Understanding Muslims

This picture was taken from majikalwishes.com

Reminder: This blog has only one purpose in mind - to undo all the misunderstandings that people have towards Islam, its content and followers. Thus, the content are kept simple and understandable so that we can have a deeper understanding and sense of respect to each other.

This time, I will talk about the Qur'an, the heart of Islam. Many misconceptions were thrown about the Qur'an such as:

1) Myth: It is difficult to understand because it is written in Arabic.
Truth: The Qur'an has already been translated in many languages. Unlike the Bible which was translated fully over the original hebrew writings, the original wordings of the qur'an remained compeletely undisturbed while the translated version were placed at the side, along with footnotes and elaborated meanings. Such steps ensure the divine scriptures remains intact.

2) Myth: Only the Muslims are allowed to read and touch the Qur'an
Truth: The Qur'an is sincere in its content, without biasness towards a race or any religious views. It is a guidance for humankind and has become the torchbearer for the great world civilisations for many centuries. Many scientists and philosophers in Russia, America, etc have reported to use the Qur'an for the basis of their study and admitted many theories were derived from it.

--click on the link to see scientists' comments on the Qur'an http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Science/scientists.html

Apart from knowledge, the qur'an also serves as a quidance for them seeking a path from all spheres of life and to achieve the real mening of felicity, purity and ascendancy as well is in the Hereafter. It was elaborated extensively and logically (for those who want to think).

3) Myth: The Qur'an is the same as The Bible
Truth: It is true that the Muslims believe the The Bible was sent down from the same God (although most Christians do not believe this). But the fact is the "real" Bible no longer exist. The content of The Qur'an might be similar with the "real" Bible, but not with the current one. The current Bible:

The 'current' Bible has been written over so many times until the real version (written in Hebrew language) was gone and that the real meaning and true wordings have been manipulated into so many languages.
Even the 'New Testament' did not exist initially but it was included later for easier references (The New Testament is made up of letters written by Paul and the 12 deciples).
The original Bible has colour distinction for God's words (in red) and Jesus' reply to God (in black). Now, the red coloured wordings are diminishing, while the black wordings are seen most often.
The original Bible mentions "Muhammad" but this word along with other words such as God's name "Ellah" (in Hebrew) and many others cannot be seen or even traced in the "current" Bible.
Because of human manipulation, the 'current' Bible has over 101 contradictions in it (and still counting. Logically, how can a holy scripture, sent by God have contradictions in it? Plus, with all of these changes and manipulation, can the 'current' Bible be considered as holy? Even the Qur'an highlighted human manipulations of the Holy scripture:

"Do they not then consider the Qur'an carefully? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much contradiction and error."

[Qur'an, An-Nisa 4:82]

**I have full respect for both scriptures. But, I am just expressing my dissapointment for some people who assumes something without having the slightest idea of what they are talking about when in fact, they are the ones without the knowledge of their own beliefs.

4) Myth: It must be Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who wrote the Qur'an

The Qur'an was written in pure, rich and poetic Arabic. Thus, Qur'an in Arabic could have been written by 3 possible sources:
1) The Arabs
2) Muhammad (pbuh)
3) God

So, let's think...

***The Arabic language was at its peak in the expression, richness and poetic value during the Qur'an was revealed. Anyone speaking the Classical Arabic would argue that a non-arab couldn't possibly have written such an extensive and brilliant piece of literature in the Arabic language. Thus, the Qur'an could only have been written by an Arabic speaking entity. An entity whose knowledge, style, vocabulary, grammar, expression was so powerful that it impacted the entire Arabian peninsula, the east, the west and continues to impact the people of the globe today. Keep in mind that the Qur'an was revealed in the 6th century, 1400 years ago. Let's look at the 3 choices again 1) The Arabs 2) Muhammad (pbuh) 3) God

The Arabs wrote it?
--What Qur'an teaches goes DIRECTLY against the pagan Arab culture, religion and Gods that existed before the Qur'an was revealed. Qur'an condemns idol worshipping, but the Arab worshipped them everyday. The Qur'an raised the status of women but the Arab treats women like animals. The Qur'an is against most social habits (backbiting, slandering, namecalling) which the Arab were heavily indulged into. The Qur'an condems alcohol drinking and gambling but the Arabs were doing just that. The Arabs would never write something that goes against their belief. So how can the Arabs write something that would negate their entire society's norms and ideologies? So, No..
--Maybe a group of Arab rebels or someone with different ideologies decided one day that they would write the Qur'an. But the answer to this is also a 'No' because if we read the Qur'an, notice that there is no author. No individual has his/her name on the cover of the Qur'an. The logic is that anytime and individual writes a book, there is always the author's name credited for writing the book. Plus, no one in history has EVER claimed the Qur'an for being its author. This is the only book without an author. No one in the world has ever been accused of writing the Qur'an except for Muhammad (pbuh), by the non-muslims. So, No...

Muhammad wrote it?
--First, he was illiterate. How can someone illiterate write something so rich, poetic, inspiring and intelligent that rocked the entire Arabia?
--Muhammad (pbuh) never went to school, he had no teacher of any kind of subjects. How can he have knowledge of all the science, astronomy, oceanography, etc that is contained in the Qur'an? For example, Qur'an mentioned ocean currents, stars, earth, moon, sun and their fixed path in Surah Rahman and many other scientific statement that can be found in the Qur'an (which I cannot state all in such a short article). An illiterate man is not simply capable of writing such book. So, No...
--The Qur'an was revealed over a period of 23 years. A very long time! Is it possible for a person to maintain the same exact of Arabic speech for a period of 23 years? The Hadeeth recorded Muhammad's teachings to the public. When compared with the style of the Qur'an we can see that the style is completely DIFFERENT and DISTINGUISHABLE. It does make sense that if Muhammad were to write the Qur'an, he has two unique, undistiguishable and completely different style of speech. Muhammad couldn't possibly write the Qur'an, so No...

God wrote it?
Based on Muslim scholar, Ahmad Deedat:
--Take this verse from the Qur'an

"Behold! The angels said: "O Mary! God has chosen you and purified you - Chosen you above the women of all nations." Qur'an-3:42

" Chosen you above women of all nations"; such an honour to Mary could not even be found in the Christian Bible. Reasoning, Muhammad was an Arab, if he were to write the Qur'an, why would he address his people about other Arabs, that Mary, the mother of Jesus -a Jewess- was chosen above women of all nations? Surely, his own mother or daughter would come before other women.
--Sarah and Hagar: The Jew get their cock-eyed racism from their Holy Bible, where they are told their father, Abraham had two wives - Sarah and Hagar. They say that they are the children of Abraham through Sarah (his legitimate wife) and that their Arab brethren have descended through Hagar (known to the Jews as "the bondwoman", that the Arabs are the inferior breed)
--So tell me, how can Muhammad (if he is the author) chose this Jewess for such an honour? The answer is simple, HE HAD NO CHOICE, he did not speak on his own desire, IT IS NO LESS THAN AN INSPIRATION SENT DOWN TO HIM (Qur'an: 53:4)
--There is a chapter named Sura Maryam (Chapter Maryam) in the Qur'an named in Honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ (pbuh). Again, such an honour cannot be found given to Mary even in the Christian Bible.

Out of the 66 Protestants and 73 of the Roman Catholics, not one is named after Mary or her son. You will find books named after Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, etc, but not a single one after Jesus or Mary.

If Muhammad (pbuh) was the author, he would not fail to include in his mother (Amina), or his beloved daughter (Fatima). But No, no.. he didn't do this. Because the Qur'an wasn't his handiwork.

The answer:

The Qur'an recorded precise historical events even before historians dig up the earth
The Qur'an predicted many events to take place ahead of time of the relevation of that verse. For example, predicting the destruction of Persian empire at a time where the later had a monumental victory over Rome.
Numerous details about many natural phenomena and proven by experts to be amazingly accurate. For example the physical development of foetus inside the womb along with timing given by many verses matches exactly what leading Embryology experts discovered and are claiming to be recent discoveries.
The Qur'an contains verses that gives descriptions about the creation of the universe, functions of mountains balancing the earth, etc.

Conclusion: It is reasonable to conclude The Qur'an is not the Prophet or any individual's creation. They had no way to predict all these events and be right all the time - especially knowing that the Prophet himself was illiterate. Thus,

God wrote it. May Allah guide us all to the straight path. Ameen.

[Picture taken from oybay.com]

"Dear readers,

You must not judge us before you understand why we act the way we do. We are trying to defend our rights. We also believe that most of our people are very strong and hard-willed. Such strength is important because outsiders are invading our homes and family. Most of all, we are determined not to be driven out from our own land.

Readers,

Last year, 6,000 people were killed in a month. Pregnant women were cut with bayonets, and their babies were thrown into the fire. Our children died of disease, mines and poison gas. We know that all of these horrible happening were done on purpose, so that they (the intruders) don't have to fight the next generation of our people. Yet, nobody sees or reads anything in the papers.

My friends,

What you call "terrorists" are our mujahedeen soldiers -- the holy warriors. They are the people who left behind all else to protect women and children. While the others gone through so much worse as to have lost everything due to the war. To us, this war is a holy war. To us, there is no other death for a mujahedeen, because they have taken our last rites. Besides, we considered ourselves dead already. And to us, death for our land and God is an honor. So my friends, what we must do is to stop this killing of our women and children, before you lose your own sense of humanity too."

Yours truly,
A victim of war

**Speech adapted from a humanity movie**

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

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