Article by Herbert W.
Armstrong
It is time to dispel common myths and misconceptions about this religion is important and see what the Bible says about Islam and the future of the world!
it since the time of the Crusades, said that religion played an important role in world politics. From Morocco to Indonesia, Islam as a political force and religious resurgence can not be ignored. Muslims are strongly their conviction -. Culturally, spiritually and politically
“Chef of God in the West,” said one observer: “/”, but it is very much alive in the Middle East! ” p <> West Confused / p> Few topics have created as much misunderstanding in the West than Islam. Most Westerners do not begin to even the most basic doctrines of faith, important to understand. You see it especially in terms of ignorance and ill-informed impressions.
However, the arc a few topics as important to the important during the last quarter of the 20th century to understand! The Muslims are well aware, as shown by Western cartoonists them how Hollywood portrays it, write about them in the West. Exaggerated and misleading stereotype of the coat, hook-nosed camel is known – and widely foul -. Throughout the Middle East
Events in the Muslim world are too often interpreted through the eyes of the West. Western observers often point to impose their own preconceived ideas about events and interpret them according to Western standards. You see the Islamic faith from the perspective of their own limited Western, especially Judeo-Christian experience.
Here is the root of the gross misunderstanding of the West in the Muslim world.
“Camera Setting” good
In order to understand the Muslim world, it is necessary to dress in Muslim clothing for Muslim thought in terms that the Muslim world through the eyes to see. In this perspective, we can start a deeper understanding in Islam and its role in world affairs today.
acquire a century ago, when Britain was annoying problems in Egypt and Sudan, rings, he thinks the Prime Minister Gladstone the Quran, to study the holy book of the Islam. Only then, he said he could really come to the people and the faith in which he argued. Despite the mixed results of its policy in the Middle East was white, Gladstone had, in principle at least, understood the importance of considering the Islamic world in the right perspective, the real “camera setting.” It is also time to understand what the Bible says now about the Muslim faith and the importance of events in the Islamic world just before and during the turbulent years!
popular religion
Understand, first, the importance of Islam as a modern world to apply. Islam is a global faith. Almost one in five people in the world today some 800 million people in over 75 countries – is a Muslim. It is a large block, and one with great potential power.
Islam is also one of the most popular religions in the world, perhaps the fastest growing belief around the world. In Africa south of Sahara, Islam is said to be 10 times that many converts traditional Christianity! It is also important to understand that all Arabs, Muslims (about 10 percent are Christians) are not all Muslims are Arabs. Introduced
among the Arabs in the seventh century, Islam spread rapidly throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Several million non-Arabs were received into the fold of Islam. In a century, Islam controlled a great empire than Rome or Alexander the Great.
submission to Allah
Islam means many things to many Muslims. The word Islam literally means “submission to Allah.” A Muslim is “one who submits.” Muslims have different ideas about their faith according to their social background, education, political and cultural.
Like other religions, Islam has become fragmented over the centuries by theological quarrels and disputes. Today, Islam into two branches, Sunni and Shiite groups is divided. These two branches grew out of a major split over the question of who should lead, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, founder of the religion, to succeed in the year 632
dominant Sunni -. Accounted for nearly 90 percent of all Muslims – is divided into four “schools” of interpretation shared. In contrast, 10 percent of all Muslims, the Shiites are – especially in Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Oman -. Tens of cults, sects and sub-branches, some of whom are Sunni Muslims as heretical divided
Research secular Islamic unity is a distant dream, mainly due to a lack of effective leadership . Disunity and fragmentation, the general rule within the Islamic Ummah, or community. It is therefore difficult to generalize about Islam as if it were a single coherent block.
Despite all the basic Muslim beliefs and visions of the world. First is the credo of a sentence, called the shahada “. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger” a solemn recitation of this confession of faith (only eight words in Arabic) is the only prerequisite for a Muslim
After the Muslim faith, the archangel Gabriel -. – increased first taught by Mohammed in 610 AD, and with it the wisdom of the Koran. Initially, Muhammad was afraid he was becoming was crazy or possessed by an evil spirit. But he was soon convinced that her vocation was truly of God.
Muslim holy book
Muslims consider the 114 suras or chapters of the Quran are as the literal word of God and supersedes all previous revelations (including the Bible) and the correction of the alleged “error” that had crept into Christianity and Judaism. The length of the Koran is a little shorter than the New Testament.
Mohammed claims that Jews and Christians worship Allah was all the time, but under a different name. The Koran recognizes Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other biblical figures as a true prophet through whom God spoke. Muhammad lineage of Abraham through the patriarchs Kedar little son, the son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13). persecuted Muslims, however, regard Muhammad as the greatest and last (or “seal”) of the Prophet. Muslims deny the divinity of Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection.. “They do blaspheme who say:” God is Christ, the son of Mary, “” The Koran says
Despite the high position they attribute to Mohammed or Muslims do worship him as a divine being you. tripping over the word “Mohammedan” feel that this term implies that they worship Muhammad.
In addition to the Koran, urging Most Muslims also the Sunnah (traditions of what Muhammad did) and the Hadith (the traditions of what he said)
to other religions Islam is organized loosely There is no formal hierarchy of the institutional authority -.. no Muslim pope and cardinals – a head office, as the Vatican, the ulema., mullahs or ayatollahs mujtahid, as Islamic scholars and teachers are variously called, are the closest thing the Muslims have a religious clergy.
Way of Life
In the world seen through Muslim eyes, it is necessary understand that the vast majority of Muslims, Islam is a way of life
-. Many Westerners to whom religion means only participate in the worship service for one or two hours Sunday – may simply not understand the ubiquitous nature of the Islamic faith in the lives of his followers, most Westerners have long faced the challenge of living profess their faith abandoned
Islam is central to all aspects of Muslim life .. . It is far from a sure-to-go Friday Mosque of religion. The average Muslim is the Koran seriously. He is eager to obey his commandments. Islamic thought and action leads to a degree almost parallel to the West. Religion and life are inseparable. Western visitors Islamic countries often make the mistake of assuming there are as many upper-class Muslims in European languages, they dress as West and may have been educated in the West they have accepted Western attitudes toward religion.
is not so.
The vast majority of Muslims of all classes and stations follow the precepts of care of their faith. They pray to the Holy City of Mecca five times a day. On Friday, Muslims abstain from watching a special day of public prayer in the mosque.
Throughout the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year, Muslims of the food and drink from dawn (“as soon as possible to a white thread from a black”) can be seen at dusk.
Muslims are likely to cite even a Hajj or holy pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if financially and physically able. alms for the poor, the elderly and orphans also an obligation for Muslims. An annual tax 2.5 percent Zakat is levied on a total balance sheet.
In addition to these important guidelines, the Qur’an prohibits the consumption of pork, drinking alcohol and gambling. In liberal Muslim circles, but these Special observances, sometimes relaxed. But Islam is more than a set of prescribed ritual customs. The Qur’an contains detailed information secular and religious laws. It establishes standards for a variety of personal, social, economic and political and civil and criminal law. This makes it almost impossible to confine Islam to spiritual things alone. In the Islamic world, the separation of church and state, is unknown. Since its inception , Islam the state religion. There is no distinction between “God and Caesar,” as written by Jesus in Matthew 22:21. Of course, the Islamic revolutionary government in Iran is very different from the government in Saudi Arabia. This in turn is different from Egypt or Pakistan and Libya. Muslim governments, ranging from semi-feudal monarchy, parliamentary democracy
But regardless of these differences, there is no problem between Muslims, religion and government are inseparable if -. -.
Speaking of a “secular Muslim country” is generally considered a contradiction in terms. The ultimate failure of the Shah’s attempt to create a Western-style government in Iran, minimizing the role of the mullahs, some of these deep Muslim view of the need for church and state because of the Union.
Muslims see the government is an important means to achieve good in this world. Much more than among professing Christians, whose hope is often first in a “next life” Muslims are the monumental task of taking the story in his hands and do what it should be. The specific implementation of the Good, Muslims believe is possible in this world. They usually do not see this life as a trial, charged with the trials and tribulations that pass through which believers are struggling to attain salvation in the “survival”. On the contrary, the Koran, a social and legal order of happiness, prosperity and welfare, here and now. This is not to say that Muslims are not in a life after death than to believe. punishment in hell or reward in paradise is vividly described in the Koran. One of the most publicized aspects of Muslim life is the strict code of the Koran justice, in force in a growing number of Muslim countries.
Most Muslims, however, little affected by the objections of the West. The Koran sanctioned sharia. and that’s enough. In addition, Muslims every day to read about the crime rate increasing in Western society permissive. “How can crime-ridden West criticize us?” they ask. Muslim countries have crime rates significantly lower than most Western countries.
The eye for an eye Islamic Sharia, but also note, is not very different from that given to civil and criminal laws of the Old Testament God of ancient Israel (see Exodus 21 – 23). Muslims have also pointed out that in their countries, unlike the “decadent” West, the gravity of the sin of stilts recognized and treated appropriately. Another point to be recognized. How many people in the West, many Muslims around the trials and executions, took place in Iran under Khomeini were horrified. They point out that the trial and executions, not a true reflection of Islam, but political unrest in that country connected
Muslims also observe that the hostage-taking -. Especially diplomatic – is clearly prohibited by Islamic tradition, “I do not break contracts, even though I am a prisoner of ambassadors,” Many Muslims saw Muhammad was once the actions of the Khomeini regime in this regard as an embarrassment and humiliation. of Islam in the world.
are really strict limits on the Koran in the power of Muslim religious courts. Defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty. In addition, the standards of proof are so demanding that the penalties can be carried away in the West rarely appeared in the case of adultery -. punishable by death in some Muslim countries – four eye witnesses for a conviction is required
Another issue in the West are often asked if Islam successfully in a modern technological society be suitable ..
This question is almost always non-Muslims. Muslims do not see Islam as a barrier, who believe that modern life. you know that Islam is suitable for all ages and cultures. Muslims are often really surprised that this issue should also be consulted. Let us look at this issue through the eyes of Muslims. No reading of the Qur’an could never the idea that Islam is a reactionary primitive society or customized just desert. and development changes are not contrary to the spirit of Islam. Indeed, the pursuit of knowledge and opportunity to solid progress in the Koran. So why the controversy over whether Islam is to keep pace with modern times? Click underlined
About the Author
target = “_new” href = “http://www.coghomeschool.org/site/cog_archives/booklets/seeing_the_world_through_islamic.htm”> Herbert W. Armstrong was a message from God to restore long lost truths; against traditional Christianity’s error and taught the pure truth of the Bible, our Hebrew roots again;. warned world leaders to an EU dominated by Germany and offered hope and consolation of Christ’s coming to us from its nuclear holocaust
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