UNDERSTANDING ISLAM

04/11/2009

UNDERSTANDING ISLAM

I started studying Islam before before I had any awareness, it is a custom in religious societies to start the indoctrination of children at a very young age thus as they grow up they have no capacity of denying or defying any beliefs they were taught.

This not to say here that there is any problem with someone believing in Islam per se. But to say that Islam requires a blind faith and following is also misunderstanding of the true religion.

Sometimes the traditions are followed that have nothing to do with the basic religion itself, such is the matter today with Christianity that has adopted the Easter Bunny and the churches hold the Easter egg hunts. Sometimes Muslims also follow practices that are not based in Islam and its teachings, but still have become a tradition that can not be disobeyed.


In this article I am not going to argue as to the validity of any of the teachings of Islam, but as to one particular practice that has become an important part of religion itself while there is no guidance that exists for or against the practice.

As I said previously I started my study of Islam at a very young age, including the sharia and the ahadees. In my later years, if seventeen can be called later, I learned to speak Arabic, and became fluent in it at that time. I was able to read the " Gone with the Wind" and also "War and Peace" in Arabic. I also took a college level exam in a subject called the "Islamic Civics" ( al Skafa al Islamia). The reason I state all this is not to impress you but to validate my credentials.

The discussion comes along time and again as to if the Quran should only be read and taught in Arabic, as is practiced in a majority of Islamic countries. Many of my friends insist that it must, others just politely desire to ignore me, as they have done for years in many other subjects also.

In places the Quran states that the book is to teach (Yalemoon), other places it uses the phrase (Yafkahoon) to understand, elsewhere is the phrase ( Yatadabroon), to think over, to meditate over, to contemplate, a thoughtful consideration. The Quran needs to be learned, to understood and to be thought over. Only then the spirit of Islam can thrive.

By any estimate over two third of the Muslim populations are not fluent in Arabic, over half are totally illiterate, to argue that the Quranic study and learning can only be done in Arabic is a point not a part of Islam it self but a long standing, albeit misguided tradition.

It is not enough to just hand a lantern to a blind person, it is even dangerous. The person would go on stumbling, and could even cause a fire. God is a God of knowledge and reason, He would not expect a billion people reciting His word without ever knowing the meaning and His message.

The first revealed word of Quran is, Iqra" to read, yet many among Muslims bar the females from learning to read, they burn the schools and murder the children considering it Islam, many others decline to condemn the practice at least in a belief that those perpetrators might just be right.

It is said that God is not confused by multitudes of languages and voices, then why insist that He only accepts Arabic as a preferred language. And are Muslim children forced even beaten into learning a text that is meaning less without the knowledge of its verse. IS THAT GOD"S WILL???

Does Islam need to worry about its destruction by its enemies? May be. Are there people who want to see Islam fail? Sure! How many among the Muslims, persons and governements are working to educate the masses ( besides the emphasis on rote learning of Quran may be), few indeed. If Islam fails it will not be because no one was reading it in Arabic. Islam will fail because Muslims lacked the real world education, and no one cared. IQRA!




LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE