A question to the Muslims... (If there are any on here..)

The main question itself is real simple:

What is a Muslim?

Now before you tell me to go Google, hear me out. This is where things will start to get complicated. Usually the answer I get is "Someone who worships Allah/God and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet". Now, to this answer, I have a few follow-up questions..

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..


If you have any other definitions for what a Muslim is, feel free to share. I could've just left the question to see your definitions, but, chances are people would tell me to go Google. And in case you wish to answer with "someone who follows Islam", the question then logically becomes "what is Islam?".

reply to post by vasaga

If there are any on here..

Text

Good point. In terms of the whole ATS population there would not be many. Most support for Islam here comes from sympathisers who only support it because it is anti Israel .... sad but true ......

reply to post by vasaga


I'm not a Muslim but I want to test my knowledge of Islam. Tell me what you think of my answers.
1.5) "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "one who submits to God".
Muslim wiki

1)

Muslims worship God according to two wings. The first wing is adopting the five pillars of Islam. These five pillars are, in brief: Shahada (in Arabic)/Testimony of faith is done by accepting that there is one god and one god only and that is Allah and Prophet Muhammed (SAW) is his Prophet Salat/Salah (in Arabic)/Prayer is done by praying 5 daily prayers:Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha Zakah (in Arabic)/Giving to charity is done by donating a small amount of your wealth, no matter how rich or poor they are, every year Refer to the related question below for more information on Islam five pillars. The second wing is performing good deeds for sake of God and for gaining his mercy and satisfaction; among these deeds are: keeping good relations with relatives, neighbors, friends, colleagues in work, all community people. doing work with good quality and honesty respecting the old and be kind to the younger. be humble to parents and kind to them helping the poor, the sick. and all who needs help being honest and faithful not gambling, not drinking alcohols, and not performing sex outside marriage ... etc

Muslim Worship source

2) I believe Muslims only worship Allah. Since they state only Allah is the only one worthy of worship. Like Jews we only worship G-d.

Since, I'm not a Muslim I cannot answer the other questions. Tell me what you think of my answers toward your first questions. I'm somewhat knowledgeable about Islam. I can also find sources for you.

A muslim is someone who is born a muslim - their conditioning is to surrender/accept/submit without questioning - they simply do not go through any rational, intellectual reasoning of why they should or shouldn't be a muslim - they don't get a choice and its death if they leave or disagree.

reply to post by FeraVerto


Thats crap they are followers of the false teachings of muhammed, its like they praise him more then Allah.

I have a question for the muslims too...

How many muslims will it take to carry away the dome of the rock, when can you start? How long will it take you?

If its smashed into tiny pieces for you, do you feel it would speed the process?

Would you like to cut off my head now?

Originally posted by vasaga
The main question itself is real simple:

What is a Muslim?

Now before you tell me to go Google, hear me out. This is where things will start to get complicated. Usually the answer I get is "Someone who worships Allah/God and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet". Now, to this answer, I have a few follow-up questions..

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

You pray to Allah .

That is how you worship .

Your prays can be of any nature .

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

Yes you are missing a lot here . Division or addition to Allah is to commit a sin . Liking something out of this reality amounts to worshipping the created .
Muslims worship the creator of all .

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

These are really deep questions and the answers will be equally deep and varied too .
I have learnt to appreciate the beauty of the creation .
It made me a humbler person and made me more content with what I got out of this life .

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..

Yes , murderers can be muslim too .

If you have any other definitions for what a Muslim is, feel free to share. I could've just left the question to see your definitions, but, chances are people would tell me to go Google. And in case you wish to answer with "someone who follows Islam", the question then logically becomes "what is Islam?".

edit on 13-4-2011 by vasaga because: I think Muslims themselves have been kept from what they actually are intended to be by them not knowing what they actually stand for... This thread is an exploration to see if this is the case.

Islam is submission to Allah .

I am married to a muslim and i had to convert to marry my wife. Some people only classify the radical muslims as the belief of all of them. But there are radical christians too. A beleif is a belief. They recognize Jesus as a prophet but Muhommed as the last prophet. They eat sleep and pray just as anyone else. It's just sad that muslims get a bad wrap because of the ones that take it to the extreme and interpret the Quaran as they see fit for themselves and their doings. Take a stab and read it yourself, not much different than any other religion.

Originally posted by vasaga
The main question itself is real simple:

What is a Muslim?

Now before you tell me to go Google, hear me out. This is where things will start to get complicated. Usually the answer I get is "Someone who worships Allah/God and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet". Now, to this answer, I have a few follow-up questions..

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..


If you have any other definitions for what a Muslim is, feel free to share. I could've just left the question to see your definitions, but, chances are people would tell me to go Google. And in case you wish to answer with "someone who follows Islam", the question then logically becomes "what is Islam?".

edit on 13-4-2011 by vasaga because: I think Muslims themselves have been kept from what they actually are intended to be by them not knowing what they actually stand for... This thread is an exploration to see if this is the case.

Hello. I was raised as a muslim, with a muslim family.
My belief just got adjusted as i got older.

1. Muslims worship god by with the 5 prayers and do what he likes and not refrain from actions he doesn't.

2. A muslim is someone who believes in Allah and that Mohammad is the last prophet. Before mohammad, the religion was not complete. Mohammad completed it and other messengers after him are false.

3. He changed muslim lives by being arabic. This leads to blurring the line between culture and religion. In non-arabic muslim countries, it is GOOD to dress like an arab. cause mohamad did. I think some of us would give up cars for camels sometimes, cause that's how he roll

3.1 the real reason why muslims had to accept that mohamad is the last prophet, is to feel a sense of superiority above the other religion. take christians for example, what would happen if they believed in prophets after jesus?

3.2 this can be explained in today's terms: it's the same reason people go for iPhone 4 and feel superior to those with an iPhone 2 or 3GS. They have the latest one, which is the best. Now what if they bump into someone with an iPhone 5? they would feel inferior. So they deny that Apple made the iPhone 5 and call it a china-made knock-off.

So yea, that's why Mohammad HAS to be the final prophet. What people don't realize is that, similarly to handphones, you CAN trade-in your beliefs for a better one.

4. Yea still a muslim. a pretty #ty one.

Isn't praying towards mecca the same as idolatry? I know that all Muslims pray towards whatever direction mecca is in. And in Mecca is the black stone. So you are praying to a black stone? Wouldn't it be better just to pray to god instead of praying to a black stone?

Originally posted by vasaga

Hello, I want to say first that I'm a muslim ( not a very good one) and I live in saudi arabia (Dominantly islam)
please note that I'm not of much experience to answering these questions as I'm not very well knowledged in Islam and the history of it.

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

We worship allah / god by doing 5 things, the five pillars of islam and they are :
1. shahada, the akncowldgement that there is no god but allah and that mohammed is his prophet
2. praying, 5 times a day .
3 . zakat, once a year where you give food to the poor.
4 . Fasting, at the month of ramadan .
5 . Hajj , at tho al hijja month from hejri calender and to complete this you only need to do hajj once a lifetime.

en.wikipedia.org...

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

What you are missing I believe is this, you are not a muslim or kafer (in arabic) if you receive the message of islam from doat, when you receive the message and read the Quran (islam holy book) and still deny its teachings and mohammed sunna then you are not a muslim.

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

Mohammed is the last of prophet of allah, I accept his message and his teachings . Islam changes your life, reading quran changed my life, I recommend you read it for yourself .

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..

Murder is not accepted in islam you have to understand that, we try to spread the message of islam, if you read the quran you will find the answers to your questions. please do understand that at these times (where minor signs of judgement day are almost all evident) Islam has a lot of divisions like sheia, hanafi, sofi , hanbali and some are muslims but deny mohammed pbuh (peace be upon him) teachings.
The closest division to islam is Sunnah, which follows the teachings of the Quran and mohammed pbuh teachings .

Islam is deen ( religion ) its done first by declaring the shahada, followed by performing the five pillars of islam. Islam also instills values and behavior with how to deal with others and islam promotes peace and sharing the message with others, Islam covers everything in your life and gives life its true meaning.

Muslims are followers of islam, we make mistakes, we are human, all humans make mistakes the best humans are those who repent .

Please understand I'm not very knowledgeable in islam, if you want to learn more I highly suggest you read a Quran and understand it.

Please check this video on youtube I hope it helps

From Atheism to Belief- A Journey to Islam in North America by Dr. Jeffrey Lang

Originally posted by idonotcollectstamps
Isn't praying towards mecca the same as idolatry? I know that all Muslims pray towards whatever direction mecca is in. And in Mecca is the black stone. So you are praying to a black stone? Wouldn't it be better just to pray to god instead of praying to a black stone?

Muslims pray to Allah , not to a black stone .

What matters is what you have in your heart .

When you've submitted to become a muslim , you also accepted the fact that Allah surely knows your heart better then you do .

Muhammed himself prayed towards Jerusalem , Mescid-i Aksa to be precise .

Story of Mecca becoming the direction to pray is not related to anything other then Muhammed paying his respects to a local muslim .

Muhammed , when in Mecca , would place himself so the Kabaa and Mescid-i Aksa would line up .

If a muslim doesn't know what direction Kabaa is at , then it matters not , muslim can assume a direction and pray anyhow .

You said:

Originally posted by vasaga
The main question itself is real simple:

What is a Muslim?

Now before you tell me to go Google, hear me out. This is where things will start to get complicated. Usually the answer I get is "Someone who worships Allah/God and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet". Now, to this answer, I have a few follow-up questions..

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..


If you have any other definitions for what a Muslim is, feel free to share. I could've just left the question to see your definitions, but, chances are people would tell me to go Google. And in case you wish to answer with "someone who follows Islam", the question then logically becomes "what is Islam?".

edit on 13-4-2011 by vasaga because: I think Muslims themselves have been kept from what they actually are intended to be by them not knowing what they actually stand for... This thread is an exploration to see if this is the case.

A Muslim is a follower of Islam, which linguistically means "submission" - a specified submission, i.e., to Allah (The Creator).

1) Allah ordered the Muslims to pray towards the Ka'bah, which is the black cube structure in Makkah. All Muslims face the Ka'bah when praying. Before praying, we perform a, so-to-speak, purification ritual called "wudu". It consists of washing certain body parts: the face, hands and arms, hair, and feet. Then, after completing this, we perform the prayer. (Also it is a prerequisite for the validity of the prayer to be free of "filth", or what is defined as feces or anything from the eliminatory outlets excluding sperm - the emission of sperm has another purification ritual which is not wudu, but rather a full body wash, known in arabic as "ghusl" - Muslims are obligated to wash themselves after they wash the restroom. If a Muslim man pees, after he is done, he has to wash the penus either with water or paper towel in a specific way). Okay, continuing: the prayer begins by the Muslim in the standing position and saying "Allahu Akbar", which means "God is Great". Then Surah Al-Fatiha (which is the first chapter of the Qur'an) is recited. Then, after completing the chapter, one bows down, then stands back up. Next, the person goes down in a prostration position.

Muslim commencing prayer, in standing position

Bowing position

Prostration position

After the prostration position, one sits up.
Muslim sitting up

After that position, one goes back to the prostration position. After that, depending on which prayer it is, the number of cycles vary. The positions which were mentioned make up one cycle. Out of the five obligatory prayers we pray, 3 of them have 4 cycles. One has two cycles, and another has 3 cycles. One cannot pray all 5 prayers at the same time - they have a specific time, and specific end time. Of course, a Muslim is not "limited" to praying only these five prayers, one can pray other optional prayers.

What I named was the obligatory motions and obligatory steps of wudu' - there are recommended acts one should do, such as washing the nose, mouth, and others. Also, in the prayer, what I named was the compulsory acts: there are other optional acts which many Muslims do, such as, when in the bowing position, one is recommended to say "Subhaana Rabbil `Adheem" which means "Glory be to my Lord, The Exalted" three times. There are many sayings of praise to God throughout the prayer.

2) In Islam, worship is defined as "the ultimate submission and humbling of oneself". This is only for God.

Worshipping the creations are forbidden in Islam. I think you're getting mixed up between The Creator and the created. All these creations are God's property, but they are not God. Nor do we say that God is "everywhere". Sure, God is omniscient, but not "omni-present", but sure in the sense that the existence of God is known by everything. This can be known because God existed before everything - before light and darkness, time and space, and all places including Heaven and Hell. This is why we believe God exists without a place. God doesn't have any parts, nor is a body - God is indivisible.

A person becomes Muslim by simply uttering "No one deserves to be worshipped except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah"...no witnesses required.

3) Following the Prophet Muhammad gives me a role model - the best role model. All Muslims perceive the Prophet Muhammad as a paragon, despite the lies spewed to-and-fro. The Prophet Muhammad had the best of manners and preached goodness for the people. One of the aphorisms of the Prophet Muhammad is "Love for your brother as you love for yourself".

4) The person is still a Muslim - but is certainly not a pious Muslim, rather a sinful one. If the person dies, without repenting, then God may forgive them, or they may go to Hell for a certain period of time, then they will go to Heaven.

This is a short explanation of the Muslim belief in God (We don't believe that God is a man nor a "man in the sky"):

At a time when “Islam” is widely discussed in the Western media, little is said about what Muslims consider the most important aspect of their religion, namely their belief in God. The heart of Islam is Tawheed. The term Tawheed is derived from the trilateral root W-H-D, which means literally, “one.” Muslims understand Allah (God) to be One—not in the numerical sense, but in the sense that there is One Creator, Who is the only Creator, Who alone deserves to be worshipped. This is the meaning of the first half of the Declaration of Faith (Shahadah), La ilaha illallah.[1] Also, it is understood regarding the Oneness of the Creator, that Allah is Indivisible. Not only is the Creator’s Godhood not partitioned amongst the creations, the Creator Himself[2] cannot be partitioned. God is not a body, for bodies, whether dense bodies, mental bodies, or bodies of an ethereal nature are all dependent upon one dimension of space or another for their existence. Allah, being eternal, is not dependent upon anything. Allah existed before anything else was. Before there was light, darkness, direction, distance, motion, stillness, or time there was a Creator. Allah is not a spatial or temporal entity, for Allah exists without being in time, and Allah exists without being in a place.

Also from the trilateral root of W-H-D of the word Tawheed, we know that God is absolutely Unique. Muslims make a complete distinction between the Creator and the created. Failing to understand this distinction would cause one to fall into shirk (polytheism), for the person would attempt to worship God, but in reality would be worshipping a creation. Allah does not resemble the creations–at all–in any regards, and Muslims mean that categorically and absolutely. So unlike the atheists, the Muslims affirm the existence of the Creator, and on the other hand, unlike the polytheists, the Muslims do not compare the Creator to the created. Muslims take the position of moderation: we know that God exists—but we do not resemble God to anything.

Muslims firmly believe that rationality has a significant role in the Islamic doctrine and our understanding of Tawheed. The `aql (intellect) is the faculty that God has endowed human beings with so they may distinguish truth from falsehood. If we use our natural intelligence, we realize that this universe could not be self-created, for action requires existence. A thing must be to do; hence the non-existent cannot act, much less can the non-existent assemble and coordinate itself from nothing. Our natural intelligence also tells us that this universe cannot be eternal (“beginningless”), for that would require an infinite regression, which is a logical impossibility. From this we can realize the absurdity of atheism and can conclude the universe is in need of an Eternal One Who originated and sustains this world and all that it contains.

Muslims use their minds to recognize the existence of the Creator and what necessarily efits the Creator, such as, Oneness, Omnipotence and Knowledge, and what necessarily does not befit the Creator, such as, multiplicity, dependency and ignorance. Nonetheless, we realize the inherent limitations of the mind. For one, our minds cannot fathom the Reality of the One Who created us. Our minds process images and other phenomena that reach us through our senses. The Creator, however, is in no way similar to anything we may perceive in this world. The Creator is absolutely Incomparable; therefore, the Creator cannot be imagined.

Also, regarding the intellect’s limitation, Muslims realize that reason does not supersede Divine Revelation. Our minds, by themselves, cannot penetrate that realm we are bound to enter when we shuffle of these mortal coils. To understand what will benefit us in this temporary dimension of existence and what lies beyond, human beings are in desperate need of the Sacred Laws of Divine Revelation for guidance. Although our intellects—if we employ them according the sound laws of thought—will recognize the existence of One, Eternal, Perfect, Incomparable Creator, our intellects cannot know what will be to our ultimate benefit or detriment in the Hereafter. This is the mission of the Holy Prophets whom God has sent through the various eras of history to wake us from our slumber and remind us of our duties to our Lord and the fact that we shall be here all but briefly.

A Moderate Nation - Muslim belief

Originally posted by vasaga
The main question itself is real simple:

What is a Muslim?

Now before you tell me to go Google, hear me out. This is where things will start to get complicated. Usually the answer I get is "Someone who worships Allah/God and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet". Now, to this answer, I have a few follow-up questions..

1) How do you worship Allah/God?

2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?
If your answer is yes, fine.
If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..


If you have any other definitions for what a Muslim is, feel free to share. I could've just left the question to see your definitions, but, chances are people would tell me to go Google. And in case you wish to answer with "someone who follows Islam", the question then logically becomes "what is Islam?".

edit on 13-4-2011 by vasaga because: I think Muslims themselves have been kept from what they actually are intended to be by them not knowing what they actually stand for... This thread is an exploration to see if this is the case.

What is a Christian?

Exactly…no difference.

Both religions are utterly despicable and really have no merit in the world of God, the Muslim religion is the first religion of the world through Moses, the Christians was given the religion and story of the 15th Jesus Christ by the Babylonians as pity when the pagan worshipping devil race was enslaved by the Babylonians.
What is a Muslim?
How are you going to ask a question with a question with a very atrotious answer,lmaf

If your answer is no, we have a problem. Why? Because your definition of a Muslim is then incomplete or false. By saying "no" you created an exception to the definition. A definition can have no exceptions. And if your answer is "murder is against Allah/God's will", I refer you back to question number 2, or I can ask if anyone can ever go through his life doing 100% of what Allah/God wants all the time..

You said:

Originally posted by idonotcollectstamps
Isn't praying towards mecca the same as idolatry? I know that all Muslims pray towards whatever direction mecca is in. And in Mecca is the black stone. So you are praying to a black stone? Wouldn't it be better just to pray to god instead of praying to a black stone?

No, Muslims don't believe that the black stone is God, rather that God ordered Muslims to direct their worship towards the Ka'bah.

We don't believe that God has a "direction" or that God is "up" or in the sky as many others believe. This is known because God existed before all directions and places, including spaces - so doesn't this mean that God existed without a place? Yes, it does. We worship the The Creator Who is Omniscient, Transcendent, Immutable, Perfect, Incomparable, and exists without a place, and is not a man or spatial entity.

Hello, I'm a recent Islamic apostate. I spent 8 long years fully dedicated to that religion. I learned Arabic, memorized portions of the Qur'an, and even was elected an amir (community leader).

• What is a Muslim? A Muslim is one who submits to Allah.

• What is Islam? Islam is the religion of Muhammad and purportedly the religion of Abraham, as defined in the Qur'an.

• What is the Qur'an? It is the word of Allah transmitted to Muhammad through Angel Gabriel. The Qur'an is the oral recitation of Allah's words, later compiled into a physical book. The physical book is not the Qur'an, the Qur'an is the words spoken or recited aloud.

• How do you worship Allah? By submitting yourself and obeying Allah's commands in the Qur'an and those of His Prophet (Muhammad).

• Following Muhammad changes your life BIG time! You must strive to be the ultimate groupie and mimic Muhammad's actions, words, and behaviors in all that you do.

• Following Muhammad only benefits your life if you are too lost and confused to let your own heart and soul discern for you. Muhammad shows a path of righteousness mixed in with separation, inequality, sexism, Islamic superiority, fear, hate, and war. Becoming a Muhammad clone does not benefit any one personally, because each person is here to walk their own path.

• Of course a Muslim who murders is still considered a Muslim!!! Physical warfare is an ordainment and command from Allah. Holy War is considered the sixth pillar of Islam. You have to kill for the Glory of Allah during times of war or risk falling short as a true believer.

reply to post by idonotcollectstamps


Whats the difference between praying to a black stone and praying to a statue of jesus christ? Same difference, different religion.

reply to post by vasaga

Hello vasagal!
I give my response here as a current muslim, something which I see is something of a minority in this thread .

Originally posted by vasaga
What is a Muslim?

A muslim is a person who submits to the will of God. Quranically, a muslim is a person who believes in God, the angels, the scriptures sent by God, the Prophets/Messengers, the Day of Judgement, and who does good deeds.

Originally posted by vasaga
1) How do you worship Allah/God?

The arabic term for worship is "ibada", which stems from the root word "abd", which means "slave" or "servant". So simply praying 5 times a day isn't going to cut it. A muslim has to remember and acknowledge God in everything they do. Now obviously, very few people are going to be able to do that, but it's good to do it to the best of your abilities, and if they commit any sin, they would have to repent and ask for forgiveness.

Originally posted by vasaga
2) Worship is basically the feeling or expression of "adoration" towards something. If everything is His creation, don't you basically worship Allah/God by liking anything that exists in this universe? You probably admit no one can comprehend the greatness of Allah/God, so, everyone can only worship parts.. Isn't liking something out of this reality the same as worshiping a part of Allah/God? How can anyone then ever not be a Muslim? Or am I missing something here?

Technically, the people that Muhammad was sent to already believed in Allah. The problem was that throughout the generations, they had added loads of lesser gods, for example, one for the rain, one for fertility, etc. This seems a bit similar to what you're suggesting, although perhaps not exactly so. Their excuse was "We didn't want to bother God about the minor stuff".
Appreciating the good that exists in this reality can certainly be a part of worshipping God, but it is hardly the only part.

Originally posted by vasaga
3) How does accepting that Muhammad is His last prophet, change your life in any way? What value does it actually have to yourself as a person?

It gives an understanding that no new person is going to show up with new instructions, and that there is present a good example to folow.

Originally posted by vasaga
4) If someone "worships" Allah/God by praying, and accepts that Muhammad is his last prophet, and he murders people for sport, is he still a Muslim?

Murdering someone for sport would not make them a good muslim at all, since they would not be following Islam in this regard.