Answer to Anonymous

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Romance and Islam": Fahad, your blog is very interesting. I recently picked up a Koran and started reading it; I found it interesting and insightful. Reading the Koran makes me want to be a better person and more in touch with my spiritual side, what scares me is the complete surrender to Allah's will and fundamental Muslim believes such as being a Martyr. I thought seriously about becoming a Muslim but only practiced certain beliefs and never shared them with anyone. The Koran mentions Allah chooses the worthy and guides who he wishes. What advice can you give me as a Muslim regarding my disagreement with certain Muslim beliefs?

I would like to thank “Anonymous” for visiting my blog and finding it interesting, and I would also like to praise Anonymous for trying to know more about our religion. As Anonymous has asked me for an advice regarding certain issues which seem a bit on a fundamental side, I would try to advice him/her to best of my ability and with all my sincerity. May Allah Help me….

First of All I would like to comment on the Word “Fundamentalist” or “Extremist”, these words which are mostly used for Muslims but dont hold any importance in life of a good Muslim, and Muslims never invented these words. All Muslims are asked by Allah to follow a certain guideline, whoever follows it by the book is called a good Muslim and whoever doesn’t is one of the non believers in the message of Allah that includes Muslim and non Muslims they both are called Non Believers if they don’t believe in Allah and his word, some people including muslims themselves use the word “ Kafir” and try to create a impression that it degrades people of other religious beliefs. But the fact is “ Kafirs” means a non believers, it can be used for both Muslims and non muslims who don’t practice and implement the laws of Allah. Coming back to Fundamentalist and Extremists: These two words are used by non Muslims and Muslims alike for people who follow the law of Allah exactly by the book. Once upon a time I was one of those people who used to call some Muslims extremist just because they grew a beard and wore a face covering, or went out to the war to fight the oppression. I soon realized that I was the one at fault, these people only seem extremists and fundamentalist cause I myself can’t be like them, instead of correcting my way of life I started to call them with those names. Most of the people around us are ao called moderate muslims and we are afraid to lose their company so we end up agreeing on their terms and conditions. So to my understanding calling a good Muslim Fundamentalist or Extremist just because we want to live a moderate life is just not right. We should accept them as good Muslims and ourselves not so good Muslims, holding ourselves accountable for our short comings is better then pointing fingers at Muslims who are on the right track by calling them names. This way we try to convince people that we are right, this is done due to ignorance or arrogance on our part because it’s really hard to resist this world’s entertainment, immorality and free thinking.

I tried to explain these words and its implications in one of my postings… The fundamentalist Couple

Now I’ll move on to the topic that is of Quran and its understanding, the basic belief of a Muslim is that” Quran” is a divinely revealed book from Allah Himself to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Muslims believe Quran is the latest version of the previous books which were revealed to (Prophet Musa) Moses and to (Prophet Isaa) Jesus, need for revealing Quran came as previous books were edited and misquoted by some people for their own convenience. Therefore Allah sent down Quran with a promise that no human being will change it or no one can create something like it, people who understand Quran will testify that it holds enough miracles to justify the fact that it is divinely revealed book and it has been the same for last 1400 years without even a letter deleted ar added. No other book of law in this world has been preserved to the extent of Quran. Differences of opinion between Muslims and Non Muslim exist for few reasons:

1. Sometimes non Muslims are culturally arrogant to believe in Quran just because they think it will degrade their beliefs and their religion which was followed by their ancestors for centuries but Quran gives a great tribute to religions of Jesus and Moses and all Muslims are ordered to respect and believe in them whosoever doesn’t believe in Moses and Jesus are not of the believers.

2. Convenience of people also plays an important part in disbelieving in Quran for example polygamy is also allowed in Christianity but the church disapproves it, in the case of veil it is important for a women to dress modestly and cover her head but the Christianity has changed so much through centuries that people take it as more of a convenience and don’t think it is important to cover yourself modestly anymore. Same stands for Alcohol, in Christian scriptures wine has been mentioned as a source of joy as well as a source of mockery, shamelessness and sin so people justify drinking alcohol by saying we are just having good time, but if you look at it in reality you would notice, it causes more harm then good. So no God, be it of Jesus, Moses or Muhammad (PBUH) will allow its loved created beings to something which is more harmful to you than good.

3. Confusion and misunderstanding is the third and most important reason why non Muslims and some of the Muslims face while reading and understanding the Book (the Quran) itself and its Message. Quran is taken to lightly sometimes even by muslims themselves, people of different languages think that they understand the translation and the message correctly and they try to implement the verses as they are, they sometimes quote a verse which is relevant only as a example and a history for us to understand and learn through examples from the events which happened in the past. For example please read my previous post on Islam Spreading by Sword and Misconceptions… Quran is commonly misquoted by human beings muslims or non muslims alike for their convenience… Some Muslims do that because they want to create their own following (deviate sects) or use Quran to justify their own thought process which they want to implement on other Muslims who have no knowledge of Quran and Non Muslims do that to justify their own thoughts and reasons. It is really sad that majority of Muslims use Quran in their prayers and to recite the verses but don’t have time to understand beyond those words and implement what is revealed to them instead they go on about quoting the verses and misguiding people when they are themselves misguided. On the other hand non Muslims quote certain verses of Quran with out understanding the events surrounding the revelation of a certain chapter or a verse and its contexts to create differences and point out laws which don’t suit their lifestyles.

So my sincere advice to people of all faiths including Muslims is that they should learn and understand Quran completely before they start quoting verses without knowing the background and the reasons behind certain verses of Quran. And I also advice people when you come across a certain verse which doesn’t suit your lifestyle or some verses seem harsh to you than you should investigate that particular law and weigh it logically, morally and with unbiased thinking. For example dont think Alcohol shouldn’t be prohibited just because you find it fun, always try to know why alcohol is prohibited. Is it morally correct or it isn’t? Weigh good and bad in it. Once you do that you will come to terms with Quran, every prohibition and everything which is allowed in Islam has logical reasons behind them and if you weigh all the laws in good and bad. Good will always succeed.

Why complete surrender to Allah’s will? Is it fundamental Muslim belief to be a martyr?

First and the most important thing to ask your self is: who is God? If the answer you get is: God is Almighty, He is the most Beneficent, the most Merciful, No one created God and God created everything; Humans, Animals, plants, the universe and everything in it. Then its will be easier for everyone to understand that why should we completely surrender to Allah’s will, if a person creates a certain product and copyrights it, that particular person has all the rights over that product in whatever way he wants it to be used as he can use it. No one can steal it without its permission or misuse it. I find it difficult to understand why humans don’t think the same way about God, God created us and he has all the rights over us. God gives us a Book of rules of do’s and don’ts just like a father gives his children laws to conduct themselves. When a child breaks the law he is punished, and is grounded or his pocket money is reduced. Same way,God has all the rights to tell us if you do badly you will be punished and if you do good you will be rewarded. And as God is Almighty then he punishment is severe and if He rewards you then its the best. If you dont believe in God altogether then you dont have to surrender. Logical and Simple!

That in my view is complete surrender to Allah’s will, and Allah’s will is that humans follow His laws.

About martyrs well it’s a long story I would like to make it short and would also advice you to dig in to the history a bit that its not only a fundamentalist Muslim belief, it has its roots in Judaism and Christianity as well please visit the following link to get an idea where it all started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs

My point of view on Martyrs is a bit logical and a bit religious, suppose a country recruits soldiers to guard their country against the oppressors and those who fight against its enemy and are killed in the line of duty are rewarded by numerous medals which are not worth anything for them in this world nor hereafter and they are mentioned few times in news articles, their families are given a medal in hand and they are forgotten by time. This is the most a human being can give another human being when they are dead.

But when you believe in God and fight for his cause, Allah is the one who Himself recruits its soldiers some of them stay alive and some die. When a person dies his life is over what would he do with a piece of metal given to his family so the Martyrs are rewarded by a medal from Allah Himself for their services with paradise. When you believe Allah is the one who has created you, and has all the rights over you and you follow His orders and die for His cause then it is only logical that He provides you with some reward same as president of countries do. On the other hand unlike what people think that every Muslim will be rewarded and recruited for being martyrs is totally wrong, like all other armies not all Muslims are soldiers and not all of them die. You can always notice around you people like me, I am not recruited yet and maybe I am not the one chosen by Allah Himself to be in his army.

So my advice for you on this topic is to study (Jihad Striving in the cause of Allah not war against non Muslims as people try to tell you), what are the rules of Jihad? And what are different kinds of Jihad humans beings are allowed to do and for what reasons? Study of this topic will sort out your issues regarding Martyrs. And please note Suicide, killing of children, women, elderly, and even cutting down trees of enemies is totally forbidden in Islam, I also advice you to read rules and reasons of war in Islam, and how prisoners of war are treated. All that can be useful for you to understand real Islam make sure you don’t study biased material and don’t follow what media is trying to brain wash you with. The best source to read unbiased material about Real Islam is The Quran and Sayings of Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh), if a Muslim contradicts with Quran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad please disregard them because humans are prone to errors be it Muslims or anyone else. Whatever people tell always cross check it for its authenticity.

I hope I have answered your issues with best of my abilities and I hope if you have any questions which are not answered or you need more explanation please feel free to contact me on my email, now I would like to finish off with your last statement which mentions Allah chooses the worthy and guides who he wishes: I came across an article which will answer this question

http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=article&aid=44

I am currently studying Quran myself and I have a blog dedicated for it http://rediscoverquran.blogspot.com, I wish to learn more and share it with other people and I regularly update it please book mark it may help you and it may guide you like it has guided me… May Allah forgive me if I have committed any mistakes in answering you and guide us all to the straight path ..Ameen