Gandhi’s Admiration for Islam

“Muslims have never indulged themselves in bigotry even in times of greatest grandeur and victory. Islam enjoins an admiration for the Creator of the World and His works. As the West was in a dreadful darkness, the dazzling star of Islam shining in the East brought light, peace and relief to the suffering world. The Islamic religion is not a mendacious religion. When the Hindus study this religion with due respect, they, too, will feel the same sympathy as I do for Islam. I have read the books telling about the life-style of the Prophet of Islam and of those who were close to him. These books generated profound interest in me, so much so that when I finished reading them I regretted there being no more of them. I have arrived at the conclusion that Islam’s spreading rapidly was not by the sword. On the contrary, it was primarily owing to its simplicity, logicality, its Prophet’s great modesty, his trueness to his promises and his unlimited faithfulness towards every Muslim that many people willingly accepted Islam.”

LINK

Thomas Carlyle – On Mohammed as a Hero

Thomas Carlyle’s memoir of a trip: “In Germany I told my friend Goethe about the facts I had gathered concerning Islam and added my personal reflections on the subject. After listening to me with attention, he said, ‘If that is Islam, we are all Muslims.‘ ”

In Carlyle’s book “Heroes and Hero-Worship”  he has written a chapter titled “The Hero as Prophet.  Mahomet: Islam.”  In this chapter Carlyle is very positive about Islam (although he sees it as another form of Christianity – his own faith).

Napoleon a Muslim?

“I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.” – Napoleon Bonaparte as Quoted in Christian Cherfils, ‘Bonaparte et Islam,’ Pedone Ed., Paris, France, 1914, pp. 105, 125

In the book, ‘Satanic Voices – Ancient and Modern’ by David M. Pidcock, (1992 ISBN: 1-81012-03-1), it states on page 61, that the then official French Newspaper, Le Moniteur, carried the accounts of his conversion to Islam, in 1798 C.E.

It mentions his new Muslim name, which was ‘Aly (Ali) Napoleon Bonaparte’. He commends the conversion of his General Jacques Menou, who became known as General ‘Abdullah-Jacques Menou’, who later married an Egyptian, Sitti Zoubeida – who was descended from the line of the Prophet Muhammad (on whom be peace).

Napoleon did recognise the superiority of the Islamic (Shari’ah) Law – and did attempt to implement this in his Empire.

Further detailed accounts of this can be found in the book ‘Napoleon And Islam’ by C. Cherfils. ISBN: 967-61-0898-7

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), the famous French Emperor, was a man of great vanity and ambition, and he succeeded to conquer many countries, but in the end was defeated and finished his life in exile on the Island of St. Helena. While in exile, he had opportunity to reflect upon Life, and his thoughts were published in a book entitled “The Thoughts of the Prisoner of the Island of St. Helena” shortly after his death. One of his thoughts was:

“The existence of One God is undoubtable, but all religions are creations of Man.”

If by “One God” Napoleon meant the Creator of the Universe, then such belief in existence of One God would make Napoleon a sincere Muslim. He did not place much faith in man-made religions. But what religions was he familiar with? Christianity, and some names of other religions. He knew that the religion of the Arabs was Islam, but he had little knowledge about it. But Islam is nothing else but belief in One God, the Creator of the Universe – everything else follows from that. Some people come to such belief naturally by themselves. Abraham did. And so did some others.

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Abraham did not follow the 5 pillars of Islam – being before the time when the truth of Allah was revealed to Mohammed.   It is not necessary to follow ritual to be a Muslim.  Ritual is too often a focus for Muslims and means more to them than submission.  Submission to Allah is something every living thing does without need of ritual – except for humans who try to set themselves apart from Allah or humans who try to control the natural world.

Nietzsche on Islam

The Antichrist has some telling comments on Islam; for example:

“The Antischrist, 60

Christianity has cheated us out of the harvest of ancient culture; later it cheated us again, out of the harvest of the culture of Islam. The wonderful world of the Moorish culture of Spain, really more closely related to us, more congenial to our senses and tastes than Rome and Greece, was trampled down (I do not say by what kind of feet). Why? Because it owed its origin to noble, to male instincts, because it said Yes to life even with the rare and refined luxuries of Moorish life.

Later the crusaders fought something before which they might more properly have prostrated themselves in the dust—a culture compared to which even our nineteenth century might well feel very poor, very “late.” To be sure, they wanted loot; the Orient was rich. One should not be so prejudiced. Crusades—higher piracy, nothing else! The German nobility, Viking nobility at bottom, was in its proper element here: the church knew only too well what it takes to get the German nobility. The German nobility, always the “Swiss Guards” of the church, always in the service of all the bad instincts of the church—but well paid. That the church should have used German swords, German blood and courage, to wage its war unto death against everything noble on earth! There are many painful questions at this point. The German nobility is almost missing in the history of higher culture: one guesses the reason—Christianity, alcohol, the two great means of corruption.

Really there should not be any choice between Islam and Christianity, any more than between an Arab and a Jew. The decision is given; nobody is free to make any further choice. Either one is a chandala, or one is not. “War to the knife against Rome! Peace and friendship with Islam”-thus felt, thus acted, that great free spirit, the genius among German emperors, Frederick II. How? Must a German first be a genius, a free spirit, to have decent feelings? I do not understand how a German could ever have Christian feelings.”

LINK

Mohammed was no paedophile

http://www.ilaam.net/Articles/Ayesha.html

Sharia law is very similar to older forms of English and US law

Instituting Sharia law in the local and tribal sense that it was originally intended would bring the most fair justice to communities in Europe and anywhere else that embraces it.  To move away from this is a move towards Talmudic law and such changes have been brought by Jews who study our laws so that they suit their aims.  Jews cannot function in societies with local Sharia law.  The people would see what they do and put a stop to it.

The ideas of trial with a jury of “peers” is Sharia, because it necessitates that the criminal is judged by the community where the crime was committed.  Sharia punishments are punishments supported and demanded by the family of the victim and the community, with the judge ensuring that the emotional need for revenge does not cause an injustice.

The article on Sharia law in Wikipedia goes into the common ground between Sharia and older forms of English and US law, Anglo Saxon law and Norman law – suggesting that in fact these may have been Islamic in origin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia#English_common_law

What this shows is that far from Sharia being an alien and oppressive law forced on us by non-Europeans, it is in fact intended to reflect exactly the organic justice that arises from the community and would be a return to the legal system we had in the past in its basic form.

Man Created From Clay

“He created man from potter’s clay”

this falls in with the Cains-Smith theory of life evolving from clay.

Clay theory

In simplified form, clay theory runs as follows: Clays form naturally from silicates in solution. Clay crystals, as other crystals, preserve their external formal arrangement as they grow, snap and grow further. Masses of clay crystals of a particular external form may happen to affect their environment in ways which affect their chances of further replication — for example, a ‘stickier’ clay crystal is more likely to silt a stream bed, creating an environment conducive to further sedimentation. It is conceivable that such effects could extend to the creation of flat areas likely to be exposed to air, dry and turn to wind-borne dust, which could fall at random in other streams. Thus by simple, inorganic, physical processes, a selection environment might exist for the reproduction of clay crystals of the ‘stickier’ shape.

There follows a process of natural selection for clay crystals which trap certain forms of molecules to their surfaces (those which enhance their replication potential). Quite complex proto-organic molecules can be catalysed by the surface properties of silicates. The final step occurs when these complex molecules perform a ‘Genetic Takeover’ from their clay ‘vehicle’, becoming an independent locus of replication – an evolutionary moment that might be understood as the first exaptation.

Despite its frequent citation as a useful model of the kind of process that might have been involved in the prehistory of DNA, the ‘clay theory’ of abiogenesis has not been widely accepted. As it was current and fashionable at that time, Richard Dawkins used it as the example model of abiogenesis in his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker.

Many Tribal Ways

Quote from someone else’s post on tribalism and Islam

Unfortunately, Archie, it was the unfortunate events of replacing many tribes and their schools for one tribal way that lead to the demise of the equal status that Islam afforded its women. Unfortunately, Archie, it was the rise of Al-Wahab and the demise of all of the other groups within this region and their various schools of thought that led to the demise of the quite complicated and rather sophisticated method of Islamic jurisprudence.

Wikipedia

Using proofs from the Qur’an and Sunnah, Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Al-Wahhab ibn Sulayman ibn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rashid al-Tamimi believed that those who practice innovation in Islam are Kufr and Shirk.

Article in the Guardian and PDF referenced

The Taliban’s perversion of sharia law

To legislate and structure society based on medieval rules and norms now actually contradicts Muhammad’s message, which is avoid tyranny, oppression and injustice.

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There is nothing un-Islamic in allowing individuals to follow and practice Islam as they choose without it being incorporated as state law (pdf). Muslims in Malakand should be able to choose freely how to follow Islam out of personal conviction, regardless of whether their interpretations conform to majority or minority opinion. They should be allowed to believe that listening to music is not un-Islamic; that women can shop in public without wronging Islam; and that Sikhs should be protected based on common nationality, not religion.

PDF on sharia and how it should vary locally and not be imposed by the state, written by Professor Abdullahi A. An-Na’im

Allah Exists Without a Place for His existence

http://www.amislam.com/without.htm

Lots of great references here including:

Imam Abu Hanifah, the Faqih of as-Salaf, said in his book Al-Fiqh alAbsat: “Allah existed eternally and there was no place. He existed before creating the creation. He existed, and there was no place, creation, or thing; and He is the Creator of everything.”

and

Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq said: “He who claims that Allah is in something or on something or from something, commits ash-shirk. Because if He was in something, He would be contained, and if He was on something, He would be carried, and if He was from something, He would be a creature.”