Wow. The few answers I have from our Muslim brothers?

Question

are either encouraging or discouraging. Encouraging because I am beginning to understand Islam a bit better. Discouraging because I realize it's not easy to understand Islam. Their Quran verses can easily be taken out of context. Their's more to it than just verses. You've got to have knowledge on the historical background at the time the verse was spoken and whom it particularly refers to. Unlike, in the new testament what was spoken by Jesus can almost be taken plain and simple. What is said is what you literally get.


The reason I brought this out is because from what I had this few questions and answers with our Muslim brothers it just struck on me the reasons some Muslims went astray and onto the extreme they may have been just like my style that out of ignorance they pick certain verse and viola they hold in their hand the religious conviction beyond the norms

Could it be the difficulty in understanding Quran the reasn behind the extremist religious conviction?

Answer 1

The Problem is Not every Muslim has Read The Holy Quran, if they would have had read, they wouldnt been so violent. Most of the extremists follow what their leaders say and dont bother too verify it with The Holy Quran. The extremist followers have gone blind and dont see The True Teachings of Islam, instead they follow what Muslim Clerics (extremist ones) tell them to do. Islam is suppose to be The Religion of Peace, Love, Harmony & Humanity, but 'coz of few Muslim Clerics, ppl are going into extremism. As the intention is concerned that only ALLAH (GOD) knows, but extremist seem to be like a misguided missile. Also, it should be noted, that its a Natural Human Behaviour, that if u did sthg 'wrong', to clear ur own consciousness of it, u'll try to justify that what u did was actually 'right', and thats why u see extremists quoting verses of The Holy Quran (which, if taken out of context, seems to support them), But alas they don't ponder on those Verses that clearly condemns their behaviour. As there is a verse that says :
"A Person who kills an innocent, it is as though, he has killed the whole of human-kind, and a Person who saves an innocent, it is as though, he has saved the whole of human-kind." (Well, Not the exact translation, But its there & the msg is quite clear)
Peace to All.

Answer 2

Dear brother,
I do agree with you, many verses CAN be interpreted differently and you need to dig in a lot to find out what they really mean, which is why Muslims have an entire section of religious science called "interpretation" it takes years to master it even if you are a Muslim and know Arabic very well!
Still there is something called, the general spirit of religion, not that that is very fixed either, it also changed slightly over the years. But I have to say that a total stranger to Christianity reading the bible doesn't understand much either! you may think it's clear because you have been taught HOW to read it.
It's not easy understanding all ancient books, have you ever tried reading an ancient non-religious book? not easier at all!
Anyway, some Muslims say it's a good point that it help with the flexibility of the religion so it would be suitable to all ages, eras and situations depending on how you look at it, because the facts change and the religion should be flexible enough to change with it. The problem is there are not enough Muslim scientists working on that so non-qualified people started to do it since there is a very urgent need for it. The old interpreters were great and well respected but they did interpret according to their world's context, you can't really blame them, but you can blame modern laziness of not doing the same!
So unless qualified Muslim scientists start re-interpreting according to the new world context and facts, the next man on the street will start preaching in the name of Islam, which is what we are seeing today.
at the end we should remember the very first verse in Qura'n: READ, many other versus that tell you to look around you and think for yourself, only you will be judged according to your own beliefs, the ones you formed with your own free will, so at the end of the day, just use your head! there are general rules and god gave you a brain along with the instructions! don't lose yourself to the details,(keep your answers to yourself though if your not qualified) and god will judge you according to the best of your abilities, not more.

Answer 3

Peace be upon you

If you wished to become a doctor, you would need to study the human body, the lymphatic system, nervous system, medicines, the effects medicines have on the body, how certain factors affect the body, etc, etc. You would need to study books, articles, etc. You would need to study under a teacher / professor.

In the same way if you want to have a complete understanding of Islam then you would have to study it in-depth or seek guidance from spiritual leaders, etc. You will have to read the quraan, read the tafseer (commentary on the Quraan), read books, ask questions if you do not understand, etc.

The pillars of Islam are 5.
1. Testify that there is no God but Allah.
2. Prayer.
3. Poor Due. (Compulsory Charity of 2.5% of your wealth)
4. Fasting for a specific month every year.
5. To perform Haj at least once in a lifetime.

Over and above that there are also other things that a Muslim needs to do: e.g. have a good character, eat lawful food, etc.

We follow the teachings and examples of our Prophet (Peace be upon him), and the teachings of The Noble Quraan.

If a person has difficulty in understanding a verse, he should ask a learned person in his community.

Answer 4

well, I don't think it is the difficulty in understanding Qur'an as we have many tafseers (those are books that compile the events and situations under which the verses have been revealed, and explain their meanings) I think the problem is with the fundamentalists who calim to be muslim is that the leaders of those groups are just trying to serve their own agendas and they are using verses from the Qur'an out of context to confuse and enlist those young people who are disappointed by the political and social injustice done to them and their socities by their own leaders and by the super powers of the world. I mean if you look at Osama Bin Laden's intentions and the reason he's all hyped up about fighting the Americans is because he wants them out of that area. This is a pure political agenda, only he is using the religion as a cover up to try to fulfill that. Also, there are other groups that are labeled by some of the world super powers as terrorists such as Hamas and Hizbollah, but those groups were formed as resistance groups also due to political opperssion and injustice. Therefore, I think that most funadamentalist movements serve a pure political purpose

Answer 5

I can tell you what the problem is.

There is no LEADERSHIP in the Islamic faith.

The Christians have a Pope who lays down the rules and tells people what is real Christianity and what is not. Protestants do their own thing but even they have their own leadership structures and dogma.

So why is Islam so chaotic? It's the leadership issue.

Do you want the west to impose leadership from outside (?) because if you don't then we damn well will if muslims carry on blowing us up in the name of what they call Islam.

Answer 6

The Qur'an do not teach hatred wars and killings.The extremism comes from the book of hadiths (Talmud) which are mostly the laws taken from Old Testament and New Testament and adopted as the mandatory part of faith.
There is plenty of people who are trying to change this by brininging Muslims back to Qur'an and understand its message out any outside source. The change will come gruadually with time but Bush kind of Christians have to change their oppressive policies of fighting "war on terror" with more open minded approach of handling the Israeal situation even handed.

Answer 7

My sentiments exactly..its is very easy to qoute the Quran out of context. *****Their's more to it than just verses. You've got to have knowledge on the historical background at the time the verse was spoken and whom it particularly refers to. ******

It is very disturbing that Muslims do this all the time!

The reason behhind extremist religious conviction is POLITICS. Who gets power and who controls resources, who gets to wield influence!

The people of the world should read/know of the conquest of Macca.
http://www.alazhr.org/islamichistory_u/Chapter2-3.asp
This is THE example of Jihad.

Answer 8

i do not call myself Sunni or Shia, i'm Muslim, i position self belief in a unmarried God, i trust that Mohammad PBUH replaced into the perfect Prophet, and that i trust in the Prophet's sayings (Hadith). and that i don't like it after we divide Islam into sects.

Answer 9

I'm mot Muslim but I think you have raised an excellent question here.

A good analogy would be those of us who are Christian and how we interpret the teachings of the Bible differently. One of the many reasons we have so many different denominations in the Christian faith.

Answer 10

i completely agree and the saying,'to see ourselves as others see us ' comes to mind. it's easy to get confused.
the main question i have is why has it got to be so complicated that it gets mis-interpreted. i know it's illegal to change something in the qur'an but surely in this modern day it could be re-written to reflect modern times, or will we still live in the 7th century?