Miscellaneous Questions
Question:-
We see that all Islamic countries are poor. The Quran praises the poor. Is Allah suggesting that poverty is a virtue in worldly life? Are the best amongst us basically the ones who have suffered the most? Is that how fake this life is?
Comment:-
Islam is not against worldly or material success as long as the pursuit of it does not jeopardize spiritual development.
"And when ye have performed your rites, remember Allah as ye remember your fathers, or with a keener memory still. There is among men such as says: Our Lord! give us in this world; but then they have no portion in the Hereafter. And some there be who say: Our Lord! give us in this world good and good in the Hereafter; and defend us from the torment of the fire! These have their portion from what they have earned; for Allah is swift at reckoning." Quran 2:200-202
Note that the prayer of the second person asks for the good in both worlds and does not ask for what he might desire and is illusory.
Poverty refers to freedom from attachments to anything but Allah, be it material goods, opinions, prejudices, ideologies, nation, prestige, power, family, egotism etc.
The person who is empty can be filled by Allah.
To be rich means to have all these attachments and to be controlled by them. The person is full of things which are less than Allah and there is no room for Allah in his heart.
According to these definitions an outwardly very rich man can be spiritually poor. But an outwardly poor man can be rich in two opposite ways:- He can be full of resentment and envy and be constantly thinking about wealth. Or he can be full of joy, peace, goodness and the attributes of Allah.
But there are people who are poor either (a) because their environment have little natural resources relative to population or (b) others have robbed or exploited them or (c) because they lack knowledge and skill or (d) because they make little effort to change their outer or inner condition.
Their state may be regarded as a punishment or a challenge or a test. They can also be content with what they have. They ought to change it. But they will not be able to change their condition unless they change themselves. Quran 13:11 This is where worship helps.
Question :-
People get their hand amputated if they are caught stealing. What if someone was wrongly convicted? You can't give them a new hand and say 'Oh, sorry'. What if someone was to be framed for a crime?
Comment:-
The law has to ensure that it is a case of certainty and not a case of doubt. - e.g. it is not circumstantial.
The punishment is so severe in order to indicate how much Islam disapproves of it and in order to deter. When it does this then the punishment abolishes itself. The punishment does not apply in the case of a person who is forced by necessity. It is up to the society to ensure that no one is in such dire need.
Question:-
Is Allah and instinct/subconscious on the same level, i.e. when we connect with Allah, we are really connecting to our subconscious? Is the subconscious really some made up term which is actually Allah? Some people believe that our subconscious minds knows everything, and contains all the answers - sounds like Allah to me.
Comment:-
We are part of total Reality including the Universe, made by the materials, energy, forces, laws existing in it, and we are in constant interaction with it and dependent on it. So Reality and our own organism can be said to "know" each other in a real sense.
But we are aware only of very small part of reality. We have a little consciousness. If we pay attention and study we can become aware of a little more than normal. If we undergo a suitable discipline than we can expand consciousness still further.
If we represent Total Reality by a large circle then a small circle within it represents our consciousness. We can expand this circle.
Question:-
Whenever we have a problem, we are meant to ask Allah for guidance. I believe Allah is all powerful, but I don't think I'll solve many of my problems sitting in a mosque praying all day - we all must go out and make a living, someone isn't going to beat a path up to my doorstep and give me a job, pay my debts, buy my food etc. Although there is much pain and misery in the world, there are also many people who have gained success and happiness without making a single day of prayer to Allah. How could I convince people like that to join Islam? They are surely the ones who would scorn the most; they already have peace and happiness without Islam. It's hard to sell someone something they believe they already have. Please explain.
Comment:-
There is some truth in what you say. Allah has given us all certain faculties which we can use to our own benefit. As vicegerents we were made for a purpose and this involves using the faculties and other advantages Allah has given us. Allah helps those who do as He instructs and those who help themselves. The purpose of prayer is to remain in contact with Allah so that we remain aware of the purpose of life, the values we are required to pursue and in order to obtain the spiritual resources - the will, motivating power, endurance, and for spiritual development of consciousness, conscience, will, control, inner peace, joy, harmony and integrity. This is where real success lies.
You must not be deceived by apparent outer riches and success. Firstly, on death all these are lost so that the pursuit of these things turn out to be futile. It is different, of course, if something is achieved which is passed down the generations and improves the society such as Knowledge or an invention or a mode of organization.
Secondly, a great many rich people are obsessed and driven rather than being in control and do themselves physical and psychological damage.
Thirdly, the mere possession of wealth does not guarantee any happiness. Many remain very miserable. In the pursuit of wealth they may have neglected their family and friends and made a mess of their lives and those around them. Their children may have been emotionally damaged and their resulting behaviour may cause social damage. This causes others to react in a bad way so that the consequences of his actions return to the individual who did them. Every action a person does, of course, also modifies his own character and is recorded in his own mind. And his mind does punish him at the sub-conscious level.
Question:-
For strong pious Muslims who have never had a proper conversation with a woman, aren't there level of communication going to be awful with women when they get married? There's no denying that the way men communicate with women is different from communicating with another man. If he has never had a decent conversation with a woman before, he's sure to feel like a complete idiot. How does that work?
Comment:-
There is no ban on conversation between the sexes.
If you are speaking about the setting up of sexual relationships then in any case everyone has to learn such communication.
Question:-
We believe that Allah brings help to those who ask for his help, but for many non-believers who haven't made a days prayer in their life have found their way out of their problems, and it was not because they prayed to Allah - it was because they got off their back sides and did something about it. Why?
Comment:-
The answer is in the above comments.
Allah has created human beings for a purpose and given all human beings the appropriate faculties and expects them to be used.
Prayers are there to ensure that these faculties are used in the best way and for the best purposes i.e. in the service of Allah. This implies that there is a cosmic (or environmental) purpose, a social purpose and a spiritual purpose (i.e. psychological or spiritual development).
Prayer produces appropriate inner states. There might be a number of opportunities around you but you do not see them. But prayer enables you to see them because you are asking God to fulfill a particular need with respect to which the opportunities have significance. They would not be opportunities with respect to some other desire. You still have to take advantage of them. Others might be already in a mental set to see the opportunities because they are always looking for them - their minds are driven by a particular ambition. In this sense they already have a prayerful attitude but it is directed toward their ambition. Their own desire is the god but leads them spiritually no where.
Question:-
Some people think that Islam was spread by the sword. Is this true?
Comment:-
I am not an expert on Islamic history being mainly interested in its teachings. But from what I know the spread of Islam cannot be attributed to military conquest. Though Muslim armies did conquer many places they did not impose Islam on the people. Many places simply fell to Islam because the people of those lands rejected the oppression of their rulers and invited the Muslims to come or offered little resistance to them. There is no sign of Muslim armies having conquered Indonesia. China has about 100 million Muslims but no armies went there.
We must distinguish between Islam as a teaching and Muslims who are human beings and may understand and follow the teaching to various degrees and who also react to real situations. The Quran teaches that there is no compulsion in religion (2:256) and though it allows self-defense and retaliation as a deterrent (2:179), it does not allow aggression (2:190-193) but encourages treaties (9:4) to be made.
Question:-
An American lady wrote to me saying: It is forbidden for a man and woman to be alone in a room together. So trust is a foreign concept in islam. I can see no other reason for this ruling. Personally, I'd be insulted at the thought that I could not be trusted to be alone in a room with a man... it would also make business impossible (given the number of client meetings etc. where I would be the only female present). How would you comment?
Comment:-
It's more a protection and safeguard. It applies to social occasions, not to business meetings or seeing a doctor etc. when there are no suspicious circumstances e.g. the meeting is in offices with a clerk or secretary outside and so on.
It is a safeguard in three ways:- (1) Against temptation (2) Against gossiping tongues and suspicion (3) false accusations.
This argument about "trust" is really hypocrisy. The fact is that human beings do undergo temptations, fornication and adultery are common in the West, and there is gossip. When it comes to courts where evidence for adultery is required, then the fact that a man and a woman were together in private for a certain length of time can be used as circumstantial evidence. There is a great likelihood that adultery has occurred and the person who has "trust" might be regarded as naive. On the other hand "trust" is greater when people do not enter into compromising situations.
Question:-
This American lady also wrote:- Sex outside marriage is considered in Islamic law not only a sin but as a crime which is punished in the same way as theft or murder. The punishment applies equally to men or women and is severe. Thank the Gods this isn't a Muslim country then! Sex is not harmful to others in the same way as theft or murder, so why does it elicit such a strong punishment under Islamic law? What two people do in privacy is between them and their Deity, and that's the way it should be.
Comment:-
This is a common prejudice and a case of the ostrich syndrome, of deliberately burying ones head in order not to see. Adultery does more harm than murder. (1) It destroys families, thereby causing the disintegration of the society, which is a network of families. (2) It destroys the security and stability of the home, which is required to bring up children, the next generation, in a psychologically healthy manner. (3) It encourages the mentality and culture of lust, sensuality, depravity and self-indulgence which perverts psychological and spiritual health and destroys all higher values. Sexuality is connected with life, with a self-image, with social, psychological and spiritual development. A frivolous attitude to it diminishes respect for life and its devaluation is associated with increasing violence. (4) What human beings do modifies them and the resulting behaviour affects people all around them, directly or indirectly. We do not exist in isolation. Everyone is also an example to others. Therefore, evil can spread unless nipped in the bud.
Question:-
Islam requires sexual relations to be confined within marriage for the sake of children. Why worry about "within marriage". Why not just "within a stable and loving relationship"?
Comment:-
Marriage is defined as "a stable loving relationship", or conversely "a stable loving relationship" is marriage. It is not the certificate which makes marriages but the commitment to each other. This usually requires affirmation in a ceremony and a public declaration. This is because marriages produce the next generation and bind families together in a network - a society is a network of families. This establishes the interest and rights of the society. Indeed, it is the society which has to pick up the cost of failed families and illegitimate children in the West. Where there is no commitment there the relationship is casual and sex is devalued.
Question:-
Islam allows men several wives but not women several husbands. Is not this a male-dominated religion that only allows "perks" for the males amongst it's number?
Comment:-
"Perks" shows an inappropriate rather frivolous mentality. We have to look at realities. The fact is that it is the men who have to provide and the women who are pregnant and must carry the child and after birth feed it. Women took this duty seriously - there were no artificial milk in bottles etc. and the human contact with mother was regarded as psychologically important. The baby was fed for two years.
There are usually more women than men in a society, not only because more girls are born but also because men die earlier owing to stresses of work and in wars. This implies that a proportion of women must remain frustrated, or they and their children must remain uncared for, or competition for men will lead to the spread of immorality. There would not have been a collapse of morality after the world wars if polygamy had existed in the West. In any case married men still have mistresses in the West without being obliged to undertake the responsibilities of marriage. The law lets them get away with this.
Question:-
Under Islam marriages are arranged. So love doesn't enter into this arrangement. That is very sad. It is more like prostitution.
Comment:-
This seems like another bit of hypocrisy or ignorance. It mistakes love for lust or infatuation, which is an impulsive, superficial and temporary condition. It is this mistake which causes all the casual sex. Obviously, in casual sex there is no real love and the resulting great divorce rate also shows that love is absent. Real love tends to grow gradually because of shared experiences specially when the children come. The child is a perfect blend of the parents (in real terms, genetically) Each parent is genetically connected with the child, and therefore with each other also, and though them with each others families and so on. There is, therefore, no comparison between real love and the superficial love they speak of in the West when they refer to sexual intercourse. In fact, it can be regarded a perversion - the intimacy which sexual union implies is not being felt. Normal human sexuality includes tenderness, mutual support, home making and child-raising and is not just confined to the act of intercourse.
In Islam, it is the more mature minds of the parent which are involved in the choice of spouse. Background, education, character, ability to maintain a family financially and psychologically is taken into consideration. The expectations that each partner might have of the other can also be considered, but the mutual duties are usually understood when the faith is the same. The son or daughter can meet and see the prospective spouse suitably chaperoned. Parents will meet the families. But no marriage can take place without the consent of both potential spouses.
Question:-
This lady writes:- You see, I have difficulty with all of these Islamic rules about women as they are insulting to me as an individual. They assume that "I can't help myself" if left alone with someone, that I am merely an animal interested in nothing more than sex... as someone who has been married for as many years as I have with never a thought to "looking elsewhere", that is about as insulting as you can get. It's also insulting to people who choose to have a different lifestyle where love is what matters.
What answer can be given?
Comment:-
There are conventions in all countries which people accept. It was regarded as insulting to a woman, even in the West not so long ago, if she were asked by a man to go into a room privately with him. He would not be concerned for her reputation or he would be assuming that she was a loose woman without self-respect. It is a fact that people are weak and cannot help themselves under certain situations specially when they claim to be strong. In any case the person might have gone there deliberately for illicit purposes. One does not have to be "an animal interested in nothing more than sex" in order to be motivated by uncontrolled sexual appetites. Indeed, even animals have other interests. For every person who has "never had a thought of looking elsewhere", there are many who have had such thoughts. This is specially so in the West where attitudes to sex are loose, and indiscriminate intercourse and one night stands, specially under the influence of alcohol are very common. No, this attitude of "being insulted" seems at best naive and unrealistic and at worst hypocritical, arrogant and self-centered. It is often an excuse. Note that the lady says "Thank God it is not a Muslim country" because she wants freedom of adultery.
When subjective opinions are allowed to dominate then anything whatever can become acceptable. Women come to regard it their right to kill their babies. Others believe that it is permissible to kill the elderly or the children who are born with defects or those with an intelligence less than their own or anyone who is different from the norm. And so on.
If love is what matters then people would respect each other and themselves, avoid deceiving their legitimate partners, doing harm to their children and the society, or flouting the commands of God. They would not commit adultery or fornication. But love and compassion without wisdom can negate its own aims. Compassion for those who had illegitimate children has led to the spread of the number of such children most of whom suffer from various kinds of deprivation. Suffering ha increased and hearts have hardened.
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