Thank you for the long response, Ali. I find it very interesting to get a perspective from a Muslim. I normally don't discuss these issues with my Muslim friends because I don't know if they'll take offense to it or not. But here's some further questions I have:
You wrote,
"The aim in Islam is not to try and reach the best of Spirituality only it is for both physical life and spirituality.. Treating each other with respect, thriving for the best in life and being succeful in all types of fields in life, forgivness and other noble manners are part of being a good Muslims and it goes hand in hand with your spiritual activities. Mohammed said "I was sent to prefect the noble manners" .."
So here's my train of thought:
At some point in history, people unanimously agreed that Mohammed was indeed a model figure for life. Yet, they also accepted him as a human instead of a part of God (as Jesus was accepted in the Holy Trinity idea). Hence, he is capable of human logic and reactions. So if his family or loved ones is under threat, he will naturally rise up to defend them physically.
The biggest problem I still have with all this is that Mohammed is still only human, YET he was chosen by God somehow to represent the ideal way of life. Somehow, Mohammed was given the gift of knowing how to live perfectly and great wisdom. That is a big leap of faith for me. I'm not sure what he did that led so many people to believe that...perhaps you can shed some more light? I just want to see what he did that made so many people believe him and once I can imagine myself as those people back in his time, perhaps I'll understand this better.
Also, once I understand it better, I can then tackle the question of how is Mohammed justified in defending his loved ones physically? This question is a big one for me as to which spiritual figures to follow. The reason I like Buddha and Jesus' teachings so much is that they seem to transcend humanity. When Jesus was threatened with death, he did not retaliate or rise to defend himself. He continued to spread his message of compassion. That for me is a stronger and more inspiring vision than say, Mohammed, who chose to defend his family physically rather than choosing to represent an unconditional forgiveness and compassion for all.
I'm not saying I could do what Jesus did, but just from an outside perspective, someone who could bear the lost of loved ones and suffer so greatly himself to show the world how great a power compassion really is is just more inspiring and also close to the heart. I'm not saying Mohammed was bad, but that his humanistic qualities seem a little too human for such a spiritual figure. And I would think he would realize that his humanistic qualities are not meant to be modeled unless he really believed his way of life was perfect?
Sorry, hope this is not offensive. I just need more information to make sense of the logic and reasoning behind Islam. |