i don't have time to go into this in details, but i want to alert to the fact how people can be manipulative and if we aren't careful, this may cause us to stray...
Im sure we are all very well aware of keen Christians members who are invading our boards thinking they are doing something good and trying to get some kind of head swelling.
Firstly i will say from now, Christians (and people of other faiths) who respect Islam and Muslims are NOT included in the following. Do not wrong people who haven't wronged you and give credit where credit is due. it should be noted and it is known that not all Christians/non-Muslims intend bad, and there are stories (and experienced first hand) of Christians/non-Muslims who respect Islam and Muslims, even to the extent on spending their wealth in our cause, may Allah guide and grant them the highest level of Jannah.
Rather what im referring to in this thread, is the tactics used by those who intent ill towards Islam and Muslims. The point im trying to raise, is to be knowledgeable and alert about The way they may go about this. This is not your average preaching/debate/discussion...this is something (disturbingly) more.
They will say, question and imply things in such ways that appeal to your natural senses and/or your personal logic such as (the all famous) love..also justice...and well basically anything that is logical and appealing to the human mind.
Another good example is some peoples argument that hell is injustice....or with women being oppressed by wearing their hijabs, etc or about stoning, or the execution of the apostate...or Warfare in Islam.
They say things in such away that is alluring and/or will make us think twice about what we believe in, without even realizing it. don't let people easily play with your mind like this. also, don't get on an emotional high when replying to these people either (another result of their tactics...and also they thrive on this).
Some people are sick like this. 8/10 times these types of people deep down actually know and acknowledge The Truth, however due to their arrogance and love for this dunya, they will refuse to believe. They know by stubbornly refusing the truth they are doomed and want to drag you down with them.
this is NOT inclusive to online btw. you will run into people like this offline as well. you need to be double careful here, because being in presence of someone is more affective than merely talking to them through a barrier.
We must be careful for we could be risking adding/subtracting to the deen without knowledge. we are ready to accept something from someone unknown to us, and yet are ready to disregard what from is known to us. does this make sense to you? is it logical? explain to me how it is.
Im not saying that we should be suspicious and question peoples hearts. leave that and concentrate on yourself, which brings me to my next point...
How to tackle this: knowledge knowledge knowledge of your deen. reason being becuase if someone comes along and you are trialled though them, it should make NO difference to you how or what they say becuase you would have the knowledge of what conforms to what Allah and his Rasool, sallahu aleyhi wa sallam approve of. So it makes no difference to you who is trying to incite away from your deen, becuase knowledge alone is sufficient enough to repel their evil and take no heed to what they say. "automatically" you are going to "weigh up" whatever is said to you...whatever conforms to the sunnah, you will find that you accept it and what doesn't, you will find that your reject it, inshallah.
So (this has nothing to do with the above example btw) if someone says something like: "I cant believe the one you worship doesn't love everyone ...the god i worship does "
[see, how they are trying to mess with your head by the way they are wording it and trying to make you feel stupid (which, in turn, will compel you and put doubts in your mind regarding your faith?)]
Then naturally, because of your knowledge you'd be "Ummm well yeah, that makes no sense because you haven't really done anything to earn it :><:"
As i said before, this is not about being suspicious (don't do that), but rather focusing on yourself inshallah is a good shield.
on the side: knowledge (especially in matters of Aqeedah and History) is also good to refute them.
At the end of day they're going to die and you're going to die and the only thing that matters is : Your Iman. that is what will save you, so don't let anyone take that from you. that's all it boils down to....your faith. as the hadith says: "who is your lord, who is your prophet and what is your deen." whose three questions is what life boils down to...what is you're answer going to be?
who cares what they say and how great they think they are...it makes no difference to us, inshaAllah.
"i respectfully disagree with this. the Muslim should be that if islam tells you something, you should submit to it no questions asked."
---and I respectfully disagree with you. If we blindly believe---we are no better than the Christians. The Quran and the Prophet(pbuh) both encouraged us to seek knowledge. As the Quran itself says---the Pagans of Mecca also believed---but they blindly believed what their parents/tradition taught them---and this led them into error.
Faith/Trust/Iman= the use of one's intellect and reason to arrive at conviction.
It is only through questions that we can increase our knowledge---therefore, those Christians who come here with an "agenda" are actually doing a favor because they serve as catalysts for us Muslims to delve deeper into our religion and grow in both knowledge and spirituality.
i respectfully disagree with this. the Muslim should be that if islam tells you something, you should submit to it no questions asked. of course its good to research it (through the help of reliable scholars) as to understand it better if need be, but we should have that iman and love Allah and his rasool sallahu alehi wa sallam so much that we reject or accept anything without (unhealthy/overally) questioning it. if it comes from allah or his rasool, there should be no final say on our part, inshallah.
Asalaamu Alaikum,
My meaning is that if an Imam says something to ask for proof or to double check on it (online or somewhere looking for proof). Blindly believing what anyone says is Haram. I remember in the Quran it mentions not blindly following your parents on the same basis(because they may be following faith in a wrong way).
ps. Proof is Quran and Hadith.
Last edited by Perseveranze; 12-26-2010 at 05:10 AM.
wa alaykum us-Salaam
i think i may made a mistake in reading the original quoted text. i think i may have read "Islam" instead of "imam." and thats what i meant that what you shouldn't question...not the imam/scholars as what has been replied to..
but imams still shouldn't be questioned- well i guess they should be, only respectfully. a reliable imams opinion shouldn't be easily disregarded weighed up with a layman's opinion.
...desperate for husnul-khitaam...
please make dua that Allah grants me a good end (to my life). please make dua that Allah guides me.
But how without question can you determine whether they're "reliable"?
format_quote Originally Posted by DavidK565
However the vast majority of religious people who are willing to engage in these discussions have an alternative agenda. And that agenda is always finding a way to get more people to follow their line of thinking. For some reason, despite the fact that all devoutly religious people feel that they know the "truth", they are not content. They are not content until everyone else agrees with them.
Let me ask something to the people who are willing to respond:
Do you feel that someone of a different religious faith will go to Hell when they die? And if so, do you feel the need to "help them"?
D-a-m-n-a-t-i-o-n (will someone PLEASE change the board settings so that we can write out "D-A-M-N", I mean this is a religious board for crying out loud!) isn't handed out based on the luck of the draw. If someone has legitimate excuses for disbelieving something then they are not an unbeliever (kafir, meaning "one who holds the truth in his heart; rejector"). It is disheartening nonetheless to see just how often the people who disbelieve in God or Islam give even the faintest impression that it is for any sort of excusable reason. It has made for some very sad occasions for me.
You seem to place missionary sorts of all religions into some kind of "pushy pushy everybody agree with me now!" stereotype. I, for instance, am a da'i as penance for a former apostasy of my own which does not strike me as having been excusable either. God brought me back, so I in turn will bring others, if He wills, as repayment. And right from the start I set for myself two rules. The first was that I would never give anyone dawah against their will. Indeed, I always ask permission first. I don't want to be intrusive like those Jehovah's Witnesses who will repeatedly come knocking with their nonsense while I'm in the middle of a perfectly good game of Pac-Man. The second was that I would go to great pains not to keep track of the number of people that by God's grace I have converted. I am perhaps almost paranoid about leaving myself no quarter to think of it as some sort of score to rack up. Now tell me, do I sound unreasonable to you?
The main difference between Christian evangelism and Islamic dawah is that lies are not part of the usual curriculum of da'is. Indeed, the only times I can ever think of seeing a da'i lie about anything (as in Osama Abdallah's deceptive article about four thousand Jews being missing from the World Trade Center) are when it is over an issue that isn't really about Islam at all for them--and even then only rarely. Christian evangelism makes dishonesty the rule rather than the exception. It's just a natural part of the job, and you'd think that if the religion were at all likely to be true then it wouldn't be. Indeed, you'll hear a lot of Muslims mentioning in their conversion stories that they tried once to become Christian missionaries or preachers but couldn't stand all the deception involved, and this is what disillusioned them to Christianity.
Last edited by IAmZamzam; 01-02-2011 at 05:53 PM.
Peace be to any prophets I may have mentioned above. Praised and exalted be my Maker, if I have mentioned Him. (Come to think of it praise Him anyway.)
Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
When you create an account, we remember exactly what you've read, so you always come right back where you left off. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and share your thoughts. Sign Up
...the god i worship does
"
Quote
Hide
Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
Bookmarks