We are of opinion that religious people should get along with a secular state, and accept that religion should not be taught at school. This is very important for Islam, because the Western-world's religion, at least in Europe, is becoming more secular anyway, and the religious principals of Christianity are becoming reformed, while Islamic thought is not.
We have had reformed Judaism for years now, and people can identify as being Jewish, without the need to believe in an upcoming savior. Jewish people mostly don't believe in the savior, a Messiah that is yet to come. Even though I am not so sure about what the Christian world has among its people to believe, how really important is to believe in Second Coming, Islam doesn't have a strong cult of believing in the Messiah to come back, or Mahdi. Shia community does, on the other hand, but I am not sure how important it is for a regular-Joe Shia to believe that. Maybe they interpret it as a metaphorical salvation, not a real man hiding in the ghost's world.
Reformed Islam, that we are propagating, should not have this spiritual side to it. I am aware that some people might actually think contrary, but to me, Islam should be less spiritual, and more materialistic in its reformed shape. So, not materialistic in the way that people pray, fast, or fight physically against each other. What I mean by materialistic is believing in a god if you must, but leaving out the spiritual world. We must accept religion as a social aspect, not a spiritual aspect. I am fine with religion being a social string between people, having a language to discuss daily lives. But real lives, which includes poor people. We are lucky to be able to have jobs, or some income, but poor people don't.
We must stop believing that some unseen world will be a better place while we preach that from our comfy chairs, or that they're happy with their spirits. When we have money, we can only then talk to our spirits, that don't affect other people.
Nobody ever explained personal feelings and personal perception of any spiritual being, be it a god, an angel, a demon, whatever. So we should stop pretending that we can describe what exactly we believe in.
Imposing rituals to others in Islam is also out of question. So, let's keep our rituals to ourselves.
School, children, spirits
When it comes to teaching our children religion, we should really be careful that we don't indoctrinate them. We believe for ourselves that we understand all the dogmas out there, but that's not the reality. If we can't explain it to other people, we shouldn't be explaining it to children either. Children can believe in a Santa Claus, in Harry Potter, and that's how they perceive your spirits.
Let's ensure that they understand the physical world first, in which there is actually no magic, and in which spirits affect personal lives on individual level, which isn't shared with other people.
Any spiritual encounter, you'll notice if you ask anybody, is very unique. No two people share the experience. Of course, religious folk will have an explanation for that, and it always includes persona understanding of things. That's fine, but it also tells us that, since it completely depends on personal nervous system, let's leave it out as significant to other people. If something happens to me, that by no way affects anybody else, what's the significance of that event? There isn't any.
The same way, if I believe in a god, and I have my own interpretation of what exactly I believe in, it's impossible for me to explain it to my wife, and it's impossible for her to understand that god the same way I understand it, why are we brainwashing our children then?
I think the Muslims should stop doing that.
The Muslims should turn to learn the history of Islam, to accept the things we call bad in it, and to understand that the historical events are historical, they're not magical events.
We avoid teaching children that the prophet Muhammad actually ordered executions of certain people. Why are we not transparent with those events too? Because we don't like those events.
And that is OK, to save the children from knowing that Muhammad gave execution orders. But, let's also skip the magical parts about him, like, that two angels came to him when he was a boy, hey opened his chest, took out his heart, cleaned it from something black, and put it back in.
This story was thought to me. I have believed that story. I was a kid when I learned it, and when it wasn't a significant part of religion, in my later teens, that story never came up. But it's realistically stupid. We don't tell that story to grownups. The grownups need other stories. What happened to the angels ripping out a boy's heart? It's a story intended for kids.
Even though I didn't think about this story, the mere fact that some angels are involved in earthly life was enough to keep me attached to believing in angels.
Only when I realized that the description of angles in unique to every person, with only individual understanding, I also realized that such stories should not be important.
Deeds are important. Helping people.
This is why I want to call my readers to spread helping to others, and also to help us spread our word of helping.
We are not calling for spreading Islam, we are calling for spreading helping in the name Islam. Let's not invite youth to pray, let's invite youth to help. Let's not worry if a god would take a grudge if a youngster isn't praying today, let's ensure we help those in need.
Let's spread Islam that helps, and when we help in the name of Islam, somebody will learn the word, and will realize that there is the other side of Islam. A religion that actually helps, with money, to people who need it.
Let's not build youth centers for Muslims, let's just donate money to people who need it.
We have had reformed Judaism for years now, and people can identify as being Jewish, without the need to believe in an upcoming savior. Jewish people mostly don't believe in the savior, a Messiah that is yet to come. Even though I am not so sure about what the Christian world has among its people to believe, how really important is to believe in Second Coming, Islam doesn't have a strong cult of believing in the Messiah to come back, or Mahdi. Shia community does, on the other hand, but I am not sure how important it is for a regular-Joe Shia to believe that. Maybe they interpret it as a metaphorical salvation, not a real man hiding in the ghost's world.
Reformed Islam, that we are propagating, should not have this spiritual side to it. I am aware that some people might actually think contrary, but to me, Islam should be less spiritual, and more materialistic in its reformed shape. So, not materialistic in the way that people pray, fast, or fight physically against each other. What I mean by materialistic is believing in a god if you must, but leaving out the spiritual world. We must accept religion as a social aspect, not a spiritual aspect. I am fine with religion being a social string between people, having a language to discuss daily lives. But real lives, which includes poor people. We are lucky to be able to have jobs, or some income, but poor people don't.
We must stop believing that some unseen world will be a better place while we preach that from our comfy chairs, or that they're happy with their spirits. When we have money, we can only then talk to our spirits, that don't affect other people.
Nobody ever explained personal feelings and personal perception of any spiritual being, be it a god, an angel, a demon, whatever. So we should stop pretending that we can describe what exactly we believe in.
Imposing rituals to others in Islam is also out of question. So, let's keep our rituals to ourselves.
School, children, spirits
When it comes to teaching our children religion, we should really be careful that we don't indoctrinate them. We believe for ourselves that we understand all the dogmas out there, but that's not the reality. If we can't explain it to other people, we shouldn't be explaining it to children either. Children can believe in a Santa Claus, in Harry Potter, and that's how they perceive your spirits.
Let's ensure that they understand the physical world first, in which there is actually no magic, and in which spirits affect personal lives on individual level, which isn't shared with other people.
Any spiritual encounter, you'll notice if you ask anybody, is very unique. No two people share the experience. Of course, religious folk will have an explanation for that, and it always includes persona understanding of things. That's fine, but it also tells us that, since it completely depends on personal nervous system, let's leave it out as significant to other people. If something happens to me, that by no way affects anybody else, what's the significance of that event? There isn't any.
The same way, if I believe in a god, and I have my own interpretation of what exactly I believe in, it's impossible for me to explain it to my wife, and it's impossible for her to understand that god the same way I understand it, why are we brainwashing our children then?
I think the Muslims should stop doing that.
The Muslims should turn to learn the history of Islam, to accept the things we call bad in it, and to understand that the historical events are historical, they're not magical events.
We avoid teaching children that the prophet Muhammad actually ordered executions of certain people. Why are we not transparent with those events too? Because we don't like those events.
And that is OK, to save the children from knowing that Muhammad gave execution orders. But, let's also skip the magical parts about him, like, that two angels came to him when he was a boy, hey opened his chest, took out his heart, cleaned it from something black, and put it back in.
This story was thought to me. I have believed that story. I was a kid when I learned it, and when it wasn't a significant part of religion, in my later teens, that story never came up. But it's realistically stupid. We don't tell that story to grownups. The grownups need other stories. What happened to the angels ripping out a boy's heart? It's a story intended for kids.
Even though I didn't think about this story, the mere fact that some angels are involved in earthly life was enough to keep me attached to believing in angels.
Only when I realized that the description of angles in unique to every person, with only individual understanding, I also realized that such stories should not be important.
Deeds are important. Helping people.
This is why I want to call my readers to spread helping to others, and also to help us spread our word of helping.
We are not calling for spreading Islam, we are calling for spreading helping in the name Islam. Let's not invite youth to pray, let's invite youth to help. Let's not worry if a god would take a grudge if a youngster isn't praying today, let's ensure we help those in need.
Let's spread Islam that helps, and when we help in the name of Islam, somebody will learn the word, and will realize that there is the other side of Islam. A religion that actually helps, with money, to people who need it.
Let's not build youth centers for Muslims, let's just donate money to people who need it.
Comments
Post a Comment