O Muslims - 33

 

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

57. Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo la tattakhithoo allatheena ittakhathoo deenakum huzuwan walaAAiban mina allatheena ootoo alkitaba min qablikum waalkuffara awliyaa waittaqoo Allaha in kuntum mu/mineena

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5:57. O you who believe! Do not consider persons – from among those who were given the Book before you and from among the suppressors of Truth – who take your religion for a mockery and fun, as your close friends. And fear Allah if you do believe.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 25^th of September 2020.

 

 

No Compulsion 1

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART II:

Chapter 109: Al-Kaafiroon (The Suppressors of Truth)

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

1. Qul ya ayyuha alkafiroona

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109:1. Say, “O you who suppress the Truth!”

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2. La aAAbudu ma taAAbudoona

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109:2. “I worship not that which you worship,”

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3. Wala antum AAabidoona ma aAAbudu

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109:3. “And you worship not Him Whom I worship,”

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4. Wala ana AAabidun ma AAabadtum

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109:4. “And I shall worship not that which you worship,”

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5. Wala antum AAabidoona ma aAAbudu

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109:5. “And you worship not Him Whom I worship.”

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6. Lakum deenukum waliya deeni

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109:6. “For you your way of life and for me, mine.”¹

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1. It was indeed a very fair offer to the kaafiroon. The Prophet preached to them the Islamic way of life. If they accepted it, well and good; and if they did not, well, there was no compulsion. It was left for Allah to deal with their disbelief.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the  10^th of May 2019

Why Islam

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

I have a parrot at home. I often find myself comparing her (it’s a she-parrot) life with mine.

She is caged. But does she ever worry about her loss of freedom or about her future? Obviously not! All day long, she chirps, mimics the humans around her, meticulously cleans her body feathers, eats & drinks and goes to sleep soundly when she has nothing else to do. And I don’t think she has ever worried about the inevitable death that should come to her one day, or about what would happen thereafter. Worrying about anything appears to be utterly foreign to her nature.

Her life and mine are poles apart in that respect! I worry about my future in this world, and about what would happen to me after death.

That, and a distinctively superior intellect, differentiates mankind from other creatures we find on this earth.

What is the significance of this difference?

Science fails to give a satisfactory answer.

And in an earlier post Why Do I Believe In Islam, I have explained why Islam gives a satisfactory answer.

The Creator of the Universe, and of everything therein including human beings, has from time to time appointed Messengers, from among humans themselves, to inform them of the Reality. HE has sent down divine Scriptures too with some of the Messengers for the purpose. Besides, the Creator has impressed upon every human soul, at birth itself, what the Reality is! The human being has just to search his own soul to find It!

It is this self-search, without references even from divine scriptures and depicted just with the bare aid of commonsense, that this booklet, Why …. Islam, projects.

I take the liberty of presenting the booklet again as a page of my website. Click here to get it free online.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 25^th of January 2019.

Purpose of Life

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Human life is short. No one knows when it will end.

What then is the purpose of such a life?

The atheists have no answer to that perennial question.

I therefore sought the answer in Religion. And Islam provided the best answer to me.

I have put down that answer in a poetic form in this booklet, with the same title as of this post. And I request readers to send me their feedback. 

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 11^th of January 2019.

Why Do I Believe In Islam

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

If we have a form to fill in, in which personal particulars are required to be given, we generally mention our religion to be the same as that to which our parents are supposed to belong. We do not give much thought to the question whether we really believe in that religion or not. It is as if we automatically inherit our religion from our parents as we inherit some of our physical features and mannerisms from them.

But religion, as a matter of fact, is not a thing to be inherited. It should strictly be a matter of our own individual consciences irrespective of the religious beliefs of our parents. Freedom is our birthright and freedom includes religious freedom. We cannot be the captives of the religious beliefs of our parents or guardians.

It was with these sentiments that I started my journey into my soul to probe whether it really believed in the declared religion of the family in which I was born and, if so, why. It was a long journey and not an easy one at that. On several occasions along the way I was beset with doubts and pitfalls. And it is only in these evening years of my life that I have been able to gather my thoughts on the subject and put them in this booklet.

Through this booklet I wish to share my thoughts with all those who would like to have such sentimental journeys into their own respective souls. They may not all agree with my beliefs. That is not my intention. My intention is to induce my readers to discover their own honestly felt faiths and beliefs and then to have the courage of conviction to act accordingly. One essential word of warning though. Freedom is of course our birthright, but it has its limits. We cannot have freedom to spread chaos, anarchy and corruption in this world.

One other motivating force inducing me to write this booklet came from my friends, non-Muslim ones particularly. Their impressions about Muslims and Islam were not good. Muslims were not fit to live or make friendship with, some of them had thought. “But you are different”, they used to tell me. I tried to explain to them the real position, but it was of no use. Occasionally given oral and impromptu explanations can hardly erase any deep-rooted misunderstandings. This booklet is my humble attempt to give a more detailed written explanation about the reality of Islam.

Above is the first Preface – written way back in 1999 – to the booklet Why Do I Believe In Islam. PDF version of the booklet is freely available at this link. I shall feel richly rewarded even if only a few among this vast human populace in this world are inclined to turn to genuine Islam by reading it.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 28^th of December 2018.

The Right Path

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir PART I:

77. Qul ya ahla alkitabi la taghloo fee deenikum ghayra alhaqqi wala tattabiAAoo ahwaa qawmin qad dalloo min qablu waadalloo katheeran wadalloo AAan sawa-i alssabeeli

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5:77. Say, "O people of the Book! Commit no unjust excesses in your religion (way of life) and follow not the vain desires of people who went astray before, and who led many astray and (themselves) went astray from the Right Path."³²

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32. At the time of revelation of the Qur'aan, this divine directive was addressed to the Jews and the Christians. But now, it is equally applicable to the Muslims. They too are the people of the Book and they too are committing unjust excesses in their religion, as do the Christians and the Jews. Through the ahaadeeth and through the "learned" books of the fuqaha they have unjustly made additions to and subtractions from their Religion, and have thus polluted the pristine purity, clarity and beauty of Qur'aanic Islam.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 2^nd of November 2018.