Islam Corner

[Albatross]

I felt after reading few recent threads abuout Islam in general and its different sects that people here on PDF does like to discuss Islam.As these days we see phenomena like Islamists terrorists and Muslim affiliated terror news becoming more and more normal I see the need of creating a page where we can discuss the causes and remediation of such propaganda as I am very sure Islam in itself never preached such heinous crimes against humanity.


I don't want this thread to be ruined by shia's labeling salafist responsible for everything or someone else proving how shia's are not true muslim means its purpose is not just inflicting insults on each other as that would not get us anywhere.I want to discuss many things like why we need a religion at all ,the life cycle ,most importantly how Islam fulfills the needs of an Ideal religion and then why Islam is being maligned slowly but steadily and who these Islamists in for instance Mali, libya and yemen are with some research into their background and their agenda and support . As on the surface as it happened in afghanistan the acts of such groups in the long run benefit only capitalists in west and US.
Also blankly labeling jews and americans responsible for our miseries isnt the way out as well there has to be something wrong the way we perceive Islam and translate it in our daily life.

Besides we can write things from Quran and some other Islamic books and online speeches can be shared to let not only see the world the true face of Islam , I am sure many among us would be able to learn a few things.

This thread is made with a good purpose and heart without any malice and prejudice against anybody with the aim of learning and differentiating between what Islam says and what it doesn't and then discussing what can be done to offset the current propaganda against Islam and muslims.

This thread can go anywhere and it depends on us where we take this but I am hopeful it would give some positive outcome.

 

[Albatross]

I found this to support why we need a religion and here it is if something has a more better way of explaining please come forward.

We all search for peace in different things, but what gives us real peace? To answer this, let’s imagine that you are sitting on a quiet beach. A light breeze is gently blowing in your hair. The sun’s rays are warmly tickling your skin. You can hear the sound of water splashing around you. You can see an orange sun setting above you. Would you feel at peace? Most of us would say, “Yes, in fact, I would like to be there right now!” But what if the day before, you had been told that you have a brain tumour? Sitting on the beach, knowing that you may only have a few months left to live, would you still feel at peace? Somehow, this peaceful scene does not seem so peaceful anymore.

External peace is like a mirage. From a distance, it appears to give us peace. But when we look closely, we see that it isn’t the real thing. Sitting on the beach looked like an image of peace, but the knowledge of the brain tumour shattered our illusion. To explore this idea further, imagine your ideal house. Perhaps this house of luxury has ten bedrooms? Maybe there are fast cars parked in the driveway? There might even be a maid to look after the chores for you? Whilst picturing our dream house, we may be thinking, “Life would be so relaxing and peaceful there!” Yet there are people who live in this house, but dread the sound of their alarm clock every morning, because they can’t bear life. The closer we get to the dream house, the clearer it becomes that we are looking at a mirage.

Why do we know of people who have everything on the outside, but they feel that life is not worth waking up for? But if external peace is not enough, then what gives us real peace?

The answer according to Islam is simple; just like we have physical needs of things such as water, we also have spiritual needs. Fulfilling our spiritual needs will give us inner peace.

Those who have faith and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of God– truly it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace [Quran 13:28]

 

[Albatross]

 

[Albatross]

Is there a GOD?







There are many rational reasons for believing in God. This article will briefly explain three simple reasons for God’s existence.

Order in the Universe

When we reflect upon the nature of our world, we see order everywhere from the water cycle to the movement of the earth around the sun. Commenting on the order found in the universe, the physicist Stephen Hawking explains that the overwhelming impression ‘’is one of order, the more we discover about the universe, the more we find that it is governed by rational laws.’’[1]. This observation is shared by the vast majority of scientists.

Since the universe has order and is governed by the ‘laws of science’, we should question how this order came about. The most effective way to answer this question is to reason to the best conclusion. Take your mobile phone for example, your phone is made of glass, plastic and metal. Glass comes from sand, plastic comes from oil and metal is extracted from the ground. Imagine you were walking in a desert (where there is lots of oil, sand and metals in the ground), and you found a mobile phone lying around. Would you believe that it came together by itself? That the Sun shone, the wind blew, lightning struck, the oil bubbled to the surface and mixed with the sand and metal, and over millions of years the mobile came together by chance?

No one would believe such an explanation. A mobile phone is clearly something that was put together in an organised way, so it would be rational to believe that it must have an organiser. In the same way, when we see the order in the universe, isn’t it rational to say that the universe has an organiser?

This ‘organiser’ is best explained by the existence of God. God is the one who bought about the order in the universe.

Beginning of the Universe

If something has always existed it doesn’t need a creator. In the first part of the 20th century some physicists held the view that the universe had always existed. If the universe had always existed it wouldn’t need a creator.

However, according to Cosmology the universe had a beginning some 14 billion years ago with a cosmic event commonly known as the ‘Big Bang’ [2].

Imagine you heard a loud bang, and you asked ‘where did that sound come from?’ Would you be satisfied with the answer that it came from ‘nothing’ and it ‘just happened?’ Of course not. You would say ‘what was the cause of that loud bang?’ In the same way, rationally the ‘Big Bang’ must also have a cause that bought it about. Now we can ask since the ‘Big Bang’ has a cause, what was the cause of that cause? Then we can ask, what was the cause of that cause? And so on and so on. But this can’t go on forever and must end with a first cause, because of the following example:

Imagine a sniper who has just found his target and calls back to base to get permission to shoot. The person at the base tells the sniper to hold on while they seek permission from someone else higher up. So the guy higher up seeks permission from the guy even higher up and so on and so on. If this goes on forever, will the sniper ever get to shoot the target?

The obvious answer is that he wouldn’t be able to shoot. The only way the sniper can shoot is if someone gives permission without asking for anyone else’s permission. That person would be the first cause of the sniper shooting. In the same way, the Big Bang must have a first cause.

We can conclude that this first cause must be powerful as it bought the whole universe into existence, and it must be intelligent as it caused the ‘laws of science’ which govern the universe. Also, this first cause must be timeless, spaceless and immaterial, because time, space and matter began at the ‘Big Bang’. Finally, since it is uncaused it must have always existed.

All of these attributes of the first cause make up the basic concept of God. God is the uncreated first cause of the universe.

Human Nature

Throughout the history of the world, the majority of people have believed in God. There seems to be something built in the human mind that makes us want to believe.

Over the last decade some really startling facts have been found that show that children have an innate belief in God. Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford Centre for Anthropology and Mind, states “The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown that a lot more seems to be built into the natural development of children’s minds than we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose…” He adds that “If we threw a handful [of children] on an island and they raised themselves…they would believe in God”.[3]. To put it simply, his answer as to why anyone would believe in God is that, our minds are designed to do so [4]. Disbelief in God is something which is unnatural to the human being. Oxford University development psychologist Dr Olivera Petrovich, who is an expert in the Psychology of Religion states that, belief in God develops naturally and that ‘‘atheism is definitely an acquired position’’ [5].

So where did this natural belief in a creator come from? We can’t say it is taught by society as this belief is innate, and studies show that it is independent of societal pressures and is cross-cultural [6].

The best explanation for this belief is that God has put this into humanity.You have just read three independent reasons why it makes sense to believe in God. Belief in God is not only rational but it’s also part of human nature. There are many questions raised by the existence of God, such as why is there evil and suffering in the world? Doesn’t evolution disprove God? Do we have a purpose in life? For answers to these and other such questions please click on the other articles in this section.

References

[1] Antony Flew, There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind

[2] Derek Raine, An Introduction to Science of Cosmology (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

[3] Justin L. Barrett, Why Would Anyone Believe in God?

[4] http://www.cam.ox.ac.uk/publications-original/why-would-anyone-believe-in-god/

[5] Dr Olivera Petrovich, Childs Theory of World

[6] Justin L. Barrett, Jonathan A. Lanman, The Science of Religious Beliefs

 

[PakEagle]

 

[Kompromat]

Theological debates are restricted.