Once again the use of the symbols { } are used to bring further clarity to the writing.
Today, more than ever before, with the breakup of societies, parts of countries with their various independence movements and splintered religious institutions, CRITICAL THINKING in the right mode of expression is desperately needed. However, it has been scientifically proven that people don’t like to change the way they generally think. That is a sad indictment against a majority of the human race.
Why so? It is so because many people can’t seem to adjust to the REAL REALITIES of life and what life is really about. People seem to be involved in life as mostly hangers on. If there is an Afterlife, then it will take care of itself but there is no great need to dwell upon that which can’t be known. That in a nutshell is the flimsiest of excuses and in reality it is nothing but plain unadulterated hogwash!
Somebody once said, “Because I don’t know where I come from, I don’t really know where I am going.” That is the crux of the problem. In other words, am I just a piece of dust that happened to exist or am I actually beholden to Someone or Something that brought me into existence? I’m sure because of this conundrum that the above puzzle still eludes most of mankind because many people, including Muslims, refuse to actually believe deeply and critically as opposed to shallowly in the ONE GOD and what that purports.
To accomplish this, one has to become involved in CRITICAL THINKING rather than robotic follow-the –ignorant-type of journey through life and this involves going back as close as possible to the original thoughts and ideas or the fountainhead of that particular religion. This is also a great way to check on the accuracy of the ‘written word’ as well as the beliefs of the people of the times and this is especially true of religion.
The answer to the age old puzzle about where one comes from and therefore to WHOM LOYALTY IS TO BE STRIVEN FOR AND INCORPORATED into one’s life is simple: To GOD (ALLAH) we belong and to HIM will be our return! Q (2: 156)
Every being in the heavens and the earth will come to ALLAH as a {humbled} servant.
He does take an account of all of them and has numbered them (all) exactly.
And every one of them will come to HIM singly on the Day of Judgment.
On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness will THE MOST GRACIOUS BESTOWE HIS LOVE. Q (19: 93-96)
Therefore, it is to HIM FIRST that we owe our very existence so it is to HIM FIRST that we owe our loyalty, time and obedience in understanding and not to some scholar, preacher or twisted sect. Because man is responsible for his own actions, the three key words are understanding and knowledge and responsibility which does not include haughtiness, ignorance, arrogance or just plain stupidity.
Even the New Testament makes it very clear that it is to GOD FIRST and then all things will fall into place. But why don’t those 2 billion or so Christians believe in and desire to follow ISLAM? The answer is the lack of or the desire for CRITICAL THINKING!
But seek first the Kingdom of God {Paradise} and HIS Righteousness {Obedience to HIS LAWS}, and {then} all these things will be added to you. Matthew (6: 33)
I have challenged a lot of religious thinking in these books and articles and shown how comparative religion can, GOD WILLING, be a helpful guide to understanding THE ONE CREATOR LORD and what HE desires for HIS obedient slaves. Here is something that earnest Christians might think about.
Christianity’s Dark Age lasted about 50 years or more depending upon how one looks at history. The best historical evidence one can get about the ‘proper doings’ of Christianity way back when is from the church father/historian Irenaeus who wrote about the earliest of reports he could get his hands on both written and oral sayings. However, in truth that is not good enough because it doesn’t go back that far with certainty!
The best one can hope for to authenticate Christian beliefs is to go back to the earliest of times and the earliest of peoples acting as a verifier to what went on before and that is to go back to a man called Papias of Hierapolis who was probably born around 67 AC. Unfortunately for us, this third generation Christian’s work is about 99% missing but what there is of it, proves to be highly interesting and helpful in looking at Christianity and even Islam.
Most Christians believe and have been led to believe that Jesus’ favorite disciple (John Zebedee) lived until the end of the first century or early second century. However, Papias declares both John and the half brother of Jesus (pbh) James to have been martyred by the Jews before Papias was born. This is important when discussing the ‘dark period or the missing years’ of Christianity and how that relates to the change in some of the religious teachings brought by Jesus as well as the knowledge of truer Christian values.
For example, Papias was a strong believer in the current outdated (for over a thousand and five-hundred years) Chiliastic or Millenarianism viewpoint that he supposedly learned from the disciples of the disciples from the original Disciples or Companions of Jesus (pbh). It is TOTALLY FANTASTIC THAT WHEN STUDIED IN EARNEST THE JEWISH VIEWPOINT, THE CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT AND THE ISLAMIC VIEWPOINT ARE REALLY ONE AND THE SAME concerning this subject!
So what basically is the Chiliastic or Millenarianism all about? The basic essentials of this Millennium idea including apocryphal Jewish texts but minus the forged falsehoods of modern-day Evangelistic Christianity as shared by the 3 Abrahamic Faiths are as follows:
- The return of a Messiah {Jesus Christ} as a TEMPORAL Messiah (meaning he is only a man) acting as a king ONLY while setting up an EARTHLY KINGDOM containing ‘THE JUST’ (those who have practiced GOD’s LAWS in earnest not pretense).
Therefore, I say unto you, the kingdom of GOD shall be taken away from you {O! you who were chosen from before}, and given to a nation {of peoples} bringing forth the fruits thereof {through its purified way}. Matthew (21: 43)
Do they seek for other than the Religion of (GOD) ALLAH – while ALL creatures in the heavens and on earth have, willingly or unwillingly, BOWED {DOWN} to HIS WILL (accepted {the consequences of} ISLAM) and to HIM shall they all be brought back? Q (3: 83)
- The RESSURECTION of the deceased doers of good who were faithful and obedient to the ONE GOD in any age will participate in the glorious reign of a paradise on Earth – the Earthly Kingdom spoken about earlier.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel (12: 2)
- The evil doers, the evil institutions and the careless ones (all those persons and all those things giving offense) will be destroyed – removed from this earthly paradise. Evidence for this is found in the New Testament and hadith materials as described by Abu Huraira/Hudhaifa and others:
The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his {earthly} kingdom ALL things that offend, and them which do iniquity {as in hindering mankind from the Straight Path/TRUTH};
And shall cast them into a Furnace of Fire: there{in} shall {they} be wailing and gnashing {their} teeth. Matthew (13: 41-42)
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the LORD your GOD raise up unto you {out} of your brethren {the other Semitic line}, like unto me {the Lawgiver}; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
And it shall {eventually} come to pass, that every soul, which will NOT hear (obey that with which has been given by} that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Acts (3: 22-23)
- The world will be RENOVATED into a ‘New World’ after the
DEFEAT of ALL THE NATIONS OPPOSED TO UNIVERSAL TRUTH BROUGHT BY THAT PROPHET AS DESCRIBED IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS WHOSE LAW AND BOOK WILL BE THE SUNNAH OF MUHAMMAD (pbh) AND THE GLORIOUS QURAN. Therefore, we have ONE GOD, ONE PEOPLES (servants of THE ONE GOD (ALLAH) in any age and defined cryptically as Israel), ONE KING and ONE RELIGION!
That settles the question about how many ‘gods’ there are as well as what about the faithful in ages gone by? Just as the word ‘ALLAH’ is Arabic put in an Arabic context so too are the words the ‘Servants of Israel’ put in a Hebraic context and the scriptures should be read with ‘commonsense’.
What is with you must vanish: What is with ALLAH WILL ENDURE. And WE will reward those who practice fortitude according to their best deeds. Whosoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, PROVIDED HE IS A BELIEVER, WE will certainly grant him {the opportunity} to LIVE A PURE LIFE IN THIS {PHYSICAL} WORLD AND {THEN} WE WILL REWARD SUCH PEOPLE (IN THE HEREAFTER) ACCORDING TO THEIR BEST DEEDS. Q (16: 96-97)
(For) this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel (servants of ALLAH in any age). After those days {the rooting out of evil in that Earthly kingdom}, said the LORD, I will put MY LAWS into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a GOD and they shall be to ME a people.
And they shall not teach every man {unto} his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD”: for ALL shall know ME, from the least to the greatest.
(For) I will be Merciful to their {past} unrighteousness and their {past} sins and {of} their {past} iniquities I will remember no more. Hebrews (8: 10-12)
Before this WE wrote in the Psalms, after the Message (given to Moses): “My servants the righteous shall inherit the earth.”
Verily in this (Quran) is a message for people who would (truly) worship ALLAH. Q (21: 105-106)
- Sometime after this kingdom’s end, there will be a universal resurrection leading to a FINAL JUDGMENT with the opening of the totality of the records and the Just will enter Paradise while those whose scale of goodness will be found wanting will be consigned to the various levels of HELL-FIRE as has been promised in the ‘holy records’ that many people have cast aside as ‘wives tales’ or who have just ‘mouthed the words’ without understanding.
The Unbelievers spend their wealth {in a myriad of ways} to hinder (men) from the path of ALLAH and so will they continue to spend; but in the END they will have (only) regrets and sighs. At length they will be overcome and the Unbelievers will be gathered together {for placement} in Hell;
So that ALLAH may separate the impure from the pure by putting the impure ones on one another as in heaping them together and casting them {altogether} into Hell. They will be the ones to have lost. Q (8: 36-37)
They will further say, “Had we but listened or used our Intelligence, we should not (now) be among the Companions of the Blazing Fire!”
They will then confess their sins: but far from ALLAH’s Mercy are the Companions of the Blazing Fire!
As for those who fear their LORD UNSEEN, for them is FORGIVENESS AND A GREAT REWARD. Q (67: 10-12)
Let not the unbelievers think that they have escaped; indeed they are incapable of frustrating US {ALLAH’s Plan set forth from the beginning}. Q (8: 59)
All of the above can be taken from Islamic sources and Biblical sources and once again when CRITICAL THINKING is involved, the idea in the ONENESS and UNITY of TRUE FAITH reveals the UNITY OF THE WAY or in the modern expression ‘THE ISLAMIC RELIGION’ as simply THE TRUTH!
This idea I have spoken about in depth in various books including He Is Not My Ancestor, The Islamic Messiah and chiefly in the article The Law of Grace and The Law of Mercy and this Millennial idea has been incorporated into the Six Ages of man theory presented at various places and times.
The idea of using CRITICAL THINKING is very important and my two earlier articles concerning idolatry practices found in certain Islamic sects (as reported in hadiths) show that, if ALLAH WILLS, the worshiper can save him or herself a lot of grief by ‘taking the bull by the horns’ and evaluate certain practices and ideas as to their actual authenticity.
For example, it is known that for over one thousand years, the Shi ‘ah position on prayer was NOT to pray together with Muslims not of their peculiar faith. However, prayer in Islam is basically a congregational thing and a unifying thing. Therefore, that philosophy according to normal logic is baseless and repugnant. It is true that Ayatollah Khomeini declared, in a fit of clever self-righteousness, that the older than 1,000 year policy could now change. That was cleverly laid out so as to con Sunnis into NOT looking too closely into the Shi ‘ah sect while at the same time tempting the Sunni Muslims to come closer to their corrupt ideals.
Unity is a two-way street. After a decade or so, the majority of Muslims had the common sense, in that generation at least, to see the darker side of his and his ilk’s philosophy.
One must be careful though. It is true that CRITICAL THINKING is highly important but these two words, CRITICAL THINKING, are the so-called manifesto of the false Muslimah Irshad Manji.
Simply speaking, Muslims base their religion first on ALLAH’s WORD, the SACCRED QURAN, AND THEN ON THE FOLLOWING OF THE ACTIONS AND DEEDS OF THE PROPHET. HIS ACTIONS AND DEEDS WERE NOT INFERIOR TO OTHER MEN BUT WERE LAID DOWN AS THE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF FAITH THAT CAN NOT BE OVERTURNED OR OVERRULED OR DISCARDED UNTIL THE RESURRECTION OF HUMANITY ON THE LAST DAY.
Irshad Manji, a confessed lesbian, doubter of the 100% accuracy of the Quran, one who dismisses the need to believe in Muhammad (pbh) as being the unerring spokesperson concerning the WORD of GOD, author of two books explaining the deficiencies of Islam in the modern world and a person who is close to the definition of being a prophetess/spokesperson for her twisted beliefs, is a chief proponent for using CRITICAL THINKING when looking at Islam.
In my opinion, she is as false to Islam as she is as false to herself but she does enjoy the rewards of being in the limelight and discussing the problems of Islam. Islam is composed of various kinds of people (the good, the bad, the careless and the indifferent) and of course there are problems when people, who don’t even understand the religion of Islam, behave contrary to the religion itself!
This Irshad Manji person should use some CRITICAL THINKING on her own self to see how foolish she actually sounds! However, to the many devious individuals who believe in the ONE GOD as a saying but leave the religious practices (concepts and constructs) behind hoping to ‘sneak in’ on the Last Day of Judgment (in case it actually exists), this Irshad Manji individual sounds like one of the wisest of the wise – a prophetess of true enlightenment!
She audaciously claims that ALLAH has chosen her not to destroy Islam but to revitalize it and bring it into modern times with modern thinking. As to her preference about being a caring and loving homosexual who is also in love with THE ONE GOD she should go to the various records to see what GOD HIMSELF has declared about this perverted activity. But being of the mind that either the holy records are NOT clear or that they have been falsified so as not to go against her, she can feel secure against truth itself.
The harm that Manji does is to poison the waters and to solidify the need to forgo understanding of one’s faith through the encouragement of redefining Islam (practices and rituals). This is clearly a job for a prophet and since the Seal of the Prophets – Muhammad (pbh) has come and left such that there will be no other prophets after him – this makes Manji into a would-be prophetess of sorts.
Every religion, every science, every governed body and every field of endeavor of man has as its foundation basic rules to follow. If these rules are not followed then the person is in danger of being incarcerated, put to death, held up as a harmless or harmful lunatic or shunned by the followers of such religion, science, governed body or field of endeavor.
These basic rules cover rituals, times, ways and means of performance as well as proper etiquette. For example, how and when to fast and what constitutes the fast and how is it broken etc are some good questions. Also, the discussion on what constitutes prayer and how to perform prayer as well as how long can a person miss prayer and still be considered a believer, and how many weeks can one purposely avoid congregational prayer on Friday and what constitutes as legal excuses for missing this congregational prayer. The above examples show that being a Muslim takes an effort for understanding his faith and not just making an empty declaration of the tongue.
So the harm comes to the (weak) people who say, “We are Muslims and love ALLAH and HIS Prophet (pbh) even though we don’t pray, read the Quran in any language, fast or practice the Sunnah and that is sufficient for us.” These people are delusional. They are delusional because the basic rules and regulations of proper worship and deportment (behavior in all circumstances) were laid down after complete and thorough investigations into the original followers of Islam and further investigated methodically to be sure of their accuracy.
This life is but a sport and pastime {used for amusement and play}. In truth, the abode of the Hereafter is better for those who are righteous {willing to do the right thing}. Will you not, then, use your {GOD GIVEN} COMMONSENSE? Q (6: 32)
Those who reject OUR SIGNS are deaf and dumb, in the midst of {surrounded by} darkness profound: who ALLAH WILLS HE leaves to wander: who HE WILLS, HE PLACES on the WAY that is STRAIGHT. Q (6: 39)
It is not only people like Irshad Manji who try to break the core of the believers but also the various ‘thugs’ like all ruthless type governments that forbid ‘true’ Islamic expression (NOT FITNA) but revel in suppression and torture of their peoples. Is it any wonder that Islam is under attack?
However, evil will NOT succeed:
Thauban reported that ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) said, “When the sword is used among my people, it will not be withdrawn from them till the Day of Resurrection and the last hour will not come before tribes of my people attach themselves to the polytheists and tribes of my people worship idols. There will be among my people 30 great liars each of them asserting that he is GOD’s prophet, whereas I am the SEAL of the prophets after whom there will be NO {more} prophets; but a section of my people will continue to hold to the truth until GOD’s Command comes and will prevail and will NOT be injured by those who oppose them.” (Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi)
One of the reasons that people (from plain, ordinary people to people in various degrees of power) are covered in such a state of darkness as mentioned above is not because they don’t have a soul or a brain but rather they believe only in feeding their temporal life and pleasures and are careless about the Hereafter.
Resurrection shall take place so that ALLAH may reward those who have believed and done good works… Q (34: 4)
Of course all of these things take an effort to overcome this chaotic world in which we live and a determination to do something to improve our state of belief and the quantity and quality of our good works. So the three things that a person can work on with ALLAH’s Permission are: effort (time and practice), belief (more knowledge and temperance) good works (quantity and quality and done for the sake of ALLAH).
Why does a person go to college? So that he or she can better him or herself in their society in the future and that is logical. That is ok if the person realizes that this life is but dust and it is in the Hereafter that is the permanent abode. By using logic, the believer should figure out that with some effort, GOD WILLING, he can increase his belief and make it stronger and he can increase his good works for the DAY when he will be raised up for Judgment.
Whether it is from ‘outsiders’ like an American company making pork-laced bullets called Jihawg Ammo from a city (Dalton Gardens) in Idaho for sending Islamic terrorists to hell or so-called ‘insiders’ like Irshad Manji or the disgraceful palace intrigues of the Egyptian covered up coup d’état, Islam is under attack on many fronts. From declaring Islam as ‘evil’ to desiring in place of Islam that one should live a ‘free life’, the individual, in many cases, has to do battle with his own conscience and subdue any brute-like instincts he may have in order to save his soul.
If it had been the LORD’s WILL, they would ALL have believed – ALL who are on the earth! Will, you then compel mankind against their will to believe?
No one can believe without ALLAH’s PERMISSION and it is the way of ALLAH that HE throws filth on those who do not use their COMMONSENSE. Q (10: 99-100)
In the end WE deliver OUR messengers and those who believe; thus is it fitting on OUR PART that WE should deliver those who believed! Q (10: 103)
