Tag Archives: Muhammad

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

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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 →

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Random Thoughts and Notes: Days 437-493

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  • 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?”

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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

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  • 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 →

Presenting Islam – Articles on the Qur’an

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Articles related to the Qur’an

Prerequisites needed in order to make Tafseer – a few thoughts – by Hafiz Mahmut

A few words on the Qur’an and its effect on people’s hearts – by Hafiz Mahmut

Objection: ‘The inability of someone to bring up something like the Qur’an is not proof that it is actually inimitable’ answered by Sharif Randhawa

Question: “Aren’t the linguistic features of the Qur’an artificially advanced?” answered by Sharif Randhawa

Question: “If the literary devices of the Qur’an can be traced, does this not make it an ordinary book?” answered by Sharif Randhawa Continue reading →

Question: “Is ‘language at the time of the Jaahiliyia’ really the best standard through which a miracle from God could have been manifested?”

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It is said that every single civilization, people, or culture has excelled in one quality above and beyond other civilizations at any given point in time. So he asks, why should the Muslims be so concerned or narrow-minded about “language at the time of the Jaahiliyia” as the best standard through which a miracle from God could be shown to the people at large- especially, he says, as personalities have appeared, in the past and even today, claiming special communication between themselves and God, and many of them doing amazing things based on the proclivities of their culture, time and place (i.e. that which we Muslims would call miracles according to the skeptic) – What is our response in this case?

Answered by Sharif Randhawa (Researcher at Bayyinah Institute, owner of Qur’anic Musings blog), with slight modifications and an additional note Continue reading →

Question: “Isn’t the Evolution of Arabic an evidence against Islam?”

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In connection with a previous question, the skeptic says that surely, in the thousands of years when Arabic has been evolving as a language, a good percentage of the language must have become modified in some sense [i.e. in structure, meanings of words, etc.]. He asks that, are we Muslims really sure that the Arabic of the Jaahiliya time was really the best, with nothing better than it before or after, and if so, where are the scientific studies which show this claim to be true.

He explains that since the arrival of Islam, many new terms have entered into the normative version of Arabic, the grammar has changed and many other modifications have come upon it which seriously call into question the eternal validity of classical Arabic as the best mode of human expression [the skeptic maintains that languages do change as a natural matter of course, but it is our insistence that there is indeed a peak of linguistic achievement which is problematic for any objective and serious researcher into the Islamic religion]

Answered by Sharif Randhawa (Researcher at Bayyinah Institute, owner of Qur’anic Musings blog), with slight modifications Continue reading →

Question: “Aren’t the ‘Miracles of the Qur’an and of Islam’ at best Probabilistic Evidences?”

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It is said: “At most, the ‘Miracles of the Qur’an’ and of Islam in general are probabilistic sets of evidence, since reasonable arguments can be made against them. Even if we take the evidence from biology (like evolution), archeology, or other fields to also be probabilistic evidence against Islam, why should the objective person choose the probabilistic set of Islamic evidences over and above the (stronger) probabilistic set of evidences from scientific observations, experiments, and their concomitant conclusions?” What is our response in this case?

Answered by Sharif Randhawa (Researcher at Bayyinah Institute, owner of Qur’anic Musings blog), with slight modifications[1] Continue reading →

Question on the Lack of a ‘Structural Plan’ in the Quran

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The skeptic asks what the exact strength of the claim that the Quran’s structural plan does not follow any of the humanly known blueprints for composition, speech, or poetry is. The skeptic says that as far as he can see, it would have been better if there was a previously-known meter, mode, or plan that all could relate to and learn, and this (rather than the lack of such a plan or mode) would make the Quran’s eloquence and impact more discernible to the common listener. What do we say about his claim?

Answered by Sharif Randhawa (Researcher at Bayyinah Institute, owner of Qur’anic Musings blog), with slight modifications Continue reading →