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Hi Inq,

I wouldn't waste my time and my energy if I were you.
Why the quoting, why the arguing, why the discussing, why trying to convince someone who is so wrapped up in "wharever" anything? This is just a TOTAL waste of your precious time unless there are egos to be fed!
Why would an intelligent woman like yourself give a guy, who is stupid enough to consider himself an "imam" (a leader!), so much power over herself?  Why allow access!? You need to find out why. That really is the question. That is the study you need to focus on, imo.

Hi, Salamm,

Salam and blessings to all,


I've been on this site for a little bit, but never took the initiative to introduce myself. I'm terrible at introductions! >.<
I'm usually the adorkable introvert. 

How I got to this point in my life...well, it's quite a long story filled with a lot of B.S.

Yeah! Bad Science! We have to go through it to learn. No way around it in the process of learning!

I am very new to Islam. I started seriously researching about it in June of this year (with absolutely no knowledge of Islam beforehand), took my shahada by the end of June, took on Ramadan mid-July, got enlightened to Quran alone because of the ridiculous and illogical "rules" of Sunnism during Ramadan, eventually found this website and the Monotheist translation of the Quran (Thank you guys SO MUCH for that translation! Saved my Ramadan and my religion!), and finally was a full-blown Muslim before Eid hit.
Yea. Super quick.

Awareness happens in no time. However, for the self to accept the change and swallow it, if ever, it takes time.

But I think my journey came so fast because I was kind of ready for it to a certain extent. There were days and nights where I would sit for half an hour or more begging God to guide me on a straight path. And man does He ever answer prayers! It was the first time I earnestly spoke with Him in my life I think...

You must have been in the Roo7, where you can be right at and with the source of your being, at that particular moment! Awesome!

perhaps once before when I was a teenager. I was just so tired of crap. I was tired of being lied to. All my life I bounced around from being Catholic, to Baptist, to Athiest, to Agnostic, and I even considered Satanism at one point. Crazy, I know! 

You will still be lied to and pulled by forces that come disguised as the truth. But that is just part of the "thrill".

But thankfully, I realized that all I really had to do was ask for the answer, and listen.

And filter if you were asking humans!

It was that easy! Six months ago I would have NEVER thought to be serious about any religion at all. This is a complete 180 for me. I haven't even told my friends about my conversion yet (and they weren't serious friends anyway so go figure. Haven't heard from them since I went on hiatus from facebook) but if they knew about it, I think they would laugh in my face. What? You? Religious? HAHAHA    NEXT SUBJECT!

Religion is a big word. Waking up will do for me! LOL!  So now that I've woken up, what shall I do? Well,, there is a lot.. ahead.. you will come to realize. Just don't be discouraged by the heaviness of its weight. It is overwhelming to say the least. When you want to move forward yet there are people and things that are pulling you back.  But as you have already done, trusting in God is the one and only way. YOu've seen it. So keep doing what you are doing.. keep asking as earnestly as you did before: "Ihdinaa al ssira6 al mustaqeem".. and you will be shown the way,, the road of the true religion.. a very empty, rough road! Isolated, with no travelers, , maybe very few in the distance, who could be waving to you to keep going,, so keep on moving forward.. with such emptiness you will only feel the company of God even greater, and sense how it is fulfilling and lasting than any human company. The price of finding God is to give up on all else.

Anywho, so I am five months Muslim and I have only read the Quran in its entirety once. Of course I read a Surah here and there, but I plan to read vigorously once again when I fast this December. I really hope to memorize the Quran, and I mean that as knowing what it says, not how it sounds! I want to be a walking Quran, a Muslim encyclopedia for every situation, a permanent student in Islam! I am sooooooo excited about this change in my life because I finally belong somewhere.

For sure, there is always room to learn and grow from the Quran. Never stop studying and pondering on it. But we need to realize that whatever we could come to find out of it, that in reality, it is a very tiny bit of the truth, and there is the possibility that we could be even wrong about it! In [27:40] The subject who brought the throne of Sheba to the mighty king Suleiman had clearly more knowledge (3ilm to be correct.. I don't know the equivalent in English) than Suleiman. Suleiman was given a lot, kingdoms and such, but not a lot of 3ilm it seems. Yet that did not upset him the least. To the contrary! It made him more grateful! There is a lesson in that for all of us. No single person can be a walking Quran, or a Muslim encyclopedia for every situation. No one can get the whole picture.
You will read the Quran, for zillions of time, like me, but know that you will not fully get it, not all of it. No one will. Should that deter you? Not the least. I read the Quran 24/7.. as a matter of fact it plays in my ears around the hour (almost), yet, I still realize things and get answers for the first time in my life!! It stops me in my tracks! (in a good way).. yet I cannot permit myself to be so sure! I would think that I should still be open and praying for further 3ilm and verifications.. That is my quest.

The Quran is a single window/pointer to the Truth. To put too much emphasis on it or to expect that it is easy to understand is an invitation for confusion, especially when what you can get your hand on is a translation, tainted by the translator's point of view.

You are not lost without the Quran. That is what I am trying to say here. There are other pointers. The Fitrah is one pointer [30:30].. The gut feeling is another pointer [91:8]...

To me, the really main pointer, the one that you came to life through and became a conscious and aware being, and was given responsibility because of it, is al Roo7. Strive to be there. It is where you can have a talk with the Creator and tune in for answers and comfort.

I have finally found the logic to life and that fact brings me peace. And God is so awesome and I love Him so much! (Though that feeling is quite new to me as well. Hopefully that love will grow as my journey continues.)

The sweetness you experience within will continuously be challenged by the bitterness of some people in the world around you. Again, part of the journey!

The only thing that I'm frustrated about with Islam is the fact that so few practice it! Grrr. Why is Allah=sufficient such a minority mindset?! It doesn't make sense. =/

Don't worry about that. There are people in this world who choose to sleep, and stay asleep. Their choice. If they have a chance to wake up then it is something between them and Who Created them. It breaks my heart to see them ruining our Earth, but I can and will do whatever I can do. We need to fix what they destroy. We need to do whatever we can. 

Either way, here is a short and extremely condensed video about my conversion:
http://youtu.be/r4yZsNK4OyU

Very interesting. I loved it, Thanks

As I have spoken to a few of you already, thank you guys for being so amazing and supportive. Peace, blessings and love to all!

Salam,

-Inq

I hope I haven't bothered you with my thoughts.. My best wishes to you, sister, and very warm welcome.. xoxo

Peace and blessings be upon all of you <3

I also have this overwhelming feeling of the absence of shaytan. I don't know how to explain it...but it's as if he doesn't exist to me! I can't hear his whispers...I dunno why but whatever voice is in my head...it feels like my own. Anyone else feel this?

Thanks for going through my really long intro, but I just had to get it out there! I want the whole world to know I will no longer worship anything but Him, and that I bear witness there is no God but Allah! <3 <3 <3

Salamz!

Ahlan wa sahlan sister,

Congrats dear for your new founding.

The only place where Satan cannot and has no chance to exist is within the Rooh; the only "place" of total purity and awareness in our being. Satan is burnt if it attempts to get near it. However, Satan resides squarely in our minds.. in our thoughts, wrapping us around pointless and fruitless matters. Satan never disappears from our existence. It cannot be. It is its job. What it does is that it disguises itself as ones own self. In your mind, you would hear all sorts of voices, dialogues, thoughts and ideas and think they are absolutely yours when in fact a big sum of them are Satan's. Being in Rooh, aka salat, a place that is beyond thoughts, will teach you to recognize that disguise and so be able to filter the difference. A simple awareness exposes Satan. So try to be in salat, in Rooh, all the time that you are awake. That is the way to live; continuously connected to the Creator, continuously holding on to the rope of 3issmah [3:103].

I understand that I would end up repenting..

And that will be when, exactly? You seem to be so sure that you will be given the chance or the time to repent. How so?

For example; We know that Abraham built the kaaba, and for that he must have had to actually get help from people in Makkah to build the kaaba, right? And if he did, the Arabs of Makkah must have been aquainted with Abraham. It won't be wrong to say that if Abraham built the kaaba, he would have been obligated to preach to the arabs, because it sounds very unlikely that he just went to Makkah, built the kaaba and went back to his homeland. But Quran says God never sent any messengers to Makkah before Prophet Muhammad, and that Arabs were a gentile race i.e. without any prior knowledge of God's scripture. 

The valley of mecca was not inhabited then. Ibrahim and his son Ismaeel,, alone built the cube/ka3bah.

I've been having this issue for a while.

I've been risen a muslim and always believing in the oneness of God. Problem is that i've been exposed to so much western images of God that the humanoid figure with a beard is what is stuck in my mind whenever I think of him.

When I think about him, I see this image.
When I try to recall heaven, that is what I see.
When I think about hell I see that.
When I pray I end up seeing that.

LOL

I try my best to avoid it and try to shake it off. I know God is beyond anything we'd ever be able to imagine, but I fear that just thinking of such things even though I don't want to is shirk on its own.

As well on a similar scale, whenever I read the Quran I imagine a deep strong voice representing God telling me these things in the Quran, which again I fear can be Shirk.

Will God hold us accountable for such thoughts?

Thanks

Shirk!!? Of course not!
Take it easy, man! If anything, I imagine God smiling whenever we have those images/thoughts of Him. And what's with the beard? Like Santa. lol
Get into the salat* mode and such images will be washed away instantly!


* Salat: consciousness without thought.

Thank you "TAJ", for nice and warmly reassuring post!

Pity there were no violins to accompany that poetic fantasy about the "something" shielding a human, as a parent would protect a baby, and a human holding the rope...


PS
How good you are in giving advice... and how good you are...
in judging
in pardoning...
in reasuring...
Have you considered being a priest? 

How much better do you feel now after you've written this post? You don't need to answer to me, btw; only to yourself.

All the best.

I must say everytime i get in here and read i get more and more confused, so manny diffrent opinions. Individualism at its finest.

Is that a bad thing? People are trying to think here.. to figure out things, for themselves and to themselves. This is the place to breathe thoughts and understandings,, visiting places never before ventured..... Restless but beautiful! Welcome, Buddy! 

At the end of the day you are gonna be judged for your own actions. No blaiming the other guy!!

No blaming! Only pure love and consideration

I wanna know how i should pray according to the Quran. So answer the topic people!! As long as i pray to allah, does it matter if i do it in a ritual form or not?? Meaning the sunni/shia style with a bit of submission twist in it.

If you are already wondering how to be in salat (some call it prayer), and it is obvious you are earnest about it...then you are already in salat. What is salat? It is the observing of the Creator. If you are in that place then, in no time, a link/connection is established. How about being there all the time? Well,, make that your ritual! The awareness of the Greater Power,, and your position to it, where you stand and be contained in His greatness, feels and tastes like nothing else..  That is salat. It is the joy of being.

Forget about the masses! Forget about others, individuals, groups or sects.. The point is: You are there alone with your Creator. That is where you want to be, and ought to be.. because there, and only there, you are shielded.
Others as well need to establish their own link, need to find their own way to the Creator.. to hold on to that rope of safety. If we could all hold on to that rope, how then would we be enemies, or even differ in a bad way? Check out this ayah: [3:103].
You are protected because evil cannot get in there, although he tries. But it is forbidden to him. He would be burnt if he tries to cross the gate, though it won't stop him from *trying and awaiting. So, he would wait for your return, your leaving and abandoning the rope.. but, you know,, you can make him wait forever. It's your choice    [43:36]


Edited to ad a word *

We all breath the same air...

God is forgiving and full of love. I have faults personally. I'm sorry if I came off stand-offish, we are all one.

Salam Brother,

Don't beat yourself too much. What you said earlier is understandable, well, to me. We all get sometimes excited and proud about our personal views and beliefs, and sometimes maybe even offended by the slightest of comments and reactions. I should remind others, myself first of course as I need it most lol, not to take ourselves so seriously when it comes to communicating with others or else the message we are trying to get across would most certainly fail to deliver! If we could only push our emotions aside and just relax and be in the salat mode for longer periods of time, our words can be then meaningful and be received by others positively

OPF calla me confused. How observant. I am not enjoying any cloudy mirror. "Comfortable warm blanky shielding me from the fire of ALLAH'S wrath" That and jigsaw puzzles. Ok analogy genius I picture ALLAH as most forgiving full of love and you love to talk wrath and punishment. I do not knowingly conceal the truth because I am searching for the truth. I do not think learning arabic is essential. Why would a merciful GOD want people to study another language to get a true meaning of a sacred text. Looks like you are trying to label me as a pusher of falsehood. Politely judging me and calling me a kafir like a hadither. Remember sparky, I also can take ayats out of context and make you look bad. PEACE

It made me lol when someone called you confused! The "holier than thou" attitude never fails to draw a broad smile on my face..

You are not confused. How can you be? What you wrote makes perfect sense,, at least to me!
Of course there is no need to learn Arabic. Nor should you need to read a translation! Or even read the Quran to begin with. It is not obligatory. If you are genuinely interested in learning the Book of Quran then that is another story, but it wouldn't add to your faith if it is there. Allah is bigger and greater than mere words, and certainly far easier to reach, and much, much faster to get in touch with than the time it would take one to utter or even think of His words. Worshiping words is the one thing God does not want us to fall in, yet there are people who can't seem to stop panting over them..

Listen to your gut, friend. You are on the right track.

"Cloudy mirror"!!This is the funniest joke!
Brother! You've got the clearest/purist vision.