Re: future of Muslims and Islam
smurf,
i would recommend u to go visit the mosques all over the world and see
how beautifully they are made. religion does not mean, a dull, colorless, dismal looking dimension in which you worship.
yes, in Islam we do prefer simplicity, but look at Masjid-e-Nabvi
how majestic it is. u wont stop from marveling.
calligraphy is a proper art - the focus of an artist's creative spirits is Allah's names.
the more Allah's names i have in my place, the more i am reminded of my Allah & also it looks decorated with nothing drawing to this world, but to the Almighty. I’ve them on metal, on wood, on stone, on marble and on gold.
hope is that those who enter the house of Allah,
whether it is a shabby mud mosque or a marble gold chandelier mosque,
they do find strength to ask for forgiveness from Allah and pray for the good tidings in life for all life forms.
iranian, arabic, cultures have a lot of things on daily use, like plates and tashbeeh that are beautiful.
we can still be religious, while being aesthetic & not luxurious or over done in affluence.
regarding death penalty in Islam, first off, why would those sins be ever committed by Muslims, i am saying this out of sheer disregard for the human nature, but for the reverence ideally we ought to have, in order to be so alert to our actions, that such crimes that warrant death, may not be ever done.
i do believe in the khilafet way of running Islamic states.
but, that is an undertaking which will involve a whole new system of
societal change & reconfiguration of the Muslim states into a framework that can adapt the khilafet governance, seamlessly from the model of current governance in our countries.
Okay I'm sorry, wrong of me to speculate and make assumptions but I can't fathom why anyone would want to retain the Muslim label and remain a part of the Ummah when they've no faith left in Islam.
Death penalty is from the religion and is to be applied to crimes such as murder, sodomy, adultery etc. Those who reject this reject a part of Islam and are therefore no longer considered Muslim according to the scriptures.
Common sense would dictate that if you didn't believe Islam was infallible/divine anymore then you'd leave it and not bother with it at all than update it, because following a religion you know is imperfect and manmade kind of defeats the purpose don't you think?
Wouldn't it make more sense to do what Kemal Ataturk did and do away with religion altogether and not bother with the rest of the Ummah but only with ones own nation-state? (My people don't have their own nation-state at the moment but I don't think it will be any less Islamic than the current set-up, because it's not rebelling against the Muslim Khilafat as non exists at the moment and Islam doesn't say anywhere to let Munafiqeen exploit you in the name of Islam and brotherhood.)
The only reason I would see to carry on identifying with it is a nostalgic attachment to the cultural side of it, I don't have those feelings because I make a distinction between South-Asian/Arab culture and the faith itself, I only feel for the beliefs, rules and method of worship etc. I think of articles commonly associated with religion (decorations, architecture, calligraphy, caps, beads, prayer mats) as unnecessary because Islam doesn't have iconography so the only distinctly 'Muslim' thing I have in my house is a cupboard filled with religious media (books and discs). Except for the use of Arabic in liturgy I don’t see Islam promoting any specific culture so I've not developed an attachment with all that to miss it.