Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Society Religion & Philosophy
1

I am a new comer to religion. I did some researches online and found out the following supposedly facts. Would anyone able to confirm these?

  1. I would like to know is it true that Muslims are required to memorizing the entire Quran in Arabic so they could go to heaven? Is it true that Muslims value memorizing/reciting Quran over understanding of Quran? Why?

  2. Allah is the wisest, most intelligent supreme creator of all things, why would such a God wanted his followers to memorizing his words, instead of understanding his words?

  3. In 10 century A.D, Muslims actively pursued knowledge and innovations, their advancements in science, medicines and mathematics helped laid the foundation of our modern world, but for some unknown reasons they decided to abandon their nobly pursues. Nowadays Muslims are nothing like their innovative forefathers. Would anyone able to explain why?

  4. Why Muslims hate/reject other religions like Judaism and Christianity? According to my research, all three religions origin from the same root and worship the same God/Allah. Since we all believe the same God/Allah and we all follow the teachings of the same God/Allah, I would have thought we are all brothers and sisters of the same faith, are we not?

  5. If I understand correctly, Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. I would ‘respect’ him for spreading the words of Allah. But I don’t think I would worship him like I would worship Allah. Why do Muslims worship/values both Allah and the Prophet Muhammad equally? Should Muslims worship Allah alone?

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

[quote]
I am a new comer to religion. I did some researches online and found out the following supposedly facts. Would anyone able to confirm these?

  1. I would like to know is it true that Muslims are required to memorizing the entire Quran in Arabic so they could go to heaven? Is it true that Muslims value memorizing/reciting Quran over understanding of Quran? Why? [/quote]

Muslims are not required to memorise Quran, though many do, as structure of Quran (Arabic text) is such that it is easy to memorise, word by word and dot by dot, even for little kids and even for those who do not understand language of Quran (Arabic). Since Allah has made memorising Quran easy, it plays a vital role in keeping Quran safe from alteration/corruption, as since the time of Prophet (SAW) during every era there were many Muslims (at same time) who have memorised Quran (part of Quran is memorised by almost all Muslims) and thus any alteration/corruption can get detected easily hence alternation/corruption in Quran has become impossible [since time of Prophet (SAW)]. Let see what Quran says about memorising Quran and safeguarding Quran:
**
54:17.** And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?
15:9. We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).

In Islam we believe that since Quran is word of God, reciting, hearing, and memorising Quran has its own value in good-deeds (Sawab). Muslims also believe that Allah has not sent Quran for just reading, hearing and/or memorising, but Quran is message of Allah for mankind, and to get that message, reading, hearing and/or memorising is immaterial, rather important is understanding and following Quran. Quran is easy to understand for those who read Quran and try to understand it with good, honest and unbiased intention ... though Iblis (Satan) do not like that mankind try to understand Quran and wants people to believe otherwise (relying on other people’s interpretations), but it is not only true that Quran is easy to understand, rather Quran claims itself that it is in simple language that is easy to understand. So, it is duty of all Muslims to read and understand Quran (as much as one can). Let see what Quran says about Quran:

54:17. And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?

[quote]
2. Allah is the wisest, most intelligent supreme creator of all things, why would such a God wanted his followers to memorizing his words, instead of understanding his words?
[/quote]

Answer to above question is already there in answer of question one.

[quote]
3. In 10 century A.D, Muslims actively pursued knowledge and innovations, their advancements in science, medicines and mathematics helped laid the foundation of our modern world, but for some unknown reasons they decided to abandon their nobly pursues. Nowadays Muslims are nothing like their innovative forefathers. Would anyone able to explain why?
[/quote]

With time, Muslims dominating the world; got influenced by materialism and left religion to people set apart (so-called religious scholars). Unfortunately, amongst these people set apart, many were corrupt, manipulative and materialistic minded. Many such corrupt set apart people, to increase their influence over Muslim world, tried to dominate Muslim minds making themselves caretaker of Islam and Muslims theirs’ blind followers (Zombies). This resulted in a new breed of Muslims who instead of questioning and exploring everything (what Islam teaches in Quran), became Zombies, not only when considering Islam but worldly life too, hence no new discovery or developments.

Let see what Quran says regarding questioning, exploring, and discovering secrets of worldly life, nature and natural laws, human functioning, universe and functioning of universe, etc: ... As an example, you should read Surah Rahman (Surah 55) and try to notice how Allah invites Muslims to think and question... by mentioning a bit of known and unknown, and then provoking with challenging question (31 times same question).

55:13. Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?

[Above question is repeated 31 times in surah ‘Ar-Rahman’ (that has 77 ayahs) ... It is surprising that first time this question in asked in surah Rahman is ayah 13 and total time same question is asked in surah Rahman is 31 times, that is mirror image of number 13. This figure (ayah 13 repeated 31 times) itself can incite human to think, wondering if such happening is coincidental or invitation to ponder. :)]

[quote]
4. Why Muslims hate/reject other religions like Judaism and Christianity? According to my research, all three religions origin from the same root and worship the same God/Allah. Since we all believe the same God/Allah and we all follow the teachings of the same God/Allah, I would have thought we are all brothers and sisters of the same faith, are we not?
[/quote]

Muslims are not supposed to hate any religion or people following any religion, but ignorance has no bound. According to Islam, all human are brothers/sisters to each other, whose parents were Adam (AS) and Hawa (AS). As for different religions, Allah has sent Prophets in every community/people, large and small, all over the world, and whatever religion we see around, it is possible that at one time they were true religion from Allah, but over time those religion got corrupted and new things got into them, making many of them pagan religion. Nevertheless, originally all world communities/people worshipped Allah (with different names). Let see what Quran says regarding different religion and people.
**
6:107.** If it had been Allah.s plan, they would not have taken false gods: but We made thee not one to watch over their doings, nor art thou set over them to dispose of their affairs.
6:108. Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they out of spite revile Allah in their ignorance. Thus have We made alluring to each people its own doings. In the end will they return to their Lord, and We shall then tell them the truth of all that they did.

As for Islam, Judaism and Christianity, it is true that all 3 religions has its root in Ibrahim (AS), but that does not mean religion of Ibrahim (AS) was unique, rather it was same religion what Adam (AS) had or every world communities had before their religion got corrupted. For instance, major beliefs in all religions were always same, that is, belief on Allah (One God), Judgment-day (Qiyamah), Life after death, Accountability, Ultimate justice, Fate, Heaven, Hell, Angels, Satan (or evil sprite), Human soul, Test of human soul, good and bad, etc. ... Differences amongst different religions were always in peripheral rules and regulations. Those peripheral rules and regulations of religions having root in Ibrahim (AS) are close to each other, that is all.

Quran regarding sending of Prophets (hence religion) in every community:
**
16:36.** For We assuredly sent amongst every People an apostle, (with the Command), "Serve Allah, and eschew Evil": of the People were some whom Allah guided, and some on whom error became inevitably (established). So travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied (the Truth).

Languages Apostles used ... Apostles having root in Ibrahim (AS) used Arabic and Hebrew (both sister languages), but Apostles sent at other places to other people used their language and thus message of Allah came to those people in their own languages:

14:4. We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.

  [Note: In Arabic, The god (or 'God' ...where  god is written with capital 'G') is written as Al-Lah ... or Allah ...where ‘Al = The’ and ‘Lah = god’ ... that also means one and only 'God', as when we use Al (The) before a name, noun (common or proper), trait or attribute, it signifies something as One and only ... the ultimate, the unique]

[quote]
5. If I understand correctly, Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. I would 'respect' him for spreading the words of Allah. But I don't think I would worship him like I would worship Allah. Why do Muslims worship/values both Allah and the Prophet Muhammad equally? Should Muslims worship Allah alone?
[/quote]

No Muslim worship Muhammad (SAW). As for valuing Muhammad (SAW), Muslim value Muhammad (SAW) highest amongst all creations of Allah. As for comparing Muhammad (SAW) in value with Allah, that is ridiculous to even think of, as one is creation [Muhammad (SAW)] who is compared and valued as creation; whereas other is creator (Allah) who cannot be compared or valued, as his existence is unparallel.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

saleem has answered most of questions well, i would like to answer question 3 with more information.

When islam was a world power and where economics, science, technology, education excelled it was done because islamic state was in existence and the state backs these areas with research & development, universities, investment.

even the CEO of hewlett packard talked about this islamic state and was in awe of its power, education, technology and way of life.

**There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.

One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.

And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.

When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.

While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600**

Why did the level of science and technology drop in islamic state, it was many factors, arabic language was dropped as state language, ijtihad (extracting evidence from hadiths, quran, qiyas for new problem) was stopped so if new problem happened the muslims could not solve it. Because they thought we have vast knowledge volumes upon volumes we don’t need further development so with this attitude, and few other factors politically, began the decline.

So in this declin for islamic state the European states began to rise at same time and they then became the world powers and begand to dismantle the islamic state bit by bit and into small countries like we have today like libya, morroco, saudi arabia, iran, iraq, palestine, jordan and others who are just slave nations not leading nations.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Make me the kind and I will be the best king but to become the king I will not hesitate to kill anyone in my way.. Holds true for any empire that has ever ruled the world including Islam. Also, I would add that human advancement is pretty natural and when Europeans took over they took it up further. Had they not been ambitious enough, they wouldn’t continue making a progress. So it’s not so much about the ruler as it is about the circumstances at the time and innovative folks.
.
Einstein regardless of the WWI continued working on his theory of relativity and nothing stopped him from publishing it.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Thanks for your reply. I see that you are very wise.

Perhaps the ability of memorizing/reciting Quran was necessary in the ancient time when most people could not even read/write. But nowadays most people can read/write and we have books, computers and other technologies for publishing/recording texts and documents.

As for fearing alteration/corruption, memorizing/reciting Quran never stop people from interpreting Quran differently, or alternating Quran for their own unholy purposes. That explains why there are so many versions of Quran or various interpretations of the holy texts in our world. Clearly memorizing/reciting Quran never really solve the problems. It might has stop it from making the problem worse, but we shall never know.

The fact that Muslims keen on keeping the tradition of memorizing/reciting Quran suggests they may have not values reasoning and logic as much as they should have.

If Muslims do not improve/correct some Islamic traditions, how could our children ever benefits from better Islamic traditions?

I question the values of memorizing/reciting Quran in today society where reasoning and logics are the building blocks of modern world.

Here are the two important questions

  1. If one memorizing/reciting Quran, but with **little **understand the holy texts, would such an individual get to go to Heaven?
  2. If one focused on deep understanding of the holy texts, but memorize a little holy texts, would such an individual get to go to heaven?

I accept your answer for question #3. It is a shame that Muslims today are nothing like their innovative forefathers.

Here is an analogy:

It is like three brothers (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) fighting over who is the best father child. Imagine how would their father felt?

I agree with you about Allah is incomparable and unparalleled. Why so many Muslims named themselves after the prophet Muhammad?

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

I would say the islamic state and its history and achievements has not been matched to date by another state, it is not surprising to people who interested in the subject to read CEO of hewlett packard calling it the greatest civilization.

human advancement natural? If that is the case why are countries in middle east not producing technologies or parts of south asia not in better situation.

Human advancement is possible but it will only flourish if you live in a country that has an ideology and long term planing with clear strategies.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Part of the reason why Muslims have to memorize Quran is (not all of just small parts) to recite during prayers.
Another thing is that unlike Christianity, and many other religion, Islam is not a centralized religion. There is no one high priest that dictates how you practice Islam.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Why is it important to recite Quran during praying? Would it be wrong for me if I communicate with Allah about my wishes, thoughts and feelings during praying?

If Muslims really serious about preserving the integrity of the holy texts (without being altered), perhaps a global centralize religious authority is needed in order to properly address the problem, but not memorizing/reciting the holy texts.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

You contradicted yourself. Your second para is the proof that religion has nothing to do with human advancement. And when I said human advancement is natural, I meant over the period of human evolution.

Your Idea of human advancement can only be achieved with a secular form of state. Let everyone's creativity show, treat everyone equally, appreciate everyone's opinion equally, don't pass judgment based on someone's religion, and have a solid land of law against crimes. THIS cannot be achieved under any religious regime. Its demise is decided before it even establishes. It's bound to be overtaken by another religious dictator.

No more derailing your thread. I am out...

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Peace zollen

Welcome to GS ... and welcome to religion ...

The Qur'an is the Word of God ... It is considered by Muslims as unCreated ... Reading it for understanding it is only part of its benefit. We can read it also to help out with our state of spiritual balance and out of love ... for we know that it is the Word of God.

The Qur'an is actually easy to remember however the most part of it is not easy to understand. People will disagree, but the proof is that many uneducated people have memorised the Qur'an, but only people who have some decent qualifications are also able to provide deeper meanings and its applications. However the Qur'an is meant for everyone ... everyone can understand it to a degree.

People are judged according to their understanding ability ... so if a person who is ignorant and uneducated out of love reads the Qur'an compared to a person who is educated reads it in order to enforce his authority then Allah (SWT) knows full well :

The motives of people
The capacity of people
What people are doing

These determine by His Judgement who goes to hell or heaven (ultimately none shall enter paradise except by His Mercy) ... so in the above example the uneducated one is obviously better ... because it is all about sincerity.

Even though Islam encourages all Muslims to seek knowledge ... it has to be understood the emphasis is not how MUCH knowledge a person gains, but it is about the SEEKING that counts ... that however much our capacity is we continue to strive to gain more and more knowledge, which will be slow for people with lower capacities and high for people with higher capacities. Each person judged accordingly.

It is therefore not expected that everyone can even gain equal understanding and hence Islam accounts for this by encouraging learned people to teach ... a complete simpleton need only copy a scholar in Islam to be doing his bit. Otherwise we would then be presented with the problem that "Does God give intelligent people an advantage?" That would be unjust and hence it is not part of the correct understanding of Islam ... God judges each to their own.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

I understand your points. Everyone understand the holy texts differently and at different depth according to one's abilities. I guess I am having trouble accepting that memorizing/reciting text is also considered part of the SEEKING.

For me SEEKING, or to have a close relationship with Allah. One must
1. Understanding the holy texts with the best of one abilities.
2. Following the teachings of the holy texts and applying the holy teachings to our daily lives.
3. Seeking guidances from Allah through praying.
4. Seeking more/depth understanding from experts.

Are these enough to be considered seeking. If not, would you be able to explain exactly how memorizing/recite the holy texts would be considered part of the seeking.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Peace zollen

For the Qur'an to be memorised is an important thing indeed. Not for everyone, but everyone is supposed to memorise some part of it. Why?

Well the first reason is based on the methodology of Islamic practice. We do utilise our brains to reason things out, but if we reach areas that our reasons evade us then we simply accept as a slave would accept the wishes of his master without question without asking why ... because perhaps the answer to the question is beyond our understanding.

We acknowledge truth to be different from understanding ... that it is possible for us to have the truth and yet be unable to understand it. We believe that every state is possible ... the state of knowing what we know, the state of not knowing what we know, the state of knowing what we don't know and the state of not knowing what we don't know.

There are wisdoms that we can extrude, but then to say that is the reason means we limit the knowledge ... For example, eating pork is forbidden in Islam, the reason given to us in the Qur'an is that it tells us the animal is impure. Now if we use our minds to say that pork used to be forbidden because the meat goes off quickly and there were no fridges that is the reason, then we become susceptible to a big mistake, we will conclude that today pigs are quite clean and we can keep the meat longer therefore we can now eat it ... this would be wrong. Impure it may be ... but what impure means is not necessarily on hygienic bases ... it could be impure in the spiritual sense and no fridge or modern condition will rectify that ... so there comes a point that we simply submit to our orders ... that is what being a "Muslim" means ... one who submits. Questioning to find wisdom and trying to find that wisdom is a good thing ... but questioning to find definitive reasons is dangerous and a form of resistance to the love and trust that we aught to be giving God for our affairs.

So our pious predecessors memorised the Qur'an and so do we or we try ... and that is the condition of the Muslim some of Islamic outlook is "'aqal" reason and wisdom, but some of it is "naqal" tradition and following ...

Now the wisdom that we can extract for memorising the words is that say we one day write down the meaning of the Qur'an and then that becomes the basis for our learning, then years go by people forget about the original script and focus on the translation. Languages develop and move based on the day and age and hence we need to render more editions of the translations to make them fit ... for example not so long ago we could write "gay" and it would mean "joyful" but today most places will not use this word to mean that thing.

Since languages develop then in order to preserve the meaning the translations also need to develop ... and we get what have in the Bible ... many editions and problematic verses which have been relegated to metaphor or meaninglessness ... on the other hand by preserving the "text" people can always go back to the source and derive a meaning which is applicable to that day and age without worrying about translational drift ... i.e. translating from a translation from a translation so that the last meaning is completely unlike the first ...

In fact this is part of the miracle of the Qur'an not only is it's text preserved due to people memorising it, but also the words don't change but the meanings do - only they become more and more profound as time moves on ... That is why we don't discover science in the Qur'an, but when science makes a discovery it appears in the Qur'an as though it has just appeared ... what I am saying is that since the Qur'an is the Word of God ... the words are so precisely calculated in it, that time compounds its verses.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

How did i contradict myself and when did i state religion has nothing to do with human advancement? it is no where in any of my comments.

I can't speak about other religions but under islam and the islamic state over 1000 years it was unbelievable the amount of progress and achievements made, where the military of this vast state was made up of people from many nations, and people of all religions and colors lived in harmony and i repeat what the CEO called the greatest civilization in world.

So you are wrong by these facts alone to claim progress and people of different backgrounds can never live or be treated fairly under an islamic state.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

What you said about how one should seek the holy teachings makes perfect sense. I totally agree with you about how we should learn the holy texts.

If I understand you correctly... We should do our very best to understand Quran as a general approach of seeking the holy teachings. But when we encounter scriptures that we do not understand. We should memorize only the texts that we do not understand and then hopefully someday when we are older and wiser, or perhaps with helps, we will finally understand the texts.

You also made a valid point that scriptures that we thought we understood may turn out to have a much deeper meaning and therefore we should not assume we understood completely. Is this a good enough reason to memorize the entire Quran?

To sum it up..
Understand Quran as much as we could, then memorize only the texts we have not yet understand.

Here are my questions

  1. Is this how young Muslims across the globe learning Quran today?
  2. Would you consider memorizing/reciting Quran, spiritual enlightenment?
  3. You claimed that by memorizing/reciting Quran, it would help others from altering/corrupting the holy texts. Is it working?
  4. Are there any other approach for better protecting the holy texts? For example, establishing a global centralized Islamic Authority for determining the authenticity of the holy text and the interpretation of the texts. Would you think this idea would be more effective comparing to memorize Quran?
  5. Would you think books/computers/technologies would be better for documenting/recording Quran, than human memory?

I have absolutely no problem with the "ideals" of Islam, which is what most of you have been preaching me.
However I do have problem with the actual practices of Islam in our world and some of these practices may not reflect the "ideals" of Islam at all. If we do not change some of the "not-so-good" Islamic traditions, how could our children ever benefited from better Islamic traditions?

Perhaps in the last 500 years if modern Muslims had been focusing on reasoning and logic, today Islamic thinkings and practices would have been much more aligned with the** "ideals"** of Islam.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

The first obligation on the accountable is to learn the personal obligatory knowledge of the religion.

The Personal Obligatory Knowledge of Islam is a necessary portion of Islamic knowledge which is obligatory upon every accountable (Mukallaf ) person to acquire; otherwise one is sinful. Such knowledge entails matters of belief in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Day of Judgment, Destiny, and the like. It also includes matters of purification, prayer, fasting, zakah (type of financial obligation) upon the liable, pilgrimage upon the able, and the sins of the heart, hands, eyes, and the like.

*Note: The accountable person is the person who is: 1. Sane (Not crazy), 2. Pubescent, and 3. Heard the call of Islam. *

Note that every Muslim however must know at least Surat al-Fatihah because it's an integral of the Prayer. And it must be recited properly with all doubled letters.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

While we are on the subject of altering/corrupting the holy texts, has the holy Quran ever mentioned that all Muslims should memorize at least Surat al-Fatihah or Arabic. And it must be recited properly with all doubled letters.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

Thanks for compliment.

Unfortunately, memorising Quran is as much need of time today what it was in ancient times. Reason is that, there are number of powerful elements (from amongst so-called Muslims as well as non-Muslims), more today than in past, who would like to change, alter or delete parts of Quran, and if people had not memorised Quran, such would have been easy regardless of technological advancements.

Anyhow, Quran came over 1400 years ago with Allah’s guarantee that he would protect the book, and apart of Allah’s will, the obvious method Allah has chosen is that Allah made Quran easy to remember hence getting preserved in peoples mind (memory). This method is valid method at all time (Past, as well as present and future) and in all circumstances, without any outside help, like technological advancements and improvements in method of text preservations.

[Note: It was will of Allah that messages that Allah sent in past got corrupted, as they were messages for a period, thus have to get destroyed as period passed. People who done job of destroying earlier messages of Allah were misguided 'Gurus' of those religion.

Since Quran is message to stay until judgment day, Allah got it preserved, and method Allah used is human's memory plus text easy to understand (thus no reliance on 'Gurus'), hence we see many Muslims who have memorised Quran.

Here is mention in Quran of period (fixed time) for earlier messages of Allah that Allah sent before Quran:

13:38. We did send apostles before thee, and appointed for them wives and children: and it was never the part of an apostle to bring a sign except as Allah permitted (or commanded). For each period is a Book (revealed).]

[quote]
As for fearing alteration/corruption, memorizing/reciting Quran never stop people from interpreting Quran differently, or alternating Quran for their own unholy purposes. That explains why there are so many versions of Quran or various interpretations of the holy texts in our world. Clearly memorizing/reciting Quran never really solve the problems. It might has stop it from making the problem worse, but we shall never know.
[/quote]

You are right that people have interpreted Quran differently for whatever reasons, intentionally or unintentionally, but you are wrong that Quran (Arabic text) ever got altered. There is only one version of Quran ... though there are several versions of translations and commentaries. That means memorising and reciting Quran (in Arabic) did solve the problem of preserving Quran in its original Arabic form. ** Knowing that millions of people have memorised Quran and any altering or corrupting Quran would be unsuccessful, no one ever even dared to seriously alter or corrupt Quran.**

[quote]
The fact that Muslims keen on keeping the tradition of memorizing/reciting Quran suggests they may have not values reasoning and logic as much as they should have.
[/quote]

How can you say that reciting and memorizing Quran suggest that Muslims do not value reasoning and logic?

In reality, other than reciting and memorising Quran, Muslims have spent many life-times studying, analysing, evaluating, discussing, scrutinising, debating and understanding each and every verse in Quran, such that no message in Quran is left uncovered. Numerous different translations and commentaries are evidence.

[quote]
If Muslims do not improve/correct some Islamic traditions, how could our children ever benefits from better Islamic traditions?

I question the values of memorizing/reciting Quran in today society where reasoning and logics are the building blocks of modern world.
[/quote]

Problem with Muslims at present is neither need of 'improving Islamic traditions' nor 'reciting or memorizing Quran'. To me, the biggest problem Muslims are facing since 100s of years is Zombie attitude where they do not question (or even dare to question) but blindly listen and follow pied-pipers who are wearing the coat of so-called religious scholars.

It is this attitude that has destroyed all past messages Allah sent, and it is this attitude that is creating army of people who call themselves Muslim but are ignorant and misguided. Their so-called religious ‘Gurus’ have programmed them such that, for these Zombies, when it comes to religion or even day-to-day life, thinking and questioning is sin (‘kufr’). They cannot even learn, because they have closed mind and act as Zombies following the direction of their 'parents' or ‘Gurus’ without thinking or questioning.

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Re: Questions about Muslims and Islam. Please help..

[quote]
Here are the two important questions

  1. If one memorizing/reciting Quran, but with **little **understand the holy texts, would such an individual get to go to Heaven?
  2. If one focused on deep understanding of the holy texts, but memorize a little holy texts, would such an individual get to go to heaven? [/quote]

1: memorizing/reciting Quran has its own merit and understanding Quran has its own merit. Both are important. As for heaven, only God knows who would go to heaven and for what reason. Nevertheless, it is obvious that memorising/reciting Quran on its own would not get a person to heaven (though it would help) but understanding and following Quran could.

2: Most likely a person would go to heaven if he not only understand Quran deeply, but follow Quran as much as he/she can.

[quote]
I accept your answer for question #3. It is a shame that Muslims today are nothing like their innovative forefathers.

Here is an analogy:

It is like three brothers (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) fighting over who is the best father child. Imagine how would their father felt?
[/quote]

Why three brothers ... namely Islam, Judaism and Christianity?

According to Islam, Allah is creator of not only Muslims, Jews and Christians, but is creator of all mankind following whatever religion. Since all religions are messages of Allah, some got corrupted more than others, including Christianity and Judaism, for Allah there is no distinction between them. Only thing is that, before Islam, Allah kept sending messages and laws associated to those religions for fixed period (time interval) and confined those religions for certain people. Over time, those religions got superseded by next message from Allah. At the end, Allah sent Islam that was/is Allah’s last message, for all mankind irrespective.

I think if there is any feeling than it must be that why people are so arrogant and adamant that they stick to religion of their parents (or teachers) regardless of it becoming obsolete (or getting altered into full of ignorance) and thus getting superseded (or replaced) by another message from Allah.

 As for people fighting, as I wrote earlier, there is and should be no need for fighting amongst anyone (from any religion). As far as religion is concerned, people can propagate what they follow, through discussion, preaching, tolerance and learning themselves ... without bringing ego in religious matters or taking religious thoughts/actions of others as personal. Still people should be left free to follow whatever they want to follow, without threat or fear, as in the end it is they who after death would answer to Allah (their creator) what they believed and what they acted, with reasons (including what religion they followed). None would answer regarding other unrelated humans what they followed and why. Allah only accepts people’s religion and religious practices that they adopted using free will. Hence all fighting, other than self-defence, is due to ignorance.

It is only ‘Satan and his team’ who tries to impose religion or religious practices over others by force ... always portraying themselves as caretaker (theekadar) of religion. Reason for action of ‘Satan and his team’ is simple, that is, such imposed religion or religious practices becomes unacceptable for Allah, regardless of them being right or wrong.

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I agree with you about Allah is incomparable and unparalleled. Why so many Muslims named themselves after the prophet Muhammad?
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Muslims name their children after Prophet Muhammad (SAW) because they love and respect Prophet (SAW). Obviously, a Muslim cannot name their children ‘Allah’ as that is not allowed but they do name their children after Allah and attributes of Allah ... for instance: Abdul-Lah, Abdul-Rahman, Abdul-Raheem, Abdul-Razaq, Abdul-Wahab, Abdul-Majid, Abdul-Shakoor, Abdus-Sami ... and so on.

Actually, a Muslim does not need to recite Quran during prayer when in Jamat (congregation), as then he only has to follow Imam silently, listening to Imam reciting surah Fatiha and other surahs [Even when praying alone, requirement to read is surah fatiha and wait long enough that at least 3 ayahs can get recited (Hanafi fiqh) ... though people instead of waiting silently, normally recite ayahs from Quran]. Good thing is that, most people when listen to Imam reciting verses from Quran, verses get memorised automatically without intentionally trying to memorise them.

Memorising helps when one is reading salah (Namaz) on his own, as then surah Fatiha (in Arabic as in Quran) is must to recite. There is valid reason for it, that is, Salah is a prescribed way by Allah for communicating with Allah and asking Allah for own betterment. Surah fatiha is dua (prayer) for own betterment, structured in best possible way by Allah himself, and Muslims have learned from Prophet (SAW) that this 'surah' is the best way to ask Allah for own betterment, prescribed by Allah for Muslims communicating with Allah in Salah (Namaz).

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If Muslims really serious about preserving the integrity of the holy texts (without being altered), perhaps a global centralize religious authority is needed in order to properly address the problem, but not memorizing/reciting the holy texts.
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  Throughout history, it is these centralized religious authorities that have destroyed most messages Allah sent in past. Thus, making such authority is certain recipe for disaster. Just imagine, one such authority has made ‘son of God’ out of ‘Prophet’ and other such authorities have made people start worshipping ‘elements in nature’ and idols.

In Islam, Muslims have no ‘religious authority’ over them (only administrative authority is accepted) and this is also Allah’s prescribed way of safeguarding Islam. On judgment day no one would be able to answer for others neither anyone would take the burden of someone else’s sin. So, it is responsibility of each and every individual Muslim to safeguard their beliefs, and for that they have to learn Quran (and other materials that could help them understand and follow Islam).

Regarding reciting and memorising Quran: You have to understand that Quran (Arabic text) is unaltered words of Allah. Quran is different than earlier messages of Allah because in Quran Allah messages are in the form of ‘first person narratives’, whereas earlier messages were in the form of ‘second person narratives’ where second persons were Prophet (AS) or ‘third person narratives’ where third persons were disciples of Prophet (AS).

[Unfortunately, when it comes to religion, many people even rely on worse corrupt religious knowledge (considering such information 'Devine'), where we find fourth, fifth and even much later person’s narratives ... where information is coming from person who heard the narratives with many persons in between him/her and actual narrator (Prophets of God).]

Words, Ayahs and Phrases in Quran do not only have its own merit and mystic powers (bestowed by Allah), but when recited, it has special pleasing effects on everything around where sound reaches. Language of Quran is unique. Quran has an unknown property, and that is nothing to do with meaning of verses alone but it is to do with verses itself recited in God’s word. It is believed that in its Arabic form, individual ayahs have its own powers (bestowed by Allah) to heal as well as effect worldly events.

You may think what I mentioned above is superstition but it is not me or feelings/experiences of pious Muslims over generations, rather even Quraish of Mecca [non-Muslim anti Prophet (SAW) crowd] during the time of Prophet (SAW) use to feel the same, such that they even started stopping people listen to Quran claiming that verses in Quran are actually verses of magic that can convert people to Islam (check historical writings on the subject to confirm). Even today, many people use ayahs and/or surahs of Quran (in Arabic) for healings, and other gains. We believe that Hz Yunus (AS) in ‘belly of fish’ kept reciting one ayah of Quran (we call it Ayat-e-Karima) resulting in fish delivering him on land out of belly.

Note: One proof that Arabic verses of Quran (God’s words) have mystical properties is that ... You read or listen to any verse (or surah) from Quran carefully with concentration number of times over days without even understanding or intending to memorise them, still you will find after sometime that you have memorised them word by word. On the other hand, if you do the same with its translation, you will notice that you may be able to recall what is said, but unlikely that you would be able to recite them word by word.