1. A watershed moment for China: Islam or Christianity?
By Zia H Shah MD
Like it or not, but Islam and Christianity have been two missionary religions, which have been struggling to win the hearts and minds of humanity for centuries and they are not going to change their character, just because some agnostics or atheists do not like it. As a Muslim, belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, I believe that the Holy Prophet Muhammad and his follower, the Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, came to unite all religions and mankind by emphasizing religious freedom for everyone and the fact that the founders of all other religions, Confucius, Buddha, Tao, Krishna, Ram, Moses and Jesus were prophets of God. Islam gives a unifying paradigm and recognizes the spiritual experience of all people over the millennia, whereas, Christianity always demonstrates an obsession with Jesus and in this age of information wants to pull us back two thousand years ago to a society, when heroes were elevated to be gods. We have two other man-gods from Jesus' time, Emperor Augustus andApollonius of Tyana. If we are to believe in human gods we may as well believe in millions of Hindu gods. After all why should the Christian stories be more acceptable than the Hindu myths, except that the Western civilization gave us our present day science and technology. On an side note, it would be relevant to add here that the Western civilization did extensively borrow from the Chinese and the Islamic Heritage.
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Islam is not new to China. Emperor Hongwu (1328 – ...continue reading at http://islamforwest.org/2012/01/02/a-turning-point-for-china-islam-or-christianity/
2. If Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins!
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD
First something about the big picture, Christian apologists want to make a case for Christianity based on laws of nature and science, by showing that there ought to be a Transcendent Creator of our universe. They make this case, in one breath, and in the very next, deny all of science, by insisting on Eucharist, man-God of Jesus, who is not Transcendent, resurrection and miracles that violate laws of nature.
Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their self-conceit are not listening to how Islam resolves their conflict; Islam as understood by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
In a trilateral discussion between atheists, Christians and Muslims, I believe we can appreciate reality better and come up with better theology, especially if the discussion not only involves the Creator and purpose of the universe, but, also His completeTranscendence, Original Sin and evolution of life on our planet, Trinity and Eucharist... read more @ http://islamforwest.org/2012/11/15/if-atheists-and-the-christians-debate-islam-wins/
This popular article was first published in Ahmadiyya Gazette, USA in 2007.
Was Einstein a monotheist, deist, pantheist, or an atheist? How did his religion affect his science?
Agnostics, atheists and pantheists, all equally claim that Einstein belongs to them. But, as he belonged to Jewish background, Abrahamic traditions or Monotheism, should certainly have a claim on him. Here is an attempt to understand the religion of Einstein in an Islamic paradigm. It is a religious and scientific biography of a man named 'the man of the century' by the Time magazine. This article was originally published in October, 2007 volume of Ahmadiyya Gazette USA.
If my articles are boring to you, it may be that you need to read more of them, as was suggested by John Cage, "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."
Allah – there is no god save Him, the Living, the Self-Subsisting and All-Sustaining. Slumber seizes Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he... continue reading at http://islamforwest.org/2012/01/12/albert-einsteins-search-for-god-2/
Collected by Dr. Abdul Alim
There is a frieze in the Supreme Court building that depicts the Prophet Moses and the Holy Prophet Mohammed, may peace be on him among others.
Source: The following information was collated from the Supreme Court web site
The frieze, which is a sculpture installed in a wall, were sculpted by Adolph Weinman in 1932. Weinman sculpted 18 people through history who have had an impact on our concept of law, as well as allegorical figures depicting some great legal concepts.
The lawgivers: Menes (first king of the first dynasty of Egypt); Hammurabi (king of Babylon, creator of the Code of Hammurabi); Moses (shown holding the Ten Commandments); Solomon (king of Israel); Lycurgus (legislator of Sparta); Solon (lawgiver of Athens, codified and reformed Athenian law); Draco (first lawgiver of Athens); Confucius (Chinese philosopher); Octavian (first emperor of the Roman Empire); Justinian (Emperor of Byzantine, father of the Justinian Code); Mohammed (shown holding the Koran); Charlemagne (Roman emperor, founder of the Holy Roman Empire); King John (shown holding the Magna Carta); Louis IX (King of France, creator of the first appeals court); Hugo Grotius (author of the first book on international law); William Blackstone (English law professor whose work influenced English and American law); John Marshall (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1801-1835); Napoleon (Emperor of France, influenced the Napoleonic Code)... continue reading at http://islamforwest.org/2013/01/11/the-holy-prophet-muhammad-recognized-as-a-great-law-giver-by-us-supreme-court-in-1935/
5. The Message: Muhammad: Messenger of God (A movie)
A good place for the non-Muslims to start learning about the Holy Prophet Muhammad is a movie named the Message: Mohammed: Messenger of God
(1976) Rated PG.
After a non-Muslim seeker has watched this and another movie mentioned below, I propose three further stages of study to getting to know the Greatest of the sons of Adam!
Epigraph:
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and outstanding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?" Alphonse de Lamartine, Foreign Minister of France
The cave of Hira where the Prophet had his first revelation.
Samuel Parsons Scott understood part of the charm of the Prophet's character when he wrote:
The glories which invest the history of Islam may be entirely derived from the valor, the virtue, the intelligence, the genius, of man. If this be conceded, the largest measure of credit is due to him who conceived its plan, promoted its impulse, and formulated the rules which insured its success. In any event, if the object of religion be the inculcation of morals, the diminution of evil, the promotion of human happiness, the expansion of the human intellect, if the performance of good works will avail in the great day when mankind shall be summoned to its final reckoning it is neither irreverent nor unreasonable to admit that Muhammad was indeed an Apostle of God.[1]
What Samuel Parsons Scott missed... continue reading at http://islamforwest.org/2011/11/23/the-message-mohammed-messenger-of-god-a-movie-2/
6. Darwinian Evolution: Islam or Christianity?
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]
Evolution and Biology: A cross for Christianity:
The field of biology has struck a fatal blow to the concept of Trinity and other dogmas in Christianity on several counts. Firstly, there is the fundamental principle in biology "Like begets like," which clearly refutes the concept of son ship of God. In the Holy Quran it is expressed in the words, "How can Allah have a son when He has no consort?" (Al Quran 6:102) Man's genetic code is made of 46 chromosomes and God is transcendent and beyond time, space and matter.
Secondly, the concept of Original Sin is completely incompatible with the fundamental laws of bio logy including the principles of gene inheritance and the facts supporting the theory of evolution. Read further inAlislam-eGazette or at http://islamforwest.org/2012/01/06/darwinian-evolution-islam-or-christianity/
7. Caliph Umar Farooq versus Emperor Heraclius: Who gave us our Religious Freedoms?
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD
Epigraph:
There should be no compulsion in religion. Surely, right has become distinct from wrong; so whosoever refuses to be led by those who transgress, and believes in Allah, has surely grasped a strong handle which knows no breaking. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Al Quran 2:257)
Umar Farooq found the Temple Mount to be a garbage dump for Jerusalem in the 7th century and personally cleaned and restored it!
At the time of advent of Islam there were two Empires, the Roman and the Persian. The Persian Empire did not survive very long.
So, it may be reasonable to ask, which of the two surviving Empires, the Roman Empire and the nascent Muslim Empire, did the most to give us our vision of the religious freedoms, in the seventh century.
Umar Farooq (born 579 CE – died 6 November 644 CE), a close companion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, led the rapidly evolving Muslim Empire from 634-644 CE.
Heraclius (Latin: Flavius Heraclius Augustus, 575 – February 11, 641) was Byzantine (Roman) Emperor from 610 to 641 CE.
Heraclius and Umar Farooq were contemporaries and each stands for their respective cultures and Empires.
By studying the two, we can track the history of religious freedom in organized human thought during the seventh century.
In this short article I want to show that Islam is a religion of peace and that revelation has contributed in a big way to human knowledge and ...continue reading at www.Islamforwest.org
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