The happy man and the fine man
I swear by Allah, I heard the Apostle of Allah SAWS say:
"The happy man is he who avoids dissensions; happy is the man who avoids dissensions; happy is the man who avoids dissensions; but how fine is the man who is afflicted and shows endurance."
Narrated Al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad:
HADITH OF ABU DAWUD
Book 35, Number 4250
posted by Talha Masood at 1:38 AM
4 Comments:
This is great! There isn't enough familiarity with Islam, certainly in the minds of many US citizens.
I was fortunate enough to have read the Quran in the early eighties because I went to divinity school. So I knew from early on how sad it was that Islam was represented in the public mind by terrorists calling themselves Muslims but who apparently hadn't read their own scripture.
However, even though I attended one of the leading divinity schools in the US, Islam and Judaism were both barely touched on as compared to Christianity, and eastern religion was ignored.
My own heritage is Christian, but though I refer to the New Testament a lot, my approach isn't very popular with right-wing Christians. Been told quite often I'm going to hell. Not real worried, to be frank!
Anyway - sorry I'm going so long, but neat to find something informative on Islam - I know nothing about the Hadith. The word is vaguely familiar, apparently from div school, but that was many years ago.
I'll be checking back on your blog. Please feel free to comment on mine. I'd like to know more about what Islamic writings are important in addition to the Quran.
My own outlook is quite unusual. I encourage people from all religions and also secularists to post. My practice on the blog, as in life, is to respect persons irrespective of their beliefs.
In the spirit of your post, I bear in mind that none of us come to our views on religion from out of a desire to aggravate other people, and I believe that anyone who hates or oppresses others in the name of religion is horribly misguided.
Peace Darius!
To answer your question, the best way to understand Islam is simply to read the Quran itself. The translation by Yusuf Ali (available at B&N) captures meaning from the original Arabic. I think once you start reading, you'll understand that it is very different from an academic study of the Quran.
More resources are readily available on the internet. This blog contains "Hadith" from the Arabic root 'Ha Da tha" which roughly translates to "occurrence" or "incident." Basically it is an account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and is intended to be used as a guide both in understanding the Quran and in daily life. It is not scripture in that it is not the direct Word of God, but it is still important in Islam.
I followed the link from your comment, so I've read part of your blog. A few things that I would like to dialogue with you about:
1-The person that is Jesus
2-The nature of Truth
3-The nature of God
I can only offer my own flawed perspective.
Doodpathi: It was years ago, but I did actually read the Quran - it's the book itself that I got such a postive impression of. In fact frankly, my only problem was I found it a bit boring, and only because it had so much in common with the Bible that it was often like reading the Bible in different words. (I understand, however, that much is lost in the translation, especially the poetic aspect.) After that I appreciated the "people of the book" perspective which I wish were more widely understood by Jews and Christians. And that perspective is historically accurate - the three traditions are variations on the theme of western monotheism.
So what's known about the writing of the Hadith - when and by what person or persons?
And do Muslims have the same sort of scholarhip problem that's arisen in Christianity? Many Christians want to disregard historical scholarship as applied to the Bible. For example, the gospels appear to have been written decades after Jesus' execution by anonymous members of the early Christian church, and not by his actual disciples. While many Christians have no problem with this, others feel it conflicts with their faith.
Those topics sound good to me... Right now it happens that I'm looking at #3 on my blog.
Darius:
My post was too long to post here so i've put it on my blog. Please follow the link.
http://doodpathi.blogspot.com
Sorry Hosts for using your blog.
Jazakallah!
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