Arguments
April 17, 2009
Islam. You probably know it all, you are not even reading further, right ?
The thing Ive noticed, both among Muslims and Non muslims is that nine out of ten people are ‘very sure’ of and ‘thoroughly convinced’ of their religious standing. Not just the theists, the atheists and agnostics are also sure of their beliefs.
I dont say that being sure of your beliefs is a wrong thing. It is infact a great thing. Perhaps some psychiatrist will research on it and prove that it is great for your health, or maybe its already done. But, when your beliefs start countering the basic paradigms of logic, reasoning and common sense, then that gets very disturbing.
This post arose out of a debate with a non muslim acquaintance and it was only that I realized that people have Islam so messed up in their heads.
The debate over the ‘invention’ of Islam
Among the major religions of the world, Islam is the latest. or is it ?
Most non muslims and even some muslims believe that Islam started somehwere in the early seventh century. Nobody’s fault. Thats the way encyclopedias write it, thats what people are taught at schools.
For a while, let us forget about this discussion and look at something else :
Karl Marx is credited as the founder of communism. (Wikipedia). This effectively means that he invented communism and there wasnt anything like communism before him.
Budha found Buddhism. (Wikipedia). Once again this clearly means that before Gautam Budha, there was no such thing as Buddhism.
Coming back, let us define Islam: submission or total surrender of oneself to God. (Wikipedia).
Common sense informs us that there must have been hundreds of people who believed in one God before the Prophet. Historically, we know very little of the people before us, but even among these little bits and pieces of information, it can safely be said that monotheism wasnt entirely a new idea.
Technically, therefore, there is no way you can say that Mohammed pbuh could have invented or founded Islam.
Yes, Mohammed pbuh can be thought of as a reviver of Islam, thats all.
There are a lot more such issues about which Insha Allah, ill be writing in my coming posts.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: budha, christianity, islam, logic, muslim, muslims, non muslim, reasoning, religion, terrorism.
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1.
brooksrobinson | April 18, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I can’t disagree with much this entry has to offer. As it is true people believe in their idea’s and beliefs wholeheartedly, and it is true, some idea’s jumped on the scene brand new to humanity. However, it is important to note these idea’s were not totally unique. For example Buddhism, it borrowed various concepts from Hinduism.
Over all, a good post on the subject, but the one thing that did jump out at me was “Technically, therefore, there is no way you can say that Mohammed pbuh could have invented or founded Islam.” Which your basing this off of the fact that people before Muhammad submitted to God, which is the very meaning to Islam. Where I disagree is that Islam has always existed, but I’d say it approaches theology differently, and this is what Muhammad invented, if you will. Although the submission to God part is similar, there is more that encompasses Islam then just submitting to God. For instance, you have to accept Muhammad as his prophet, you have to follow the five pillars of faith, and there is many more theological differences between Islam and those who worshiped God prior to Islam. I think, like Buddhism and its relationship to Hinduism, its historically accurate to make the same comparison that Islam received much influence from other Monotheistic faiths. I of course, don’t expect you to take this view simply because of your theological dispositions.
2.
Omar Ahmed | May 30, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Before I begin, I m thankful for your comment and sorry for the late reply.
Firstly, regarding your question of existence of Islam.
Pythagoras discovered the Pythagoras theorem and had it named after himself, had someone else discovered it, it would have been named something else. The point i want to make is that the ‘content’ matters rather than the name. So you see Islam is just a name !
Regarding the theological differences:
We muslims believe that Mohammed’s (pbuh) Islam was introduced only because other religions were corrupted. Naturally , there will be differences between whats pure and whats corrupted.
Regarding Islam being influenced by other faiths:
Say you make butter out of some milk, the butter gets spoilt, so you make new butter, obviously the two butters will be similar, they come from the same source: milk.
I hope i have answered properly, n if you still have doubts, ill be around, n this time insha allah ill reply asap.
3.
brooksrobinson | May 31, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Well, I understand that Islam is just a name. However, the concepts in Islam in many cases were unseen before Muhammad. There are many attributes between Allah and God that are similar, but there are many attributes that just aren’t there. To convince someone that Islam has always been around, one must convince someone that the Allah/YHWH/God that Abraham, Moses, and the like worshiped has the same attributes. And I’m sorry but that just isn’t there.
4.
Omar Ahmed | June 1, 2009 at 7:01 pm
You assume the religion prior to Islam and Mohammed(pbuh) as some sort of a standard and you expect Islam to be accordance with it.
In doing so, you are assuming that the information about the religion of Abraham, Moses and Jesus is totally authentic and has been preserved for Millenia.
Such an assumption denies logic as most of the literature describing those times is disputed and is available in several variations.
On the contrary, the Quran remains the same as it was during Mohammed(pbuh) time. (This fact is not a religious assumption but proven as several copies of early Quran remain in the museums till day)
I hope this clears your doubt