Maybe a different perspective

Submitted by Omar, US (United States), Jan 20, 2006 at 19:38

Its seems to me that there is a tough conversation between "Dhimmi no more" and "Nuray" although some of the questions were simple (at least the way I see it).

"Dhimmi no more" said: I just have a few questions for you.

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1. Could you translate the following words from Arabic to English?
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Mujahid , Mujtahid, Ijtihad, Jihad, Yajtahid, Yujahid.

My Answer:

-Mujahid: Some one who does Jihad. (Noun)

-Mujtahid: Word describing someone who struggles; "striver" or "struggler". (Adjective) ex: fighting, working, studying hard…etc)

-Ijtihad: Striving and doing hard work.

-Jihad: holy war / fight / fighting / jihad / fight / struggling / struggle / striving / strife
(See: http://dictionary.sakhr.com/idrisidic_2.asp?sub=جِهَاد )

Ibn Rushd an islamic philosopher divided Jihad into four kinds: Jihad by the heart; Jihad by the tongue; Jihad by the hand and Jihad by the sword." He defines "Jihad by the tongue" as "to commend good conduct and forbid the wrong"

(See: http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/jihad_judicial_ruling.htm )

-Yajtahid: Struggling (used for a single male)

-Yujahid: Struggling (used for a single male)

The difference between Yajtahid and Yujahid is that one is derived from juhd and one from jihad. The word jihad itself comes from jihad. Jihad, as far as my knowledge, describes continuous "juhd" i.e. continuously struggling.

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2. I'm just curious to know and in your own opinion what is the difference between kissing a black stone in Mecca and kissing a statue made of stone in let us say a Catholic Church?
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My Answer:
Actually, from my point of view, I don't see that kissing a statue made of stone in a Catholic Church is a problem. Islam says that it is the intension what really matters. A Muslim praying in front of stone or even a statue doesn't matter if he intends to pray for God, and vice versa. Praying in a mosque is pointless if you don't really believe in God!!!

So I don't think that kissing the statue is a problem. At the beginning of Islam some Muslims were afraid to declare their new belief in the One God and had to act as if they were worshiping the many idols. However, that never meant that they were disbelieving in God.

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3. You wrote in another article that Allah is not the moon God. Could you provide us with extant evidence that would refute such claim? And let me help you here: provide us with sources from both the Islamic tradition and external to the Islamic tradition that refute such claim circa 6th and 7th centuries. Rememeber that it is you that has to refute such a claim.
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Before answering this question, is there actually ANY evidence that claims that "Allah" is the moon god!!! I think some people may use that as a way to understand why the moon (Crescent) is used as a symbol for Islam (ex: on top of mosques). However, its worth mentioning that there is no symbol for Islam at all!!

My Answer:

Here are some verses from the Quran:
"God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth." (39:62, 63).
"No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests on God. He knows its lodging place and it repository." (11:6)
From these verses states that "God" or "Allah", whatever you would like to call him, has created everything, of course, including the moon!!

For further description of God from the Islamic perspective see: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/tawheed/conceptofgod.html

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One final point: what evidence do you have that Allah that pre-Islamic Arabian pagan deity is indeed the God of the Jews and Christians and the Hindus and the Buddhists and the rest of humanity? And do not quote the Quran because this would not count as evidence, it would be circular reasoning, and you sound to be a man full of logic.
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My Answer:

First, I would like to exclude Buddhism (no offense), since from my own understanding, it's not considered a form of "Monotheism". In fact, an Asian friend of mine told me that "We call him Buddha; we worship Buddha", when I first asked him if he believes in God. Also, I would like to exclude Hinduism from my arrgument since it has many divisions, and beliefs vary in such case (again no offense).

The main reason why I made such exclusions is because Islam has not mentioned any of these beliefs or described them as authentic in the same way it does with Christianity and Judaism. On the other hand Muslims MUST believe in prophets such as "Jesus" and "Moses" (there are about 25 prophets mentioned in the Quran including Muhammad) and that they came to convey God's message to their own people (Muslims have tens of arguments for why they only follow mohammed's message, so there is no need to press this issue at that point).

One could only understand Islam from both Quran and Sunnah since that's all what is left from the faith!! Telling someone "do not quote the Quran" is basically saying "Explain Islam without mentioning anything Muslim sources".

However, all what I could say with such restrictions (LOL!!) is to say that Islam is an Abrahamic religions and a form of Monotheism. See:

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579171/Islam.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism

If you were able to prove that Hinduism and Buddhism are also forms of monotheism, then I must agree with you, and say that that Muslims do believe in the same God.

If he is the God who created everything… then that's the ONE.
Again, you could check this link and do you own comparison. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/tawheed/conceptofgod.html
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I didn't read all the post here yet. If I find any further questions, I will try to answer them if I can.

Hope you find this information helpful as well as the links!!!

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