Hello everyone,
I just stumbled upon this forum. I've been a reader of Steve's blog, but I just found the forum today. and...I was very surprised with some of the posts here about Islam. I thought it was a forum on personal development....and that people interested in a higher consciousness wouldn't push such ignorance hatred etc...
I had moved to the middle east two years ago. I was in California prior to that. I came back a week ago for a long visit to my parents and the first day I looked on the floor next to the chair and I found a post about random shootings in Newark. I said huh...they call it shootings here, but when it happens in the middle east they call it terrorist attack. Interesting? It then occurred to me that a lot of these shootings end in the attacker killing himself. So why aren't they called suicide attacks? It's funny how when you unplug for sometime, you start to see things a bit differently.
With your permission, I'd like to add a bit to what Ali has said, may Allah reward him, and attempt to answer some of Hsiang-Lin's questions.
As muslims we don't separate ourselves from Christianity and Judaism. It's all one message, one religion from God. The same way Jesus peace be upon him didn't separate himself from the Jews, Mohamed peace be upon him said all the prophets that came before me built a house. The only thing that was missing in that house is the roof. I've come to finish the building of the house and perfect it.
Islam means submission. All the prophets preached submission to God. Islam is nothing new. As muslims we believe and honor all the prophets and revealed books. In fact christains and jews are called people of the book. We believe that god chose to reveal different messages for different people throughout time. Those messages were specific for their needs and their times. Once society had reached a certain level of development, the time had come for a final message that is to be complete, and perserved to the end of time such that no more revelation would be needed. That's what Islam is. Islam came at a time when the world was ready to write and record teh teachings. God had decreed that time and reserved the final revelation that is now appropriate until the end of time for the prophet Mohamed peace be upon him. Prophet Mohamed explained that all the prophets are brothers and as such, he's a brother to Jesus, Moses, Abraham and the rest of the prophets peace be upon them.
Now, the whole self defense vs self sacrifice issue. Let me just refer back again, Islam is the same general message of Jesus. Jesus peace be upon him was no more self sacrificing than Mohamed peace be upon him. Similarly Mohamed was no more violent than Jesus peace be upon both of them. Any fighting done by prophet Mohamed was not violence, but rather it was his mission from God. God decreed that this is the final revelation. It has to be preserved, as such, he was commanded to fight. He DID NOT fight of his own desire. He was instructed to fight. Jesus peace be upon him was not. Mohamed peace be upon him was instructed to build a society and to teach all the necessary rules that will arise when establishing a society and nation state. Any nation state has to deal with war. It's impractical to assume otherwise. His role was more comprehensive than that of Jesus peace be upon him and that's why he had to deal with a LOT more issues, war being one of them.
Now, I want to prove that he wasn't any less self sacrificing and I want to explain why people fell in love with him and accepted him as a perfect role model. To do so, I'll just cite a couple of historical accounts of events that happened.
Before being inspired to preach his new message, he was very beloved and respected by his tribe. However, after what happened, they declared war against him. He saw his own friends battered, tortured in the scorching heat, and mercilessly killed. He himself was strangled, beaten, abused for a period of about 10years without ever for a second thinking of fighting back. Not once. His neighbhor would leave gargage in front of his door step by way of humiliation. One day his neighobr was ill and didn't leave the garbage. Prophet Mohamed noticing the clean door step thought some harm had afflicted his neighbor. He went to visit him to make sure he was OK, and if he needed anything........
One day he went to the neighboring town to invite them to Islam, to submit to God. They humiliated him, and sent their kids to chase him in the streets throwing stones on him. Tired and beat, he sat down with bleeding feet after he got away. The angel of mountains came down and asked him, if you command me, I can destroy their entire village. I can cause the mountain to fold on them. He peace be upon him, said, no. Maybe ONE day, God will guide ONE of them. His message, his entire being has one goal and one goal only. To save humanity, to guide humanity to its betterment.
It baffles me how any misguided muslim would dare harm another human being for absolutely no reason in the name of Islam, when the prophet of Islam, after being beat and humiliated, forgave the entire town, for maybe, just maybe one day one person would turn out good from them. You have to realize the magnitude of this event in its context. What this town did is the greatest possible insult to the message of God, and in turn a blow in the face of God so to speak, yet God FORGAVE them for it. Prophet Mohamed peace be upon him doesn't act off his own. He's inspired and directed. He's a reflection of the perfection of Allah in a human form. His mercy is of Allah's mercy, as complete as it can ever be in a human and so on...
I want to conclude this post with another story. Prophet Mohamed was kicked out of his own hometown in fear of being assassinated after 13 years of his message. All the meanwhile w/o doing anything in return. 8 years after being kicked out and 3 battles later, (to put things in perspective, in the first battle only 70-100 people died TOTAL, battle back then were not for the purpose of killing people...compare that to one shooting of today in a crowded school...though the shock and terror value of a school shooting is much greater) he was able to CONQUER his home town PEACEFULLY without raising one sword. He marshed in with his army. When he marched in, his head covered, head bowed in humility to the point that it was almost touching the the main of the camel he was riding.....This was no arrogant feat, now after all you've done to me, after all the abuse after all the battery, I am going to show you now....no....it was humility to God for having given him the upper hand after having been beaten and abused.
When he saw his enemies, he asked, what do you think I'll do with you? You who have persecuted, tortured, stolen our properties, and killed us?
Guess what they said....Because they knew how self sacrificing he was...They said, you are a generous brother, and the son of a generous brother. He said I'll say the same thing that my brother Joseph peace be upon him told his brothers, no reprimand shall be upon you today. Go, you are free.
Prophet Mohamed summed his mission into a sentence that's also revealed in the Quran. "I am but a mercy that's gifted to humanity."
...So...if you see anything done in the name of Islam....realize, it's not in the name of Islam. Muslims like anyone else have bad apples amongst them. Those that go on shooting rampages in America are those that go on shooting rampages in the middle east. One happens to be godless, the other happens to be a Muslim.
Our Islamic history is full of stories that illustrate the mercy of Islam. It's also full of political games that reflect politics and human greed. You need to seperate the wheat from the chaff to be objective. Additionally, in Islam it was recognized that the perfect state that was brought about by Prophet Mohamed would not last very long. That's why He taught that the model government to follow as a model is his society up until 30years after his death....after that...you'll see mixed good and bad....
Hope that helps.
thanks,
noorodeen |