Faith Refresher for Muslims and some answers to others.

This is an interesting video, a khutba(sermon) by Nouman Ali Khan, a scholar/student of Qur'anic arabic.
It deals with the basics of faith and a reminder/refresher to muslims.
It also sheds light on very specific behaviours and complaints of disbelievers/agnostics/spiritualists/deists etc.
Hope that it helps to clear some misunderstandings about islam. It is a bit long, about 35 mins but i hope there would be some who will take the time to watch and comment.

For those who may not want to watch. It talks about a surah in Qur'an, Surah 64

1 Whatever is in the heavens and
whatever is in the earth glorifies
Allah. His is the kingdom, and His the
praise; and He is Possessor of power
over all things. 2 He it is Who created you, but one
of you is a disbeliever and one of
you is a believer. And Allah is Seer of
what you do. 3 He created the heavens and the
earth with truth, and He shaped you,
then made goodly your shapes; and
to Him is the resort. 4 He knows what is in the heavens
and the earth, and He knows what
you hide and what you manifest.
And Allah is Knower of what is in
the hearts. 5 Has there not come to you the
story of those who disbelieved
before, then tasted the evil
consequences of their conduct, and
they had a painful chastisement? 6 That is because there came to
them their messengers with clear
arguments, but they said: Shall
mortals guide us? So they
disbelieved and turned away, and
Allah is above all need. And Allah is Self-Sufficient, Praised. 7 Those who disbelieve think that
they will not be raised. Say: Aye, by
my Lord you will certainly be raised;
then you will certainly be informed
of what you did. And that is easy to
Allah. 8 So believe in Allah and His
Messenger and the Light which We
have revealed. And Allah is Aware
of what you do. 9 The day when He will gather you
for the day of Gathering, that is the
day of the Manifestation of losses.
And whoever believes in Allah and
does good, He will remove from him
his evil and cause him to enter Gardens wherein rivers flow, to
abide therein for ever. That is the
great achievement. 10 And those who disbelieve and
reject Our messages, they are the
companions of the Fire, abiding
therein and evil is the resort.

a more detailed explanation will be
www.englishtafsir.com...

First, that the universe in which they
live is not Godless, but its Creator,
Master and Ruler is an All Powerful
God, and everything in it testifies to His
being most Perfect and absolutely
faultless. Second, that the universe is not
without purpose and wisdom, but its
Creator has created it with truth no
one should be under the delusion that
it is a mock show, which began
without a purpose and will come to an end without a purpose. Third, that the excellent form that God
has created you with and the choice
that He has given you to choose
between belief and unbelief is not a
useless and meaningless activity so
that it may be of no consequence whether you choose belief or unbelief.
In fact, God is watching as to how you
exercise your choice. Fourth, that you have not been
created irresponsible and un-
answerable. You have to return
ultimately to your Creator, and have to
meet the Being who is aware of
everything in the universe, from Whom nothing is hidden, to Whom
even the innermost thoughts of the
minds are known. After stating these four fundamental
truths about the Universe and Man, the
address turns to the people who
adopted the way of unbelief, and their
attention is drawn to a phenomenon
which has persisted throughout human history, namely that nation
after nation has arisen and ultimately
gone to its doom. Man by his intellect
and reason has been explaining this
phenomenon in a thousand ways, but
Allah tells the real truth and declares that the fundamental causes of the
destruction of the nations were only
two: First, that they refused to believe in the
Messengers whom He sent for their
guidance, with the result that Allah too
left them to themselves, and they
invented their own philosophies of life
and went on groping their way from one error to another. Second, that they also, rejected the
doctrine of Hereafter, and thought this
worldly life to be an end in itself, and
that there was no life hereafter when
they would have to render an account
of their deeds before God. This corrupted their whole attitude
towards life, and their impure morals
and character so polluted the world
that eventually the scourge of God
itself had to descend and eliminate
them from the scene. After stating these two instructive
truths of human history, the deniers of
the message of Truth have been
admonished to wake up and believe
in Allah, His Messenger and the Light of
Guidance that Allah has sent in the form of the Qur'an if they want to
avoid the fate met by the former
peoples. Besides, they have been
warned that the Day shall eventually
come when all the former and the
latter generations will be collected at one place and the fraud and
embezzlement committed by each will
be exposed before all mankind. Then
the fate of each man will be decided
finally on the basis as to who had
adopted the path of the Faith and righteousness and who had followed
the way of disbelief and denial of the
Truth. The first group shalt deserve
eternal Paradise and the second shall
be doomed to everlasting Hell.

For muslims in specific and everyone in general

11 No calamity befalls but by Allah's
permission. And whoever believes
in Allah, He guides his heart. And
Allah is Knower of all things. 12 And obey Allah and obey the
Messenger; but if you turn away, the
duty of Our Messenger is only to
deliver (the message) clearly. 13 Allah, there is no God but He.
And on Allah let the believers rely. 14 O you who believe, surely of
your wives and your children there
are enemies to you, so beware of
them. And if you pardon and
forbear and forgive, surely Allah is
Forgiving, Merciful. 15 Your wealth and your children
are only a trial, and Allah with Him is
a great reward. 16 So keep your duty to Allah as
much as you can, and hear and
obey and spend; it is better for your
souls. And whoever is saved from
the greediness of his soul, these it is
that are the successful. 17 If you set apart for Allah a
goodly portion, He will double it for
you and forgive you. And Allah is
the Multiplier (of rewards),
Forbearing, 18 The Knower of the unseen and
the seen, the Mighty, the Wise.

a detailed explanation

First, that whatever affliction befalls a
person in the world, it befalls him by
Allah's leave. Whoever in this state of
affliction remains steadfast to the Faith,
Allah blesses his heart with guidance;
otherwise although the affliction of the one who in confusion or
bewilderment turns away from the
path of the Faith, cannot be averted
except by Allah's leave, yet he
becomes involved in another, the
greatest affliction of all, namely that his heart is deprived of the guidance of
Allah. Secondly, that the believer is not
required to affirm the faith with the
tongue only, but after the affirmation
of the Faith he should practically obey
Allah and His Messenger. If he turns
away from obedience he would himself be responsible for his loss, for
the Holy Messenger of Allah (upon
whom be His peace) has become
absolved from the responsibility after
having delivered the message of
Truth. Thirdly, that the believer should place
his trust in Allah alone and not in his
own power or some other power of
the world. Fourthly, that the worldly goods and
children are a great trial and
temptation for the believer, for it is
their love which generally distracts
man from the path of faith and
obedience. Therefore, the believers have to beware some of their children,
and wives lest they become robbers
for them on the Way of God directly or
indirectly; and they should spend their
wealth for the sake of God so that their
self remains safe against the temptations of Satan. Fifthly, that every man is responsible
only to the extent of his power and
ability. Allah does not demand that
man should exert himself beyond his
power and ability. However, the
believer should try his best to live in fear of God as far as possible, and
should see that he does not transgress
the bounds set by Allah in his speech,
conduct and dealings through his
own negligence.

However, the believer should try his best to live in fear of God as far as possible,

What a sad belief. Live in constant fear.

No wonder you're all angry all the time and attacking each other.

Time to grow up and fear no imaginary sky wizard.

Or I guess, I'm just one of those sinners... unbelievers, in your words. and part of satan..

roflcopters...

reply to post by winofiend

What a sad belief. Live in constant fear. No wonder you're all angry all the time and attacking each other.

maybe its the other way round, the fearlessness from the 'sky wizard' and no sense of accountability has made people fight and wrong each other without a care of consequences.
Driving drunk and yet escaping the cops & law is now a feat to be proud of.
Hope you are better, have empathy and a good moral compass.
Hope you also dont worship petty things as fame,money, the next kick and try to get it by wrong means as that happens when the grave is considered an end.
Thanks for contributing.

I advise followers of monotheistic religions to watch that. they are written in your books. it has nothing to do with a special faith or anything. it is MONOTHEISM. after all there is only one God in this world. saying my God or your God is just ignorance.

reply to post by maes2


I agree. Even the verses posted in the OP is just pure monotheism.
Nothing to do with a "god" of any particular tribe or region or culture. Just a reminder that God is God over all the universe.