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Discover Islam Team.
Name
Scarlet
-
Profession
Question
How do you fast and why?
Answer
Salams, Scarlet.
Muslims fast by abstaining from food, drink and sexual activities from dawn time to sunset. This of course includes smoking also. This fasting is a way to get closer to the Divine by taming oneself by gaining more self-control on oneself desires and physical urges. When you are in more control of your body, your soul is more free to leap and approach!
Also, when you are hungry, thirsty and not sexually fulfilled for a whole month you feel helpless and fragile. Here you would share the poor and the weak their pains agonies. The sense of equality is what finally prevails between Muslims by the end of the month and this also get you closer to your Beloved Divine.
Thank you.
Name
Veronique
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Profession
Student
Question
Salut. I'm a French and I live in Syria. I don't know why people here insist on praying in very small mosques and leave their cars here and there. They jam the streets, and they pretend that they were worshipping god. Is that true that to worship god I have to live in chaos?
Answer
Salams, Veronique.
No, these people are mistaken. To worship God never means to live in chaos, annoy others or to disturb them! The problem here lies in two points. One point is the people's mistake when they are really obsessed by the prayers' beauty and they don't want to miss it. They can't find a place to park, so they simply drop their cars anywhere and run to catch their share of blessings. Then the second point is that there is really no place to park. Here it is the responsibility of the authorities and the government to provide its citizens with a comfortable place to park.
These people believe that prayers is their vehicle towards God's forgiveness and mercy. They do not intend to annoy you at all. All they care for is to come closer to the Divine by their long night prayers during this month, where they stand for an hour or two pleading for his forgiveness and mercy.
All communities have their positives and negatives. On behalf of my Muslim people – for this problem is in many Islamic countries – I ask you to forgive them and bare with us. We Muslims are happy to have you in our Islamic society and share our Muslim life with us. Hope you feel the same.
Name
April
-
Profession
Question
I've seen on the television pictures of Muslims walking around their holy shrine in Saudi Arabia. Why is that and what does it signify? Thanks.
Answer
Salams, April.
The Ka`bah is the name Muslims give for the small building you saw on TV. This was the first place ever built -by Prophet Abraham, and before him by the angels – for the worshipping of the One and Only Divine, Who is the One and Only Creator and Sustainer of all that exists.
This Ka`bah is a simply empty squared ceiled room. Nothing is divine or holy about it. What is special about it is that it was the first place of worship on earth and that it is a sign of monotheism and equality as well.
It is a sign of monotheism, for Muslims submit and worship only One God. They also – all of them – direct their faces and bodies to one direction, which is the first place of worship, during their prayers. All bodies are directed towards one direction and all souls and hearts are directed towards One God; the Creator.
This is why this Ka`bah is important and why Muslims walk around it. They circumambulate it with their bodies in complete harmony with the whole universe which is believed to be in a complete state of submission and worship to Allah. The bodies keep walking and walking, roaming around this bigger body, just as their souls are roaming and seeking the Greatest and Only Divine.
Here again is the sense of equality. Everybody is equal. Shoulder to shoulder, prince, queen or nurse and carpenter, in prayers and in circumambulation. We are all seeking the Divine. We are all seeking His pleasure. We are all seeking His forgiveness. We are all trying to get closer. We are all His servants.
Name
M.A.
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Profession
Question
Why you Muslims punish yourselves by fasting?
Answer
Salams, M.A.
My dear friend, Muslims do not punish themselves by fasting, but they nourish their souls by choosing to fast.
Please have a look at my answer to Scarlet at the beginning of this live dialogue. What I would like to add here is that fasting is not a ritual specific to Islam only, but in most religions and spiritual ideologies you will find that some sort of fasting is adjusted somehow. None of the believers of these religions ever complained of self-torture. They all apply seeking to get closer.
Islam regulates fasting in order not to over pressure the body nor to over spoil or loosen the soul. A Muslim is not to fast the 24 hours, but he or she has to break the fast. It is even the Prophetic tradition to quicken the breaking of the fast the moment the sun sets. The Prophet has also encouraged fasting people to take a late pre-fast meal pre-dawn by saying that this meal is blessed.
There is no torture here. There is a balance. During daytime the bodies are tamed and controlled. At night they are relaxed while the souls are nourished by the long night prayers.
Name
Saila
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Profession
Question
Thank you for taking the time to answer questions about this topic. I am a Muslim, but I myself have sometimes found that I did not always understand why we have to pray in a certain way, or do Hajj in a certain way - it is like there is a formula and we just have to follow it. Sometimes I feel like I pray, but never achieve anything beyond just moving in a certain way... It makes me feel that we as Muslims are concentrating so hard on the outward while ignoring the real part of Islam: the inward and the relationship between us and Allah.
Answer
Salam, Saila.
We have to pray in a certain way, we have to do Hajj in a certain way and we have to pay a certain specific amount of our money to the poor for many many reasons. But, a one main reason prevails, which is because we have to submit.
Submission is the vehicle that would take us closer. In Islam we find God and reach Him by thinking, searching, using our logic and questioning our heart till we find Him. Then when we find Him we have to submit to reach peace of mind and reconcile with our souls.
Each ritual and worship has many ways of explanations and justifications that would take us pages to explain, but the final point is that after we search and investigate we will want to do it that way because we want to get closer to the One Who ordered us to do it.
It is as if you want to swim to the other side of the shore. At the beginning you will need to learn to swim right. You will concentrate on how to stretch your arms, how to take your breath and how to strike your feet. But is this your goal? Will this be what you are thinking of all your way to the other shore? No, once you learn how to do it right from your tutor ¬–because he knows better– you will no longer think of these matters.
Here your goal will be that you want to reach the shore. You want to be saved. On your way, you might enjoy the coolness of the water or the splashes of the waves. Your eyes might roam around contemplating the beauty of the sky or the trees on the banks of the rive, you will no longer be thinking of your muscles or your physical movements.
On the other hand, if you don't follow your tutor's instructions you might stumble into a muscles' cramp on the way or something. Here you will lose the joy of your moments. This is the same case with worship.
Rules of how to worship are not the goal, but they are the means to help you do it right. Your Greatest Tutor is the One Who has set the rule, for He knows better. Apply His rules and get yourself adjusted to them. Then enjoy the spiritual depths of worship rituals, sheltered by the prescribed Divine formula and rules.
Name
Michael
- United States
Profession
Question
I believe in God, I just don't believe in organized religion. Organized religion, like christianity or islam, are the cause of all the hurt and pain in the world throughout all the ages.
Why do you force your people to abide by these strange rituals? Is this a way to impose the imam's control over the people?
Answer
Salam, Michael.
Religion is not supposed to impose the imam's control over the people. If this applies in some countries or in certain eras of history, then this is the problem of those who apply it. They are mistaken.
God, Who is the One and Only Creator and Sustainer of all that exists has created mankind to worship Him. On the other hand He has created everything that exists for the sake of the son of Adam, to serve him and help him in his journey in this life.
Allah provides all, including me and you with our daily breath, food, tears, happy moment and sad moment. He provides us with our ability to distinguish happiness from sadness. He provides us money, health, intelligence, science, beauty, children, friends, family and even computers! He did this and still does it every moment by sustaining us out of love.
In return, He has asked for nothing except our love back. Loving the Divine is by submitting to Him completely and peacefully. This is worship. Then how should we worship. Should each worship according to his or her own whim? Wouldn't then interests and whims contradict? Chaos would then prevail.
Religious order in Islam is to maintain self-discipline and to show people how to connect with their Divine. This is not supervised by any pope or imam. This is only witnessed by the One and Only Witness: Allah.
Name
Scot Brother
- United Kingdom
Profession
Admin
Question
Asalamolkum,
As we know a married man and woman having relations is considered ibaadat in the sight of Allah I would like to know the reward of this act, is there any authentic narrations you know of, also can this be practised on a daily basis as a religious ritual part of Islam?
Answer
Salam, Brother Scot.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has stated that the intimate relation between man and wife is a blessed relation, which is to be rewarded by Allah.
Abu Dharr reported that while the Prophet was answering some of his companions questions he mentioned:
"… in man's sexual intercourse (with his wife, ) there is a sadaqa (charity).
They (the Companions) said: 'Messenger of Allah, is there reward for him who satisfies his sexual passion among us?' He said: 'Tell me, if he were to devote it to something forbidden, would it not be a sin on his part? Similarly, if he were to devote it to something lawful, he should have a reward.'"
Please notice brother that Islam does not limit worship to praying and fasting and such rituals. On the contrary to what many people might think, all aspects of life are regarded as worships that deserve rewards by the Divine. The Qur'an clearly says what means:
*{Say: Lo! my worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.}* (Al-An`am 6:162)
So, the living here includes the relation between man and wife, which can take place on daily basis or other wise. You need to know that a Muslim man and wife and a simple normal family who live in shelter of their lawful life. They enjoy their lives fully as man and wife, all except points prohibited by the Divine. These I leave to be explained in the following links, since it is a shar`ii area that need our shar`ii scholars to handle.
