Human first or Muslim first?

Society Religion & Philosophy
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I was discussing this with a friend and made me wonder what others have to say about this.

The question is: Are we first human or Muslims? And why?

And if you know - what does Islam say about this?

Thanks

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

Does being Muslim make someone automatically a humanitarian?

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

Imam Ali (as) said: A person is either your brother in faith, or your equal in humanity.

As Hareem said, a good Muslim has to strive to be a humanist, environmentalist, rights activist and so on. I recommend you to take a look at the amazing ‘Treatise of Rights’ by Imam Sajjad (son of Imam Hussain), http://www.al-islam.org/divine-perspective-rights/.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

both...you cant have one without the other .....islam teaches us how to be good human beings ...really goes hand in hand as far as im concerned

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

which religion says that dont be a good human being?

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

no religion... so a hindu or christian or jew or budhist should ideally give the same response I did

to me religion...whichever religion you are teaches you how to be good human beings and so your religious identity and "being human" goes hand in hand IMO ....the only reason why i used muslim and islam in my post is A because the OP's question was Muslim first or human first and B because I am muslim

i dont remember mentioning anywhere in my post that islam is the only religion which teaches you how to be a good human being

i said islam teaches us (muslims) how to be good human beings...therefor are we muslims first or human? warrants the answer that we're both because our religion is a huge part of how "human" we are

if the question was are we jewish first or human? i would have said that for whomsoever is jewish the answer would be both but for me its human as i am not jewish

make sense now I hope

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

In order to be a good muslim you need to be a good human.
So like somebody said above, it goes hand in hand.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

The first human (Hz. Adam (as) was a Muslim.

Muslim is a person who completely surrenders to his Creator and accept His Lordship.

When a child is born, it has with it a natural belief in ONE God. Human growing up without outside influences, when upon acquiring enough intelligence will naturally acknowledge that his creator is ONE and ONLY ONE. This natural belief is called “Din Al Fitrah”
in Arabic.

The Prophet (saw) said that Allah (swt) said: “I created My servants in the right religion but the devils made them go astray.” Saheeh Muslim

The Prophet (saw) said: “Each child is born in a state of “Fitrah”, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim

In Soorah Al-A'raaf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come into existence and took a pledge from them saying, Am I not your Lord? To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:'

When a child is born, it has with it a natural belief in ONE God. Human born without outside influences when acquiring enough intelligence will naturally conclude that his creator is ONE and ONLY ONE. This natural belief is called “Din Al Fitrah” in Arabic.

To be a true Human one should acknowledge and fulfil the rights of his Creator, his fellow Humans and other creation. Thus submit to the Will of God in earnest. One who submits to the Creator is a Muslim.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

I'm gonna call the BS police on that one. A child is born with no belief in god. We brainwash children.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

If person muslim there is no stop or pause button like dvd player you muslim 24/7.

So try best to help others this is a muslim characteristic.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

A good human is 90 percent Muslim , if he/she recites the kalima that will make them 100 percent Muslim.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

We are Muslim first and then we are human ...

It is the 'aqeedah of Muslims that we were alive as souls before we enter this world, also it is a fact in science that we are clumps of organic cells, tissues until we resemble a human child ... the soul enters the foetus in a time when it is still hard to establish what animal foetus it is ... hence for both the reason of the soul and the morphing body of a human in its early development we are Muslim before being human ... Being human is limited to this world - everything otherwise our souls and the material that made us grow in to babies was totally obedient to the Will of Allah - and hence it was Muslim - "Muslim" means linguistically "that what is in the state of submission" implying submission to God.

However we can be human without being humane and when we are human we choose to be Muslim. It is important to note that the body of every human is "Muslim" in the sense that it does not evade the domain of God's Will ... however the soul in the body chooses other than Islam making the person other than a Muslim ... even though his own design calls out him the basis on what he was born - fitrah.

So a child is Muslim until he chooses not to be even if he is born in a non-Muslim household ... then when he can choose with conscious decision against Islam then he can stop being Muslim in that sense, but he cannot stop his parts from obeying the natural physical laws of God - merely the legislative laws. Our design purpose includes in it the necessity to be humane and hence a person may be Muslim or claim to be so - without being humane. Such a person chooses to be Muslim without entirely letting that choice enter the driving impetus of his actions ...

So being human can mean being human or actually looking human likewise being Muslim can mean different things in different contexts ...

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

Interesting read.. please do continue posting, I would appreciate some more answers.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

in some cases it may be brainwashing and in some it is teaching. There are also a few cases even today where it self-taught though obviously not as a baby.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

There are 5billion+ reasons right now that contradict this !

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

You have not read carefully what I wrote and called your trump card too early ... Muslims believe that every child is born innocent and without sin - Muslim in the sense that it is on its fitrah in its natural state - parents raise children to become whatever religion - ... then when we choose to remain Muslim we are call ourselves Muslim ...

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

^ ok, I went bak and re-read it. If you are making a difference between 'what is' vs 'what Muslims' believe, sure I won't quibble with that. But would point out that it is then only a belief - the 5+ billion believe otherwise.

btw what does fitrah mean?

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

If you believe that all the souls were created first;

If you believe that Allah asked;

"Alasat Berbokum" (Do you accept Allah as your Lord)

if you believe that all the souls said;

"Qalo Balla" ( Yes, Indeed)

Then you should not forget that we were created as Muslim before we were given a body to live with.

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Re: Human first or Muslim first?

Muslim first...... it teaches how to be a good human!!

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Peace,

**In Book ‘Funerals (Al-Janaaiz)’ of Sahih Bukhari Hadith No. 467
**Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet :saw2: said, “Every child is born with a true faith of Islam (i.e. to worship none but Allah Alone) and his parents convert him to Judaism or Christianity or Magianism, as an animal delivers a perfect baby animal. Do you find it mutilated?”
**
Allah SWT said in Surat Ar-Rum verse No. 30:
**
“So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah . That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.”

So set your face and perservere in the religion which Allah SWT has prescribed for you, the worship of Allah SWT alone, thre religion of Ibrahim as., to which He has guided us and which He has perfected for us with the utmost perfection. In this manner, we will also adhere to the sound ‘Fitrah’ with which He created His creation.

For arabic word ‘Hanif’ here as ‘true’ in the sense in which we say, ‘the magnetic needle is true to the north’. Those who have been privileged to receive the Truth should never hesitate or swerve, but remain constant, as men who know.

As turned out from the creative hand of God, man is innocent, pure, true, free, inclined to right and virtue, and endued with true understanding about his own position in the Universe and about God’s goodness, wisdom and power. That is his true nature, just as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle and of a horse is to be swift. But man is caught in the meshes of customs, superstitions, selfish desires, and false teaching. This may make him pugnacious, unclean, false, salvish hankering after whaqt is wrong or forbidden, and deflected from the love of his fellow-men and the pure worship of the One True God. The problem before spiritual Teachers is to cure his crrokedness, and to restore human nature to what is should be under thw Will of God.