A Humble christian Question ( another forum )

[Islam!!yay]

:salam2:

So this christian wants something to be understood.I could not understand what he was trying to say or ask but this is his question.

The way I see it is that the soul is feminine and the spirit masculine. So in our scriptures we are the bride of Christ and it is like we are to deliver
the bride in purity, that is to deliver our souls to the wedding in purity. That we should know how to prepare the bride and that the Holy Spirit guides us
in this.

In regards to the spirit, if it is masculine, then I veiw the spirit in Islam as being a bit too strong in looking after souls, the feminine.
The remission of sin becomes the submission of sin. ​

Then I asked him to further elaborate!

The point I was making about the soul and spirit also. That in arabic the soul is femine and the spirit masculine, is that, then the soul internalisers the spirit, so it is important, what the spirit is that is going into the soul.

Another point, is that when we pray, we are talking to God and when we read the bible, it is listening
to God. I guess you could apply that to the way you feel to the koran.
Then we argue over what we are listening to. So within Islam as well as christianity, people have
being selective about what they listen to according to their situation and have not sought the peace
offered by both.​

The reason I was explaining things in terms of soul and spirit Altair9 is because spirit, being masculine is straight in it's direction. Straight is one term for orthodox. Also, that makes it linear, which means it starts somewhere and finishes.
The soul, being feminine, is about full-fillment. So as christians believe we have a covenent with God. It's like a promise. This is it:

Genesis 17:7 " And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after
you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your
descendants after you.

So our church is in the lineage of the covenant of Christ, and that is what is being full-filled. A prophet
does not change God's covenant, nor does a prophet establish a way for God's people to live.​

Can anyone answer his request ? I promised him I will get an answer

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam alaikum,

When did the soul become linear in Christianity.

Is this person a fundamentalist? The church has never been linear.

What is the question?

 

[Islam!!yay]

Thats why I wasnt so sure ! I thought someone with deeper knowledge of Islam might understand what he is asking for

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam alaikum,

I have very little knowledge.

I think that the young man is confused about his understanding of Christianity. Christianity has many branches. If one is lacking in knowledge about their own faith it makes it difficult for them to ask a question regarding another faith. We are demanded to seek knowledge about our faith.

Ask him what is his belief system is. He seems to be coming from the Pauline doctrine. I pick up the sexism in it. Often we give feminine or masculine gender to nouns. Soul is one term that is often referred to in the feminine. We try to discuss the soul and protect it.

I am going to attempt an answer:

In Islam we have the naf and the rou. We know they both belong to Allah subhana wa taala. We are given the physical sex to live this life and we are made in pairs so we are not alone.

We have degrees of the naf. The Sufi's spend a lot of time discussing the three levels of the naf.

Our spiritual progress is not linear. We have ranks. Our word is eman. We have high eman and there are times when we feel we are in the middle of the desert with vultures over our heads. If we are linear we would not have the ups and downs.

I am having difficulty with the submission and remission of sins. Each salat we ask for forgiveness for our minor transgressions. We are told that Allah subhana wa taala will forgive us when we repent. There is always hope. Think of the hope we have when He tells us that even if our sins are like the forth of the ocean He, the Most Merciful of those Who Have Mercy is willing to forgive us.

In Christianity the paradigm is confusing. Adam sinned. We are thus guilty by association. Jesus, the Christ, died for those sins. Well, logically if he died for the sins of Adam that frees everyone else. There is no need for us to live. It is over. God, took human form and died for humans. ( Just thinking about this gives me a headache)

In Islam we are not accountable for the "Original Sin". We know, by the Word of Allah subhana wa taala, that Adam asked for forgiveness and was pardoned.

As Believers we understand that we took the covenant of being the caretaker of the Earth while we are here. We promised Allah subhana wa taala we would guard His Creation. I am so thankful that Allah subhana wa taala is saving 99% of His Mercy for the Day of Judgement.

We do submit to sin. We pray for Allah subhana wa taala's guidance to seek refuge from the Shytan. We have numerous avenues for the remission of sins. Zakat, sadaqa, fasting, and nafil prayers are a few. There is always a way to get back on the Straight Path.

He created us to worship Him. We are not born into sin. We have been given intellect to work through sin. Each individual has the opportunity to submit to the Will of Allah subhana wa taala.

Hope this helps.

 

[Islam!!yay]

Thank you very much Sister for answering.

I just want to make sure whats the difference between naf and rou

Rou is soul am I correct ? So what is naf

Thanks again And May Allah SWT Bless you !

 

[Aapa]

Assalaam alaikum,

Naf is a combination of the physical state.

Rou is strictly the spiritual state.

Some say it is the same root word. Some say with knowledge we become aware of the states of naf.

It kinda, sorta makes sense. Going back to eman. It fluctuates. The stages of naf, our level of awareness, our spiritual state at any given time. I think that naf describes our eman.

We really do not know much about the rou. We know we have to protect it from evil and do we not pray to protect ourselves from our evil?

I pray I am describe this in a common sense way without transgressing.

 

[ShahnazZ]

The nafs is the human soul, the carnal temptations and base human desires that we as Muslims seek to control. Jihad an-nafs is thus the greatest jihad because it is the struggle against one's self and desires and goes on till death. The nafs encourages us to fall prey to our base desires while Islam teaches us how to control and moderate them.

The term ruh means spirit. It pertains to the spirit of life within us and is what will go on to Allah after death and the decay of our bodies. In Islam, the ruh is what lives on after death until resurrection when our bodies are recreated.

 

[Islam!!yay]

Thank you so much sister Aapa and sister Shahnazz.Insha'Allah I will be back to tell you his response!