Hello fabs,
There are two points in this post:
1-You posted the following on post #23 on this thread:
Well, I've read them and come to the conclusion that believing Jews and Christians will be saved, contrary to what everyone else says.
How do you explain that two groups of people -each having a very different view about God Almighty- will be saved?
Seriously, just think about it more deeply.
The Jews reject the notion that Jesus [peace be upon him] is divine in any way [which is the Muslim position as well], and they further reject that he's a Prophet [contrary to what Muslims believe]. They call him an illegitimate son, and they call his mother the Honourable Virgin Mary names. [I seek refuge with Allah from such words].
The Christians -on the other hand- believe in the divinity of Jesus [peace be upon him], that he should be worshiped along with the Holy Spirit [which Muslims believe to be a title of the Angel Gabriel] and God Almighty [who Christians term as "The Father" when they speak of Him as part of the trinity]. They try to maintain that they still believe in one God, but as a trinity. This makes no sense, and they call the trinity "a mystery" because however hard they try to rationalize it, it just doesn't work. So, the vast majority of Christians are in fact worshiping others besides God Almighty [i.e., they worship Jesus -peace be upon him- and the Holy Spirit].
And you're telling me that Jews and Christians -while having these very different beliefs in God Almighty- are
both to achieve salvation?!
In that same post [#23], you said:
God will not put his people in the flames.
How can the Jews [who rejected God's Messenger Jesus -peace be upon him-] still be called "His people"?
How can the Christians [who worshiped others along with God Almighty] still be called "His people"?
2- You posted the following in your last post:
I've know the Song of Solomon, it is a perfect testimony to the joy of living that the Jewish people(Israelites if you prefer) have, a joy that is commanded by God when he said 'Be fruitful and multiply' to Adam and Eve. Call it *!*!*!*!ography if you want, but God didn't put us on this earth just to pray 3 times a day.
As the Koran was written in a different milieu, it wouldn't evidently contain sexually explicit material now, would it?
Why do you associate "the joy of living" with sexually explicit words? There are subtle references in the Qur'an about the relationship between a man and a woman without going into such details. For example, read the following verse:
"It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them."
[Interpretation of the meanings of the Qur'an 2:187]
The following is an incident that happened to the Prophet [peace be upon him] which shows the Islamic attitude towards "the joy of living". I shall first post it in Arabic, then I'll post its translation into English, so that Arabic speaking brothers in Islam may correct the translation if I was mistaken:
جاء ثلاث رهط إلى بيوت أزواج النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ، يسألون عن عبادة النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ، فلما أخبروا كأنهم تقالوها ، فقالوا : أين نحن من النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ؟ قد غفر الله له ما تقدم من ذنبه وما تأخر ، قال أحدهم : أما أنا فإني أصلي الليل أبدا ، وقال آخر : أنا أصوم الدهر ولا أفطر ، وقال آخر : أنا أعتزل النساء فلا أتزوج أبدا ، فجاء رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال : ( أنتم الذين قلتم كذا وكذا ؟ أما والله أتي لأخشاكم لله وأتقاكم له ، لكني أصوم وأفطر ، وأصلي وأرقد ، وأتزوج النساء ، فمن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني )
A group of three men came to houses of the wives of the Prophet [peace be upon him] asking how the Prophet worshiped (Allah), and when they were informed about that, it's as if they thought it was little and said, "Where are we from the Prophet [peace be upon him] as his past and future sins have been forgiven."
Then one of them said, "I offer
Salat (prayer) throughout the night forever."
The other said, "I observe
Saum (fast) throughout the year and will not break my
Saum."
The third said, "I keep away from the women and will not marry forever."
Allah's Messenger [peace be upon him] came and said, "Are you the same people who said so-and-so? By Allah, I am more afraid of Allah than you and [..........]; yet I observe
Saum and also do not observe
Saum, I do offer
Salat and do sleep and I also marry women. So he who does not follow my
Sunnah (legal ways) [in religion] is not from me (not one of my followers)."
[Collected by Al-Bukhari and Muslim and translated by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan -with modifications by myself-, Al-Lu'lu'wal-Marjan..Arabic English, A Collection of Agreed upon Ahadith from Al-Bukhari and Muslim, Volume One, Hadith no. 885, pages 442-443, published by Dar-us-Salam Publications, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, First Edition 1995 AD - 1416 AH]
The dotted lines between two brackets [........] is to show my inability to translate the phrase
وأتقاكم له, since it also generally means the Prophet's fear of God Almighty, but there must be a subtle difference that I cannot translate.
And the following is part of a
hadith where the Prophet [peace be upon him] said:
وفي بضع أحدكم صدقة " . قالوا : يا رسول الله ! أياتي أحدنا شهوته ويكون له فيها أجر ؟ قال : " أرأيتم لو وضعها في حرام أكان عليه فيها وزر ؟ فكذلك إذا وضعها في الحلال كان له أجرا " .
"..........and lawful sexual intercourse is a charity." They -i.e. The Prophet's Companions- said, "O Messenger of God! Will one of us satisfy his sexual desire and be rewarded for it? He said, "Do you see that if he were to put it [i.e. sexual desire] in a forbidden [relationship], won't he earn a sin by that? Then also when he puts it in a lawful [relationship] he will earn a good deed."
[Collected by Muslim, Hadith no. 1006. My translation]
You also have to remember, fabs, that the Holy Book of the religion of God Almighty is to be the focus of the believers' lives, whether they are children or adults.
Would you be comfortable letting your children read sexually explicit material? Do you really believe that God Almighty would allow such material in His Scriptures?
If an ordinary man were to write such material, then honest and fair minded people would rebuke him, and his book will be classified under the "adult" section of bookstores in liberal Western countries.
3- You posted the following question:
Yes God gave us a mind to think, so why would he have us ignore reason by blindly accepting a document as a holy book and accepting a man as his messenger without asking any questions, or having our doubts as to its veracity?
The document you're referring to [The Qur'an] is itself a miracle. It's in an Arabic language so pure and moving that some bitter enemies of Islam reverted to Islam by the power of its meanings and its style.
And even though a translation of the Qur'an's meanings cannot convey the miraculous nature to non Arabs, they can still move people to revert to Islam. It's unlike any other book.
There are Christian priests who read the Qur'an in order to prepare themselves to argue with Muslim scholars and ended up becoming Muslims themselves.
For more information about the miraculous nature of the Qur'an, click on the following links:
http://www.islam-guide.com/
Please take note of Chapter 1.
I'll leave you with verses of the Qur'an which best describe our Lord, God Almighty:
"He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him. He is Allah , the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise."
[Interpretation of the meanings of the Qur'an 59:22-24]
I hope you all the best fabs,
Best regards,
Bluegazer