Announcement: Posting after a long time

Posted on January 2, 2019 by editor_1

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيم

Salam alaykum and Hello to the readers,

It has been a very long time since I have posted here, the reasons being varied; such as procrastination from my side, a decrease in the amount and breadth of my reading, my only modest progress in formally learning the Islamic Deen, plus my inability to locate those who would go through the articles on the site for revision or for writing fresh material.

However, I will resume posting some thoughts and notes online, either on this very site – under a continuation of the previous “Random Notes and Thoughts” title- and/or on the companion Muslim Answers- Quick Thoughts and Notes Blog .

I do think these writings should be put forward in the public realm, even if they are incomplete and/or improvements could be thought of. The truth is though, the months and years are passing, and it is better to post some things rather than wait for the time when the arguments could be polished fully and reviewed (since that time might never come).

I will keep the comments section closed, while I continue to seek more feedback, knowledge and help in this regard from trusted and knowledgeable sources. [There might be some double-posting/multiple-posting between this site and the companion blog and some disorganization, but again I think it is best to put these things forward rather than worry too much about style and organization issues, even if it does lead to the same information being present in multiple of my blogs/sites.]

The Common Word among the Three Major Faiths in the World: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Posted on December 31, 2015 by editor_1

By Salama Abdelhady, Prof. of Energy Systems, Aswan University (with footnotes by a member of the MuslimAnswers team)

(Note: I was urged to publish this piece by the author. I do think that the piece has a number of oversights, slips, and oversimplifies some crucial matters of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their interrelationship, and moreover the ending of this piece seems to be somewhat sudden, but I am nevertheless presenting this article while adding footnotes as appropriate)

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three great monotheistic religions, adopted by more than 70% of the world’s population[1]. The source of these religions is God who chose human messengers to call people to these religions. So, they are actually one religion[2] which has the same core or belief in one God, as the Creator of the living universe, and in the Day of Resurrection or the Day in which our deeds will be reckoned. They trace their commandments to two Holy Books sent or revealed from God, the Bible and the Quran[3], and to one grandfather of the messengers or carriers of these three religions from God to humanity, Abraham (peace and blessings be upon him). That is why they are called Abrahamic Monotheistic Religions – and these are sealed by Islam. Continue reading →

Question: “Why would one discard evidence of Christ’s crucifixion and accept the Quranic account?”

Posted on November 13, 2015 by editor_1

Answered by Moulana Yusuf Laher (http://www.anwaarul-islam.co.za)

Question:

The Christian asks: “We have in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus two mutually contradicting viewpoints: On the one side, the statement from the Bible, Continue reading →

Random Thoughts and Notes: Days 437-493

Posted on May 24, 2015 by editor_1

In Surah al-‘Asr, when the loss the human beings are in is mentioned in addition to those who are saved, the rule is loss and the exception is escape; thus the exception confirms the general rule.

The Shuyuukh mention that one of the particularities of Islamic Law is that there is no benefit in the law for the Lawgiver – that is, Allah does not benefit from the Shariah; this is besides His not benefiting whether we follow or discard Islam and the Shariah.

Continue reading →

Question: “Does Islam’s emphasis on reality not show our disdain for how different people perceive things?”

Posted on April 13, 2015 by editor_1

Question:

It is said that when we emphasize the ‘reality’ in our discussions with non-Muslims, we are showing a total disdain for different minds to perceive things in different ways. What do we say to this?

Answer (by Ustadh Luqman al-Andalusi, Executive Director of al-Andalus Institute of Islamic Studies): Continue reading →

Random Thoughts and Notes: Days 395-436

Posted on March 28, 2015 by editor_1

With regards to the claimants of Sufism who say that the Shariah is not essential or important, the interesting things is that they totally forget that Tasawwuf is meant to “erase” your ego and in this case, this means the ego towards thinking that you are some sort of individual absolute entity with the right (or the inalienable right to use Western terns) to dictate what your Shariah, your laws, or your way ought to be; rather, the whole point is to “lose yourself into unquestioned obedience of Allah the Exalted”, and not to lose yourself into obedience of your own invented Shariah or rules. If only the last case prevails, then in fact absolutely no spiritual progress of any kind has been made, but rather, much external and internal harm has been caused to one’s own self.

Continue reading →