are we the guardians of our faith?

Society Religion & Philosophy
1

as-salam-o-alaykum

i was having this discussion yesterday with two other Muslims who go to school with me and i’m still thinking abt this…

the topic was if someone claims to be Muslim, as Muslims do we have a right to think/say that they r not Muslim if to us they are doing something that is blatantly against the very basics of Islam…

my friend who grew up here in the Muslim American culture said that SALAT [namaz] is the line that divides muslims from non muslims and so someone who does not pray SALAT is not Muslim…

:eek:

now i’ve grown up in Pakistan and 95% there r Muslims but i knew LOTS of ppl who don’t pray namaz except jumah n eid…r they not Muslims? :eek: Allah only knows, we don’t have a right to say whether they r or not…

many of them give charity, don’t hurt others and some even contribute to great Islamic causes…

i said r v not being presumptuous if we even think that we r better Muslims than them just b/c we pray namaz…? dilon ke haal toh Allah hi jaanta hay…namaz parhna bohot bari baat hay par siraf is se koi momin naheen ban jata…i thought we have no right to say who is Muslim and who isn’t its a personal thing b/w an individual and Allah and thats it…my thoughts r k we are not the guardians of our faith in this world, Allah is…we shud just ‘mind our own business’ when it comes to religion…

like for example, i am not sure if i agree with the Pakistani govt’s move to make everyone sign before getting a NIDcard and passport that all Qadiani’s are non Muslims…woh jaanein aur Allah jaanay saanu ki…

but my friend pointed out the hadith that if we see something wrong happenning we should change it with our hands, speech or atleast think its bad…

and we r very much the guardians of our faith…

she also pointed out the apostacy movement in early Islam…

hmmm…

the third person with us who is also Pakistani fob like me…he was totally divided…but he was of the opinion that it is important for Muslims to safeguard their faith and its our duty that it be properly represented to the world…

but i thought Allah will take care of that…Allah ne hamein toh Islam ka theka naheen de rakha…hum khud hi achay Musalman ban jayein toh bari baat ho gi…

and then we were talking abt the example of the madrassah in saudia that caught fire and muslim men in saudia arabia who rcently pushed back their female madressah companions back into the burning madrassah cuz they were not wearing hijab…i thought that was disgusting :disgust: :nook: what right did they have to do that? khayr, atleast we all agreed that was purely horrid…

hmm…i’ve been thinking abt this since then though…i’m still not convinced that we have any right to go abt saying/thinking who is ‘more Muslim’ and who’s right and wrong? imho v r not the guardians of our faith…

but the points my abcd friend brought up were also strong ones so i am hecka confused…

what do u guys think? :confused:

2

Nobody has the right to tell a Muslim that they are not a Muslim.

3

^

i agree...

but my friend's point was although certain ppl call themselves Muslim these ppl r 'obviously not Muslim' cuz some of them dont pray namaz or there r others who do not believe in the last prophet Hz Mohammad (saw)...

and it is the duty of Muslims to make sure they know what they r doing is wrong against Islam to a)educate them and bring them to the right path and b)to represent Islam correctly to the world...

i think her points do have some weight too...

but i'm still not convinced either...

4

irem, Islam or submission is to Allah. not everyone else.

so let everyone mind their own business and let whoever wills, submit to the will of Allah.. He will judge us all in the end as to who was 'better' than the other in completely submitting their will.

We are not here to monitor each other's rituals. Let's take care of ourselves.

5

Next time you meet your friend, ask her, if Allah appointed her the door-woman of jannat and jahannam?

I fail to understand whats her point in saying that the other person is NOT a muslim. Is it that the other person has applied for a scholarship from your friend, and the criteria is that he has to be a muslim to qualify for this scholarship? Whats our business judging one way or the other.

Re: rest of the stuff, yes, as a muslim we should provide guidance to other people, including muslims and non-muslims. If we care for the other person, we can and should guide them to good deeds, including prayers and others. But that does not mean, we start labeling them as non-muslim or otherwise. Because once we start condemning such people as being non-muslims, we are effectively driving them further away from the right path.

6

non-Muslim

Assalaamualeikum,

well, the first issue is what are the actions that make a person non-muslim.

if a muslim does a major wrong action, but does that out of weakness, still believing it is wrong, then he is still a muslim.

howeverm if he/she does a major wrong action believeing it is halaal, he/she has become a non-Muslim.

considering Salaah(namaz), scholars differ on this point. The Majority of scholars say that if the person doesn't pray out of weakness in his/her eemaan, he/she is still a Muslim. However, if he/she denies that prayer is farz, then he/she becomes a non-muslim.

Allah knows best
wassalaam
Imran

7

jazakallah for the insightful replies :slight_smile:

and eid mubarak :flower2:

8

I wouldnt call anyone who proclaims the shahada to be non-muslim.

I remember reading that once the people were at war during the time of the prophet(SAW) and one of the muslim sahaba was being approached by someone on "the other side" and this person right before approaching the sahaba said the shahada, although the sahaba never knew this person to be a muslim. He still killed that person. The prophet(saw) got word of this, and was very saddened by the news. Telling the sahibeen that he should not have killed him since he said the shahada.

Now all this person knew is that this person said the shahada, didnt know if he prayed 5 times, didnt know anything, but yet the prophet(SAW) still told him he should not have been slain. I apologize if I took it out of context, but this is how I understood what I read. I think it was a hadith, but I dont know for sure, its either written in the history of Islam or its a hadith. Of course there are other examples where people were called kaafirs, but I wont go into that.