why,why,why,WHY?!

[Globalpeace]

Source of Questions?

Asslamo Allaikum Sisters,

Masha'Allah Brothers/Sisters have all done very well in answering your specific queries and May Allah (SWT) reward then all (Ameen)...

I would like to be personal (if you permit me) and ask as to how/why these questions are coming in your mind?

There are reasons for our thoughts:

1) Are you having these thoughts because you see the behaviour of Muslims (family friends, relatives, Mosque) in contradiction to what you perceive Islam to be?
2) Are you having these thoughts because you see Muslims to be in a sad state of affairs and your logic dictates that you can’t be in such a state if you are in possession of the best religion of the world?
3) Are you having these thoughts because of apparent contradiction between Islam & West?
4) Are you having these thoughts because you are visiting specific web-sites or have friends/family who are advising you of these queries?
5) Any other reasons that you can think of

I apologise for being personal and feel free to ignore the message if you don’t feel like answering.

I have always found that it is important to address the reasons otherwise once the 1st set of questions are answered; more will come so the source needs to be identified.

Jazakullah Khairun

P.S: Hope that you will forgive the intrusion in your privacy.

- why do muslims claim islam as the true religion?
- why, if i talk to a muslim about something i read on a chrisitian website, tell me to stay away from christian websites,or any other websites that are not of Islam?
- why does God allow suffering and slavery?
- why does God allow discrimination?
- Do we go straight to Heaven and stay there until the Day of Judgement?
- how can be absolutley sure that Prophet Jesus(pbuh)wasnt the son of God?
- How do we know that the Bible has been corrupted?
-Why do we call our religion the True Religion, why cant other religions also be the True Religion?
( im sorry if i offended anyone, but i just have soooo many questions. i converted to islam last year but ever since i told my parents, i have had so many doubts about Islam and Chrsitianity. i stop praying off and on again, i hope Allah can forgive me. But i just have soo many questions.) :tti_sister:

 

[Noor to shine]

:salam2: brothers and sisters :
There are certain facts we should all remember : satan is whispering to all trying to full our hearts with doubts and lusts (whether we are reverts or born muslems) ....we shall not escape such whispering as long as we are alive ....the only way to defeat this enemy is by true sincere Faith in Allah .....This can be achieved by having more knoweldge in Quran and hadiths.....so my advise for myself and all be in touch with Quran and Sunna ......never say that I have complete knowledge no need for more ......Faith will increase or decrease we can choose ........good deeds make faith increase ....purifying intentions make faith increase.......and Allah swt knows best.

 

[happy 2 b muslim]

hey sister assalam alaykum

i had to reply
1)muslims dont claim its a fact because it should be within their heart totally true, but it true because if it was false there would be soo many copys of the quran still there remain one that it truth by itself. however if you want to find out how christain and judsium came you well see it in the passand how it develop i noticed it interesting look into it. One if christian was the true religion then jesus would of Clarifyed it there and then, if he didnt say it why should we follow it just cos paul came with his own thoughts and view claiming that jesus is the son of god difference jesus didnt say it paul did.2nd jew believe i dont know much about it but they claim every one is the son of god.Muslims dont say that to me dont go on christian site can if you want i watch the christian channel cos i want to stuy religion but you can but they lie i seen it, to make it sound bad basicly.

This is easy to explain really why does god allow suffering? well if people didnt suffer people cant relax and if people dont dead people wouldn’t be born and so on .basicly its Opposites really. i will use this example if a person stabbed you ,you will think its eveil however if a doctor cut you open its different, reasons being the doctor is doing it for good the person is doing it for bad.It has a greater good however you cannot see it god can.

if god allow discrimination people will draw him then start to worship that drawing we cant say this woudnt happen we dont know.the bible is corrupted i think to me its common sense if it wasnt corrupted it would have many copy plus all christian dont believe in the same bible they pick and choose.Muslim know for a fact that jesus isnt gods son is simple really if he was he would say if he didnt who are we to say he is plus they believe mary is the son of jesus so does that mean god marry plus they also say mary is the mother of god so its has more to it i really dont get it. If your bad you arent touching seeing hearing heaven your home is hell, on judgment day allah choose what he does not us and allah kept thing to himself keep in mind.Two religion cant be true muslims say islam is the truth we believe that, christian say there relgion is the true so how could that be u cant be half muslim half christian dont make sense.

soz if i dont make sense assalam alaykum ( pray for allah to prue you and guide you i do it help if you ask)

 

[Bluegazer]

Assalamu Alaikum sister allahsservant,


Many of my brothers and sisters in Islam have answered your questions.


I'd like to add what I know about one of your questions. You asked:

How do we know that the Bible has been corrupted?

Allah the exalted said that the earlier Scriptures were corrupted:

"So for their breaking of the covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their [proper] usages and have forgotten a portion of that of which they were reminded. And you will still observe deceit among them, except a few of them. But pardon them and overlook [their misdeeds]. Indeed, Allah loves the doers of good."

[Translation of the meaning of the Qur'an 5:13]


"Do you covet [the hope, O believers], that they would believe for you while a party of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing?"

[Translation of the meaning of the Qur'an 2:75]


"So woe to those who write the "scripture" with their own hands, then say, "This is from Allah ," in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn."

[Translation of the meaning of the Qur'an 2:79]


For me, these verses of the Qur'an are all the proof I need for the corruption of earlier scriptures.


When debating Jews and Christians, tell them that their own Biblical scholars have admitted that the Scriptures were corrupted. Please click on the following link to see a documentary called "Who Wrote the Bible". It's presented by a Christian Theologian; Dr. Robert Beckford. It was aired on Christmas Day in 2004 on Channel 4 in the UK:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7785317849743909385


The following is what the Channel 4 website says about this documentary:

Who Wrote the Bible?

When George W Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, he placed his right hand on an old copy of the Bible that had been used in the same ceremony in 1789 by George Washington. This says a lot about the authority and influence of the Bible in western culture, but it's also a reminder of the links between Bush and Bible. The President is said to be up before dawn each day to study the scriptures, and his recent re-election is widely credited to the millions on the religious right who wanted him back in the White House precisely because of his commitment to the Good Book.


Fact-finding mission

A two-hour Channel 4 special about the Bible opens with images of George Bush – and Osama Bin Laden. The Bible, holy books and the religious faith they inspire are on the news agenda as they've rarely been before, and the presenter of the programme, Dr Robert Beckford, is looking for good answers to what sounds like a simple question: Who wrote the Bible?

It's a question that has preoccupied biblical scholars for several generations but Beckford, who is director of the Centre for Black Theology at the University of Birmingham, forsakes the library and takes to the road in a journey from Jerusalem to Rome and on to the USA (with a stopover in Walthamstow). On the way, he talks to American pilgrims shouldering crosses on the streets of Jerusalem, to the head of the Pope's Bible Institute, to a former criminal and boxing promoter in East London, and many more. Beckford must be the only theologian in the UK who has his own Saturday night radio show, so he looks perfectly at home in the open top, electric blue fin-tail car he drives on the US leg of his quest.


Did God say that?

Sitting on a pew with a Baptist minister in Georgia, USA, he hears the most direct answer to his question of who wrote the Good Book: 'Gaaad said it; that settles it; I believe it!' says the minister, Dr Richard Land, who is an adviser to President Bush and has the presidential cufflinks to prove it. Dr Land then goes on to take George Bush to task for not sending more troops into Iraq, giving a chilling glimpse into the way the Bible's more militaristic books might be fuelling the conflict. 'I would have sent 500,000 troops,' he declares.

That revealing episode is just one jolt among many in the programme, showing us that the Bible is not some dusty old tome, locked in the past. The ancient texts still have power, for good and evil. For Beckford, the most memorable moment during filming comes when he talks to a Jewish settler in the Palestinian town of Hebron. 'We're surrounded by soldiers, he is armed and there are a couple of tanks making sure we are not attacked. I ask the settler what it means to be in Hebron and there is a sparkle in his eye as he says, "This is our land, given to us by God."'


The work of many hands

The answer to 'Who wrote the Bible?' turns out to be complex. For a start, the Bible isn't a single book, but contains 66 separate books which were collected over something like 1,200 years. Christians and Jews have usually been careful to say that the scriptures weren't delivered from a passing cloud, but were, they believe, written, edited and compiled by human beings under the inspiration of God. Even so, what Robert Beckford discovers on his biblical road trip is much more complex than anything he learned in Sunday school.

Take the Five Books of Moses, which open the Bible and include the world-famous stories of the creation, the Garden of Eden and Noah's flood. Known in Hebrew, the language they were written in, as the Torah, these books contain the foundations of Judaism and Christianity. It turns out that the Books of Moses weren't written by Moses at all, but by four anonymous writers, each with his own particular view to promote. These writings were only brought together when an Israelite king found them useful to promote his political agenda, many centuries after the time of Moses. Says Beckford: 'King Hezekiah turned the Bible into a party political manifesto for monotheism. He definitely knew something about spin.'


Their agendas are showing

The same goes for the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Beckford dives down into the ancient catacombs beneath a church in Rome to discover why Mark, the first Gospel writer, started to write about Jesus in the first place – as an encouragement to the first generation of Christians, who were facing persecution. He discovers that although the Gospel writers seem to be giving us direct reportage from the life of Jesus, each of them actually had his own spin on the story. While Matthew was keen to show how Jewish Jesus was, for the Jewish wing of the early church, Luke pushed the Roman angle. He packaged the teaching and miracles of Jesus to show that even civilised Roman citizens could believe in him.

There have been many TV programmes that have tried to bury the Bible – but this is no hatchet job. We get a clue about this when we see Robert Beckford at the tomb of Christ, inside Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As he stoops to leave the tomb, he wipes tears from his eyes. 'I was really moved by the experience,' he says. 'I am a Christian; I believe in the teachings of Jesus, so to be in a holy place, contemplating life, moved me. And I'm sufficiently secure in my African Caribbean maleness to express a full range of emotions without fear of censure!'


More is better

Beckford's search for answers is personal and heartfelt, from the first moments of the programme, as he sits in on a Sunday school lesson his mother is teaching about Jonah and the whale. 'This is important to me,' he says. 'The Bible shaped what I thought, said and did. But that simple belief gave way to the realisation that it's not that simple.'

And it concludes with something like a confession of faith: if we accept that the Bible is messy and human, and was written for faith communities with specific needs in mind, then we will discover it to be a book that will feed our own faith in God. Says Beckford: 'If we can find God in the imperfections of our lives, then maybe we can find him in the messiness of the text.'

Source: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/bible.html


According to the Guardian newspaper [in an article entitled "Robert Beckford: A voice in the crowd" published on May 17, 2005], he earned his University degree in Houghton College in New York, USA. In the UK, he studied for a masters degree in hermeneutics at what was then London Bible College, in Middlesex, and is now the London School of Theology. He earned his PhD from the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Source: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/profile/story/0,11109,1485116,00.html


Regards,

Bluegazer

Wassalamu Alaikum