Brief Replies to Commonly-Asked (“Difficult”) Questions about Islam

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Fixing da foundation
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Amman: The Coherence of Islam
Brief Replies to Commonly-Asked (“Difficult”) Questions about Islam
by Sheikh Nuh Keller

The following are replies to questions posed by a young Muslim in Bradford on behalf of his uncle, an individual born into a Muslim family but who has since left the religion, unable to find answers to his many questions. The replies are given by Sheikh Nuh Keller, addressing the relationship between Islam and such topics as destiny, free will, evolution, and other revealed faiths. The answers were given in a series of informal gatherings held over five evenings during Ramadan of this year (2003) in Amman, Jordan.




Track 1: Knowledge, Faith and the Islamic Revelation
audio file 7:08 · 24 kbit/s · 1.22 Mb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]

Topics Discussed

* Introduction and Overview
* Nature and Limits of Proof
* The Paradigm of Faith





Track 2: Causation, Correlation & Influence: The Relationship Among Divinely Revealed Texts
audio file 5:10 · 24 kbit/s · 910 Kb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]

Question:
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was 40 years of age when he received revelation. My uncle claims that during that time a 40 year-old was considered an elder and respected member of the community. He (Allah bless him and give him peace) was also well traveled throughout the Middle East. This means that he could have gained his information from various places regarding monotheism, e.g. Syria, etc. What was he doing in the cave for all this time? Was he just retreating or was he busy writing the doctrines? Who was he praying to?




Track 3: The Pathos of Scientism
audio file 15:11 · 24 kbit/s · 2.60 Mb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]


Topic Discussed

* The Gadfly Questions: Ongoing Scientific Riddles
* The Argument from Design
* Atheism-as-Faith
* The Nature of Scientific Epistimology






Track 4: Religion, Fear, and the Limitations of the Freudian Model

audio file 14:37 · 24 kbit/s · 2.50 Mb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]

Question:
The worship instinct is really in fact the fear of death. We are frightened of dying therefore religion was invented to explain what would happen after death and to be a comfort zone. It is just used to control the masses and to make them morally responsible. After all we enjoy life. Why are animals so frightened of death? They don't have a concept of Jannah/Jahanam.

Topic Discussed

* Maslow’s Hierarchy and the Place of Religion
* Lasting-Power of Revelation
* Silver Chinnocks, Instinct, and Despair







Track 5: Ontology of Morality, Evolution, and Islamic Creed

audio file 13.21 · 24 kbit/s · 2.29 Mb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]

Question:
If the human race started from Adam and Hawa and their offspring, all those offspring are brothers and sisters. No matter how many children Adam and Hawa have they will all be brothers and sisters. They will be genetically similar to each other as well. What he is trying to say is that did the human race start off with incest? If that is the case then offspring from the result of incest are usually inbreds and deformed. Also that does not explain why we are different skin color and why our features are different, e.g. Chinese, Afro etc.

Topic Discussed

* Abrogation and the Sacred Law
* Basis of Morality/Rulings of the Sacred Law
* Biology of Deformity
* The “Founder Effect”
* Steven Pinker & The Variation of Physical Features
* Evolution, The Fossil Record, and Islamic Creed






Track 6: Science and the Raison d’etre of the Qur’anic Text

audio file 15:34 · 24 kbit/s · 2.67 Mb [MP3] | [DOWNLOAD]

Questions:
A) What about dinasours? After all they did exist. Such a big phenomenon has passed in the history of the earth. Why has religion failed to explain it or why has it been missed out?

B) Muslims keep claiming that there are scientific facts in the Quran, but there are also similar things in the Hindu scriptures. Why are they given a miss? Muslims keep interpreting the Surah's and Ayah's to suit the society at that time. Basically whenever a scientific discovery is made they say, "Oh, that was in the Quran 1400 years ago," so basically Muslims have to wait for scientific discoveries before confirming it in the Quran

Topic Discussed

* Proper Scope of Religious Knowledge
* The Universe-As-Sign
* The Great Facts of Religion: You, Allah, and the Grave
* Scientific Paradigms & Qur’anic Interpretation




:wasalam:
 
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