Researching other religions

[ameerkam]

Is it permissible to look up other religions and such on the internet?

[Supernova]

Does your service provider allow it?

Who is your service provider?

I suggest looking at the terms and conditions of your contract.

[ameerkam]

Does your service provider allow it?

Who is your service provider?

I suggest looking at the terms and conditions of your contract.

I see you really enjoy bullying others. You must feel better about yourself for doing it, right?

[Supernova]

I fail to see how asking a question qualified as bullying - After all, you asked a question, didn't you?

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[ameerkam]

I fail to see how asking a question qualified as bullying - After all, you asked a question, didn't you?

Well you didn’t really answer the question you were just making fun of me.

[Supernova]

I asked you about your service provider Etc - How does that qualify as "Bullying" ....which has transformed to "Making fun of"

Whilst we on this, is my question going to morph into any other forms other than "Bullying" and "making fun of"

So, your service provider...

[ameerkam]

I asked you about your service provider Etc - How does that qualify as "Bullying" ....which has transformed to "Making fun of"

Whilst we on this, is my question going to morph into any other forms other than "Bullying" and "making fun of"

So, your service provider...

Wow so you’re just denying things.

[Supernova]

Denial ? I dont recall denying anything.

[Ahmed.]

Does your service provider allow it?

Who is your service provider?

I suggest looking at the terms and conditions of your contract.

LOL!!! :Emoji46:

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry OP I didn't mean to make fun of you but couldn't resist a laugh at that joke.

It's not good for Muslims to look up other religions as we might get influenced by their falsehoods and there's no point in filling ourselves up with that 'junk'

[Physicist]

Before embracing Islam I've been looking into other religions. It actually made me more firm in my choice.
Some born muslim are even going for PhD in "Comparative religion" subject.

Nothing wrong with that.
Only...
It may happen, that if before you had primitive understanding of something in Islam and later, while exploring other religion, you've got the same concept told by other words and get better understanding, this may sow doubts.

Therefore, it should be exactly "Comparative religion", you should keep refreshing your knowledge in Islam and compare your findings.

[Insaanah]

:sl:
Permissibility is one aspect, but is there a real need?
If you live in a Muslim country and there's not much interaction with non Muslims that you might need it for, I would spend that time trying to increase knowledge on aspects of Islam.
If you do engage with non Muslims, and there is a need because of something they've said, you can either tell them what you believe and why, and leave it at that, or you can look at works of Muslims who call to islam (daees) who've already summarised the non Muslims beliefs and use their materials as the work is all done for you, however you can get drawn into debates which take time, and you find yourself trying to answer points.
Remember some of the work is done for us in the Qur'an, eg Christians believing isa alayhissalaam is God and son of God, and the trinity, the worship of Mariam alaihassalaam by some sects, taking intermediaries with Allah by others, Idol worship with which still happens today etc.
And Allah knows best.

['Abd-al Latif]

Your remark is quite sarcastic and sounds more like a putdown hence it looks like you're bullying him/her for asking a question.

[Ümit]

Is it permissible to look up other religions and such on the internet?

Permissible, yes. you are free to look up anything you are interested in. We muslims, have nothing to hide...we are not afraid of the truth, so by researching and comparing other religions with Islaam should only uncover the flaws in those religions.

However, whether it is advised to do that kind of research is a different story. that is dependant totally to the individual.
By looking up other religions, you will be exposed to cunningly disguised lies, to flaws, to skilled sweet talkers who try to convince you...and other such danger.
So if you are an individual who is easiliy convinced, if your Imaan is not strong enough to resist those lies, if you lack the skills to evaluate the evidences objectively, then the advice is to stay away from it and be safe.

For other people: go on and investigate. wverything you discover will make your imaan stronger and you will get a step closer to the truth. the puzzle pieces will fall on their place.

[ameerkam]

Permissible, yes. you are free to look up anything you are interested in. We muslims, have nothing to hide...we are not afraid of the truth, so by researching and comparing other religions with Islaam should only uncover the flaws in those religions.

However, whether it is advised to do that kind of research is a different story. that is dependant totally to the individual.
By looking up other religions, you will be exposed to cunningly disguised lies, to flaws, to skilled sweet talkers who try to convince you...and other such danger.
So if you are an individual who is easiliy convinced, if your Imaan is not strong enough to resist those lies, if you lack the skills to evaluate the evidences objectively, then the advice is to stay away from it and be safe.

For other people: go on and investigate. wverything you discover will make your imaan stronger and you will get a step closer to the truth. the puzzle pieces will fall on their place.

Ok. Do you have evidence to prove this? (Just making sure, brother)

[Ümit]

Ok. Do you have evidence to prove this? (Just making sure, brother)

First, Islaam is usually ALWAYS pro investigation. It is our duty as muslims to go and find the truth, to investigate, to explore, to learn and to develop. on all subjects, whether it is in nature, science in general, astronomy, archeology or religion doesn't matter.
So, from that we can say, we should all investigate everything...question the authority when needed...evaluate the evidences, etc.

second, when searched around on the internet you will quite often be referred to this hadeeth:

Imams Ahmad and Ad-Darimi narrated that Umar Ibn al-Khattab brought to Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) a copy of the Torah and said: "Allah's Messenger, this is a copy of the Torah. He (Allah's Messenger) kept quiet and he (Umar) began to read it. The (colour) of the face of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) underwent a change, whereupon AbuBakr said: Would that your mother mourn you, don't you see the face of Allah's Messenger? Umar saw the face of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) and said: I seek refuge with Allah from the wrath of Allah and the wrath of His Messenger. We are well pleased with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muhammad as Prophet. Whereupon Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said: By Him in Whose hand is the life of Muhammad, even if Moses were to appear before you and you were to follow him, leaving me aside, you would certainly stray into error; for if (Moses) were alive (now), and he found my prophetical ministry, he would have definitely followed me".
Imam Ibn Taymiyah said: 'It is not permissible to rely on what the People of the Book narrate or to trust those who narrate from them. This is a consensus of all Muslims. Because the Prophet said: "When the People of the Book tell you something neither accept what they say as a fact nor deny completely as they might tell you something true and you deny it and they might tell you something wrong and you accept it".

the problem however with this hadeeth is that at that time Islaam was very fresh...Islaam and the Quraan was not fully rooted in the hearts of the people yet...there were still too many people around born as a non-muslim with old habits and who converted to islaam later on. So, the danger of reading the Bible or Thorah and then falling back into old habits were too great.

For a similar reason was the recording hadeeth also forbidden at first. The danger of accidentally confusing hadeeth with Quraan verses were far too great because the Quraan was not fully rooted into muslims hearts yet. Later on, the recording of the hadeeth were permitted.

So, yes, you will find hadeeth which seems to forbid to read the other holy books. But by examining the context of it, this applies only to that period of time where Islaam was very fresh.
And like I said, If your Imaan is not strong enough, or you are reading it with the wrong intentions ( maybe because your crush is of that religion, and you want to convert potentially if it sounds attractive for you)...then don't read it.

If you are just interested in the differences, and to give an adequate answer to cunning questions of non-muslims and to point out their flaws...then there shouldn't be a reason to forbid you to investigate it.

I cannot find another hadeeth which forbids to investigate other religions.

[Insaanah]

See the following:
https://islamqa.info/en/answers/2090...ative-religion
https://islamqa.org/hanafi/askimam/660
https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/149765/
And Allah knows best.