About Islam!

Hi my fellow jedis!

I've seen many times that people misunderstand something about Islam, I want to write something about it here, maybe a history or the main rules, for fixing these!

I would appreciate anyone who have knowledge of Islam and can write about it here, and anyone who give his opinion or ask a question about Islam here

To start with, I must say that ;

Muslims believe that, Islam is the last religion by God(or better say "Allah") on earth, They also believe in all of other prophets and holly books. Their main book is "Quran" which is what Allah told "Mohammad"-Islam prophet. They are 2 main Muslim groups, Sonia (Not sure about English name, Arabic one is "سنی") and Shea(Not sure about English name again, Arabic one is "شیعه").

Islams main rules are :
1-توحید : There is only one god(who have different names)
2-نبوت : Allah sent prophets to guide humans
3-معاد : There is life after death, and after death of all living things, there is a big judge.
4-عدل : Allah is fair
5-امامت: (Shea only, The main different between Shea and Sonia) After death of Mohammad, Allah didn't made humans alone, instead, he sent imams to continue his way(Imams are son of Ali and Fatima (or Fateme as Shea say) daughter of Mohammad)

I'll explain more as soon as I can.

~Sajjad

It's sunni and shia.

And the five pillars are:

-There is one god only and his messenger is Mohammed and only this god is to be worshiped. (muslim creed)
-5 prayers a day
-Give 2.5 per cent of their income for charitable aims (helping the poor, really not much but better than nothing)
-Ramadan
-Pilgrimage to mecca.

Depending on the denomination, there are more pillars, such as jihad, helping muslims, not befriend non-muslims, etc.

Overall I'm glad most muslims aren't very religious (though I do like ramadan for the after ramadan parties where the women prepare mountains of food)

thanks ren

by the way it is not 2.5 percent, I'm coming from a shia background, and it is 1/5 of what you earned and didn't used in one year. maybe for sunni people it's different.

ha ha it's not always mountain of food not in my country at least! Arabs do so , they love eating more than anything else...

Thanks for posting this, sajjadheydari74. I have a question. I've heard that Muslims don't eat pigs. Why is that? Is it similar to the reasons behind Judaism?

I'm not sure about Judaism, but yes we are not allowed to.

It's haram حرام which means an action that if we do, we will be punished for on the other world !

Not sure about the reason, but that's what Quran say, we dont know reason for all of those rules

I think halal means "allowed" and haram "prohibited", right?

Asalaam alaykum brothers :') (means Peace be upon you)
(to which you reply "wa alaikum asalam" -- and upon you, peace)

very nice sajjad =')

I've been living in Riyadh for about 1yr and 1/2.

What I know about Islam, I've mostly learned from taxi drivers (mostly Pakistanis and Bangladeshi) and co-workers. Most Muslims around here are very religious.

First, I observed Muslims are very "polite" and "ethical". I used quotations because for Muslims (I read), it's not really about politeness and ethics. It's deeply rooted in their religion, their way of life, in tradition/custom.

They always ask how you are, they always thank God/Allah, and always share food.
Men can marry up to 4 women only. Although others say more -- if they can support them -- I've read in a newspaper that a public official has been removed from office because he was found to have more than 4 wives.

A lot of the taxi drivers who ask me what my religion is, they say it's not an issue. We are first of all humans, being Muslims or Christians or Hindi only second...

One taxi driver told me that Muslims are not afraid of death. He said (in Arabic, as I understood), Christian life is good as well as Muslims, but when they die it's different. Muslims die happy, while Christians are afraid of it. Something like that. I think he was trying to convert me, but he also said that this is my life, this is my own person, and I have my own decision what to believe in.

Also, they believe in Jesus and Mary, but not as Christians do. Jesus is just a simple prophet to them, not divine.

And then there are those who use their religion to bring harm to others. I am also Filipino, and every Muslim I talk to here know about the Muslim extremists in the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf. They say the Abu Sayyaf, and the likes of the Taliban, is a big problem for Muslims.

ren wrote: I think halal means "allowed" and haram "prohibited", right?

yes exactly


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Shadouness wrote: Asalaam alaykum brothers :') (means Peace be upon you)
(to which you reply "wa alaikum asalam" -- and upon you, peace)

very nice sajjad =')

I've been living in Riyadh for about 1yr and 1/2.

What I know about Islam, I've mostly learned from taxi drivers (mostly Pakistanis and Bangladeshi) and co-workers. Most Muslims around here are very religious.

First, I observed Muslims are very "polite" and "ethical". I used quotations because for Muslims (I read), it's not really about politeness and ethics. It's deeply rooted in their religion, their way of life, in tradition/custom.

They always ask how you are, they always thank God/Allah, and always share food.
Men can marry up to 4 women only. Although others say more -- if they can support them -- I've read in a newspaper that a public official has been removed from office because he was found to have more than 4 wives.

A lot of the taxi drivers who ask me what my religion is, they say it's not an issue. We are first of all humans, being Muslims or Christians or Hindi only second...

One taxi driver told me that Muslims are not afraid of death. He said (in Arabic, as I understood), Christian life is good as well as Muslims, but when they die it's different. Muslims die happy, while Christians are afraid of it. Something like that. I think he was trying to convert me, but he also said that this is my life, this is my own person, and I have my own decision what to believe in.

Also, they believe in Jesus and Mary, but not as Christians do. Jesus is just a simple prophet to them, not divine.

And then there are those who use their religion to bring harm to others. I am also Filipino, and every Muslim I talk to here know about the Muslim extremists in the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf. They say the Abu Sayyaf, and the likes of the Taliban, is a big problem for Muslims.

well, first of all thanks for your information!

I think being afraid of death can be in any society, and not being afraid of it can be too. not related to religion.

Men can marry up to 4 woman, but the condition for such a marriage is very hard! first of all your first wife should let you, then you have to have enough income to support both of them, then you have to be fair with them... .
here in my country, marrying with more than one woman is very bad in society

Any action in Islam is in one of these categories :

-halal :"Allowed"
-haram :"prohibited"
-vajib : You must do it, not doing it is haram
-mostahab : doing it is good, but not doing it is not haram
-makroh : doing it is not haram, but it's better not to do it

and any item is in one of these categories :

-najis : not clean, if you touch it, you have to clean yourself. eating najis thing is haram
-clean : you can touch it, use it...
-qasbi : it doesn't belong to you, so for using it you have to ask the owner

{you may need these names in what I'm going to talk about later}

Nothing explain anything better than it's history, my history teacher used to say that all the times. I'm going to write whole story of Islam here.

Mohammad was from one of the best tribes of Arabs, and the most powerful one. 2 months before birth of Mohammad, his father died in a trip. When he was 2, his mother died too. He went to his grandfather house until age of 8 and then his grandfather died too. After all this, he went to his uncle.

When he was young, he and some of his friends, took an oath to server poor. Later his uncle found a job for him in caravan of Khadije (a rich women). After first travel, she asked others about him, they responded that he was so nice with every one, he told us what to do for a better benefit ... After some times, she married him.

One year, there wasn't enough rain, and his uncle became poorer, he went to his relatives, and offered them to get sons and daughter of his uncle for helping him. His uncle took his blind child, and told others that they can take any of them. Mohammad took "Ali".

At the age of 40, Mohammad went to a cave named "Hara". There he prayed for God, and meditated. Once, he stayed there for a month, and Ali brought him food and water. One of those night, he heard a strange voice said "Read", he replied "What?", sound replied "Read", he said "I can't read" sound replied "Read in the name of ...." At that night, he received Quran and he gained mission to keep Islam secret and secretly invite his relatives to become Muslims.

The first person who became Muslim was his wife, and after him Ali. After 3 years, he declared Islam in public. People killed Muslims and stopped any relation with them. They went in a desert near city, and stayed there. In that desert, his wife died. After sometimes, he went to his uncle and said "The contract others wrote to not to have any relation with us is destroyed with power of Allah" his uncle told this to others, and they let Muslims back in city, but they still killed them whenever they wanted.

Mohammad ordered some of Muslims to go to "Habashe" a country of that time in Africa. Then, one night they make a plan to kill Mohammad. Mohammad say this to Ali and to Abobakr (Father of Ayeshe, another wife of mohammad). Ali accepted to sleep in Mohammad's Bed and pretend he is he. And Abobakr put him in a basket and went out of his house. They asked him what is inside of basket? he replied : "Mohammad" they thought he is joking, so they let him go.

Mohammad and Abobakr went from city to "Yasrib" another city who had lots of muslims. And because of his entrance, they change the name of city to "Madinat al-nabi" means "City of prophet". Later other Muslims joined them.

He made an appointment there, and invited every one. He split them into 2 groups, locals of "madine"(that city) and others. He said anyone must select a brother from other group, and let them in their home. He chose Ali as his brother.

Some years Later, Ali married his daughter, Fateme (or as sunni say Fatima) and they had 2 son (Hasan, Hossein) and one daughter (Zeinab).

Then at the age of 63, one night, a young person knock his door, while he was sick. They let him in, he asked If Mohammad is ready to die. And he accepted what Allah said and told the young man (Who was an angel called ezrael or death angel) to obey what Allah ordered him.

I'll continue what happened to Muslims after death of Mohammad later.