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01:50

Stack Exchange Islam Blog: Help Build Islam.SE

Al Ummat on September 17, 2013

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In The Name of Allah most Gracious most Merciful

Islam Stackexchange is a site, where it’s community members contribute to build it. And there are a number of ways that people can help building Islam Stackexchange, and that is by:

Asking great questions and giving great high quality answers

Up-voting the good quality questions and answers, and down-voting the bad

Promoting the site

Contributing on the meta site

The most important way mentioned above, and the most important step one can make to help build Islam.SE, is by contributing and getting active on the meta. Curr …

Jack Douglas

06:53

@DavidWallace sorry!

But do bear in mind that however little you (humbly) claim to know, it is infinitely more than me :)

@goldPseudo I read in Wikipedia that there is a 'heretical' sect, 'Al-Jabiriyah' that hold to Allah's total sovereignty, but that no mainstream branch of Islam does (at least not in such an extreme way). If you have a minute sometime I'd appreciate your opinion on whether the article is largely accurate.

It fascinates me that the same debate is played out in different branches/sects of Christianity as in Islam

David Wallace

@JackDouglas That is almost certainly untrue. In any case, I am scared that you will take my opinions as being gospel (haha), when I am not qualified to give them. Perhaps I should just be answering "Allah knows best" to all of your questions.

David Wallace

07:40

@JackDouglas Where my insight might be valuable, God willing, is if you had questions about converting to Islam, or about living as a Muslim in a western country. My understanding is that most of the people who come to this room have been Muslims their entire lives. I am the exception.

My background is not too different from yours - I am an IT professional in my 40s, living in an English-speaking country, where most people are either Christian or atheist. If you wanted to know my personal experiences of converting to Islam, I would be happy to share them with you, God willing.

But I am probably the wrong person for answering technical questions about how The Qur'an is to be interpreted.

Islam

@JackDouglas That can be a good question to ask on Islam main

@JackDouglas So have you finished reading Ale Imraan? I had also started reading that with you

David Wallace

I've just had a thought. @Islam - tell me if you think it's a good one, please.

What say we all agree a time to come here, and we'll go through a chosen Surah, one Ayah at a time, and discuss what it means. It could be a regular occurrence - once a week or something.

Islam

@DavidWallace Basically all inquisitive questions by non Muslims are very good questions

David Wallace

Depending on how much discussion goes on, we might only get through a small number of Ayat; so we should probably time-box it.

Islam

@DavidWallace Thats a great Idea if more people participate in it, we can have a separate room for that too

Also we can create a collaborative tafseer

David Wallace

07:52

Let's just use this room to start with, and see how it goes. We would want at least 5-6 people to be here, I think.

I'm off for Salah now - back in a little while.

Islam

@DavidWallace Remember me in your prayers

David Wallace

08:11

:-)

Jack Douglas

09:10

@Islam I've asked a related question, if it is well received I might follow up with a few more…

@DavidWallace :) I appreciate the conversations we've had, but none of us has perfect knowledge and one of the benefits of being allowed to chat in public like in here is that it gives others the opportunity to jump in and correct or expand on anything we might say…

…so I don't think you need to worry

David Wallace

No, I DO need to worry. Giving you incorrect answers would be a sin.

Jack Douglas

ah, OK

even if you genuinely believe what you are saying and are open to correction from those more knowledgeable than youself?

David Wallace

@JackDouglas It is better for me to say nothing, than to say something I am unsure of.

Jack Douglas

@DavidWallace OK, I'll leave that to your discretion ;)

David Wallace

On the other hand, I don't want to lose the opportunity to share this beautiful religion with you, and with others like you.

Jack Douglas

09:18

@Islam You confused me for a second then with the variation on the English spelling (I have: Surat 'Āli `Imrān)! Yes I finished it, but 'finished' hardly seems like an appropriate word.

@DavidWallace As you know, I am also keen to share my own gospel, but I don't make that my only reason for investigating or dialogue and I hope you won't think that: I wish to be more knowledgeable and you have sparked a genuine interest in your religion and scripture in me.

David Wallace

@JackDouglas I don't think "finished" will ever seem like an appropriate word, for any part of The Qur'an. One property of The Qur'an is that every time you read any part of it, you get more from it. Its wealth seems endless. I have never encountered any other piece of literature with this property.

I mean, there are plenty of books that you glean more from on a second or third reading. But for any part of The Qur'an, you can continue to get more on the eleventh or twelfth reading. And (so I'm told) even further than that.

It's part of the reason why I have no doubt that it was written by God Himself.

Jack Douglas

10:53

2 days ago, by Jack Douglas

@AlUmmat Perhaps a better example would be God lowering himself to abide among the Jews?

@AlUmmat I realise you may not wish to respond and I respect that, but in case you just missed my question the other day may I draw your attention to it now ^^^^

The question is whether God would choose to demean himself?

And my contention is that any intentional interaction with humans, who are far far below God in every way, is an example of God 'lowering' himself (in the sense that an adult might crouch down to talk to a child, but much greater)

Al Ummat

@JackDouglas no, God is God, and why would he demean Himself to be other then Himself?

Jack Douglas

I'm not asking you to defend your belief btw, just seeking to understand it.

Al Ummat

@JackDouglas Humans may be far far below Him, but He is also very very close to them, He answers the supplications we give

He does not need to lower Himself to interact with us

Jack Douglas

@AlUmmat Does the Qur'an say why a God so high would trouble himself to interact with such lowly beings?

(or is this a mystery?)

Islam

@JackDouglas God can do what befits his majesty , and Allah can certainly interact with people in a way that befits his majesty i.e through prophets..

He does not need to come down to talk to us

Al Ummat

11:01

no this is not a mystery. Firstly God interacts with us every day and night, He is the one who sustains us and lets us wake from our sleep, He is the one who guides us and the one who also chooses to let go astray, without any interaction, there would be no world, and we also would not exist, aswell as we would not know our purpose for why He created us

1 min ago, by Islam

@JackDouglas God can do what befits his majesty , and Allah can certainly interact with people in a way that befits his majesty i.e through prophets..

to add on: and through dreams, and signs He shows us in our daily lives

Islam

Infact he is nearer to us in his knowledge then our own viens

Jack Douglas

@AlUmmat OK, thanks. Am I right to assume however that Allah does not need humankind (nor the world), ie that Allah is 'self-sufficient'? Or is it that he desires 'company' in some sense of the word?

Al Ummat

@JackDouglas Yes you are right, He does not need us or the world

Jack Douglas

11:46

@Islam "By default all Muslims are in Islam": I'm not sure if this helps me understand anything, it sounds like circular reasoning. Perhaps you can elaborate to explain what you mean?

goldPseudo

15:08

@JackDouglas It seems accurate, but it's not an issue i've studied in any depth. There's definitely reports from the prophet claiming belief in qadar is one of the six pillars of faith, which makes it pretty much fundamental in Sunni Islam.

i don't know of any similar reports mandating belief in free will, but i think the existence of free will is fairly clear; it's the basic "Why would God judge us if we're not responsible for our own actions?" argument.

belief in the Day of Judgement being another one of the six pillars of faith.

Islam

15:54

@JackDouglas It means that whosoever claims to be a Muslim is under the folds of Islam unless he proves himself to be a disbeliever.

One can become a disbeliever by various ways like believing the Prophet pbuh is God, or leaving the obligatory 5 times prayers etc

@JackDouglas May I know what you understood from the Surah Ale Imran. Do you have anything to discuss over it? I am glad you read it. I too finished reading it.

goldPseudo

22:20

5

A: How often is Jesus quoted in the Quran?

Jesus(Peace Be Upon Him) is the second most quoted prophet in Al-Quran. The list of ayats where Isha(A.w) is quoted in Al-Quran is below 2:87 2:136 2:253 3:45 3:46 3:48 3:49 3:50 3:52 3:55 3:59 3:84 4:157 4:163 4:171 4:172 5:17 5:46 5:72 5:75 5:78 5:110 5:112 5:114 5:116 6:85 9:30 9:31 19:19 1...

The fact that this answer got 6 upvotes, and an Accept, despite not even answering the question, really makes me worry about the future of this site.

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