Explaining the non muslim The importance of Aqeedah

Four revelations of Allah (swt) are mentioned by name in the Qur’an: the Taurah, the Zaboor, the Injeel and the Qur’an.

Taurah, the revelation i.e. the Wahi given to Moosa (a. s.) i.e. Moses (pbuh).
Zaboor, the revelation i.e. the Wahi given to Dawood (a.s.) i.e. David (pbuh).
Injeel, the revelation i.e. the Wahi given to Isa (A.S.) ie. Jesus (pbuh).
‘Al-Qur’an’, the last and final Wahi i.e. revelation given to the last and final Messenger Muhammad (pbuh).

It is an article of faith for every Muslim to believe in all the Prophets of God and all revelations of God. However, the present day Bible has the first five books of the Old Testament attributed to Moses and the Psalms attributed to David. Moreover the New Testament or the four Gospels of the New Testament are not the Taurah, the Zaboor or the Injeel, which the Qur’an refers to. These books of the present day Bible may partly contain the word of God but these books are certainly not the exact, accurate and complete revelations given to the prophets.

The Qur’an presents all the different prophets of Allah as belonging to one single brotherhood; all had a similar prophetic mission and the same basic message. Because of this, the fundamental teachings of the major faiths cannot be contradictory, even if there has been a considerable passage of time between the different prophetic
missions, because the source of these missions was one: Almighty God, Allah. This is why the Qur’an says that the differences which exist between various religions are not the responsibility of the prophets, but of the followers of these prophets who forgot part of what they had been taught, and furthermore, misinterpreted and changed the
scriptures. The Qur’an cannot therefore be seen as a scripture which competes with the teachings of Moses, Jesus and the other prophets. On the contrary, it confirms, completes and perfects the messages that they brought to their people.

Another name for the Qur’an is the ‘The Furqan’ which means the criteria to judge the right from the wrong, and it is on the basis of the Qur’an that we can decipher which part of the previous scriptures can be considered to be the word of God.

format_quote Originally Posted by syilla

how should we answer the non muslim when they ask us why we are so careful in taking care of our aqeedah?

The non-muslim said as if we don't trust ourselves in knowing what is right and what is wrong... (well...i usually answer yes. i don't trust myself :hehe: )

Thank you in advance.

wassallam

Being a non Muslim perhapse I can help. What exactly do you mean though?

format_quote Originally Posted by syilla

For example like the yoga issue.

The muslims are not encouraged to perform yoga...because it is important for the muslims to take of our aqeedah.

But sometimes non-muslims does not really understand why the muslims are really into avoiding the shirk stuffs. And it is hard to explain it to them.

Hope that make sense . Good luck to you...

ohhhhhh.

Now I understand what you are getting at. I suppose it's that in the West it's, as Shabbir Akhtar said, "rhetorically religious but operationally secular". I mean it's really just atheism but superficially religious. So when people actually take their religion seriously, not just from a cultural point of view, but really believe it, it's difficult to understand.

I really respect that about Muslims btw.