Its been a long while since I last saw the back cat downstairs my place. :( really hope she's okay man. Its quite rare that I get soo attached to a cat cos Im a dog person!
Anyway...lets get controversial!
Id firstly like to say...
Disclaimer: This is not meant to discriminate other races or religions. If there are any misunderstandings, I welcome the truth and differing views!
Jihad...
The media's "holy war"... The past religious terrorist attacks have been mostly attributed to muslims and it leads me to wonder exactly wat Jihad means...
JIhad has 2 types (according to Wikipedia) One is an internal battle w ur soul...(more like temptations like lust, greed etc etc etc) The other is the external type..to attain ur justice n freedom from an oppressor, for the cause of God...when u have no other choice
My belief is that Islam branched out from the Bible. prophet Muhammed, Abraham...allt hese are charcters in The bible. The difference between the Bible and the Quran is this:
1) The original text was translated or interpreted in a different way
2) Bible believes that our Saviour has already come. Lord Jesus Christ. Quran believes that the Saviour is yet to come, and so holds fast to the commandments of the bible and does not regard the new Testament. Basically..they go strictly by the Old testament.
http://www.submission.org/god-bible.html
I was reading this website...abt the difference between certain beliefs from the bible n the Quran and depending on how you look at it..they both actually believe in the same thing. The prob w interpretating the bible n Quran this way is that you pick out certain verses without looking at the context of that verse. ie: you take it the wrong way
Eg: Psalm 13.1 : How long will you forget me oh Lord? and from the Quran He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in a record. My Lord never errs, nor does He forget. "
[20:52] For a christian, we believe that God doesnt forget us. He knows everything in this world..down to the last atom n how it works...he doesnt forget...In fact if you look at the bible, the same phrase continues saying, "how long will thou hide thy face from me?" God didnt forget! He chose not to answer or hide from us. Abit like how we chose to hide from Him. God calls for us to come back to Him but we dont answer..onyl to find that..when we do want to go back..God has stopped calling for us. In this case, the writer of this website..seems to believe that Christianity believes in a God who can forget about us. He doesnt forget about us. When we call hard enough n with faith, with no worldly intentions n fervently...he will answer.
Some of the arguments were also made using the wrong phrases. And if you really read it, you'll see that whatever he's used to justify that the Bible disagrees with the Quran..is cancelled off by the verses he's used to justify that the Bible does agree with the Quran. The thing is..one can not justify how a God is like just by pin pointing one verse...
"Do men think that they will be left alone on saying we believe and they will not be tested? But, we did test those before them and God will certainly know those who are true from those who are false." Qur'an 29:1
It is said that the Quran disagrees with the Bible because one of the verses goes against the verse above...
"We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Roman 3:28
By my own interpretation...what the writer implies is that in Quran, even believers are tested to see if they truly believe in Allah (as they call him) The writer wud then mean that in teh Bible, it says that christians are not tested? hmm Job was tested by Satan upon God's approval..his fortune n family were all taken from him... Of course..this is the Old testament...In the new testament, Jesus Christ was tested (in the wilderness), Simon Peter was tested ( as he walked on the water surface towards God) Judas was definitely tested, Paul...etc In fact...every trial n tribulation we come across is given by God. A test, a trial, a temptation to even the most faithful of man.
If that were not the case...would Jesus have to teach those who believeed n listened to him to pray to God in a certain way? Matt6: 9-13..Our father in heaven, ...lead us not into temptation but deliever us from evil....
Moving on...as for Jihad...It leads me to wonder if some of the muslims got tha wrong impression abt Jihad. In fact according to the same website (which might be written by a muslim)...the greater meaning of Jihad is to achieve an internal path to righteousness. You practice fighting against ur own temptations. Islam does not condone War..it is showered with words or 'peace, love etc. If thats teh case, war can never be the meaning of jihad (according tot eh writer) Int eh Quran, it says to fight for the cause of God..not to fight using Gods name. There is a HUGE difference.
Likewise fro christianity...love they enemy as thyself. If someone were to slap you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. Book of Matthews
I blame the media as well for the careless use of the word, Jihad..but it is also the terrorists fault who take Jihad as " to kill all unbelievers" No doubt seom of them have a strong belief in their God...but we all believe something fromt he way we perceive it. Take the story abt the 5 blind men and the elephant. Story goes that the 5 blind men were trying to find out whatt he animal in front of them was. each of them felt a part of the animal and all of them had a diff theory abt it. One said it was thick and rough (the elephant's feet) the other said it was flat and thin like a fan (elephant's ear) etc etc...
Two key points when it comes to Jihad (externally)
- When there is oppression
- When it is for the cause of God not the cause of tyranny
HOnestly....I wished I was born in the era where Jesus Christ was still alive and telling people abt God and showing miracles...maybe then it wud be easier to believe...not to mention have him there to teach me what I find confusing or vague...but ..every era has its difficulties..at that era, believers wud have been prone to persecution.
After all this talk..I know alot you have differing views..Please tell me abt it...esp if ur muslim or even jewish! I know we all link! I just wanna know how. :)
God, help me to understand you...
LOVE
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment