Part 4 of Islam
Philosophy
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Islam In Action ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
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Well, enough of that now, I'm sure you get the picture. Now pressing on…….
Islamic Backgrounds
The culture of Muhammad's world was very animistic. Every Arab tribe had its sacred magic stones which they believe protected the tribe. Muhammad's particular tribe had adopted a black stone and had set it in the Kaaba. This magical black stone was kissed when people came on their pilgrimages and worshiped at the Kaaba. It was probably an asteroid or a meteorite which they viewed as being divine. All the nomadic tribes had one of their tribal deities resident in the Kaaba.
The dominant religion just prior to Muhammad was Sabianism, a religion in which heavenly bodies were worshiped. The moon was viewed as a male deity, and a lunar calendar was used. The pagan rite of fasting, (other than what's in God's Word), began with the appearance of the crescent moon. Fasting was later adopted as one of the five pillars of faith of Islam. Fasting in Ramadan, in the ninth month, already pre-existed in the Arab culture before Muhammad was even born. We also find it in our gospels, and as commanded by God on the day of Atonement in our own Bible.
What about the name "Allah"? Muslims claim that Allah is the same God as Christians worship, just under another name. Yet if you look at the history of it, it is very different. The term "Allah" is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity. In fact, Allah was known to pre-Islamic Arabs. He was one of the many deities that already existed in Mecca. The tribe into which Muhammad was born was particularly devoted to Allah, which was the moon good. It was represented by a black stone which was believed to have come down from heaven.
In Arabia the sun god was viewed as female, and the moon was viewed as the made god. In pre-Islamic times, Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun god, and together they produced three goddesses called The Daughters of Allah. They were viewed as being at the top of the pantheon of Arabian deities, those 360 idols in the Kaaba, at Mecca. When Muhammad took control of Mecca, he destroyed all the idols in the Kaaba except the stone deity, Allah. Do NOT ever accept Allah as just another name of the true and living God!
The symbol of the worship of the moon god, Allah, in pre-Islamic Arab culture throughout the Middle East was the crescent moon. Today the crescent moon is on every flag of an Islamic nation. Go to a mosque; what is on top of it? A crescent moon, the symbol of Allah. Yet many Muslims don't even know why it's there.
Background of Muhammad
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in 570 A.D. and lived for 62 years, dying in 632. At the time he was born, Mecca was the center of trade and religious activity. Muhammad was a camel driver until the age of 25, when he met and married a lady who was 15 years his senior. She was 40 years old and wealthy.
For the next 15 years, Muhammad ran the family fruit business in Mecca. It wasn't until he was 40 years old that he claimed to receive revelations. He would go, as the seekers of truth would, up to a cave which was about three miles north of Mecca, to pray and meditate.
According to Muslim tradition, the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad. Actually there are four different statements of what happened (in the Koran) which contradict each other. The Muslims have chosen to say now that it was Gabriel, and they take this as a sign that Muhammad was a prophet to the Arabs.
After meditating there off and on for two years. Muslims say, Muhammad received revelations during which he would go into epileptic fits. (That is shat Muslims believe they were). He would shake, he would perspire, he would foam at the mouth. Whether they were epileptic or even demonic, he claimed he then received revelations from an angel of light.
What were the revelations? They were written down into what is know as the Koran (Qur'an), the Islamic holy book. However, they were not written down until years later because Muhammad himself was uneducated and probably did not even know how to write.
The main message that Muhammad was communicating was that there was no god but Allah, that he was the one true god who created everything. The second thing he taught was that man is God's slave, and it is his first duty to submit to God and to obey him. That's why you get the term "Islam." Islam means in Arabic, submission, and a Muslim is one who submits to the will of Allah. Muhammad said that the chief duty of man is to submit to the will of Allah.
Muhammad also said that a great and terrible day of judgment is coming in which God will raise up the dead to life and will judge them and reward them based upon their deeds. Those who are found worthy will be given a sensuous life in heaven, and those who do not make it will be condemned to hell.
The people of Mecca did not think too highly of this new prophet and his revelations. In fact they began to criticize and attack him. In 622 A.D. he fled to Medina, about 280 miles north of Mecca. This was the beginning of Islam.
In the Middle East, everything is based upon the time that Muhammad fled to Medina in 622 A.D. That is the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
It was in Medina that Muhammad first tried to get the Christians and Jews who were living there to follow him as "the prophet." He called himself a prophet and an apostle, although that term was not used in their culture. He used the term "prophet" to appeal to the Jews and "apostle" to appeal to the Christians.
He told them, interestingly, to pray to Jerusalem. When they did not accept Muhammad as a prophet or an apostle, he rejected them and told the other people to pray to Mecca, to Allah, his tribal deity. He then began to receive more revelations. It is very interesting to note what these revelations were. (They are found in the Koran.) He received revelations that he was to loot and steal from caravans that were passing through. There were many cases in which Muhammad and his followers would loot and rob caravans and then kill the men in order to satisfy his greed. In fact, the Koran and history report that he fought over 66 battles, killing tens of thousands of people.
In one of his revelations, Muhammad was told to kill and drive out all the Jews. One time he had 1,000 Jewish men brought together and had them all beheaded. Islam became known as the religion of the sword. In 628 A.D., Muhammad received a revelation that Islam was to be exalted above all other religions, including Christianity and Judaism.
In 629 Muhammad raised up an army of 10,000 men. He returned to Mecca, where he had been raised, and conquered it. By force, he imposed Islam o9n the rest of the Arabian tribes. Muhammad died in 632 A.D., having conquered much of the Arabian Peninsula. Islam then spread by the sword across North Africa, and today holds one-sixth or more of the world's population.
6:58 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment -
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Readers!!
Posted: 27 Nov 2008 06:04 PM CST
I just wanted to thank everyone for continuing to read Islam and Action and helping to get the word out.
The best to you and your family...:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />
20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo
Posted: 27 Nov 2008 06:04 PM CST
It is one thing after another with the so called religion of peace. Today it was an attack on a Church in Egypt. As it was opening it was seized by a Muslim mob chanting that they will sacrifice themselves for Islam. They also took control of another building across the street from the Church to use as a Mosque. I guess that they have to get those prayers in before the next attack.
In the past I have seen Christian groups catering to Islam. Examples of this are one that assisted with the building of a Mosque. Another Christian charity banned Christian literature and any images of Jesus in gift boxes being sent abroad . The reason was the usual, they did not want to offend Muslims.
Until Christians are treated as equals across the Islamic world I urge all Christians to take a stand against Islam and stop catering to its followers in anyway. Respect is supposed to be a two way street.
20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo
One thousand Christians were today trapped inside the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams,Cairo, after more than twenty thousand Muslims attacked them with stones and butane gas cylinders. The Church's priest Father Antonious said that the situation is extremely dangerous.
The Muslim mob that attacked the church blocked both sides of the street and encircled the church building, broke its doors and demolished its entire first floor. The mob were chanting Jihad verses as well as slogans saying "we will demolish the church" and "We sacrifice our blood and souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam", while the entrapped Christians chanted "Lord have mercy".
The incident started on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church today, when the Muslims hastily established a Mosque in the early hours of this morning, by taking over the first floor of a newly-built building facing the Church and started praying there.
When the security forces tried to disperse the mob, they went to nearby homes and shops owned by Christians, and were armed with sticks, butane, knives and other sharp objects. Witnesses said the mob included children from as young as 8-years old to men of over 50-years old, in addition to women.
The Church building was originally a factory that was adapted into its present state, the matter which took over five years to complete and to get the necessary permissions from the authorities to have a Church established.
Human rights organizations and lawyers were refused entry into the besieged Church.
Link to Article
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..TR> ..TABLE>
Islam In Action ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
..TR> ..TABLE>
Well, enough of that now, I'm sure you get the picture. Now pressing on…….
Islamic Backgrounds
The culture of Muhammad's world was very animistic. Every Arab tribe had its sacred magic stones which they believe protected the tribe. Muhammad's particular tribe had adopted a black stone and had set it in the Kaaba. This magical black stone was kissed when people came on their pilgrimages and worshiped at the Kaaba. It was probably an asteroid or a meteorite which they viewed as being divine. All the nomadic tribes had one of their tribal deities resident in the Kaaba.
The dominant religion just prior to Muhammad was Sabianism, a religion in which heavenly bodies were worshiped. The moon was viewed as a male deity, and a lunar calendar was used. The pagan rite of fasting, (other than what's in God's Word), began with the appearance of the crescent moon. Fasting was later adopted as one of the five pillars of faith of Islam. Fasting in Ramadan, in the ninth month, already pre-existed in the Arab culture before Muhammad was even born. We also find it in our gospels, and as commanded by God on the day of Atonement in our own Bible.
What about the name "Allah"? Muslims claim that Allah is the same God as Christians worship, just under another name. Yet if you look at the history of it, it is very different. The term "Allah" is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity. In fact, Allah was known to pre-Islamic Arabs. He was one of the many deities that already existed in Mecca. The tribe into which Muhammad was born was particularly devoted to Allah, which was the moon good. It was represented by a black stone which was believed to have come down from heaven.
In Arabia the sun god was viewed as female, and the moon was viewed as the made god. In pre-Islamic times, Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun god, and together they produced three goddesses called The Daughters of Allah. They were viewed as being at the top of the pantheon of Arabian deities, those 360 idols in the Kaaba, at Mecca. When Muhammad took control of Mecca, he destroyed all the idols in the Kaaba except the stone deity, Allah. Do NOT ever accept Allah as just another name of the true and living God!
The symbol of the worship of the moon god, Allah, in pre-Islamic Arab culture throughout the Middle East was the crescent moon. Today the crescent moon is on every flag of an Islamic nation. Go to a mosque; what is on top of it? A crescent moon, the symbol of Allah. Yet many Muslims don't even know why it's there.
Background of Muhammad
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in 570 A.D. and lived for 62 years, dying in 632. At the time he was born, Mecca was the center of trade and religious activity. Muhammad was a camel driver until the age of 25, when he met and married a lady who was 15 years his senior. She was 40 years old and wealthy.
For the next 15 years, Muhammad ran the family fruit business in Mecca. It wasn't until he was 40 years old that he claimed to receive revelations. He would go, as the seekers of truth would, up to a cave which was about three miles north of Mecca, to pray and meditate.
According to Muslim tradition, the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad. Actually there are four different statements of what happened (in the Koran) which contradict each other. The Muslims have chosen to say now that it was Gabriel, and they take this as a sign that Muhammad was a prophet to the Arabs.
After meditating there off and on for two years. Muslims say, Muhammad received revelations during which he would go into epileptic fits. (That is shat Muslims believe they were). He would shake, he would perspire, he would foam at the mouth. Whether they were epileptic or even demonic, he claimed he then received revelations from an angel of light.
What were the revelations? They were written down into what is know as the Koran (Qur'an), the Islamic holy book. However, they were not written down until years later because Muhammad himself was uneducated and probably did not even know how to write.
The main message that Muhammad was communicating was that there was no god but Allah, that he was the one true god who created everything. The second thing he taught was that man is God's slave, and it is his first duty to submit to God and to obey him. That's why you get the term "Islam." Islam means in Arabic, submission, and a Muslim is one who submits to the will of Allah. Muhammad said that the chief duty of man is to submit to the will of Allah.
Muhammad also said that a great and terrible day of judgment is coming in which God will raise up the dead to life and will judge them and reward them based upon their deeds. Those who are found worthy will be given a sensuous life in heaven, and those who do not make it will be condemned to hell.
The people of Mecca did not think too highly of this new prophet and his revelations. In fact they began to criticize and attack him. In 622 A.D. he fled to Medina, about 280 miles north of Mecca. This was the beginning of Islam.
In the Middle East, everything is based upon the time that Muhammad fled to Medina in 622 A.D. That is the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
It was in Medina that Muhammad first tried to get the Christians and Jews who were living there to follow him as "the prophet." He called himself a prophet and an apostle, although that term was not used in their culture. He used the term "prophet" to appeal to the Jews and "apostle" to appeal to the Christians.
He told them, interestingly, to pray to Jerusalem. When they did not accept Muhammad as a prophet or an apostle, he rejected them and told the other people to pray to Mecca, to Allah, his tribal deity. He then began to receive more revelations. It is very interesting to note what these revelations were. (They are found in the Koran.) He received revelations that he was to loot and steal from caravans that were passing through. There were many cases in which Muhammad and his followers would loot and rob caravans and then kill the men in order to satisfy his greed. In fact, the Koran and history report that he fought over 66 battles, killing tens of thousands of people.
In one of his revelations, Muhammad was told to kill and drive out all the Jews. One time he had 1,000 Jewish men brought together and had them all beheaded. Islam became known as the religion of the sword. In 628 A.D., Muhammad received a revelation that Islam was to be exalted above all other religions, including Christianity and Judaism.
In 629 Muhammad raised up an army of 10,000 men. He returned to Mecca, where he had been raised, and conquered it. By force, he imposed Islam o9n the rest of the Arabian tribes. Muhammad died in 632 A.D., having conquered much of the Arabian Peninsula. Islam then spread by the sword across North Africa, and today holds one-sixth or more of the world's population.
6:58 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment -
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Readers!!
Posted: 27 Nov 2008 06:04 PM CST
I just wanted to thank everyone for continuing to read Islam and Action and helping to get the word out.
The best to you and your family...:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />
20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo
Posted: 27 Nov 2008 06:04 PM CST
It is one thing after another with the so called religion of peace. Today it was an attack on a Church in Egypt. As it was opening it was seized by a Muslim mob chanting that they will sacrifice themselves for Islam. They also took control of another building across the street from the Church to use as a Mosque. I guess that they have to get those prayers in before the next attack.
In the past I have seen Christian groups catering to Islam. Examples of this are one that assisted with the building of a Mosque. Another Christian charity banned Christian literature and any images of Jesus in gift boxes being sent abroad . The reason was the usual, they did not want to offend Muslims.
Until Christians are treated as equals across the Islamic world I urge all Christians to take a stand against Islam and stop catering to its followers in anyway. Respect is supposed to be a two way street.
20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo
One thousand Christians were today trapped inside the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams,Cairo, after more than twenty thousand Muslims attacked them with stones and butane gas cylinders. The Church's priest Father Antonious said that the situation is extremely dangerous.
The Muslim mob that attacked the church blocked both sides of the street and encircled the church building, broke its doors and demolished its entire first floor. The mob were chanting Jihad verses as well as slogans saying "we will demolish the church" and "We sacrifice our blood and souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam", while the entrapped Christians chanted "Lord have mercy".
The incident started on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church today, when the Muslims hastily established a Mosque in the early hours of this morning, by taking over the first floor of a newly-built building facing the Church and started praying there.
When the security forces tried to disperse the mob, they went to nearby homes and shops owned by Christians, and were armed with sticks, butane, knives and other sharp objects. Witnesses said the mob included children from as young as 8-years old to men of over 50-years old, in addition to women.
The Church building was originally a factory that was adapted into its present state, the matter which took over five years to complete and to get the necessary permissions from the authorities to have a Church established.
Human rights organizations and lawyers were refused entry into the besieged Church.
Link to Article
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