One Day At a Time

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Dost: I am well and you sir?

Regarding religious masters. My point was that All religious masters (even sai baba) form their own school of thought. They say that there are as many paths as ther are souls. Religious masters through trial and error find their own path.

All religious masters at one time in their lives begin questioning all they know and then tend to start from scratch and build a new philosophy which better suits their internal system. (note: I am not commenting on how correct they are, im just observing what they do).

This can be compared to their followers who at no time in their lives ever question anything. That is the great paradox.

Sai baba is a charletan in my opinion. There is no such idea in hindusim that shiva has any incarnations and he most certainly has not brought peace to the world unlike the legends surrounding the christ or kalki avatar. That being said, I believe in message and not messenger. Who he is is irrelevent. He does indeed make some very good points in his writings.

drumz:
How`re you doing my friend?
``interestingly, ALL Religious leaders have been free thinkers.``
You are too generous. Why not call them for what they were - tricksters and/or hallucinators. Don`t forget that we have a contemporary model in Sai Baba who has convinced more people -highly educated and ``enlightened``- of his divinity than any of the prophets ever did in his lifetime. Would you call him a free thinker?

Hi T:
Ramzaan and zakat are the two aspects of islam which are admired even by kafirs like me. It`s a wonderful concept and was even more wonderful when it was completely voluntary. As for how the dates are to be determined, this is a minor issue and, though not religious, I do believe in traditions and rituals which add a bit of colour to our lives. What I find more amusing is the attempt to turn ramzan into ramadhan, namaz into salat, khuda hafiz into allah hafiz and changing everything into arabic including people`s names.

Ramzaan Mubaarak
(er. sorry!) Ramadhan Marhabba

....... ramadhan (or ramzan, as they used to call it in the good old days) has now been made compulsory for all muslims and non-muslims in saudi arabia .......... that, in itself, wouldn`t be a problem but, under the rules of reciprocity, all hindoos in qatar have to be circumcised and in michigan all muslims have to buy their kids presents and the imams of local masajids have to dress up in a red suit and ride a reindeer on christmas day..........

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=52719&d=11&m=10&y=2004&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

........... there is no end to the idiocy of the ummah !

INTROSPECTION:

PEOPLE: ALL people have a belief system. It is influenced by perhaps their genes, and likely their environment. Nature and Nurture combine to shape ones beliefs.

RELIGION: IS a large system containing a set of agreed upon ideas based upon Revelation or the Path of a particular person(s).

The system of a person is almost NEVER inherently in agreeance with a religion or political ideology. The person here tends to suppress their internal belief system. In areas where it contradicts the beliefs of their adopted faith, the faith will win out.

MODERATE RELIGIOUS FOLK: KNow that they disagree with some of the rules of their religious system but are not courageous enough to embrace and admit this discrepency. They know muhammed didnt fly on a magic horse or that men can beat women etc. But they wont admit it.

FUNDAMENTALISTS: Completely shut down their internal systems (as opposed to moderates who reppress it) and let mommy and daddy think for them.

Free Thinkers: Think for their own selves. (interestingly, ALL Religious leaders have been free thinkers.

Hamidm: Reminds me of rumi: ``for years I knocked on the door, when it opened I realised i was knocking from within.`` There is no need to wait in the cave, you hamidm are the one true god. Anyone who disagrees shall be asked to produce a post similar to yours.

Anyways how are the children? I hope we didnt forget the Arrangement (no pun intended).

Temporal

Good article. Display of religiosity is a disease more common in we Pakistanis than others. People not fasting hesitate or even can tell a lie that they are fasting.

Everyone is welcome to follow his belief. But it is not right to give an impression that you are doing a big favour to the entire mankind. The office working timings are reduced even when in an air-conditioned cozy environment. The workers move about as if they are on a devine mission. The most inefficient worker tends to become the most religious to derive the sympathy/compassion factor. In other societies, people leave their God at home.

Off course, the people eat more and high quality food in Ramzan. They put on weight and prices of commodities go sky high.

Many years back, the restaurants used to be open with shutters down. Now there is no food available in the afternoon for any traveller/visiter.

Farzana. Good Ilog by you on this subject. And Hamidm2 - great with your high quality satire.

Arn`t we carrying this show of religiosity a bit too far?

NHK

…i read Progressive Muslims challenge tradition by LESLIE SCRIVENER-FAITH AND ETHICS REPORTER of the star…this was the main story on page 1 of the weekend edition…am not aware of this group…it would be interesting to find out who finances it…

malik99,

....sorry......... in future i will post my comments only if invited by those who yearn for truth and freedom (to quote w) ............ so please send in your request and i will do my best to comply

hamidm writes ``happy flatulence !``

hamidm sahib, after having read your interacts for the last few months, I can say for sure that your flatulence problems exist regardless of whether you are fasting or not. As soon as i click on an article to read, I can tell from the stink that you had just deposited your post there. It is as if ``hamidm was here`` is written all over it.

Cat Ji #23

I will build on what samankhan, a good Muslim and a good person, wrote: ``we need to be good human beings first and foremost. The reason why we Muslims fare badly is because there is a zameen aasman ka farq in our words and deeds.``

There is a zameen aasman ka farq in the words and deeds of all of us, no matter what religion we may follow. Why then does this problem bedevil Muslims so much more acutely?

Look at the examples:

Muslims claim that their religion is the `religion of peace.` Yet Islam`s history has been and continues to be full of indescriable violence (naturally, Muslims see it as the non Muslims` fault).

Muslims claim that there is no clergy in Islam. But Muslim lives and Muslim societies are the most hopelessly gagged in fatwas and firmans. People are supposed to decide things for themselves, but read the thousands of such cornucopias of questions and answers, and if you are a person of any self respect, you will have tears in your eyes:

http://www.pakistanlink.com/religion.html


I could go on, about the position of women, treatment of minorities, attitude toward knowledge, free inquiry, in fact, almost any of the life`s myrial facets.

Why is this so? I refuse to buy that every child born in a Muslim household is genetically inferior, or genetically wired to grow into a bigger hypocracrite than the children born to the rest of mankind.

The answer lies in the deeper structures and mandates of Islam itself. Don`t get me wrong. No religion is perfect. But other religions have a certain capacity to recognize their problems and reform themselves.

Leave the Mullahs alone for God sakes. Take responsibility for your own moral and religious bankruptcy, negligence, and malaise. If you consider yourself so upright then you don`t need Mullah and if you feel inedequate in yourself then shouldn`t you be reforming your own self first before you try to reform him.

My knowledge is limited, so i cannot be termed any authority on Islam. But i think that the one thing that Islam has emphasized over EVERYTHING else and what really differentiates it from EVERY Other Religion or concept out there is the DIRECT Communion with GOD. There are NO Intermediaries between man & God, and this is only present in Islam. Christianity has their priests without whom you cannot attain Heaven, Hindus have Pundits, Jews their own. Only ISLAM emphasizes that direct communion in that God asks man to pray directly to him and not through anyone else.

There is no concept of CLERGY in Islam. You can ask others of course, when you have problems, but again, not required on their own. Islam is the only religion that expects its followers to understand the religion and the concept fully on their own.

This is something that we all have forgotten. Who says what the Mullahs says is right. I don`t see any `Endorsed by God` stickers on any one of them or or anything they say. Most of them are just normal men like ourselves. Yet, many make them the Supreme Authority on EVERYTHING. Half of our country`s troubles can be resolved if you do what Attaturk did. Take them on a boat and drown them.

Comments Welcomed.

drumz,

...... good to see you are still around ....... you are right - i am the most religious muslim on this site ....... during the month of ramadhan i retire to a cave and wait for the archangel to put in an apearance - unfortunately, my fortieth birthday was rather uneventful and that is when i decided to put in a wireless network in the cave ............. i am giving it another ten years before i quit on my mission to reform islam ...........

...... happy flatulence !

t,
Ramzan Mubarak!
I feel the month of Ramazan was meant as a month in training for God, with his profound wisdom, was aware of our weakness to divert ourselves from the desired path. Hence, He must have made it compulsory each year, year after year! If only we carried forward atleast 1/8th of what we practiced in this one month!
I do agree: we need to be good human beings first and foremost. The reason why we Muslims fare badly is because there is a zameen aasman ka farq in our words and deeds. We simply do not practice what we preach. We just chadao our trousers and pyjamas till the taqnas and grow a beard or cover ourselves up in our burqa. These are the easiest of practices; if only we followed other religious teachings in our daily lives, we would ceratinly be not only good Muslims but good humans too.

As for the Ulema/Mullahs, being the learned few they were meant to enlighten the ignorant many. It no longer seems to be the case; rather, it shouldn`t be so now. With information at our finger tips and educational levels increasing, we should seek religion on our own. we should do our own learning, research and analysis. We could also do well to abide by the basics to begin with. Indepth knowledge will come on its own with conitiued reading and learning.

While on Ulemas, this is a point of digression, but nevertheless, allow me state my opinion.
So far I was under the impression that the Friday Qutbah was delivered in the native language. It came as a surprise to know that most, nay all ulemas continue with the tradition of delivering it in Arabic! No wonder, people are so disillusioned and wary of attending them! Why can`t we understand that the prophet delivered the Friday sermons in Arabic because it was the language spoken then? Wouldn`t it make more sense to deliver it in a language all followers congregating for the said prayers understand?
Wish the ulemas understand these simple facts.

Wish you have a good day too!