Say" is used for every single question asked, as Muhammad(pbuh) is being told to "Say" this as an answer from God. It's like a reoccurring pattern.

However, there is only one question that the people ask, in which God answers without the intermediary "Say";
"When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way". - [Quran, 2:186]
And that unique emphasis has been put there for a reason, to show that God is right there with you (there's no middle man, like praying to Jesus or praying to a idol), all you need to do is call out to Him, and follow His guidance. This verse applies to anyone, Muslim or Non-Muslim who call upon God with sincerity and ask for His guidance.

Anyways, May Allah(swt) keep guiding you. If you have any questions or anything, don't hesitate to let me know. If I am unable to reply/visit here, then you're more then welcome to email me here; searchingislam7981@gmail.com.

Being conservative doesn't rule out the possibility of making a valid point. Even so, your side-stepping hasn't refuted the issues presented by the highlighted passages of the Qu'ran.

It is pretty biased in all honesty and deep down, I think any intelligent person can see it. I whizzed through some of it, so I can show you examples if you like;

1. It says that "Women are evil omens" and it tries to prove this by pasting this hadith;
Americanthinker.com:

This hadith says that women are part of an evil omen:

I heard the Prophet saying. 'Evil omen is in three things: The horse, the woman and the house.' (Bukhari)
The above shows the author's an amateur in regards to understanding Hadith fiqh and sciences.

Not only is the author completely wrong in the initial assertion, but he also retracts from mentioning the context of the hadith.

The above hadith is reported by a narrator named "Abu Hurayrah(ra)", who came to the Prophet(pbuh)'s door and overheard him mention those words, then he left. He was then later corrected by Aisha(ra), who is the wife of the Prophet(pbuh). As we can see here -
Abu-Hassan reports that two people came to Aishah and said to her that Abu Hurayrah narrates that the Prophet used to say that bad luck is to be found only in women, horses and houses. At this Aishah replied: By the God who revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet ! The Prophet never said this; what he did say was that the People of the Jahilliyyah hold this opinion. (Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, 6/246.)

*Jahilliyya = is referring to Pre-Islamic people of Arabia

Muhammad bin Raashid narrated to us on the authority of Makhool, it was said to 'Ayesha that Abu Huraira says: that the Messenger of Allaah said: “Pessimism is found in three things: in a house, a woman and a horse.”.. Ayesha said: Abu Huraira did not memorize this, because when he entered, the Messenger of Allaah -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam - was saying: May Allaah curse the Jews; they say: “Without doubt pessimism is in a house, a woman and a horse,' so he heard the end of the hadeeth, and he never heard the beginning of it.” (Musnad of al-Tayalisi, 1/215)
The hadith scholars take the above into account in refuting the idea that "women, houses etc. have omens in them".

They also cite a well known hadith;
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "There are no such things as omens." [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (5754) and Sahîh Muslim (2223)]
The Prophet(pbuh) was known to have denounced the superstitious held beliefs (especially those that lead to harming others, like infanticide or "human/animal sacrifice to please gods") by the pagans and other people at the time .

2. Next the author talks about how "Muhammad hit his wife" -
Americanthinker.com:

This hadith shows Muhammad hitting his girl—bride, Aisha (see rule no. 1, below), daughter of Abu Bakr, his right—hand Companion:
'He [Muhammad] struck me [Aisha] on the chest which caused me pain.' (Muslim no. 2127)



The author here tries to imply "wife beating". Never in 1400 years has any Hadith scholar or Muslim ever believed that Muhammad(pbuh) has or ever could hit another woman, not because "we don't want to believe it", but because there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever regarding it.

Once again not only does the author misinterpret the hadith but he also completely ignores the context.

No greater refutation can come than from Aisha(ra) herself, who is "apparently being hit". She says in an authenticated hadith -
“Aisha reported that Allah's Messenger, may Allah bless him, never hit anyone with his hand, neither a woman nor a servant…” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 4296)

^I wonder whether the author was aware of the above hadith or whether he simply ignored it.

One of the greatest Hadith scholars, who was also a hadith collector, states;
The Prophet(pbuh) never hit a woman (Ibn Majah).

Side Note: Check out what billboards are up in Pakistan here and here :tongue:
Now, regarding the hadith quoted, he makes a few mistakes. Firstly, the word "Lahad", which he's interpreted as "hit" is in fact incorrect. The word more accurately translates to "struck" or "pushed with force", as we can see from the Classical Arabic lexicon dictionary -
Lane%2Bon%2B%2527lahad%2527.JPG

The second mistake is understanding the context. The Prophet(pbuh) was known to "push" people on the chest in order to derive away bad thoughts/intentions instigated by what we Muslims believe, evil spirits. To remove these thoughts/intentions was a special ability of the Prophet(pbuh). We can see countless examples of this;
“Ubbay said: There occurred in my mind a sort of denial which did not occur even during the Days of Ignorance. When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him, saw how I was affected, was affected (by a wrong idea), he struck my chest. I broke into a sweat and felt as if I were looking at Allah in fear.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1356)

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him, struck the chest of Umar bin Khattab with his hand three times when he embraced Islam and he said, ‘O Allah remove the malice from his heart and replace it with faith.’” (Mustadrak al-Hakim, Hadith 4492. Hakim authenticated it)


And finally, to end the discussion on the hadith; it should be noted that the full hadith (as the author quotes a tiny portion of it out of context) in context is something scholars have derived many benefits from. That includes "being kind to your wife", as quoted here;
The people of knowledge deduced many benefits from this Hadith:
· It is desirable to supplicate for a long time, and to repeat the supplication.
· To raise the hands while supplicating.

· To be in the standing position while supplicating for the people of the graves.

· To say Salaam to the people of the grave

· To be kind to one's wife/wives

· To consider the feelings of wife/wives.

· To visit the graves by night.

· The permissibility for women to visit the graves on the condition that they should observe Islamic requirements.

· The permissibility to a husband and wife to sleep naked (if they are isolated from other people).



Source

3. The author then says that "prepubescent marriage is allowed to be consummated in Islam". He does this based on the interpretation of someone named Maududi (I will talk about him below).

This is in fact inaccurate and deviation of the Islamic teachings.

I would ask the author, if a pre-pubescent girl can get married, then how does she give her permission, her liking, her "choice"?

Does this hadith, widely recognized by all the great Islamic scholars to understand that women have the right to choose who they marry not come across the authors minds? -
Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: "A virgin came to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and mentioned that her father had married her against her will, so the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) allowed her to exercise her choice. (Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah), Book 11, Number 2091)"

Narrated AbuHurayrah: "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: An orphan virgin girl should be consulted about herself; if she says nothing (due to shyness) that indicates her permission, but if she refuses, the authority of the guardian cannot be exercised against her will. (Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah), Book 11, Number 2088)"

And the famous Qur'anic verse;
O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will. [Qur'an 4:19]

4. And as a final example, the author continuously references Maududi as his "source for interpretation". It is so typical the author would cite Maududi, when I first saw that name I just laughed lol.

Maududi is a 20th century "reformist scholar", who's condemned by the Muslim community for his deviations in Islamic thought and for making statements that are borderline blasphemous (some have interpreted them to be blasphemy). You can read more about this here.

Now, regarding Maududi, I'm not saying the above "because I disagree with him", I'm saying the above because the ijma of the scholars disagree with him.

What is the Ijma? Ijma is the "consensus" of the scholars. Meaning, in 1400 years, thousands of great scholars without meeting one another, looked at the same scripture, and came to the same conclusion; meaning "a majority interpretation". Maududi goes against the ijma with his so called "reformist" thought, leading to many false doctrines and misinterpretations.

--------------------------

Although I'm not trying to debate, the above should be enough to outline that the author has a bias and negative agenda. He gives it away (even to the laymen) when he continuously links to well known Islamophobe website "answering-islam.org" (which is also banned from wiki referencing). Also when he says this in the end -
Americanthinker.com:

This short article reviews Jesus' attitude towards women. This short chapter has an excellent overview on the differences between Islam and Christianity and women's role in each.


Typical, "Christian missionary" article. Nothing more needs to be said.

I want to end this by stating that there's a lot of misconceptions regarding Islam and women. Alot of this is due to ignorance and media perceptions, sometimes it's also due to the actions of Muslims. For this reason, I do ask and kindly urge people to conduct their own research without having any pre-concieved thoughts, to approach it with sincerity; only then will their misconceptions be removed. Similarly would advise people to ask those who have knowledge in these matters, as you wouldn't go to a baker to ask for medical info.

And lastly, would it make sense that the so called "oppressive islam" is what women, who constitute the majority of Islamic reverts, convert into? And no, marriage is not the reason most women convert to Islam.

I hope the day can come where people not only understand Islam better, but also appreciate what it brought to the world;
Against this backdrop, Islam introduced almost every right that women enjoy in the 20th century. The right of women in France to exercise property rights independently of their husbands was granted only at the beginning of the 20th century. In Italy, the right to divorce had to wait until the last third of the 20th century. God’s instruction to the Prophet to accept the allegiance of women (60:12) has been interpreted by Moslems as the right to vote; in the USA, women could not vote until 1920. Today, at the end of the 20th century, universal suffrage still does not exist in Switzerland. In Germany, a woman could not hold a bank account until 1958, in France until 1965. The true emancipation of women in Europe is the matter of a scant fifty years. - Henry Bayman, The Meaning of the Four Books, p. 138-9

No great lawmaker has ever made such significant changes as Mohammed did on the subject of women. Rulings concerning women have been outlined in the Koran (Qur’an) in great detail. This is the point at which Mohammed’s greatest reforms have occurred
. - Stanley Lane-Poole, Cited in Henry Bayman, The Meaning of the Four Books, pp. 142-3​
Hope that helped.
 
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Monkey

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Salaam brother. Welcome to KHI. Thanks for such a lengthy and detailed post. :) It was really helpful.
 

SRKTAVRXAYGDM

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As Sora would say, follow your heart. On a more serious note, you're right Islam is not to be jumped in and out of. My mom is also a revert, so I can relate.
 

Dreaded_Desire62

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Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Just saying, to get it out of the way, I wasn't intending to slander the Church (regardless of denomination), and I'm not making this thread about Christianity. I was saying that for me, Christianity is not the way. When I was younger I went to a Church of England school so went to church on many Sundays, and nothing about it inspired me. Thanks.

I understand that Islam is not something you can jump in and out of. That is why I want to be absolutely 100% sure before I take my oath. There will always be naysayers about Islam and I am not going into it with the idea that I'm gonna 100% agree with everything. It's a journey and a way of life, not a brainless cult. The first thing the angel who delivered the Qur'an said to the Prophet (PBUH) was, "Iqra" -- "Read". Inform and educate yourself, know Allah through your own hands and eyes and not the mouth of somebody else. This is why I'm asking questions.

It is good to ask questions and pray for guidance. For me, religion just doesn't work. I just don't know what to think, especially when it concerns God. I mean, I've read a lot of things in the Bible that just set my stomach upside down. I just can't believe in a god that would maul a bunch of children too death or cause many babies to get sent to the slaughter. I am sorry if this offends anybody, but I just don't want to believe in a god like this.
 

Ehres

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It is good to ask questions and pray for guidance. For me, religion just doesn't work. I just don't know what to think, especially when it concerns God. I mean, I've read a lot of things in the Bible that just set my stomach upside down. I just can't believe in a god that would maul a bunch of children too death or cause many babies to get sent to the slaughter. I am sorry if this offends anybody, but I just don't want to believe in a god like this.

You have free will. God does not physically control you. If there are babies getting killed, blame the asshole that decided to kill them, not God.
 
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