Islam-4
Holy Scriptures-Koran
Koran and Bible
Theologians-Philosophers    Sacred Places   Holy Days    Art-Science-Poverty

Art Gallery of Islam
Islam-1

The Holy Mosque of The Prophet, Al-Madinah

HOLY SCRIPTURES:

    1- The "Koran" or "Holy Quran": For the Muslims is the word of God as revealed to Muhammad.
    The Koran, "recitations", is the cornerstone of the Muslim faith. It is for the Muslims the divine law of God as uttered by Allah himself in revelations to Muhammad... it is the only miracle God worked through Muhammad, his "standing miracle", as he called it... and he is the "seal of the Prophets".
    The Koran is smaller than the New Testament, about 4/5 of it. It is divided into 114 chapters or "Sura", arranged in order of length of the Sura: Thus, Sura 2 has 286 verses, Sura 3 with 200, down to Sura 114, which has 6 verses. All except the first Chapter, the opening Sura.
    The Holy Quran, in 23 languages
    The Koran or Holy Quran, in 19 languages

    2- The "Hadith": What Muhammad the prophet said and did:
    The Hadith is the record of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The sayings and conduct of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) constitute the Sunnah.
    The Hadith has come to supplement the Holy Quran as a source of the Islamic religious law. The Hadith is the second pillar after the Quran upon which every Muslim rests his faith. Hadith consists of Mat'n and Isnad. Mat'n means the text of the Hadith, while Isnad means the chain of transmitters to that Hadith. http://www.al-islam.org/short/alhadith/Pages/Page1.html#what
    The Hadith and Sunnah
    The Prophet Muhammad's Last Sermon 

    3- The "Sunnah": The rules and regulations of Muslim life, with different "sharia" (norms of life):
    Believes and Practices
    http://www.al-islam.org/laws/ Islamic Laws and Practices
    http://www.al-islam.org/laws/al-khui/ Islamic Laws of Ayatullah Khoei    

    4- The "Torah" of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Gospel of Jesus (the Injil), accepted by the Koran, but considered "corrupted".

    5- The interpreters of the Scriptures, are the "mullahs" or "ulemas", who serve as religious teachers and judges in the courts... the University of Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, is considered to be the best institution for religious instruction and legal interpretation, the Sunni Islam's foremost seat of learning. In a sense, "Al-Azar" may be compared to the Vatican in Rome for the Christians.   
    When Napoleon attacked Egypt he looked upon Al-Azhar as the most well-known university in the whole Islamic world. During his exile at Saint. Helena he wrote in his dairy that Al-Azhar was the counterpart of Sorbonne in Paris. He looked highly upon Al-Azhar Ulama as the elite of the educated class and as the leaders of the people.
    When the 1952 revolution took place, Al-Azhar was one of the society that has been modernized and developed so that it can effectively carry out its illuminating role for the welfare not only of Egypt, but also of the Arab and whole Islamic world. http://www.islamfortoday.com/alazhar.htm
 

THE "KORAN"... AND THE "BIBLE":

    The Koran deals with many similar features as the Bible: Adam, Noah, Satan, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Moses, David, Gabriel, Virgin Mary, Jesus... the Koran honors and praises the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel of Jesus.
    Both, the Koran and the Bible, show the greatness of the only one God, the creator of heavens and earth, the submission that all humans should have to the will of God, the Last Judgment, or Day of Resurrection, Heaven, Hell...

   Discrepancies:
    However, there are some "discrepancies" between the Koran and the Bible, important enough to say that either the Koran is not the word of God or the Bible is not the word of God... they cannot be both "the truth"... one of them is false, even if it has many good things... because God cannot say one single error!.
    For a Muslin, even the suggestion that the Koran may be in error, is a blasphemy... as it happens with a Jew and his Scriptures, and a Christian with the whole Bible... but we should be open-minded... if you were born from Muslim or Jew parents, now, most probably, you would be a Muslim or a Jew, what your parents were!... or a Christian or a Hindu, if your parents were Christians or Hindus...
    ... And I am not "suggesting" that the Koran has errors... I am saying it!... as follows:

    The "Trinity"... "Mary":
    The Koran proclaims that "the Trinity of the Bible" are three Gods: "The Father, Jesus, and Mary"... as declared in the Surah 5:116, "Then God will say: Jesus son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind: "Worship me and my mother as gods besides God?"...
    ... and this is a "gross error" of the Koran, because the Bible does not say that the Trinity is "the Father, Jesus, and Mary", but "the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit"... and God cannot make that gross mistake!.
    Muslim scholars see the angel Gabriel as the Holy Spirit.

    The "Trinity":
    The Trinity is rejected by the Koran, and in fact it says that to believe in the Trinity is to be an unbeliever, "Unbelievers are those that say: "God is one of three" (5:73)... However, every time God speaks in the Koran he does it as "We", "Us", Our", over 100 times!... showing again and again that God is not a single person, but several persons in one divine being: In Sura 37:70-130 the Koran repeats it at least 17 times: "Noah prayed to Us... We bestowed on him... We gave him... We reword the righteous" and every time writes them with capital, "We", Us", "Our"... "Then We sent forth Moses and Aaron with Our signs" (10:75)... over and over is repeated in the same way in Suras 7:1-11, 2, 6, 10...

    "Jesus Christ":
    There are several important discrepancies between the Koran and the Bible:
    - The Gospels, say that Jesus is God, he was crucified, and he resurrected physically...
    - The Koran, denies the 3 facts... but then, praises the "Gospel of Jesus"... that's a "gross error of the Koran", because if Jesus is not God, and he was not crucified, the Koran should say that the Gospel of Jesus is wrong, instead of praising the Gospel, and advising to follow the doctrines of the Gospel in Suras 5:46 and 5:65... the divinity of Jesus, his crucifixion, and resurrection at the third day, is the "heart of the Gospel"!.

    "God the Father":
    This is not a error but "a missing" in the Koran: Of the 99 attributes of God, is missing "the Father": God is the Father of every Muslim, and every Christian, and Jew, and Hindu... the same Allah who made the hands of a Muslim, made the feet of a Jew, and the kidneys of a Christian... God is the compassionate Father, the merciful as a Father is...

    "Eternally Father":
    This is another "missing" of the Koran... God is eternally the Father of Jesus Christ, eternally begotten, not made, and one in being with the Father; Jesus is eternally God as the Father, because if at any moment God would not have had a Son, at that moment God would not have been a Father, which is an impossible... and Jesus Christ is as much God as the Father, God from God... but not two Gods, only one God!... like the water and ice, not 2 waters, but the same substance in different forms... and the Holy Spirit is like a cloud, also the same water, who proceeds eternally from the love of Father to the Son and the love of the Son to the Father... and there are not 3 Gods, but only one eternal God: The God of Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, of the Sura 2:133, which are not 3 Gods, but the only one God... and that's why the only one God speaks as "We" and "Us" and "Our", at least 17 times in the Surah of The Ranks (37), in verses 70-130.

    The "Savior":
    This is another "missing" in the Koran: God loved you so much that he became flesh, Jesus the Christ, to die in a cross to pay for all your bad deeds, so if you believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16)...
    The certainty of salvation known by the Christian (Jn.3:36, 5:24) is but a vague hope to the Muslim who awaits the Day of Resurrection when "works", not "grace", will determine his destination in the next life: The balance between good and bad deeds determines eternal destiny in Paradise or Hell... God's mercy may tip the balance for a Muslim, but it is arbitrary and uncertain...
    Right now you can have "eternal life": Just believe in the Son, that Jesus Christ is God, and you have "eternal life"... not that you "will have", but that you have it now!, says John 3:36, with a "new life" now on earth... let us see:

    "God in you":
    This is the great difference of a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian: For a Muslim and a Jew, God is with him, guiding him to the right path... but for a Christian God is "within him"... "You in me, and I in you", says Jesus in John 15... Christ is inside a Christian, and a Christian is inside Christ, in his Church... because Jesus not only died on a cross to pay for all your sins, but also resurrected to give you a "new life", the life of God in you... and you can have it all right now, just by believing in the Son, in Jesus Christ (John 3:36)... and this is all free, by grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit, your sanctifier, who is with you now, helping you to become a Christian, without forcing you, like a dove, but with the power of God, able to make your life one of service and love... a "new creature" on earth... and, on top of it, a sure eternal Paradise after death.

    "Jews" and "Christians":
    In the Koran, Jews are damned by Allah, and Christians are told that faith in Christ as God incarnate is "blasphemy"... but the same Koran praises and recommends the Torah and the Gospel of Jesus, which is a contradiction.

    "Virgin Mary":
    The Koran says that Jesus was born from a "Virgin", "Mary" (3:47, 19:20)... and says about Virgin Mary, "God has chosen you. He has made you pure and exalted above womankind... she was a saintly woman" (3:43, 5:75).
    - In 1917, Virgin Mary appeared in "Fatima", Portugal... and in the pilgrimage of her statue to Africa, for the first time Islam trembled, seeing so much devotion to her, with the same name as the wife of Ishmael, and the daughter and heir of Muhammad...
    ... for the second time Islam trembled in Egypt, when a shadow of Mary appeared at the top of a Coptic temple in 1968, and crowds of up to 250,000 were praying together, mostly Muslims with Christians.
    ... And, if you are a Muslim, I want to challenge you: If you have in your life an important but impossible problem with your family, work, or sickness... try Mary of Fatima... pray to her just one Hail Mary every night... and you will see wonders in your life... you don't have to renounce to your religion, nor to believe anything... just pray to her... and I assure you will see wonders in your life!... now!... only a warning: The boat of Mary only brings to Jesus.

    Difficulties in the Qur'an... Contradictions

THEOLOGIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS:

    Like all major religions, Islam have many prestigious Theologians and Philosophers, with the main issues:

    1- Faith and works.
    2- Predestination and free will.
    3- Revelation and reason.
    4- The implications of unity of God, the eternity of the Koran, and weather or not the Koran must be taken literally.

    Theologians:

    1- The "Kharijites", "seceders", since they withdrew from the party of Ali. They emphasize the importance of works over faith, and the predestination over human responsibility.

    2- The "Murji'ites", "postponers" or "those who hope", who emphasize the opposite.

    3- The "Hanbalites", traditionalists-literalists, with the literal interpretation of the Koran, and its eternity.

    4 - The "Mu'tazilites", "separatists", or rationalists, who give equal weight to revelation and reason; they deny the eternity of the Koran, and its literal interpretation.

    5- "Al-Ash'ari", makes a synthesis between the last two, accepted as Sunny orthodoxy.

    Philosophers:

    They emphasize the use or "reason": Al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Averroes (Spain), Avicenna (Persia).

 SACRED PACES:

    The 3 most sacred places for the Muslims are: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem... for the Shiah, Karbala in Iraq, and Meshed in Iran.

    1- Mecca:

    The most sacred place for Muslims is the Kaaba sanctuary in Mecca, where Muhammad was born, the object of the annual pilgrimage, the "Hajj", attended by up to 2 million people from all over the world... a most impressive religious spectacle!.

    For the Muslims it is more than a mosque, it is believed to be the place where the heavenly bliss and power touches the earth directly... he who makes the "Hajj" goes to Paradise!... and all the Muslim prayers are directed towards Mecca.

    The "Kaaba" or "Ka'bah": Art Gallery of Islam
   It is a small cubical building housing a black stone in the center of the mosque. Constructed of grey stone and marble, with 3 pillars supporting the roof and suspended lamps. It is covered with an enormous cloth of black brocade. The "black stone" inside was given to Adam on his expulsion from paradise in order to obtain forgiveness of sins, and brought to earth by Gabriel. Most probably it is a meteorite. The Kaaba was supposed to be built by Abraham and Ishmael on the spot where Adam uttered his first prayers to God, though there is no proof that Abraham ever went to Mecca.

    The Kaaba was a revered sacred sanctuary before Islam, adoring many gods. The building has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Muhammad seems to have disregarded the Kaaba, but after the Hegira to Medina, he took Mecca, destroyed the pagan idols within and surrounding the sanctuary, and converted it as the center of Islam, replacing Jerusalem.

    2- Medina:

    The next in sanctity, the place where Muhammad lived and died. Buried under the floor of 'A'ishah's hut, alongside the courtyard of the mosque.

    3- Jerusalem:

    The "Dome of the Rock", with another stone, the El-Agra, where Abraham went to sacrifice his son Ishmael (for the Christians, Isaac), and from where Muhammad ascended to the 7 heavens on the reputed "night journey".

    The Dome of the Rock is exactly in the place where the Temple of Solomon was, and where the Jews want to build the new Temple, an impossibility without destroying the Dome!.

    4- For the Shiites, there are 2 important sacred places: Karbala, in Iraq, the place of martyrdom of Ali's son Husayn. And Meshed in Iran, where Imam Ali ar-Rida is buried.

    5- Shrines of "Sufi" Saints: In Baghdad, the tomb of the greatest saint: 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani.

 HOLY DAYS:

    The 3 most important Holy Days are:

    1- "Ramadan", the holiest period, a whole moth of fasting, remembering the time when Muhammad received his revelations from Allah.

    2- 'id-al-Fitar: The spring festival when Muslims celebrate for 3 days the end of Ramadan, a time like Christmas, when children receive gifts and the entire population eats and dresses and plays in a spirit of great joy.

    3- 'id-al-Kaha: A fall celebration of the story when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael (for the Christians, Isaac). They celebrate a feast with meat from sheep sacrificed.

    4- Other Holy Days are: The "birthday of Muhammad"; the "Islamic New Year"; the "night of ascension", when Muhammad went to heaven; the "night of determination", the night when God makes decisions about the destiny of individuals and the world.

    5- For the "Shiite", the "martyrdom of Husayn", the 10th day of Muharram (the first month of the Muslim year).

    6- For the "Sufi", and in general, "the death anniversaries of various Saints".

    - Islamic holidays change dates, since the Muslim calendar uses a "lunar month".

 ARTS, SCIENCE... POVERTY:

    Islam has made a great contribution to the human race in the fields of art, science, philosophy...

    Architecture: Art Gallery of Islam

    It is by far the most important expression of Islamic art, with splendid buildings around the globe:

    The early mosque of 'Amr in Egypt, and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem... and the Mamlerk tombs in Cairo.

    The Taj Mahal (a tomb), and the Pearl Mosque in Agra, India.

    The superb buildings in Turkey: The Hagia Sophia and the Mosque of Suleiman in Istanbul, the Selim Mosque in Edirne.

    The glorious Alhambra of Granada, and the Great Mosque in Cordoba, Spain.

    The Mosque of Sheykh, and the Tomb Tower of Abu Yazid in Iran.

    The Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan...

    Paintings:

    They are governed by the "aniconism": The religious prohibition in the Koran of figuration and representation of living creatures. Islam developed the beautiful "arabesque stile", with lines, leaves...

    Music:

Instrumental music was forbidden by the orthodox... so, the "vocal" music took place in the form of "recitation" of the Koran... however, the Sufi introduced instrumental music for their dances and whirling, and it has been mostly accepted by Islam... the guitar, flute, and percussion instruments make a beautiful Arabic music.

    Science:

    In the field of "medicine", contributions with the circulation of blood, smallpox, anesthesia... condensed in the "Avicena" writings. In "mathematics", the decimal system ant Zero. In the fields of astrology, geography, architecture... great contributions.

    Wisdom:

    Through Averroes, from Spain, and Avicena from Persia, Aristotle was rediscovered in the West. In Baghdad, the "house of wisdom" created by Mahmum, collects all available writings of the world, mostly translated into Arabic.

    Poverty:

The first impression visiting a Muslim country is "extreme poverty", in Morocco, Palestine, India, Afghanistan... even in Cairo!... however, the Muslim homes are impeccable, clean, small paradises on earth!, even in the midst of extreme poverty... and it is a great contrast to see a few private homes with solid gold knobs and faucets...

In Islam there is poverty, even with the great riches of oil and commerce... the money is in the hands of a few... may be instead of just "alms", what it is needed is "justice".