I have no idea. All I know is that she is the most respectable Muslim I've met in person and the one who got me interested in Islam! She prayed her 5 times a day, was modest, etc, etc. I was very saddened to learn that they suffered so much in Pakistan due to them not being considered real Muslims!
There are plenty of fossils that shows the existence pre historic animals like Dinosaurs. However they have never been mentioned either in the Holy Quran or in Hadis. They fact that they lived for millions of years before anyone of us were here and not being mentioned in Quran is hard to accept f...
well, FYI.. there is a village in saudi arabia where people do not believe in Cars and Airplanes.. they said they are no mentioned in the quran no hadith.. !!!!
Islam asks us to use our mind and be smart.. And if something is not mentioned in Quran or Hadith that does not mean it does not exist. Maybe god did not mention it for a reason..
@HaLaBi Islam asks us to submit, not necessarily to understand. That's why bedouins to scholars can follow it; you choose your intellectual level of understanding.
@Gigili Oh I was referring to religions as a whole. That's not really exclusive to Islam. It comes up a lot in Christanity too. i.e. not believing the Bible because "well, Earth is not 5000 years old." etc. i.e. scientific incorrectness = I am not believing in this because this part is wrong!
@ashes999 Not all Muslims agrees on that.. for example, Asha'ariya (Alazhar in egypt) Do use thinking in cases that are not clearly mentioned in quran.. Whie "Salaf" (like saudi arabia) in the other hand having the same idea as you.
> I need a conviction, Should I believe in Dinosaurs or not. Obviously I am in the gray area, that's why this question. And I dont want to be in the gray area. – The crocodile hunter 1 min ago
@Swati - getting back to your friend, not every Qadiyani person fervently believes with conviction in the ideas of Ghulam Ahmad Qadiyani. She may just be another person with a sincere intention but happens to be associated (due to birth, for example) with that sect.
Still though, matters of belief are very important in Islam and purity of belief is something we don't take lightly. If something goes against the central tenets of Islam, the scholars examine it and declare it to be either an innovation or outside Islam.
In this case, the consensus was that this was outside Islam
@Ansari I still find it sad that Ahmadiyya is not considered mainstream. Mostly because, well, short of the internets, all the intelligble Muslims who've actually read the Quran (that I've met) are all Ahmadiyya or some persecuted variety.
You can find it sad :) but this is something that we can't change. Deviance in belief is deviance in belief. I have no doubt the people you met are upstanding people, but that doesn't necessarily bestow correctness on them. Correctness comes from strength of argument.
@Swati > Ahmadiyya shares beliefs with Islam in general and Sunni Islam in particular, including belief in the prophethood of Muhammad as the last law-bearing Prophet, reverence for historical prophets, and belief in the oneness of God (tawhid).
Qadiyanis admit on paper that the Prophet Muhammad (saws) is the last prophet, but then they change around the definitions of last prophet and stuff and then the essence of their claim becomes that Ghulam Ahmad was another prophet
I'd rather try to find her phone number on the internet and just ask her :(
I very clearly remember her saying that he wasn't the last prophet - to the point that I looked up the Quran to confirm that Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet - so that question was prety important for me
Now I am just royally confused
@Ansari I can' believe you have a dissertation on it though.
@Gigili It is a good book, You may read the whole thing in 25 different languages here: nur.gen.tr For example, this is a good part I think: nur.gen.tr/en.html/…
@Swati - these issues of belief, especially these ones, are quite intricate. For example, I can say that I believe Muhammad (saws) was the last prophet. Then I come out and say X, Y, and Z. But then Muslims believe that X, Y, and Z are only given to Prophets! Then I change the definition of a prophet to be something else, and I interpret the word "seal" differently and then I claim a bunch of other things, and so on
so it needs some care and background knowledge to understand what's going on
Then I might blur the line between a Mahdi and a prophet
and claim to be one or the other or both at different times
I get what you are saying, @Ansari. But ultimately, your views ought to be shaped the way they are because you are not Ahmadi. I really, really want some intellectual Ahmadi to come and defend his claim or explain why he believes in what he believes when there seems to be so much evidence against it.
I mean, it can't be that all the scholarly folks are Sunni and naive/gullible ones are Ahmadi. So I am basically hoping for an Ahmadi Ansari somewhere with a dissertation ;)
if there was any truth to his claim, he wouldn't be reviled today like he is and his message would attract success. today nobody becomes qadiyani, they are born into it.
@Gigili perhaps because you understand the social context of revelation and believe in Islam. To non-Muslims, especially in the west, they think "African-American slavery, Islam must be backward"
@Swati the three "divine religions" (christianity, judaism, and Islam) all talk about freeing slaves. That sounds like a good reason to mention slavery in religion to me!
Obviously, their commonalities are due to the same divine source (God) behind all three.
@Gigili we must judge people fairly based on their actions, regardless of what we think or suspect. This is how rasulullah dealt with the munafiqeen as well; we would do well to take that point to heart on the site.
@Gigili I agree. I'm just reminding you. I too have my suspicions about certain trolls; but I cannot mindlessly down-vote them. I must accept what they say on a case by case basis and up-vote if they deserve it, and down-vote if they deserve it.
We should probably not get into the practice of asking questions that we think other people would ask. Much easier (and cleaner) to just wait for people to ask them legitimately.
Especially when we get into muslim-trying-to-think-like-a-non-muslim territory.
@goldPseudo, in my environment, Most people are non-Muslim.. plus I have close relatives who are not muslims.. thats why I ask some questions from the point of view of a non-muslim because I have been asked these questions before..
i generally consider it a disservice since we want to attract new users to the site (come public beta, at least). if all their questions have already been asked, there's less reason for them to stick around.
Whatever elevator pitch we have, we need to emphasise the strength of the SE model. Namely the ability to attract a variety of opinions and interpretations rather than being tied to a particular scholar/school.
There are already myriad other sites which do the one question one answer model.
neither am I , I am kind of feeding of of you guys
Swati suggested this one (A non-biased site where I can ask questions and receive information on Islam backed by references to scripture. There is no proselytizing and nearly any scholarly question about Islam is welcome. )
The "backed by references to scripture" issue has been brought up time and again. It shouldn't be in our pitch unless the community has come to a consensus on the issue.
Since no one has asked yet, permit me to be the first.
What do you think should be the elevator pitch for islam.SE?
More about what an elevator pitch is:
Imagine you’ve just gotten on an elevator with a friendly stranger.
You have precisely one floor to describe your community to them. Wh...
How does this sound ( A non-biased site where I can ask questions and receive information on Islam. There is no proselytizing and scholarly question about Islam is welcome. )
I am looking at the 7 essential questions of every meta blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/07/… I am thinking maybe we can settle each question here and than post them on the meta with the answers.
they're moderators for Stack Exchange (or at least the betas) as a whole.
we want moderators from our own community. the SE mods aren't muslim (that i know of) and aren't really ideal for decreeing what is or is not appropriate for an islamic Q&A.
the process, as far as i know, is the SE Mods will appoint some temporary moderators from the community when they know us well enough to make a reasonable decision. Then we'll hold elections where we nominate people from the community, and vote on them.
In keeping with the calligraphy theme, I would lean towards making things look resemble a book; white to yellow "paper" color for the background, with fancy colorful calligraphy-borders.
Similar to what you'd find in a decent quality Qur'an.
I am not an expert on the subject, and it is believed here that not everyone can do it, but it is about every arabic letters having a value, and arabic words for Allah crescent (Hilal) and Tulip (lale) have same value.
Since no one has asked yet, permit me to be the first.
What do you think should be the elevator pitch for islam.SE?
More about what an elevator pitch is:
Imagine you’ve just gotten on an elevator with a friendly stranger.
You have precisely one floor to describe your community to them. Wh...
Jaami'at StackExchange al-Islamyya
Jaami'at StackExchange al-Islamyya