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Topics - Neptin

#1
Off-Topic / Salaam, How are y'all doing in 2024?
July 01, 2024, 08:58:32 AM
It's been a while since I visited here. I miss the old times. But I had to leave a very long time ago because my personal and professional life was suffering. And I was not finding peace and joy with Qur'an alone as I once did back in the mid 2010s when I first discovered the message.

I've struggled with a whole host of issues, like loneliness, which being a Qur'anist contributed immensely to for me. Lack of love in my life, lack of friends, detachment from families. Getting screwed over and sacrificed at my job, leaving me broke for the past two years and causing me chronic stress and anxiety which in turn causes me sleep issues, other health issues and addictions.


I hope everyone here is doing better and I'm working hard to fix my predicament. I can see that the numbers here continue to dwindle. Most of the brothers and sisters have left and there are just a few active members now.
#2
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/17/hamtramck-michigan-muslim-council-lgbtq-pride-flags-banned

Salam, it's been a while since I posted here. Anyway, I found an interesting article that I wish to share. Link above.

It starts with;

In 2015, many liberal residents in Hamtramck, Michigan, celebrated as their city attracted international attention for becoming the first in the United States to elect a Muslim-majority city council.

They viewed the power shift and diversity as a symbolic but meaningful rebuke of the Islamophobic rhetoric that was a central theme of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign.

This week many of those same residents watched in dismay as a now fully Muslim and socially conservative city council passed legislation banning Pride flags from being flown on city property that had – like many others being flown around the country – been intended to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community


I can't add anything to this but confirm that God has finally vindicated me.

For ages, western 'liberals' were bedfellows with 'Muslims,' And not just any Muslim, usually the ultrareligious and hardline kind of Muslims.  Anybody with common sense knows that Muslims generally don't mix with liberals. Go to all the Muslim-majority countries, and you'll find Muslims voting primarily against liberals.

You know there's a problem when the same Muslims move to the West and begin voting for liberals. Why the sudden shift? Why vote for left-wing liberal parties that champion abortion, gay rights, and normalized pornography? Why not vote for the more traditional and family-oriented right-wing parties who are against these 'vices?'

Well, part of the answer is that conservative Westerners, for all their faults, are more down-to-earth and foresighted people who tend to respect themselves, their history, and their culture. They're not the type to give traditional Muslims free rein to topple churches & build mosques over them or censor people for criticizing Islam or Muslims, or cover their faces in public with niqab masks.

So, the traditional Muslims at first hopped onto the bandwagon with 'liberals' who often praised them and even entertain their BS. And today, these same Muslims elected in the council of Hamtramck Michigan banned LGBT flags. Surprised, anyone? This is just the beginning. And I warned about it for years.

There's no betrayal here. Traditional Muslims see Western liberals as nothing but cheap, disposable, immoral, a pretty dumb and stupid group to be exploited for political gain. Western liberals think that dissing their own culture and fighting some disingenuous war against 'white supremacy,' 'racism,' 'xenophobia,' or 'Islamophobia,' will get them validation of the so-called minorities, whether it's Muslims or Blacks, but they get nothing more than electoral votes.

Once the so-called minorities gain power, they just discard the liberal ideology and follow what suits them, what is more profitable for them. In the Iranian Revolution of the late 70s, liberals were on the side of Ayatollah Khomeini. As soon as Khomeini came to power, he turned his back on them and crushed them.
#3
I said in the past that the virus is no real danger and only the immune compromised and geriatrics suffer considerably or die from the cases.

I want to point out that based on the info I've collected from a trusted source at my local hospital lately, my original views on the virus were wrong. It's not just as simple as COVID-19 is a deathly disease like HIV or Hepatitis C like some have stated.

It's actually more complicated in that the human body's reaction to the virus is much more unpredictable than the doomers and deniers of the virus realize.

There are records of healthy adults without history of compromised immunity suffering severe symptoms and passing off from the infection. Conversely, there has been records of weak immune individuals suffering no symptoms after contracting the virus.

The severity of your symptoms on contacting the disease is unpredictable and the differences of opinion on the degree of threat of the virus is based on this misunderstanding.

So, protect yourself with mask, sanitizers, gloves and safe distancing. That said, I still wouldn't go far to recommend lockdowns. I have strong reasons to believe the lockdowns were instituted for political and economic reasons disguised as fear of the infection.
#4
Previously, I said there are too many progressive or liberal minded Muslims drawn to far-left politics and that this is a bad thing. Their general consensus seemed to be that as the left represent freedom, equality and tolerance, the left is therefore pro-Islam.

This is a great con. And a very easy way to expose this con is to alternately consider Islam and the Left's view on porn.

Quranic View on Porn

Since moderation, modesty and chastity are core principles of the scriptures, it follows then that all the scriptures stand diametrically opposed to porn. After all, porn use or production is basically abuse or perversion of sex in and of itself.

Islam shouldn't breed societies pervaded and perverted by porn that is accessible to little children as young as 10 or 11 years old. Meanwhile, far-left politics does this as you will see.

The Rise of Porn in the West

Post mid-twentieth century, it was the far-left emotionally charged mindset of continuously pushing boundaries of society in the guise of freedom and tolerance that paved way for legalizing porn and the eventual boom of the industry in the west.

There are now platforms like OnlyFans allowing anyone to produce and sell porn from the comfort of their homes. You may recall Rahaf Muhammad, the teen Saudi girl who fled her country for asylum in Canada in 2019. Today she lives in Canada as a single mom and runs an OnlyFans account.

The left will tell you that porn is a personal issue, that it is not a huge problem if no one is compelled to perform, if you consume it in 'moderation' and that no one will expose you to it if you object to it. All these are untrue.

You Almost Can't Escape Porn

So long as you live, you must've been or will be exposed to porn at one point in your life. Even if you never visited hardcore internet porn sites, you may be drawn to it via entertainment media, social media or by chatting with common folks off-line.

Dangers of Porn

Porn use may be an individual issue, but it leads to vices in users that ultimately harms others in the society. Some of these includes – sexual grooming, sexual trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual dysfunction.

Even more, porn leads to sexual promiscuity which leads to STI, unplanned pregnancies, abortion, fatherless homes which often leads to poverty which then leads to crimes, irresponsible and degenerate youths who are sex maniacs, who sexually objectify the opposite gender, misogynist men and misandrist women, and all kinds of weird and unimaginable paraphilia.

See how far we've come? The original intent of the scriptures was to combat so many of these vices not to contribute to them as the far-left have done through porn.

Today, the same far-left mindset that paved way for porn is now paving way for censoring dissenting views, abolishing the police, and legalization of hard drugs, which again like porn is highly addictive and does severe harms to society as a whole.

The Problems with Progressive Muslims

What is really happening with these progressive Muslims who proudly identify with far-left is that they're not paying close attention at all. So, they're easily impressed with platitudes or happy words like 'freedom', 'equality' and 'tolerance.'

But Islam isn't just about freedom, tolerance and equality. Islam is also about truth, justice, discipline, hard work, self-accountability, self-sufficiency and humility; which are values that the far-left flagrantly downplay in their discourse.
#5
I want to take a pause from word count miracles for a moment and look at a different kind of miracle that doesn't require counting. One of the most popular example being the Speed of light - 299,792.458 km/sec.

There is an entire website dedicated to elaborating on this miracle - https://speed-of-light.com/speed-light/speed_of_light_12000.html. And I'm just going to paraphrase the writer before my analysis of the miracle. I'll put a strikethrough on faulty assumptions and deductions of the writer.

Let's go.

God created angels from light. They move at light speed. It is the angels who carry out God's orders from a Preserved Tablet somewhere in outer space. They commute to and from this Preserved Tablet to get their orders from God. And the speed at which they commute to and from this Tablet turned out to be the known speed of light:

Quote[Quran 32.5] (Allah) Rules the cosmic affair from the heavens to the Earth. Then this affair travels to Him a distance in one day, at a measure of one thousand years of what you count.

It is the angels who carry out these orders. Hence in 1 day the angels will travel a distance of 1000 years of what you counted (the moon). Since this verse is referring to distance, then God is saying that angels travel in one day the same distance that the moon travels in 12000 lunar orbits. 12000 Lunar Orbits/Earth Day = distance/time = rate of motion (speed).

Distance traveled by angels in one day = 12000 x Length of lunar orbit.

C t' = 12000 L' - where C = speed of angels, t = duration of earth day, L = length of lunar orbit.

Ct = Speed of angels * duration of earth day = distance traveled by angels in one earth day.

12000 L = 25836303825 km

Ct = 25836303825 km

C = 25836303825 km/ 86170.43114 secs

C = 299792.458 km/sec = Speed of angels = Speed of light.

So, wow. Speed of light and speed of angels are the same. Scientific miracle, right? Well, not so fast. Let's see.


1. Wrong translation. The verse never said that the affairs travel in one day the distance travelled by the moon in 1000 lunar years. So, the distance covered by the moon is irrelevant here.

2. The moon completes almost 13 orbits in one lunar year, hence if you're calculating distance covered by the moon in 1000 years, the equation is 12.9 * 1000; not 12 * 1000. If you use the right equation, the answer at the end is not equal the speed of light.

3. If we're to accept the calculation, it mean 258363303825 km is the distance the angels travel to God. But this is shorter than the distance between earth and the nearest star outside the solar system, the Proxima Centauri. So, where do the angels travel to meet God? Somewhere between our Sun and the Proxima Centauri?


So, No. This isn't a scientific miracle. It is another post hoc theory by Muslims who either don't understand Qur'an, Science & Mathematics or who think it is OK to lie and deceive people for the purpose of propagating Islam.
#6
So, there's been a lot of noise lately about Afghanistan falling under the hands of Taliban again, since the evacuation of American army troops from the country. A lot of people, including the so called moderate Muslims are bemoaning and crying on how this is a bad thing, playing the blame game and suggesting what should be done to help the Afghans, especially women & children.

Now, the Talibans are Afghani version of Wahhabis who ruled Afghanistan with iron fist between 1996 & 2001, and during that period they literally enforced antiquated and outdated Sharia laws like amputating thieves, killing adulterers or apostates or blasphemers,  secluding women from public, enforcing burkha on them, and beards on men, banning music, videos & pictures of human beings or animals(hence they forbid TV, video games, and social media).

After 9/11, US deployed troops to take out the Taliban & this forced many of them to flee and go under ground where they've remained ever since, kept at bay by the stationed US troops. But now, with the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have resurfaced at last. Today, the Afghani military is fallen, their president have escaped in private aircraft stashed with cash, and a lot of Afghani have stormed Kabul airport in previous days seeking to flee Taliban tyranny.

Here are 3 reasons why Taliban rule in Afghanistan may be a good thing

1. It'll force Muslims to have a honest dialogue for Islamic reform.

Islam needs a reformation. Period. You can blame Taliban on western imperialism all you want but at the end of the day, the west didn't teach Talibans all the hideous religious practices that they enforce. I can show you numerous binding hadith & even Quranic passages supporting Taliban backward laws & practices.

And in 2021, for people to just pretend that Islam is a religion of peace & the Talibans are just radicals who misunderstand Islam, is plain dishonest. The Taliban at least between '96 & 2001 were practising Islam as was literally spelt in traditional Islamic text, it was the so called moderate or liberal Muslims who went rogue & deviated from the script without an official sort of reform.

If there was a formal reform to explain away these outdated and backward teachings in Islam like the Protestant reformation did with Christianity, we wouldn't be having the Talibans. But because Muslims insist against reform, they have to chose between dishonestly cherry picking between traditional teachings in order to stay moderate or embracing all of the teachings & thus imbibing the hideous teaching that breeds fanaticism. The only other alternative is apostasy.

2. It should compel Muslims to take responsibility for themselves & stop depending on the west

Some western Muslims are begining to blame the return of Taliban on US, saying that the US should've prepared Afghani military for this before withdrawal, or that US should've never meddled with Afghanistan. But all these are just lame excuses. It'll be like blaming immigration for the rise of 'far right groups' in the west. It's a fairly decent claim, but it doesn't explain everything.

What we need to consider is why for 20 years, the Afghani Muslims failed to debunk Taliban ideology & convince the masses against it? Did they think just ignoring it or suppressing it will make it disappear? Taliban is Afghani Muslim religio-cultural problem, not American or British problem, the Afghani Muslims need to take responsibility & fix their problem. But as long as western troops remain in Afghanistan to ward off the Talibans, Afghani Muslims won't acknowledge or deal with the problem.

3. It serves as a timely reminder that the western elites cares only for money & power, not democracy or freedom for anyone

I think it is important to mention this because a lot of people including Muslims still get it twisted. Yes, at some point in the past, it looked as if freedom of speech, democracy & other human right values mattered in the west. But you can't say the same for the modern west wether it is the conservative right or liberal left in power.

And you only need to look how poorly the west treat her own citizens in order to get it. Look at America in the summer of 2020, and see the leaders encouraging or excusing protesters burning and looting business centers, stores & properties of innocent owners. Plain, open broad daylight crimes & terrorism were justified by American leaders & media as 'peaceful protests.'

If you think these same western leaders care about terrorists taking over Afghanistan & restricting individual Afghani freedoms etc, I don't know what else to tell you.

The western elite don't care for democracy or freedom, in fact they don't want it any where in the world. They're content with the status quo and realize that true freedom & democracies in non-western countries will enable these countries become independent of the west & begin competing with the west. And the west don't want this, they want to remain unchallenged at the top, so of course they prefer stupid, dumbass religious nutjobs at the helm in Muslim countries.

Now, what about the common Afghani people? And the women, we should worry what the Talibans will do with them like last time, right?

We shouldn't. You'd be shocked to find a lot of Afghanis prefer Taliban rule. And you'll find endless count of women admit they don't feel oppressed but empowered by the Taliban law. So, don't shed a tear for these people. This is their fate. If they wanted, they could've rejected the Talibans a long time ago.
#7
Peace.

In this post, I'll offer my critique of the Free-Mind article on Palestine - https://freeminds.org/palestine.

Please note; I'm neither pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. Both Israelis & Palestinians have credible claims to the land.

In the above article, the writer attempt to discredit Israel's claims but his arguments are neither sound nor objective. The following are the claims of Israel he addressed.

1. God gave us this land.
2. The kingdom of Israel was here before the Palestinians.

1. God gave us this land.

QuoteThat God originally decreed that the children of Israel enter the Holy Land is not in doubt. However, the part that seems conveniently ignored by today's proponents for Israel is that God's decree was always "conditional" upon the children of Israel behaving in accordance with His will. As can be seen from the verses above, this is evident when the children of Israel reached the Holy Land with Moses but refused to enter its gates in accordance with God's decree – hence, they were then banned from entering it for a period of forty years.

5:21 "O my people, enter the holy land as God Has decreed for you, and do not turn your backs, or you will become losers."
5:22 They said: "O Moses, in it are a mighty people, and we will not enter it until they leave. So when they leave, then we will enter it."
5:24 They said: "O Moses, we will never enter it as long as they are in it, so go you and your Lord and fight, we will stay right here!"
5:26 He said: "It has become restricted to them for forty years, and they will be lost in the land." Do not be sorrowful over the wicked people.


OK, so both the Bible & Qur'an confirms that the Israelites were gifted the land, then as penalty for their mistrust in God, they were denied entry for 40 years. We both concur on this.

But here is where our differences begin:

QuoteThe Real question then becomes: Have the children of Israel now acted in accordance with God's will and can claim right to the Holy Land, or, have they broken His covenant and incurred His wrath?

This question lacks any basis in the Bible, and even the Qur'an for that matter. But let see what the writer cites as basis from the Qur'an.

Quote5:12 God has taken the covenant of the Children of Israel and raised from them twelve representatives, and God said: "I am with you if you uphold the communion, and contribute towards betterment, and believe in My messengers, and support them, and give God a loan of righteousness; then I will cancel your sins and admit you into estates with rivers flowing beneath." Whoever rejects after this from you, then he has strayed from the path.

5:13 But because of them breaking their covenant, We have cursed them, and made their hearts become hardened; they take the words out of context; and they forgot much of what they were reminded of. And you will still discover betrayal in them except for a few; so pardon them and overlook; God loves the good doers.


So, to answer the first question "God gave us this land", according to the Qur'an the answer: No. God's covenant has been broken by the children of Israel and as such His blessings and favor over them no longer stands. In-fact, the situation is quite the opposite, as God has decreed that they be punished, at the hands of others, until the Day of Resurrection!

7:167 And your Lord has sworn that He will send upon them, until the Day of Resurrection, people who would inflict severe punishment on them. Your Lord is quick to punish, and He is Forgiving, Merciful.

Alright, none of these verses confirms that the Israelites or Jews were denied the land by God. Yes, God accused them of several things & even cursed them. But none of that indicates their ownership or access to the land was revoked.

But even if the Qur'an implies that the land no longer belong to the Jews. Why should the Jews or even Christians care? To them Muhammad was nothing more than a false prophet & the Qur'an is not a divine scripture.

On the flip side, Muslims have to accept the Bible. The Bible is the common ground between Muslims & the People of the Book. But the Bible no where confirms that the land of Israel was denied to the Jews on account of anything.

2. The kingdom of Israel was here before the Palestinians.

Quote5:26 He said: "Then it has become forbidden for them for forty years, and they will be lost in the land." Do not be sorrowful over the wicked people.

Many people simply seem to imagine that the children of Israel, after disobeying God and being forbidden from the Holy Land for forty years, simply camped outside the gates of the land and waited until the forty year ban expired! The reality, according to the Qur'an, is that God decreed that the children of Israel would move on and be "lost in the land".

OK, so the writer's view is that God caused the Israelites to move on and be lost in the land. Then, what's the purpose of restricting them from entry for 40 years, if God intend them to lose sight or location of the land? Why not restrict them forever?

If you read the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament, the story is quite different. The Jews or Israelites eventually returned and colonized the land. Like I said, the Bible is the common ground between Muslims & Jews, not the Qur'an.

And you cannot say the Bible is wrong because the Qur'an endorsed the Bible several times & never mentioned any alteration had been done to it.

QuoteThis gives view to the notion that, during this time of wandering, they have settled down in a place which was not the Holy Land and where later on the kingdom of David and the kingdom of Solomon emerged.

21:81 And to Solomon the gusting winds run by his command all the way to the land which We have blessed in. And We were aware of everything.

In the above verse we see the clearest indication that indeed the ancient kingdom of Israel was not located in the Holy Land but was located in a different place (the winds under Solomon's command could reach all the way to the Holy Land – meaning they were being originated somewhere other than that place).

Why would Solomon command the wind towards a land he's not situated on? The 'land' in this verse likely refer to the same land that Solomon ruled. This is a probable interpretation. The phrase, 'all the way' is not even included in the Arabic script.

Quote27:22 But the hoopoe did not stay away long, then he said: "I have seen what you do not know, and I have come to you from Sheba with news which is certain."

Another clue we are given to the location of the ancient kingdom of Israel is the story of Solomon and Sheba. The ruins of Sheba have been identified and agreed by most archeologists to be in the region of southern Arabia (Yemen) where the famous dam of ma'rib once stood. We find that the hoopoe who was enlisted in Solomon's army did not stay away long before returning from Sheba with news of their behavior. Such short leave for the hoopoe would mean that the kingdom of Israel was located not far from Sheba and thus the distance that was traveled was perhaps a few hundred kilometers at most (not the thousands of kilometers required to travel from the Holy Land to Sheba and back).

Therefore, based on the information given in the Qur'an, it can be said with certainty that the ancient kingdom of Israel was located in the region of "southern Arabia" and not the northern area in which the Holy Land is found (for more archeological research showing that the children of Israel did indeed live in southern Arabia an interesting book to read is: "The Bible Came from Arabia" - by Kamal Salibi.

I don't know much about archeologists, but among historians there is no consensus on the location of Sheba. Speculation range from southern Arabia to northern Africa, and even Iran.

But say for the sake of argument we agree that Sheba is around Yemen, how does this alone overrule modern Palestine as the location of Solomon's Kingdom? Because the hoopoe bird left Solomon kingdom to Sheba & returned not long after?

There are variables we need to account for before reaching this conclusion. For instance, how far apart were the borders of ancient Sheba & Solomon's kingdom. Who knows, Yemen may not be all of Sheba, but only a small region within the kingdom.
#8
Social inequalities include income inequalities among individuals in society. There're plenty of poverty reduction/eradication or wealth redistribution schemes & full on economic systems like socialism intended to nullify or eliminate income inequality among people.

The premise behind all of these is that social inequalities are man-made and can be essentially eliminated to bring about a broad scale equality among the masses. Basically to abolish poverty. This is contrary to the Qur'an. Let's see what the verses state.

Why Poverty & Social Inequality Are Inevitable

34:36. Say, "My Lord spreads out His bounty to whomever He wills, or restricts it; but most people do not know."

53:48. And that it is He who enriches and impoverishes.

2:155. We will certainly test you with some fear and hunger, and some loss of possessions and lives and crops. But give good news to the steadfast.

16:71. God has favored some of you over others in livelihood. Those who are favored would not give their properties to their servants, to the extent of making them partners in it. Will they then renounce God's blessings?

4:32. Do not covet what God has given to some of you in preference to others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. And ask God of his bounty. God has knowledge of everything.

What we learn from these verses is that the socio-economic utopia of equality in inevitable. Am not saying we shouldn't help the poor & underprivileged. Am saying there will always be poor & underprivileged folks, and the cause may not be laziness of the poor or some unfair advantage that the rich benefit from.

Some people however say that, they are not concerned about existence of poverty or inequality on an individual level, but on a group or demographic level. They want to even out the wealth or poverty rate between genders, race, or ethnicity.

But the Qur'an confirms that not just individuals, certain groups like nations & communities may be preferred & blessed above others. For instance;

17:70. We have honored the Children of Adam, and carried them on land and sea, and provided them with good things, and greatly favored them over many of those We created.

Does the "Children of Israel" apply to modern Jews? Am not so sure, but one thing I can admit is that despite being a very tiny proportion of human population, Jews are a very powerful group & have contributed a lot to modern science than some larger non-Jewish demographics.

3:55. God said, "O Jesus, I am terminating your life, and raising you to Me, and clearing you of those who disbelieve. And I will make those who follow you superior to those who disbelieve, until the Day of Resurrection.

61:14. O you who believe! Be supporters of God, as Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples, "Who are my supporters towards God?" The disciples said, "We are God's supporters." So a group of the Children of Israel believed, while another group disbelieved. We supported those who believed against their foe, so they became dominant.
#9
How To Identify Cults

Cults all have a few undesirable common traits.

First, they don't respect differences in opinion, they won't take criticism or rejection. They have a 'my way or the highway' mentality.

A lot of times too, cults have a victim complex, that is they have the notion that they are and have always been the victim, the only victim. Lastly, the cults often have a savior complex, they believe they hold the magical formula that can save the world.

Generally, there are two types of Cults, Religious & Political.

Religious Cults

No need to spell them out. Jewish Zionists, Muslim Brotherhood or Islamists are the ones am familiar with. You may also say Abrahamic religious communities like Muslims, Jews, Christians are cults because these communities have cult like mentality on a sectarian level.

Sunnism is a cult. If you spend time as a Quranist on r/Islam subreddit, you will see that they constantly express the traits I've mentioned - intolerance to dissenting opinion, victim complex & savior complex.

Political Cults

Oh dear. Until 2019 I didn't even thinks these were real. I used to think the problem is religious cults, think that if we got rid of them, we'll all be on the same page. Examples of political cults are left & right wing political parties & their hardcore supporters especially in the west.

Socialists, communists, marxists, feminists, anti-feminists, anti-racists, race hustlers & the manosphere. All these are cults, more powerful & toxic than religious cults.

How Cults Harm You

i - They practically distract you and waste your time on controversies.

If you get caught up in these cults, you can waste several productive hours or days hooked on social media listening to them. Every week, every day, they have a new gist for you on the latest hate crime or the latest conspiracy of their evil opponents. So much so that, you waste your time sympathizing with them, instead of dealing with your own immediate problems.

ii - They Spew Half-truth & Misleading Information

Since they live in echo chambers that don't allow for differences in opinion, they're ignorant of half the facts. You may take these half-truth from them thinking you know enough on the subject. But half-truth is dangerous. A person who knows nothing is better off than a person who knows half the truth but thinks they know everything.

iii - They Rob You Of Your Money

A number of cultists are in it for the money -  the leaders, figureheads or commentators. Sometimes they believe in the cult mission, but often times they couldn't care less about it. They'll ask you donate to their cause so  that they don't have to get a regular job but live off donation.

Even if you're not donating directly from your purse, organizations & corporations that you financially support may donate to these cults, your government tax fund the cults. Practically, they're scams.

iv - They Fill You With Anxiety & Depression

In order for the cults to stay relevant, they're constantly seeking out the next evil or villain in the world that they need to fight. It boils down to their victim and savior complex. If you keep listening to the cults, their persistent alarmism & hysteria will begin to take it toll on your psyche.

Like the cultists, you will grow with paranoia, you will suffer with irritability or frustration, & you may even become demoralized.

How To Protect Your Mind From Cults

I - Educate Yourself

Don't rely on mainstream media, social media, schools or scholars to acquire knowledge. Read books, listen to alternative media, & do research. If you educate yourself on a subject, cults can't sway your opinion with a single incident or false information.

II - Divest Yourself From Mainstream Media(MSM) & Wikipedia

CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Gulf News, Fox News, BBC, Washington Post - These are no longer news outlets, they are media arms of the cults. They spread cult propaganda and indoctrinate their viewers or listeners. Only resort to MSM to learn what the MSM is reporting to the masses, not to learn the truth.

Plus, if you go to the Mosque on Fridays, beware of the Sermon before the salat. It may the equivalent of CNN or BBC where the speaker is just misinforming people on doctrines or a recent incident. Personally, I've stopped going to the mosque. Qur'anists won't build a mosque & the Muslim cults reign in every mosque that I enter.

III - Minimize or Terminate Your Social Media Presence

Social media is a haunting ground for cultists. Once you're on social media, you're already exposed to the cults. It takes only one recommended/viral tweet or video even if you never associate with the cultists. And before you know it you're already caught in their propaganda and ideas.

If you must use social media, fiddle & adjust the settings to screen out cult content from your recommendation feed. But seriously get off social media if you can. It is a very inadequate & antisocial way to socialize.

IV - Cut Back On Entertainment Media

Cults, especially liberal political cults sneak or shove their message into Entertainment media - Movies, Musics, Art & Literature. It gets so overt that it is ruins the mood. In any case, consuming Entertainment media exposes your mind to the cult. You may want to screen your entertainment before consuming them, especially the movies.

V - Cultivate & invest your free time in hobbies or personal skills

Art, Music, Writing etc. are worth investing all those spare hours than listening to dealing with the cults and their ideas. A lot of people fall into cults because they're just bored with their lives and looking for something engaging. In that state, inflammatory cult ideas easily pique their interest & they're consumed.
#10
This is my umpteen attempt at doing this post. In March 2020, I was in the middle of a proffessional training when covid hysteria began. Eventually I was forced to suspend my training in compliance with the lockdown regulations. My pals and I thought that within a month, life would return to normal. Because, for all the threat the virus poses, it is a self-limiting disease, the death victims are predominantly geriatrics or immune compromised populations and the fatality rate is on par with common flu.

By April 2020, the lockdown still persisted. And I was forced to proceed my training online, costing me months of crucial on-site experience that I could not obtain online. For this reason, I take the Covid - 19 alarmists & their hoaxes very personal. They've screwed me of my time, my money and several opportunities by enforcing lock down on an infection that could easily be controlled by safety mask or hand gloves.

Unlike early 2020, today if you look to Google search for alternative sources debunking the scare mongering and alarmism on this virus, you won't find anything. Any attempt to inform people that the virus is no where near as dangerous as we are told and that lock down is unnecessary is now deemed misinformation and censored by the legacy media and social media.

We say that "No. This is a violation of freedom of speech, people should be free to air their opinion on the virus." They, the neo-liberals and regressive left, the face of the modern west reply, "It's OK to violate their freedom of speech in order to prevent spreading misinformation that cause infection & death."

We say, "Well, if they're spreading misinformation, it is for us to learn their 'misinformation' and decide wether to accept it or not. If your response to your detractors is ban or censor, it is highly likely that the evidence line against you, and that you have ulterior motives.' This to me is the obvious reality when it pertain to COVID - 19. There have been and there remain alterior motives by the West to maintain public fear of Covid-19 and keep people at home.

And I will get into these ulterior motives at once.
#11
The Qur'an Never Prohibited Slavery

I know this is going to sound cringe, but Qur'an isn't at odds with slavery and the people who claim otherwise are shooting themselves in the foot. If the Qur'an opposed slavery as an institution, it would've criminalized or prohibited it, but overall the Qur'an seem indifferent.

People complain that Islam overlooked slavery, that Muhammad or some other respected historical figures owned slaves or supported slavery, and should therefore be condemned today.
These people people don't realize that slavery continues today in form of 9 - 5 or corporate jobs that we all benefit from, support and even partake in.

Why 9 - 5 Work is Modern Slavery

Their complaint is that slaves were for forced to work against their will. Ironically, 9 - 5 workers work against their will, most of them barely endure their jobs, every morning they can't wait to return home and every Monday they can't wait for weekend.

You can say, "9 - 5 workers voluntarily applied for their jobs aware of the difficulties it entails." But realize that there were slaves that voluntarily gave up their freedom to serve a master, for reasons like abject poverty.

But 9 - 5 workers get paid while slaves get nothing, right? Wrong. Slaves customarily get housed and fed in exchange for their labor, which is why people would offer themselves as slaves to wealthy masters. In fact, some slaves lived in better condition than poor non-slaves.

If your complain is that that some slaves were poorly housed or fed, then consider that some 9 - 5 workers today barely earn enough to get by. Which is why we constantly talk about minimum wage.

Still, you may argue that 9 - 5 workers are free to quit at any time while slaves can't. Again, false. 9 - 5 workers can't just quit if they feel oppressed at work. Jobs are scarce, the fear of unemployment and going broke would more than likely force them to continue with their job. I know workers who haven't received salary for 6 months! Even they are afraid to quit their job.

Why the Qur'an Never Abolished Slavery

I do not intend to trivialize slavery. Yeah, it is worse than 9 - 5 work. But it's closest approximation today is 9 - 5 work. And just as today people look back at slavery as a very horrible thing, people in a few centuries will look back at 9 - 5 work as a very terrible state.

Yet as bad as 9 - 5 work is, our society can't do away with it. It is impossible for every one to be self employed. And even if it were possible, quality of services would drop and price would either soar or plummet.

In the end, the reason the Qur'an seem indifferent to slavery is clear. Abolishing it in absolute term is just impossible. Every society depends upon some variation of slavery to sustain itself. At best we can improve the condition of slavery but abolishing it entirely is unlikely.

Peace.
#12
Yusuf Al Qaradawi: If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment, Islam wouldn't exist today. Islam would have ended since the death of the prophet, peace be upon him. Opposing apostasy is what kept Islam to this day.

Rashidun Caliphate Era (Apostasy War)
Wikipedia states that the first caliph, Abu Bakr, fought a defensive war against the apostates in the infant Islamic state after Muhammad's death. But hadith and alternative sources like Al Tabari imply that Abu Bakr fought an offensive war on grounds of the rebel tribes refusing to pledge allegiance to him or withholding their zakat from him.

It seem more plausible that the apostates sought secession or autonomy to govern themselves, a demand Abu Bakr felt undermined his rule. Abu Bakr himself never stated he was fighting these people for leaving Islam, still his decision became invoked by later scholars as proof that apostasy is a capital crime in Islam.

Plus, if you consider that Abu Bakr later becomes a sanctified figures in Sunni Islam, it makes sense that the scholars would approve death penalty for apostasy. I mean, what would later Muslims think of their idol if they learn he fought people for leaving Islam, whereas no where in Islamic law is this sanctioned?

So, to justify Abu Bakr and ensure his legacy remain intact, Sunni sages needed to apostasy criminalized under canon law.

Post Rashidun Caliphate Era (Abbasid Revolution)

During the Ummayad's reign of Arabia, the Shiites and Abbasids often slam them as unbelievers for not prioritizing Islam and Muslims. The Ummayads weren't hesitant in appointing non-Muslims in position of authority and didn't care to incentivise their non-Muslim subject to Islam. In fact, Ummayad's enforced polices that neutered any benefit of converting to Islam.

Now, when the Abbasids came to power, they reversed many of the Ummayad's policies in favor of Muslims, and instituted strong incentives for non-Muslims to convert. Muslims now gained more privileges and access to power and wealth over non-Muslims. The result of this is unlike in Ummayad's era, non-Muslims increasingly converted to Islam to gain certain privileges.

This mean, many of these converts were fake. They didn't believe in the Qur'anic message, but upheld the Muslim label whenever it was profitable, and as soon as the Muslim label is no longer of benefit they returned to their former faith. Apparently, the scholars came to realize this loophole and it became a challenge to overcome in order to save the future of Islam.

The scholars obviously realized they couldn't stop people from converting to Islam, and they wouldn't go back to the former Ummayad policies that did not incentivise conversion but at least kept out fake converts. Still something had to be done. And the only conceivable thing would be to a measure to scare off fake converts.

And what would be more effective in deterring these fake converts than penalizing apostasy with death?
#13
This one of my favorite Quranist website. The admin is Dr. Ahmed Mansour, a scholar in Islamic History, and often visit the site to read his commentary pertaining to Islamic history and the state of Islam in the Middle East. The site has been target of hackers in the past. I just opened to read the site recently and I found this;


November 25, 2020

On November 25, 2020, our www.ahl-qluran.com suffered a sophisticated cyber-attack. The perpetrators managed to delete the website's entire database. We filed a report to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) explaining the programming vulnerabilities the perpetrators manipulated to gain administrator access to the website. We have a full back-up of all website materials, and we are working on retrieving all of it once the website is up and running again.

On the other hand, retrieving the website requires professional reprogramming and redesigning www.Ahl-alquran.com to withstand such cyber-attacks in the future, as the current version was built by volunteers back in 2006 with outdated technology that can easily be hacked in 2020. Hence, we are currently working on:
1- Recovering a read-only version of the website by the end of December.
2- Rebuilding and redesigning the website to withstand future cyber-attacks. This will take time and considerable cost as we will hire a specialized company for the new website


January 10th Update :

On January 3rd and 4th, hackers attacked the Ahl Alquran website after gaining access to the hosting control panel causing disruption to the server and the ongoing recovery process. Thankfully, the control panel account has been retrieved.

While the recent attack did not impact the development of the new Ahl Alquran server, it pushed to do more to leverage other platform to reach out for our readers:

Articles by Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour could be found on Ahl Alquran facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Ahl.Alquran.IQC. The page is updated to include old and new articles by Dr. Mansour and other Ahl Alquran writers.

Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour will be available for a facebook live event, responding directly to your questions. The event will be hosted on Ahl Alquran facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Ahl.Alquran.IQC, and you can post questions that need answers there.

All fatawa requests can be sent to : www.ahl.alquran@gmail.com
#14
Qur'an 68: 44 - 46:

Leave Me to those who reject this message(Qur'an); We will proceed against them gradually from where they do not know.

And I will give them respite, my plan is firm.

Or do you(Muhammad) ask them for a fee, so that they're burdened with debt?


I thank God that in all the years I spent in active activism for Islamic reform and Qur'anism, and against traditional Islam or Radical Islam, I did not make a dime.

If you're vested in any kind of activism, Islamic or non-Islamic, the premise of your activism and rationality of your vision will ultimately be challenged by opposing thoughts or ideas. If you're already earning profit from your activism, this automatically clouds your judgement.
#15
We operate in a society with black & white moral system. And an avalanche of information is bombarded on us with very little context to draw conclusion from. The following passages in chapter 18 illustrates why the combined product of the two may be disastrous.

65. Then they came upon a servant of Ours, whom We had blessed with mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our Own.

66. Moses said to him, "May I follow you, so that you may teach me some of the guidance you were taught?"

67. He said, "You will not be able to endure with me.

68. And how will you endure what you have no knowledge of?"

69. He said, "You will find me, God willing, patient; and I will not disobey you in any order of yours."

70. He said, "If you follow me, do not ask me about anything, until I myself make mention of it to you."

71. So they set out. Until, when they had boarded the boat, he holed it. He said, "Did you hole it, to drown its passengers? You have done something awful."

72. He said, "Did I not tell you that you will not be able to endure with me?"

73. He said, "Do not rebuke me for forgetting, and do not make my course difficult for me."

74. Then they set out. Until, when they encountered a boy, he killed him. He said, "Did you kill a pure soul, who killed no one? You have done something terrible."

75. He said, "Did I not tell you that you will not be able to endure with me?"

76. He said, "If I ask you about anything after this, then do not keep company with me. You have received excuses from me."

77. So they set out. Until, when they reached the people of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality. There they found a wall about to collapse, and he repaired it. He said, "If you wanted, you could have obtained a payment for it."

78. He said, "This is the parting between you and me. I will tell you the interpretation of what you were unable to endure.

79. As for the boat, it belonged to paupers working at sea. I wanted to damage it because there was a king coming after them seizing every boat by force.

80. As for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared he would overwhelm them with oppression and disbelief.

81. So we wanted their Lord to replace him with someone better in purity, and closer to mercy.

82. And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphaned boys in the city. Beneath it was a treasure that belonged to them. Their father was a righteous man. Your Lord wanted them to reach their maturity, and then extract their treasure—as a mercy from your Lord. I did not do it of my own accord. This is the interpretation of what you were unable to endure."


Beware of the sources you obtain information, beware of passing judgement and drawing conclusion without enough context.

Peace.