" Islam an Arab religion” Do you agree or disagree?

format_quote Originally Posted by Gossamer skye

'pan-Arabism' is actually a British grounded and endorsed constitution meant of course to divide and conquer.. something they have dominated and mastered for centuries to bring age old empires to shambles.

all the best!

Ah yes, conspiracy theories are abound; when people are goose stepping to Arab Islam its because they're practicing the pure Islam but when there are many varieties of Islam being practiced it is apparently the 'evil British' intervening in Muslim countries.

format_quote Originally Posted by GreyKode

Indeed youre right there have been several interpretations of Islam,
Particularly youre very fond of the mu'tazilite direction, throughout history people have tried to shape Islam in a way to suit their mindsets, but a true believer who searches for the true path will accept the method of the prophet muhammad(pbuh) and his companions, wethere arab or not they are to be followed in matters of religion.

Assuming that what Muhammad demanded was blind and illogical obedience regardless of whether it conflicts with rationalism and reason; whether one is willing to contextual and then extrapolate from that lessons that can be learned and values that are transcendent.

Personally for me, I don't see it as being a matter of being one as superior to another; or one being 'more correct' or otherwise you'll fall into the trap of Plato's Ghost which causes a confrontational ultimate truth rather than the possible existence of multiple truths emanating from a single source.

format_quote Originally Posted by GreyKode

Indeed youre right there have been several interpretations of Islam,
Particularly youre very fond of the mu'tazilite direction, throughout history people have tried to shape Islam in a way to suit their mindsets, but a true believer who searches for the true path will accept the method of the prophet muhammad(pbuh) and his companions, wethere arab or not they are to be followed in matters of religion.

You have a point but how can we, anyone know he or she is a 'true' believer as opposed to a false one? Here one could easily say that you have a mindset that tells you you are a true believer and that hardly seem rationally different to any other person. Being a true believer is not it seems to me a question of mindset but a question of what would constitute a minimum set of beliefs and one supposes that to be a Muslim its just the 5 pillars?

format_quote Originally Posted by Hugo

You have a point but how can we, anyone know he or she is a 'true' believer as opposed to a false one? Here one could easily say that you have a mindset that tells you you are a true believer and that hardly seem rationally different to any other person. Being a true believer is not it seems to me a question of mindset but a question of what would constitute a minimum set of beliefs and one supposes that to be a Muslim its just the 5 pillars?

You could ask the same thing about Christianity; there are Christians who claim that their interpretation is more 'correct' and 'authentic' than others. There is a common set of principles, as soon as you start moving up from the 5 pillars you're eventually going to start kicking a lot of people out of 'Islam' because they don't happen to sit with what you might consider Islam.

This is why there is sectarianism that is rife in the Ummah; it isn't the differences but the lack of respect for those differences that is causing friction. Until there is respect by all sides and agreement not to impose views via either political or violent means on another group of people, things won't improve.

format_quote Originally Posted by Danah

Arabs in Islam are the minority. Personally, I find it a blessing that Quran and Sunnah happened to be in one language, let alone Arabic. That was one of the most effective reasons (After the well of Allah) that lead to preserve the Quran for more than 1400 years in a way to make it preserved in one language to be the source and be translated to other languages. Much better than what we are seeing now in many "versions" of the bible where no two copies are identical, claiming that they are only differ in the use of words!!! due to the facts that it was written in more than one language at the early beginning.

In case of Quran there is no space for such thing, if you read any translation of Quran and have some doubts about some words and want to know the EXACT words just refer back to the original preserved copy of Quran which is in Arabic

Its only a blessing if you happen to be an Arab speaker and also acquainted with the way the words were used when they were written, they were not special words, they were everyday words. In practice if you have doubts about the meaning of a word in the Qu'ran ones goes to an Arab/English lexicon to find out its meaning such as Edward Lanes. One cannot simply go to the Qu'ran and instantly know exactly what a word means and any scholar worth his salt will have a lexicon.

There are 1,000 of different translation of the Bible in umpteen different languages but they don't just appear out of nowhere they are derived from the original Greek/Hebrew language or in some cases other translations and someone has decided to do it. The Bible overwhelmingly is written in either Hebrew or Greek so you are I feel exaggerating to make a point.

Of course translations differ in the words they use - what possible point are you making here? The Qu'ran borrowed words from many other languages because one presumes there were no Arabic words for some of the ideas that needed to be expressed so one could argue it was written in several languages.

Dear sister,you can use the words of the Prophet Muhammad SAUS form his last ceremon:
...........
,,All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.

Remember, one day you will appear before God and answer your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.''
........

Bismillah wa salatu wa salam ala Russul-Allah SAUS!

a, If i read verses from the quran in any langauge other then arabic it is not quran but translation.

the issue is that muslims believe that what is holy and from god is the arabic words that are the holy quran. it is devine from god. they can not be substitute into another langauge. you can comment about them and translate them but what is holy is the words from god (that is the arabic vesion) and reading it you get rewards.

therefore Islam is an Arab religion.

the Islam holy book is arabic,
you have to pray 5 times a day in arabic,
call to prayer 5 times aday in arabic,
turn towards mecca (arab country) ,
and go and visit there if you can afford it.

and yeah imitate the sunnah.. of the prophet and his friends. all a group of arab men.

format_quote Originally Posted by gmaall

a, If i read verses from the quran in any langauge other then arabic it is not quran but translation.

the issue is that muslims believe that what is holy and from god is the arabic words that are the holy quran. it is devine from god. they can not be substitute into another langauge. you can comment about them and translate them but what is holy is the words from god (that is the arabic vesion) and reading it you get rewards.

therefore Islam is an Arab religion.

the Islam holy book is arabic,
you have to pray 5 times a day in arabic,
call to prayer 5 times aday in arabic,
turn towards mecca (arab country) ,
and go and visit there if you can afford it.

and yeah imitate the sunnah.. of the prophet and his friends. all a group of arab men.

O,that's not all:the language in Paradise will be...... guess which one!
Yeah:arabic

do you know that among the Prophets there are more arabs:they were sent to their nations,(whatever languages they had),but the last one Muhammad SAUS was send to all mankind.And Allah SUT told us He will give the knowledge so Islam will spread with no language barriers,as you can see today.

Subhan-Allah!

format_quote Originally Posted by gmaall

a, If i read verses from the quran in any langauge other then arabic it is not quran but translation.



the issue is that muslims believe that what is holy and from god is the arabic words that are the holy quran. it is devine from god. they can not be substitute into another langauge. you can comment about them and translate them but what is holy is the words from god (that is the arabic vesion) and reading it you get rewards.

The style of the arabic in the Qur'an is miraculously unique and profound, I don't think that's the case for the bible(i.e. it is any different if in its original language), nevertheless the Jews do maintains that the OT is most unique in hebrew.



the Islam holy book is arabic,
The Qur'an was revealed in arabic, what's the problem with that?the bible was reveled in...Hebrew
you have to pray 5 times a day in arabic,
How many times do chrisitians pray? I know youre gonna answer me saying we can pray all day but that only compares to du'aa, and du'aa can be in any language.
call to prayer 5 times aday in arabic,
what is the call for prayer in chrisitianity like?
turn towards mecca (arab country) ,
and go and visit there if you can afford it.
Are you serious? Jesus(pbuh) was born in an arab country and christians do pilgrimage to that country therefore chrisitianity is only for arabs.


and yeah imitate the sunnah.. of the prophet and his friends. all a group of arab men.

What were the friends of Jesus(pbuh) like?

The simple answer to this argument is that christianity's history is not as documented as that of Islam, do you know how Jesus(pbuh) and his companions acted, fine details of their lives, I don't think so, although I could be wrong but anyways I think christians would be very fond of imitating Jesus(pbuh) and his companions.
Consider the Jews for example, they have a lot of things they do that can be considered the sunna of moses(pbuh) and his companions.

format_quote Originally Posted by muhaba

Why is english the international language? why is it that in airports, airlines, etc all over the world staff speak their native language as well as english? Why do ppl all over the world try to learn english as well as their native language? So that the world can have a common language to communicate in. The same is the case with arabic for the Muslims. It is the muslim international language. All muslims should try to learn arabic so they can understand Quran, hadith, & great islamic books for themselves! Although many books have been translated into other languages, still translation is usually not the same as the work in its original language.

I am not quite sure why it is the international language but it is. However, English borrows from everywhere and when a language does that it adds richness and subtlety which perhaps could not be obtained in any other way because it is not just the words that transfer but the idea behind them. If my memory serves me well I think this year the number of difference words in English reached over a million which is a staggering amount given that an educated person probably has a vocabulary of about 50,000.

In practice this means you can say or express just about anything in English that can be said at all. The Qu'ran in Arabic has 2,822 different words with 582 words covering 80% of what is said.

So it seems to me it is perfectly possible to provide an excellent translation into English and that goes for all the hadith and other Islamic books and if you go to Amazon you can find almost everything you need there (some are a bit pricey though) and for research you can use one of the many online libraries such as searchtruth.com and of course the same applies to the Bible.

Of course I agree that there is nothing like reading it in the original language but to do that you have to know what the words meant 14 centuries ago so just being able to speak and read Arabic is not sufficient and neither is it a practical possibility for the vast majority of people.

There is nothing special about Arabic or English they are just what we have after a long line of language development going back 5 or 6 thousand years - long before Abraham - the Sumarians it is said for example invented writing 15 centuries before Abraham.

My own view for what its worth is we need to hear God speaking to us through the scriptures and I am absolutely sure he is not limited to English or Arabic or Hebrew.