I understand the need for one to look into one’s own religion with some type of criterion – using logic or not as the case may be but there are always people who come along and try and spoil the spirit of the ‘Gift of Life’ which is what we call religion.
A lot of what people call religion is actually picayune policies that undermine the idea of religion in the first place. Some of these picayune policies are:
- Your short time on Earth whether it be 2 minutes or a 100 years will determine whether you go to Hell or enter Paradise. That would be from the hit or miss school of amateur thinking.
- All religions or claimed religions are the same. That wouldn’t make any sense due to the contradictory claptrap coming out of the mouths of some of their ardent followers.
- Leave everything up to the experts for they know more than we do. In a way, that is true. They have a tendency to know a lot of little points and, in what appears as a foreign language due to their specialties, a lot of questionable data that can be brought forward. And some of that data tends to obliterate religion as a central core to man’s happiness.
- We need a new religion which will tie in the various so-called Creeds and bring forth a kind of false unity and purpose just to make everybody happy.
- Syrupy sayings without a solid framework or exclusion based on any philosophy without detailed evidence which can be universally shown to be true is in reality totally useless. Useless except for false ego building and self-centered actions.
- Put your money where your mouth is or stay silent!
- Religion is complicated with so much to remember.
Actually, it is not so very complicated at all! The basics and following these basics with determined intent are what matter. Of course some people want to graduate from just a simple base but that is not necessary.
Islam is a system based on 5 Pillars and a belief in Divine Destiny. For the normal worshiper, there is no need to go into other belief systems or what does X mean spiritually.
For example, most people would not believe that Jesus (pbh) is the incarnated Word from ALLAH simply because it is not a prerequisite nor is it openly or clearly stated as such. All it is, is just some icing on the cake so to speak!
Yes, knowledge is very good but it must be functional, reachable and stable. Too many people will take the ‘pearls of knowledge’ and twist them according to their own selfish beliefs. This causes harm and incubates falsehoods.
It also causes one to ponder and that is what the Quran wants us to do! To ponder, however, within the ‘Framework’ of the religion and not go beyond that!
While I accept the Old Testament and the New Testament as very good religious works; I accept the Quran as being perfect in its Arabic form based on what can be gathered from the Old Testament declaration found in Zephaniah Chapter 3 verses 9 and 10, the New Testament’s referral found in John and the Quranic statements to its purity.
Put it to the test but don’t cheat! Cheating comes from preconceived notions and a feeling that if I don’t know something, then it can’t be true whatever the topic.
What can we take from this example as one has to start some place?
We {people who actually believe in a ONE GOD AND ONE DEVELOPMENTAL MESSAGE} believe in ALLAH, and the Revelation given to us, and to Abraham {and his two seeds} Isma’il {and} Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their LORD: We make no difference between one and another of them {in their philosophical content}. Quran (2:136)
Everything mentioned here must be graded not so much on content but on continuity. Content is important but we have seen how content can be twisted out of shape by devils in human form.
Faith is not a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. It is a provable, logical and very rational concept to those who have realistic expectations.
When we are confronted with Jesus (pbh) as a ‘Suffering Servant’ and being the real Messiah, these things must add up without contradiction or else this concept is mere fluff to get, in all probability, adherents who will pay a pretty penny to have their egos massaged! That, according to scripture doesn’t bode well for them!
The above concept, for example, must cover the whole of humanity in its grasp and not just one denomination or one religion. That is what Quran (2:136) is alluding to. So for example, Jesus (pbh) can’t be truthful for only one nation and a liar for other nations. If he is the real Messiah, it must be demonstrated clearly across the board or else the concept is false!
In this sense, religion becomes easy to understand. It is also easy to understand that no prophet ever came to ‘his’ people and told them to be like a bump on a log. That is, don’t do anything or believe in anything and you will be saved.
And that seems to be the purpose of any true religion which is to please one’s CREATOR LORD by overcoming handicaps and striving to worship HIM IN TRUTH. Not through instantaneous success but by putting the pieces together piece by piece!
Those words ‘IN TRUTH’ are dangerous due to the fact that they require some type of activity on the part of the doer. One man might suggest that how he reckons with dealing with Islam is that whenever he gets the chance in this world or the next he will look into it!
He then declares to the ONE GOD to butt out of his affairs because he, the little clay man, is calling the shots about when he will be available to give his precious time to do any thinking. That man doesn’t need GOD because he acts like he is THE GOD and how he even controls time.
The essence of this is to get going and get moving on the road of either acceptance or rejection of Al-Islam as being the WAY going forward on the return of Jesus the Christ (pbh). At least that type of person can’t be judged as one who just straddles the fence in blind ineptitude.
So, if people are sincere about moving on with Faith, they should be able to show it by their actions, which of course are recorded and held in a record about which there can be no doubt. Hence, we come back to the old saying, ‘By their fruits you will know them’ as mentioned by Jesus (pbh) in the Gospel of Matthew.
The person’s individual striving is well documented by the ONE LORD, even if we don’t realize it at this time. Such is a put in a record that will in way determine the ‘fate’ of the individual.
This has been covered in Islam with the hadith discussing the people of Noah as they vainly try to conceal the fact that a prophet (Noah-pbh) did indeed actually come to them. So, according to them, they had no prophet give them intensive warnings.
AH! But the records show otherwise and the watchdog Ummah (Islam) of the peoples who came before will come into play thus putting the liars in their proper place as they are being led to the HELL-FIRE. Therefore, it behooves man to muster up an interest in his fate if that really means anything to him.
Religion then seems to be about striving and overcoming and doing what one is expected to do based on an authority (a prophet’s) example in word or deed. That is the true essence of religion.
We know from the understanding of Quran (2:136) that it is important to view religion through the eyes of the Abrahamic tradition featuring his two representative sons: Ishmael and Isaac. And this blessedness came from a certain line as the torch was passed:
ALLAH did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham {Ishmael and Isaac}, and the family of ‘Imran above all people,-
Offspring, one of the other: And ALLAH hears and knows all things. Quran (3:33)
We are asked to surrender to this subset as transmission lines of truth. And WHO set that train in motion was ALLAH for truly HE HEARS AND KNOWS ALL THINGS!
So, when a believer reads the Quran, even in his own language, he/she gets the DOMINATING POWER OF THAT WHICH NEVER DIES AND ALWAYS LIVES even when all things will pass away and, fortunately for the believers, will be brought back to life again to reap their just desserts.
The universe may seem big but in reality it is nothing but a bauble in HIS EYES! And now we can sense in a small way how deeply insignificant we really are if we were to ever be so cursed as to take any being or object in worship beside HIM!
No wonder the ‘living’ sky feels like crashing to ruins on sensing the ant-like human beings on this planet are willing to worship other partners along with THE ONE AND ONLY GOD!
They say: “(ALLAH) Most Gracious has begotten a son!”
Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous!
At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin,
That they should invoke a son for (ALLAH) Most Gracious.
For it is not in harmony with the Majesty of (ALLAH) Most Gracious that HE should beget a son.
Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (ALLAH) Most Gracious as a servant.
HE does take an account of them (all), and hath numbered them (all) exactly.
And every one of them will come to HIM singly on the Day of Judgment.
On those who {truly} believe and work deeds of righteousness, (ALLAH) Most Gracious will bestow HIS love.
So WE have made the (Qur’an) easy in your own tongue, that with it you may give Glad Tidings to the righteous, and warnings to people given over to {petty} argument.
But how many (countless) generations before them have WE destroyed? Can you find a single one of them (now) or hear (so much as) a whisper of them? Quran (19:88-98)
To sum up but only in a general way what has been previously written:
Mankind chose to take on the challenge to win what we might call the brass ring. He had to go through certain experiences in order to complete his journey showing his supposedly determined creative force in worshiping his CREATOR.
Truly, WE {the ONE GOD} did offer Al-Amaanah (the Trust or moral responsibility and ALL the duties which ALLAH ordained {on the ‘vicegerents’ called gods in the other scriptures (Psalms and Gospel of John) but better known as leading spirits before they were going to enter into the flesh} to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains but they declined to bear it and were AFRAID of it {the challenge and responsibility that would lead to their accountability}. But MANKIND bore it {took on the challenge}. Verily, he was unjust (to himself) and {quite} ignorant {of its consequences that he would have to bear}. Quran (33:72).
Of course the good times could not last and man began to drift away from the ideal purpose towards one of being self-centered and destructive to the IDEAL. That was to eventually lead to a war between the good versus the bad. The so-called ‘war in the heavens’ as portrayed in the Book of Enoch which cannot be stated to be a completely reliable source.
As it took time to compile these things, it would take time to actually face these things such that you are what you have been and can you recognize who you owe your very existence to as well as who do you really serve or so it would seem.
So, a term of appointment was impressed on each individual soul which we know nothing about and the soul was asked to reach up to its capacity, which we know nothing about, in worshiping its CREATOR LORD in truth.
Then the host or body for that soul would die and the soul would come to rest in what is called the ‘grave’ to receive its judgments or what it bargained for in the beginning.
Now the use of the Quran, hadith literature and the New Testament can provide the very general sequence of events to take place in the future, ALLAH WILLING.
The Messiah-kingdom is set up for rewarding certain souls rank upon rank in stage two of their journey. That is to say that they must be born again into this kingdom (the closer to the time of Jesus’ presence the better or higher rank for them).
This kingdom, due to entropy (or planned decay), will last only as long as ALLAH WILLS which will see this kingdom come to an end upon the death of the soul that has only a mustard seed worth of faith in it according to hadith. When this occurs all those partaking in this kingdom have or will now enter their graves and remain in such place until the Resurrection.
The people of this kingdom, in its early phase, are like the duckling who hatches out of its egg and who sees only the human being in front of him. He follows the human as if it is its mother. Therefore, it is imprinted on its very being to take that human as its parent.
The souls waking up upon being ‘born again’ in this environment (the Christ-kingdom) will not have to be taught about which way or religion is correct or whether this or that is halal or haram. It will be imprinted on their souls to do the right thing (according to the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament) which will get them immense rewards that they can take to the grave and bring with them on the Day of Resurrection!
Due to the description of the Prophet (pbh) stating that the first wave of souls born in that kingdom “will be like you {the faithful COMPANIONS to the Prophet} OR BETTER THAN YOU”), we can sense that in those times, while Jesus (pbh) is still alive, the people will be of the superior rank as to be judged in the HEREAFTER. Hence, they will receive the higher rank!
With these rewards and their hearts being in the right place, they will be ‘raised up’ from the dead, judged and rewarded according to their station given.
Once the last individual who has only a mustard seed of faith in his heart is taken from life to death (hadith), the Quran will be raised up and the people of like nature will be left with more of the same entering into life by way of being born. This kingdom has only Satan for its god along with that which was released from the Fire represented in the Book of Revelation.
These people are described in hadith as being totally useless and full of chronic evil. This is where the notion of two desert Arabs dwelling near the Kabbah actually don’t know what that building is for. Also, the women from the tribe of Daus will wiggle their buttocks around their cursed idols and where the killer and the killed will end up in Hell-Fire. All of this knowledge is found in hadith.
This kingdom, as does the first kingdom, shows ‘you get what you pay for’. This is total equality and most importantly puts the onus on man himself! One can’t blame GOD for being pig-headed or outright stupid!
That ‘title’ will go to those of the second kingdom who felt it would be better for them to do as they damn well pleased in this life! Women, in this wretched kingdom, are still giving birth because of the knowledge from the hadith and Quran about a woman dropping her ‘load’ when the blast from the HORN finally comes.
O mankind! Fear your LORD! For the convulsion of the HOUR (of Judgment) will be a thing {most terrible to behold}!
The Day you shall see it, every mother giving suck shall forget her suckling-babe and every pregnant female shall drop her load (unformed): you shall see mankind as in {a} drunken {state of terrified} riot, yet they will not be drunk {but in complete terror as to render them senseless and heedless wandering in terrified distraction}: but dreadful will be the Wrath of ALLAH {on that DAY!} Quran (22:1-2)
What kind of system is this? It’s a Perfect System!!! In a way, man controls his own destiny based on his own actions and desires with lots and lots of help thrown his way so that he could see the LIGHT – IF HE SO CHOSE TO DO SO AND IF ALLAH WILL PERMIT IT!
So, when one reads the Quran, we see as well as sense that the people of the Hell-Fire cannot and will not blame GOD for their unhappy but tragic outcome. Why? Because FULL REMEMBRENCE is given to them for their awareness and that by its self will be a great torment for what they foolishly and painfully amassed for themselves!
HE (GOD) will say: “enter you in the company of the peoples who passed away before you, men and Jinns into the Fire. Every time a new people enters it curses its sister-people (that went before) until they follow each other all into the Fire. Says the last about the first: “Our LORD! It is these that misled us {originally}: so give them a double penalty in the Fire.” HE will say: “doubled for all {of you}“: but this you do not {fully} understand.
Then the first will say to the last: “See then! NO advantage have you over us; so {you go ahead and enter the FIRE and} you taste the penalty for all that you {yourselves} did!” Quran (7:38-39)
The companions of the Fire will call {in dire exasperation} to the Companions of the Garden {Paradise}: “Pour down to us water or anything that ALLAH does provide for your sustenance.” They will reply: “Both these things has ALLAH forbidden to those who rejected HIM!
“Such as took their religious beliefs to be mere amusement and play and were deceived by the life of this world.” That Day WE shall forget them as they forgot the {promised} meeting of this day of theirs and they were accustomed to reject OUR SIGNS.
For WE had certainly sent them a BOOK, based on knowledge which WE explained in detail, a Guide and a Mercy to any who believe.
{Then} are they waiting for its fulfilment? On the Day it is fulfilled those who have forgotten it {from} before will say: “The Messengers from our LORD DID INDEED BRING TRUE (tidings). Have we no intercessors now to intercede on our behalf? Or {perchance} we could be sent back? {If so} then we should behave differently from our behavior in the past.” In truth {these miscreants} will have lost their {very} souls AND THE THINGS THEY FORGED {WRITTEN IN A CLEAR RECORD CONCERNING THEIR ACTIONS AND MOTIVES} WILL LEAVE THEM IN THE LURCH. Quran (7:50-53)
But ALLAH is not cruel nor is HE overbearing when one becomes truly aware of HIM: According to Anas concerning a special hadith (Hadith Qudsi)
I heard the Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) say: ALLAH the Almighty said: O son of Adam, so long as you call upon ME and ask of ME {with sincerity}, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of ME, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to ME with sin amassed nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face ME, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it. It was related by Tirmidhi and by Ahmad ibn Hanbal).
YOUR CHOICE, YOUR ROAD, YOUR FUTURE!
WE have not sent you {Muhammad} but as a universal (Messenger) to {the whole of} mankind giving them glad tidings {of a happy reckoning for the believers} and warning them (against {blatant} sin) but most men do not understand this. Quran (34:28)
If anyone desires a religion other than Islam {which is Submission to THE ONE GOD’s WILL under the guidance of all of the prophets as they taught ONE GOD AND ONE FAITH}, never will it be accepted of him; and in the HEREAFTER, he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good). Quran (3:85)
