Three reasons for the misconceptions about Islam

Misconceptions about Islam

So many misconceptions are formulated against Islam. One of them is that it's a religion of bloodshed. And it is true that so many events corroborate with this miscoonception. The serries of terrorist attacks attributed to Muslims and the negative and unwelcoming news about Islamic countries reported by the mass media.. Why is that? How come that a religion of peace and tolerance comes to be viewed as a barbaric religion.

Reasons for these misconceptions

Three mistakes are made to judge Islam:

1. Well one of most the dangerous mistakes  that an observer may make is generalisation. Not all muslims are suuporters of violence. In fact many Muslims are themselves victims of violence.
2. Lack of credible unbiased information about islam. Few of those critics of the Islamic beliefs are not well informed about Islam. They may be even reading about Islam from unreliable sources. 
3. Another mistake is the amalgam of Islam versus Muslims. Islam doesn't equate Muslims. There may be quite a lot of Muslims who are criminals. This doesn't mean that they represent Islam. By the same token, not all non-Muslims are good peaceful citizens.

The same God

According to Islam Allah Almighty created all mankind with different races, mentality and beliefs. But they are all creations of the same creator, subject of the same rules of feelings of love and tolerance. We are all made to live in harmony, to building bridges so as we can live peacefully in the same world. This is our desitny. We must not fail it.

"O mankind! [this includes all races and all nations] We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well-acquainted. (The Noble Quran, 49:13)"

Muhammad The Prophet

Who is Muhammad?

Muhammad ibn Abdullāh  (also spelled Muhammed or Mohammed), who was born in 570/571 and died on June 8, 632, is considered by Muslims to be a messenger and prophet of Allah (God in Arabic), the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets, and the last prophet of Islam as taught by the Qur'an. Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action.

His life

Born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married at the age of 25 to Khadijah bint Khuwaylid who was 40 years old at that time.
Muhammed retreated to the cave Hira near Mecca's surrounding mountains because he was discontented with life in Mecca. It was there, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. His wife khadija was the first one to know about these revelations. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly

• proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn)  acceptable to God, 
• and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets. 

At first there were only few followers. Many tribes responded to his preachings with hostility. Because he was persecuted, he first sent some of his followers to Abyssinia (Ethiopia)  and then he and the remaining  followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra or emigration, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar.
In Medina, Muhammad united the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; and he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.

Revelation

The revelations (or Ayat, lit. "Signs of God") , which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur'an, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims. They discuss Muhammad and other prophets (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets) of Islam with respect and reverence, adding the phrase peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned.

Misconceptions

Not many of the Westerners understand the importance of the prophet Muhammad in Islam. They fail to acknowledge his true peaceful nature. This is mainly due to the grave events that Europeans and the Western world in general attribute to Islam and the miconcepitions that they have built in relation to this prophet.

More on Muhammad on Wikipedia

Ash Wednesday

What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is a Christian event that marks the first day of Lent in the Western Christian Church. Lent satrts with Ash Wednesday and ends on the day before Easter Sunday which is known as Holy Saturday. The exact date of Ash Wednesday is not fixed because it is dependent on Esater Day (a movable celebration.) It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

Church Customs during Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. It also means that we will always have sin.

The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson, marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross, which the worshipper traditionally retains until it wears off. The act echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ashes over one's head to signify repentance before God (as related in the Bible). The priest or minister says one of the following when applying the ashes:

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.
—Genesis 3:19
Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.
—Mark 1:15

More on Ash Wednesday in Wikipedia

Lent

What is Lent?

Lent refers to the forty days before Easter Sunday. It is a period in the Christian Church which is devoted to fasting, abstinence, and penitence in commemoration of Christ's fasting in the wilderness. The period starts on the Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.
During Lent Christians commemorate two events in the Christian faith:

• It commemorates the Israelites' forty years of wandering through the desert
• The temptation of Christ. After being baptized, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the desert. During this time, the devil appeared to Jesus and tempted him. Jesus having refused each temptation, the devil departed and angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus.

Easter Day

Easter Day is an important religious celebration in Christianity. This celebration is also called Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday. Christians believe that Jesus Christ rose from the death on the third day after his crucifixion. Christians celebrate this resurrection on Easter Sunday. The date of the celebration is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. It is a moveable feast.

Origin of the Easter Day

Strange enough the name of celebration has its origin in two pagan traditions namely Ostara and Ishtar. Ostara was the Saxon goddess of dawn and spring. It is wothwile mentioning that the word for the "female hormone" estrogen derives from her name. Ishtar, however, was a Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of love and war.

Symbols

Ostara was a goddess of fertility who brought the end of winter, with the days brighter and growing longer after the vernal equinox. She had a passion for new life. The presence of Ostara was felt in the flowering of plants and the birth of animal and human babies. Because of all this , rabbits and eggs were used as symbols for rebirth and the resurection of Jesus by Christians.

The legend

There is a famous Anglo-Saxon legend associated with the goddess Ostara. The legend says that the goddess turned her pet bird, whom she saved when its wings had been frozen by the snow, into a rabbit (and a lover in some versions of the story). She also made the rabbit able to lay colorful eggs in order to entertain the children.

Easter Bunny and Egg Hunt

Because eggs and rabitts symobolize fertility, they xere used by Christians to celebrate Easter day. Two customs emerged from thse two symbols: Easter Bunny and Easter hunt.

• Esater Bunny is depicted as a creature who brings a basket full of colored eggs on the night before Easter and hides it somewhere in the house or garden for the children to find when they wake up in the morning.
• Egg Hunt is another custom associated with Easter Day. It is a game during which decorated eggs, real hard-boiled ones or artificial, filled with or made of chocolate candies, of various sizes, are hidden in various places for children to find. The game may be both indoors and outdoors.

The customs in the church

According to the traditions, Easter Sunday is celebrated by:

• Taking part in an Easter vigil, 
• Lighting a new fire outside the church early on Sunday morning, 
• Lighting the Paschal candle and decorating it with studs to celebrate Christ's wounds, 
• Chanting of the easter proclamation, 
• Reading the old testament, 
• Singing hymns and wishing happy Easter Day.

Judaism

What is Judaism?

Judaism refers to the religion, philosophy, and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism derives its principles  from the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh) and explored in later texts such as the Talmud.

Jews consider Judaism as the expression of  the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel.Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions. According to the religion God revealed His laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah.

The texts, traditions and values of Judaism have many things in common with later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith.

In 2007, the world Jewish population including those born jewish and those converted to Judaism was estimated at 13 million, of whom about 40% reside in Israel and 40% in the United States.


Judaism and its movements

There are three major movements within Judaism:

• Orthodox Judaism, 
• Conservative Judaism 
• and Reform Judaism.

The major difference between them is their approach to Jewish law. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism maintain that Jewish law should be followed, with Conservative Judaism promoting a more "modern" interpretation of its requirements than Orthodox Judaism. Reform Judaism is generally more liberal than these other two movements, and its typical position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a list of restrictions whose literal observance is required of all Jews.

See more on Judaism in Wikipedia

Mansur al-Hallaj (Sufi and Poet)

I am the truth

Mansur al-Hallaj  who is one of the most famous Sufis,  is onsidered to be a great poet-saint. Al-Hallaj was born in the province of Fars, Persia (Iran). He later moved to what is now Iraq, where he took up religious studies, particularly the Sufi way.

Al-Hallaj was executed for blasphemy in his poetry particularly in a line in which he says:

"Ana 'l-Haqq," meaning I am the Truth 

Al-Hallaj reached  the mystical realization of unity with the Eternal in his Sufism. He was condemned by a council of theologians, imprisoned for nine years, and eventually put to death.

Nowadays, Al-Hallaj is considered as a martyr for truth by many Sufis and mystics.

Examples of his poetry

To Reach God

" For your sake, I hurry over land and water:

For your sake, I cross the desert and split the mountain in two,

And turn my face from all things,

Until the time I reach the place

Where I am alone with You."

Kill Me, My Faithful Friends

Kill me, my faithful friends,
For in my being killed is my life.

Love is that you remain standing
In front of your Beloved
When you are stripped of all your attributes;
Then His attributes become your qualities.

Between me and You, there is only me.
Take away the me, so only You remain

I am the One Whom I Love

I am the One whom I love, and the One whom I love is myself.
We are two souls incarnated in one body;
if you see me, you see Him,
if you see Him, you see us.