---
THE INVITATION
---
May be peace with you
I would like to share some very important information with you. If you were to believe in it and accept it, it would make your life better, it would make you happy & it would benefit you.
Information that if you were to believe in it and accept it, it would make the life of people around you better, it would make them happy and would bring benefit to them & this will have a ripple effect on the society around you and them hence, making it better for everyone to live and enjoy their life.
I would like to speak with you about the 'Purpose of this life'.
Look around yourself. Look at the pen, at the paper, at the chair, at the table, at the bed and everything else around it. Look at everything and think about them. You will find each & everything has a purpose. The pen is there to write, the paper is there to be written upon, the chair is there to sit upon and the table is there to eat upon, the bed is there to sleep upon & everything else has a purpose. I guarantee you that we will not find anything that does not have a purpose & these are the items that we as human beings have produced & developed because we need them and would like them to serve a purpose to make our life easy & better.
Now let us look at ourselves. Look at our eyes, ears, hands, feet, tongue, nose and everything else in the body. The eyes are there to see, ears are there to hear, hands are there to pick & hold items, feet are there for us to walk & the nose is there to smell. Look & think about each & everything in the body and we will see its purpose. Let us look at the perfect body and think about it.
Like we created & produced items for a purpose, our body, our presence in this world has a purpose and there is a Creator who has created us for a reason & the purpose of our life is to use our body to worship the Creator.
Creator of the heavens & earth, Master & Sustainer of everyone
Say: He is Allah, the One
Allah is the Self-Sufficient Master
He begets not nor was He begotten
And there is none comparable unto Him
The Creator sees everything, hears everything & knows everything. He wants us to live our life in this world in the best possible way to benefit ourselves, people around us & the whole community.
I invite you to accept in the Creator -- Allah (GOD) as your lord and worship him. Accept & worship the Lord of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus & Muhammad (may peace be upon them). Turn to Allah (God) alone in your prayers & supplication & ask him for everything you need. Let us submit to the Creator.
Amazingly enough, all of us are already in a state of submission. Look at the new born baby. The baby comes out of the mother's womb without its consent. Who gave this baby its basic humanly instincts? The baby breathes not that it chooses to but it must breathe in order to live. No one forces the baby to breath. The baby submits itself to the air. We drink water as it is a need of the body and we need it to live. No one forces us to drink water. We eat to live as the body needs it. No one forces us to eat.
We submit ourselves to the needs. Now let us change the word 'NEED' to 'ISLAM'.
If we were to believe in the Creator as he wants us to believe, it will mean that ;
We submit ourselves to the Creator & belive in Islam. The word Islam comes from the word S-A-L-A-M-A, which means peace. We submit ourselves to the will of the Creator to bring about peace in this world & once we die we will have happy after life.
I invite you to accept in the Creator -- Allah (GOD) as your lord and worship him. Accept & worship the Lord of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus & Muhammad (may peace be upon them). Turn to Allah (God) alone in your prayers & supplication & ask him for everything you need. Let us submit to the Creator.
I am humbly calling you to shift yourself from the dreadful consequences of polytheism to the beauty of monotheism. Enter Paradise after this life and save yourself from the hellfire by worshipping God alone & believing in the final messenger of Allah.
If you believe in the Creator of the heavens & the earth, that He is the Master & the Sustainer, that He is the only one worthy of worship & not any of His Creation, including any of the prophets, from Adam to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad. If you believe, then say it now with your tongue.
'I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship except Allah and i bear witness that Prophet Muhammad is the final messenger of Allah'
Then say the translation in Arabic ' Ash hadu Alla Illaha Illa Allah wa Ash Hadu Anna Muhammadan Rasool ul Allah.
This is the testimony that enters a person into the fold of Islam. You will immediately feel relief. After that, take your time to slowly learn the beauty of this religion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwd_df9NcIQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=841R8wCBo7c&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rzgNuny8yg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
You are welcome to visit our friendly sites where you can
*Read more about Islam*
http://www.islamic-invitation.com
*Chat free 1/1 with knowledgeable Muslims*
http://www.chatislamonline.org OR http://www.edialogue.org
*Ask questions about Islam http://www.islamreligion.com
*Women in Islam Website - http://www.womeninislam.ws
*This is the right time to know about Muhammed (PBUH) - http://www.rasoulallah.net/
Finally
Why not give yourself a chance and read the Quran
Online http://www.qurancomplex.org/Quran/Targama/Targama.asp?TabID=4&SubItemID=1&l=eng&t=eng&SecOrder=4&SubSecOrder=1
OR Download
http://ar.islamway.net/SF/quran/
OR Listen
http://www.tvquran.com/en/
---
MY RESPONSE
---
Hello. I appreciate you taking the time out to send this to me. In respect of this, I will go through it all and if you don't mind, give my perspective on the subject.
I certainly agree that we have purpose. and I certainly agree that a divine being instilled that purpose. I've always been partial to the Watchmaker Analogy to demonstrate this concept. And like you, I am also a monotheist. The question that has to be raised though is: How do you demonstrate that it is Allah of the Qu'ran who is the creator when there are a number of reasonable alternatives?
Now if you can demonstrate to me beyond a reasonable doubt that Islam is, in fact, the truth -- I will have no qualms about converting (or to use Islamic terminology, "reverting") to the Islamic faith.
However, in order for me to accept Islam, there are a number of issues that I need resolved before I can accept Muhammad as God's prophet and Allah as the almighty. If you're willing, I will present these questions and hopefully you can shed light on the subject.
I have raised these questions to a number of Muslims in the past and they generally turn the attention to other religions that do the same thing in a manner known as "tu quoque". However, I don't quite have interest in whether or not other religions do the same. If Islam is indeed the truth, it shouldn't attempt to compare with religions that it claims are not the truth. So, I think reasonably, I ask that if you address these questions, you do so directly and please refrain from using other religions to justify these notations.
1. The age of Aisha when Muhammad consummated his marriage to her raises a problem for me. In today's society, we call the act of sex with a 9 year old girl "pedophilia". I'm afraid I cannot accept a pedophile as the paragon of humankind.
2. Using extraquranic sources, can you prove that Muhammad ever even existed? Robert Spencer recently released a book titled "Did Muhammd ever exist?", which makes the case that any and all references to Muhammad as a living man came many years after his death. The question was purported to a pair of Ulama, who seemed to have trouble arguing the claim. Here is the debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Que1xs81Wts
3. In Muslim culture, the act of lying -- or "taqiyya" -- is not only acceptable, but encouraged as a means of proselytizing. This is supported in the Qu'ran, when it refers to Allah deceiving the unbelievers. How can we reasonably accept a God who promotes lying?
4. While not all Muslims are terrorists, it does seem that the majority of terrorists are Muslims. Even more alarming, I've spoken to a number of Muslims in the Muslim Defense League, the Muslim Student Association, among a few other groups. And while they don't necessarily carry out terrorist actions, the level of support or unwillingness to condemn violent jihad is a cause for alarm. How do you reconcile the fact that Islam claims to be a religion of peace, while carrying out the largest amount of terrorist attacks in the world? I understand there are peaceful verses in the Qu'ran, but they seem to be subject to abrogation (tafsir) by sura 9:5, among others. How do you reasonably dispute the prevalent violence amidst Islam if Islam does, in fact, mean "peace".
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
5. Do you condemn the fatwahs issued against individuals who speak out against Islam such as Geert Wilders, Jyllands Posten, Salman Rushdie, Theo Van Gogh, et cetera. If not, do you believe that Muhammad and Allah, himself, would condemn this violence? I have personally received death threats due to these very questions I am asking. As someone who values freedom of speech -- however critical of another's view -- it is morally reprehensible to me to kill someone for their opinion being expressed.
6. Ali Sina, a notorious critic of Islam, put forth a challenge to Muslims to disprove that Muhammad is "a narcissist, a pedophile, a mass murderer, a terrorist, a misogynist, a lecher, a cult leader, a mad man, a rapist, a torturer, an assassin and a looter" with a cash incentive. This challenge has yet to be met. How do you respond to these claims?
http://www.faithfreedom.org/challenge.htm
7. What scientific proof is there to support Islam as the true religion?
8. Why is it that one may not leave Islam once entering into it? I believe this sets a bad precedent because, once you are a part of it, no matter what the evidence shows, you are bound to defend it. This in turn, can result in individuals who deny the facts due to practical salvation. Should I convert to Islam, would I be subject to this same dogma, where if the facts dictate Islam to be wrong, I must go against my own conscience and defend it anyway?
9. The Qu'ran contains a number of scientific discrepancies that do not match up to the world as we see it. If the Qu'ran is, in fact, the breath of Allah, then it should contain no factual errors.
• But we see in suras 86:5-7 that it claims that semen is produced between the backbone and the ribs.
• In sura 18:89 it is suggested that the world is in fact flat by claiming that Alexander the Great reached the end of the world (ie: the rising place of the sun.)
• Suras 15:16-18, 37:6-10, 67:5, and 72:8-9 suggest that shooting stars are missiles that Allah uses to strike down demons.
• Suras 23:12-14 seems to butcher what we know from modern embryology, suggesting that a drop of sperm (nutfa) is fashioned into a clot (alaqa), which flies in the face of evidence. Even more strangely, these suras suggest that our bones are developed prior to muscle tissue, whcih we know is conclusively false. This theme is reiterated in sura 75:35-39, 40:67, 22:5 and 96:1-2.
• In sura 21:31, it is claimed that Allah cast firm mountains (raqaasiya) to prevent it from shaking with our movements. But modern geology suggests that mountains, plate tectonics which are responsible for the formation of mountains actually cause Earthquakes.
• Suras 40:64 and 35:41 seem to promote geocentricism, which we know to be false.
• Sura 76:13 implies that the moon is responsible for cold. However, it is clearly documented that coldness is simply the absence of heat.
• Sura 13:2 claims that there are invisible pillars holding up the sky. However, we know that the nature of the world in relation to the atmosphere is a result of density.
• Suras 16:68-69 presumes that bees eat fruit. But in fact bees feed on nectar and pollen.
• While not part of the Qu'ran, Tafsir Ibn Abbas claims "Allah is He who created 7 heavens one above the other like a dome, and of the Earths, the like thereof, 7 planets but they are flat." There are, as we know, more than 7 planets and they are not in fact flat.
10. Why are women considered less than men in Islam?
11. Why are homosexuals considered abominations in Islam?
12. Why must non-muslims (kufr) in Islamic nations pay an additional tax not levied on the ummah? If you suggest that it is not a humiliation tax as the Qu'ran suggests jizya is in sura 9:29 (undeniably, using the word "saaghiruun" to denote this) and that it is for protection -- and Muslims regularly make the claim that they are persecuted in the western world -- would it be reasonable to levy a jizya tax on Muslims in nations where they are a minority?
13. Discussed widely today is the imperialism prevalent among Islamic adherents who wish to create a caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood and many eminent alim support the idea that Islam will be the only religion of the world. Isn't the concept of "world domination" a tad alarming? And how do Muslims intend to accomplish this if not through war? Is war not the antithesis of peace? The Hadith is ripe with advocating genocide: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews , when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."" (see Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukhari.)
14. The folks at Islam Monitor provided a list of matters tied to Sharia Law, which fly in the face of ethics. Do you believe Sharia Law should be implemented worldwide? Or even at all?
http://islammonitor.org/index.php?id=4050&option=com_content
• Jihad defined as “to war against all non-Muslims to establish the religion” is the duty of every Muslim and Muslim head of state (Caliph). Muslim Caliphs who refuse jihad are in violation of Sharia and unfit to rule.
• A Caliph can hold office through seizure of power meaning through force.
• The head of an Islamic State (Caliph) cannot be charged, let alone be punished for serious crimes such as murder, adultery, robbery, theft, drinking and in some cases of rape (Hudood cases) - Codified Islamic Law Vol 3 # 914C of and page 188 of Hedaya the Hanafi manual.
• A percentage of Zakat (alms) must go towards jihad.
• It is obligatory to obey the commands of the Caliph, even if he is unjust.
• A caliph must be a Muslim, a non-slave and a male.
• The Muslim public must remove the Caliph in one case, if he rejects Islam.
• A Muslim who leaves Islam (apostate) must be killed immediately.
• A Muslim will be forgiven for murder of : a) an apostasy b) an adulterer c) a highway robber. Making vigilante street justice and honor killing acceptable.
• A Muslim will not get the death penalty if he kills a non-Muslim.
• Sharia never abolished slavery and sexual slavery and highly regulates it. A master will not be punished for killing his slave. Slavery still exists amongst Arab Muslims.
• Sharia dictates death by stoning, beheading, for sins like killing, adultery, prostitutions; and other Quranic corporal punishments like: amputation of limbs (chopping hands and feet), floggings, beatings and other forms of cruel and unusual punishments even for the sins like: stealing, sexual promiscuity, robbery, burglary etc.
• Non-Muslims are not equal to Muslims and must comply to Sharia (pay Zizzya: poll tax) if they are to remain safe. They are forbidden to marry Muslim women, publicly display wine or pork, recite their own religious scriptures, or openly celebrate their religious holidays or funerals. They are forbidden from building new churches or building them higher than mosques. They may not enter a mosque without permission. A non-Muslim is no longer protected if he commits adultery with a Muslim woman or if he leads a Muslim away from Islam.
• It is a crime for a non-Muslim to sell weapons to someone who will use them against Muslims. Non-Muslims cannot curse a Muslim, say anything derogatory about Allah, the Prophet, or Islam, or expose the weak points of Muslims. However, Muslims can curse, criticize or say anything derogatory they like to the religions of others.
• A non-Muslim cannot inherit from a Muslim.
• Banks must be Sharia compliant and interest is not allowed.
• No testimony in court is acceptable from people of low-level jobs, such as street sweepers or a bathhouse attendant. Women in such low level jobs such as professional funeral mourners cannot keep custody of their children in case of divorce.
• A non-Muslim cannot rule even over a non-Muslims minority.
• Homosexuality is punishable by death.
• There is no age limit for marriage of girls under Sharia. The marriage contract can take place anytime after birth and consummated at age 8 or 9.
• Rebelliousness on the part of the wife nullifies the husband’s obligation to support her, gives him permission to beat her and keep her from leaving the home.
• Divorce is only in the hands of the husband and is as easy as saying: “I divorce you” and becomes effective even if the husband did not intend it.
• There is no common property between husband and wife and the husband’s property does not automatically go to the wife after his death.
• A woman inherits half what a man inherits. Sister gets half of what brother gets.
• A man has the right to have up to 4 wives and wife has no right to divorce him even if he is polygamous.
• The dowry is given in exchange for the woman’s sexual organs.
• A man is allowed to have sex with slave women and also with women captured in battle (concubines), and if the enslaved woman is married her marriage is annulled.
• The testimony of a woman in court is half the value of a man; that is, two women equal to one man.
• A woman looses custody if she remarries.
• A rapist may only be required to pay the bride-money (dowry) without marrying the rape victim.
• A Muslim woman must cover every inch of her body which is considered “Awrah,” a sexual organ. Some schools of Sharia allow the face and some don’t.
• A Muslim man is forgiven if he kills his wife caught in the act of adultery. However, the opposite is not true for women since he “could be married to the woman he was caught with.”
• It is obligatory for a Muslim to lie if the purpose is obligatory and is known as Taqiyya (Islamic Deception). That means that for the sake of abiding with Islam’s commandments, such as jihad, a Muslim is obliged to lie and should not have any feelings of guilt or shame associated with this kind of lying.
• The perpetrators of genocide, mass rape and plunder will not be punished if they repent - Codified Islamic Law Vol 1 # 13.
• To prove rape, a woman must have 4 male witnesses. Women’s testimony is not accepted - Pakistan’s Hudood ordnance 7 of 1979 amended by 8B of 1980. Thousands of raped women and girls in many countries have been charged with Zena (physical relations outside marriage) and punished by Sharia courts for want of witnesses.
• All modern music including sexually explicit music of any kind is strictly prohibited and punishable by Islamic Sharia code of justice. Only Islamic songs are allowed.
15. What makes it okay for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman, but a non-Muslim man cannot marry a Muslim woman?
Thank you for your time.