For the first time in history, the whole world is willing to listen to us. The question is, do we have anything to say?

Scary thought. We’ve become absolutely worthless. :-/

Salaams,

Sound very scary or have i been brought up with a stick i don’t know, hope it doesn’t cause more fitna then there already is.
peace

adam

Assalamualaikum,

What about the laws and rules that we don’t understand, for them we say “wallahu alam” and implement the law?

What about things which may seem unreasonable in religion? Majority theologians take the attitude that we give preference to law over reason, when a battle ensues between the two.

Thanks. This hasn’t been structured well, because I’m very tired today.

Thanks.

Tahsin

Interesting.

as-salamu alaykum,

Jazak Allahu khayran for this wonderful article.

How would you respond to those who claim that “[c]lassical Islamic civilization” limits freedom of thought by imposing the death penalty on apostates from Islam?

wa `alaykum as salam wa rahmatullah

Tahsin’s response is what I would expect from many Muslims; Mustafa’s is what I would expect from many non-Muslims.

Isn’t it strange how, when a Muslim says, “I am willing to talk and reason,” other Muslims jump up and say, “No! Don’t do that because XYZ says it’s haram!” and non-Muslims jump up and say, “No, you’re lying because XYZ says it’s haram!”

If you observe carefully, both sides are muzzling the Muslim who says he’s willing to talk and reason, and stopping a free exchange of thoughts and ideas. Neither is willing to engage. My personal approach is to ignore both sides because they both miss the point, either out of simplicity or out of duplicity.

The problem that I see with the above comments is simply lack of knowledge and perspicacity. And that’s not something that I can solve on a blog. Blogs, emails, letters, articles, lectures, conferences, none of these “cut it”. You need real, formal, rigorous, knowledge. I encourage you to check out the Seeker’s Degree program at SunniPath.

The greatest problem that Muslims face today is that they haven’t learned their religion. Had they learned it, they would imbue the “prophetic confidence” described above.

I agree with Sh Hamza Karamali. I was raised a good portion of my life in Egypt during the 80’s and 90’s, and all I ever recall was an openness to question, respectfully differ, and tolerance of others, in matters related to deen. We were taught by our teachers (from religion and Arabic to math and science), that there was no taboo in our deen, that all questions may be asked. As a result, my imaan was only strengthened. After all, if it is the truth, that what question is there to fear? Only enlightenment can come from questioning the truth, for the truth will be revealed even more.
The thing to keep in mind though, is that we apply the same questioning attitude to ourselves. In other words, are our assumptions and personal beliefs correct? Are our attachments hindering us from perceiving and understanding reality as it is?

The topic is an excellent one as regards the needs of the time; everywhere muslims are labelled as being either blind to reason or too scared to reason out or think freely; no doubt the root of this misconception lies in our own weird behaviour which depicts nothing but deep internal insecurity; although externally we try to be as much muslim as possible (more often out of spite) but we never work resolve to think about or resolve our internal conflicts which as the writer rightly would be eased if we cared to learn what we are standing for; we seem to have forgotten the first and foremost commandment which came to us — “Read”( which implies awakening our desire to know and seek the truth with as much effort as possible not just follow some rituals mechanically and then demand that the whole world should be submissive before our sublimity !
Jazakallah for the write up.

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