neacha67 said:
Hi, My name is Laura and I live in Canada. I recently returned from a month long trip from Egypt. I have fallen in love with your culture and am very interested in becoming Muslim. But there are two questions I have:
Do muslims believe in Evoulution?
Can I believe in other aspects of other faiths such as Budism (ie. Meditiation) or Paganism?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I would love to meet some new friends
Thanks for your time

Laura
Hi,
I am glad you enjoyed your trip to Egypt, its such a beautiful country
If evolution means that humans evolved from apes, then no. Muslims do not believe in this. I dont believe in those Darwinian theories, plus many have shown that it has a lot of holes and problems, even though the theory has been forced onto school kids in the West.
Islam is a total and complete faith. It is unacceptable to believe in anything that can contradict the Islamic teachings. Islam can help you in all your life including the spiritual. There are so many uplifting aspects of Islam, for example the prayer is something that can help you relax and the beauty of the Quran especially when listening and reading makes one ponder about the universe and our life.

.
Another example...... if you have good Muslim friends, their love and their aid will really lift you. InshaAllah. All Muslims share a common brotherhood and we look out and care for one another. --------
We have other spiritual benefits and actions which make us better person, such as the pilgrimage to Makkah, where we worship God and wear Ihram (clothing which makes us equal with all people)....
There is Ramadan, the month of fasting which also is an act of worship for God.... this is a month where we contemplate life, the poor people and those Muslims who have the ability give charity.... after Ramadan there is an amazing celebration called Eid, where there is lots of nice food !
So as i mentioned above, Islam really does fill a lot of a persons life and soul. May Allah help us all with this. - So having something try to fill these voids is unecessary.
Islam doesnt ban different culture. Rather we accept people's differences. Race, social status mean nothing to us. Rather what matters is the belief in someones heart and the love they have for Islam. This again, we can not judge.
You could do Yoga or Kung Fu etc or anything that was based off some other faith etc, but it is important that
you do not accept the belief system that goes with it. i.e. to believe in Karma, reincarnation..... So in Yoga, certain excercises are based on Hindu acts of worship, such as the Sun Salutation, where they would praise and worship the sun..
Allah is the creator of the sun, and only he is to be worshipped.
We must keep our Islamic beliefs pure. To worship God alone without associating any partners with him. So therefore, asking help from spirits, calling on the dead, worshipping other Gods, people, monkeys rats and other animals, mountains, trees, stones, rivers, is not allowed. And they will not be able to aid us at all.
Last of all, i just want to say that Islam is a very easy religion to follow. And INshaAllah, once you get a grasp of the basics, and see the significance of the 2 main unchanging sources of Islam, i.e. the Quran and the Sunnah (hadith sayings of the Prophet

) you will understand how and why!
Please feel free to ask anymore questions etc. I would be happy to help you.
Ameer.