What does Isl�m mean to you?

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

Hello there folks. When I used to follow Isl�m, I always wanted to know people’s reasons why they turned to this religion, and what made them strong in their faith, what experiences they had. I admired, about the Christian community, their dedication to a living, breathing connection to their saviour.

In Isl�m, I mostly read boring, dry, legalistic, copy & paste type texts which would bang on at length about the necessities of praying, fasting, and suchlike. To which I would reply: “I know. It’s in the qur’�n.� I wanted more personal details, such as when my father told me he turned to the qur’�n for solace and comfort after his father died, and grew more and more religious.

So, I ask you: what does Isl�m mean to you? Personally?

I would also like to ask this of any non–muslims reading this as well: you may hear about muslims in the news, know a few people who have turned to Isl�m and whatnot, but what does it mean to YOU?

[Murad]

To me Islam is the guidance to life and success to the hereafter, and the sunnah is a gift from the prophet that we could learn from.

I do not believe in God simply because of hell and heaven, & you being a former muslim, you know that Islam is probably the only religion that could guarantee that you will go to hell, sounds funny but its true. (When compared with Christianity and Judaism)

Imagine being in a dark room, scared to move because of the fear of bumping into something. Every move you take you do it 'blindly' and without knowledge. Islam to me is the light that lets you see where to walk and where not to walk. Its not having to live in darkness and its the mercy given to us from our creator.

When i was a teenager, i honestly did not care about religion and my prayers were 'robotic', meaning i did not 'know' i was praying, but simply doing the actions of going up and down. But with age i gained wisdom and with wisdom i could look at the Quran from a different perspective. Every problem i faced in life, the Quran provided me an answer and provided me relief from the stress, i dont know whether it's my subjective thoughts, but when i read the Quran word for word i feel like im reading greatness.

[EduChris]

...what does Isl�m mean to you? Personally?...

Objectively and frankly, Islam was Mohammad's ticket to self-aggrandizement.

But on another level, sincere people of kind and peaceful disposition can tease out morsels of goodness from almost any text, even the Qur'an.

I know there are some good people who are Muslims. And if Mohammad's character and moral example had been better, more Muslims today would fall into the category of "sincere, kind, peaceful, and trustworthy."

[Goat]

For the most part, Islam doesn't mean anything, one way or another.

However, it is a justification for much of the third world countries to clamp down on half their population. I find it's attitudes towards women in those countries high restrictive, and it is not letting women reach their potential.

I find that the way Sharia law is practiced in those societies very barbaric. To me, Islam is holding those societies back.

[cnorman18]

From what I've seen, Islam is an ancient and honorable religion that teaches peace, honor, love for one's neighbor, caring for the poor, the orphan and the widow, devotion to God and to the Good, and moral responsibility and rectitude.

No, not all Muslims embody those ideals. So what? I know some Jews who betray Judaism as well - we call that khillul Ha-Shem, shaming the Name - and some Christians that Jesus wouldn't be glad to claim. Yeah, yeah, there are some parts of the Quran that are pretty hard to read. So what? That goes for the Old and New Testaments too.

I think most Muslims are good people who accept Islam as an integral part of their culture and traditions and identity, and for whom it is a guiding light, and a good one -- just as most Christians and Jews are in their own respective religions.

I think the most important aspect of Islam in the West in the present day is the widespread hatred, prejudice and stereotyping of Muslims that's becoming more and more common and widespread - and which is playing into the hands of extremists and radicals and making the situation much, much worse. Justifying hatred is never a good or healing thing. If you look for the good in people you will find it; if you look for evil, you will find that too, and it will soon fill you, yourself.

For the record, for everyone who doesn't know, I am a Jew.

[Murad]

Objectively and frankly, Islam was Mohammad's ticket to self-aggrandizement.

Thats the standard opinion of a Christian, mankind always differs in opinion and muslims have the parallel opinion with Paul.

I know there are some good people who are Muslims. And if Mohammad's character and moral example had been better, more Muslims today would fall into the category of "sincere, kind, peaceful, and trustworthy."

What do you know about Muhammad besides the battles he encountered and his wives? That is almost the only thing pro-christian websites talk about.

I find it's attitudes towards women in those countries high restrictive, and it is not letting women reach their potential.

I share your opinion too, but i base it on tradition more than i base it on religion.
Have you ever talked to a muslim lady and asked for her opinions?
Its most likely the woman's Father/Mother that dont allow her to get an education and its also the ideology that the Taliban share. Yet again, i dont see how the Taliban put poisonous gas in girl schools and call themselves muslims......
Really shameful and words cant explain the hypocrisy of what a 'muslim' is.
Thankfully, this tradition is steadily dying out. And it would die out faster if the media wasn't fueling and creating more extremists in the middle east.

From what I've seen, Islam is an ancient and honorable religion that teaches peace, honor, love for one's neighbor, caring for the poor, the orphan and the widow, devotion to God and to the Good, and moral responsibility and rectitude.

No, not all Muslims embody those ideals. So what? I know some Jews who betray Judaism as well - we call that khillul Ha-Shem, shaming the Name - and some Christians that Jesus wouldn't be glad to claim. Yeah, yeah, there are some parts of the Quran that are pretty hard to read. So what? That goes for the Old and New Testaments too.

I think most Muslims are good people who accept Islam as an integral part of their culture and traditions and identity, and for whom it is a guiding light, and a good one -- just as most Christians and Jews are in their own respective religions.

I think the most important aspect of Islam in the West in the present day is the widespread hatred, prejudice and stereotyping of Muslims that's becoming more and more common and widespread - and which is playing into the hands of extremists and radicals and making the situation much, much worse. Justifying hatred is never a good or healing thing. If you look for the good in people you will find it; if you look for evil, you will find that too, and it will soon fill you, yourself.

For the record, for everyone who doesn't know, I am a Jew.

The relationship between Islam and Judaism is a special and close one. The two religions share similar values. Islam incorporates Jewish history as a part of its own. Muslims regard the Children of Israel as a central religious concept in Islam. Moses is mentioned in the Qur’an more than any other prophet.
Jews in turn see Muslims as perfect monotheists and as adherents of the Seven Laws of Noah. Thus according to Judaism, Muslims are seen as righteous people of God.
[Wiki]

We lived like neighbours peacefully for centuries in the holy cities, but now the Jews & Muslims are the worst of enemies. A very sad fact.

A question for you, are you an Orthodox Jew? & Do you support the Zionism?

[good]

Islam is the reason for the creation of mankind is worship of God who created us and created everything

[Woland]

My opinion in a nutshell. Please feel free to ask for clarifications or comment.

Islam, in many of its mainstream formats, is a currently popular ideology which is based on the teachings of a cunning, greedy and possibly delusional desert-dweller who died ages ago, yet which still quite succesfully promotes and achieves, in many (but thankfully not all by a long shot as people of all religions learn to discard, ignore or rationalize distasteful elements of their faiths which others including mainstream scholars have no problem with) of its followers and based on the writings in religious texts considered authoritative (mostly Quran and Sahih Hadith):

-intolerance (of homosexuals, apostates, polytheists, atheists, unmarried lovers, etc.), supremacism and bigotry
-war, totalitarianism, and perpetual societal conflict justified by a feeling of divine entitlement (observable in any Western country where Muslims are an even remotely significant minority)
-violation of human rights such as equality of all humans and freedom of speech and religion (observable in nearly all Muslim-majority countries)
-ignorance (belief in djinns and all sorts of other unsurprisingly unevidenced "supernatural phenomena")

It contains many elements which, in my view, are quite efficient in making it naturally near irresistible to certain human beings - especially the emotionally weak, gullible, uneducated, and young ones:

-unverifiable and infinitely repeated threats of eternal torture in case of non-compliance
-unverifiable promises of eternal pleasures for the faithful
-apostates are threatened with death in many mainstream forms of Islam, and have to remain silent about their knowledge that Islam could not reasonably be assumed, especially with such an abysmal lack of evidence for its endless claims, to come from "the also unevidenced, conscious and intelligent maker of everything"
-unverifiable, unevidenced and simplistic explanations for the origin of our reality

It's not much more than a very efficient (at spreading and controlling thoughts) meme - like all the other religions making unevidenced claims who also have innumerable "quite convinced" adherents.

-Woland

[EduChris]

...mankind always differs in opinion and muslims have the parallel opinion with Paul.

Yes, it does seem true that Muslims (justifiably or not) hold Paul in about the same esteem as non-Muslims hold Mohammad. One difference, however, is that when Muslims today say offensive things about Paul, Christians don't go on riotous murdering rampages.

...What do you know about Muhammad besides the battles he encountered and his wives? That is almost the only thing pro-christian websites talk about.

Most people already know about nine-year-old Aisha, and about Mohammad's practice of deceit, and his use of torture as a means of punishment and execution. Right now, however, I am wondering why Mohammad included that passage in the Qur'an where he chides his wives for having expressed their displeasure with his breaking his promise to them that he would not marry a particular slave girl. In effect, he tells them to shut up or he'll replace them with better wives. Do Muslims believe that Mohammad sets a good example here of how one's wives should be treated?

[cnorman18]

My opinion in a nutshell. Please feel free to ask for clarifications or comment.

Islam, in many of its mainstream formats, is a currently popular ideology which is based on the teachings of a cunning, greedy and possibly delusional desert-dweller who died ages ago, yet which still quite succesfully promotes and achieves, in many (but thankfully not all by a long shot as people of all religions learn to discard, ignore or rationalize distasteful elements of their faiths which others including mainstream scholars have no problem with) of its followers and based on the writings in religious texts considered authoritative (mostly Quran and Sahih Hadith):

-intolerance (of homosexuals, apostates, polytheists, atheists, unmarried lovers, etc.), supremacism and bigotry
-war, totalitarianism, and perpetual societal conflict justified by a feeling of divine entitlement (observable in any Western country where Muslims are an even remotely significant minority)
-violation of human rights such as equality of all humans and freedom of speech and religion (observable in nearly all Muslim-majority countries)
-ignorance (belief in djinns and all sorts of other unsurprisingly unevidenced "supernatural phenomena")

It contains many elements which, in my view, are quite efficient in making it naturally near irresistible to certain human beings - especially the emotionally weak, gullible, uneducated, and young ones:

-unverifiable and infinitely repeated threats of eternal torture in case of non-compliance
-unverifiable promises of eternal pleasures for the faithful
-apostates are threatened with death in many mainstream forms of Islam, and have to remain silent about their knowledge that Islam could not reasonably be assumed, especially with such an abysmal lack of evidence for its endless claims, to come from "the also unevidenced, conscious and intelligent maker of everything"
-unverifiable, unevidenced and simplistic explanations for the origin of our reality

It's not much more than a very efficient (at spreading and controlling thoughts) meme - like all the other religions making unevidenced claims who also have innumerable "quite convinced" adherents.

-Woland

As I read this, I was struck by the fact that most, if not all, of it could also be said of Judaism, and Christianity too. Abraham fit the description you apply here to Muhammad - he was certainly a wealthy man with some failings of his own - but I don't think the present state of the Islamic faith has much to do with the problems of its origins any more than the present state of Judaism has to do with the difficulties of ITS origins; likewise with Christianity. Paul was apparently rather ignorant of, or out of touch with, the normative Judaism of his own day; but Judaism, Christianity AND Islam have changed a good deal, in some ways radically, from the days of their founding.

Every one of the Abrahamic faiths has problems, contradictions, and aspects that puzzle believers and nonbelievers alike; I think it's more productive, and less conducive to prejudice, rancor, and conflict, to consider the negative AND THE POSITIVE aspects of these faiths in the present day, never mind where they came from.

From where I sit, certain iterations of Islam have some pretty severe problems, and more in some nations than in others; that's obvious to all. But I don't think that's necessarily an indictment of the faith as a whole. During the Middle Ages, Islam was far more humane, scientifically receptive and innovative, and just than Christianity ever contemplated being. Judaism as a whole, or nearly so, has occasionally gone over the edge into nuttiness and self-destructiveness; the disastrous Bar Kokhba revolt comes to mind, as well as Haredi and "settler" extremism in Israel in the present day.

There are no clean hands here, and I, for one, would like to see more contact and discussion among and between the Abrahamic faiths. We have very, very much in common, in terms of values and ethics, than we have in opposition, and THERE lies the hope for reconciliation, coexistence, peace, justice, human rights, and allthatgoodstuff.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I watched the movie the other day, and Pollyanna was right. If we look for the good in people, will will find it; if we look for evil, we will find that too.