Dear mquran,
Do you think God has given the quran to humanity so that we can divide ourselves up into ?muslims? and ?non-muslims??
Misleading question. The essential being of humankind is ummatan wahid, a single ummah however, since people seek things between themselves, its THEY who cause themselve to be divided (2/213). So you can either be in submission to God's system or not.
Then I take it you mean that God has not given us the quran in order to divide ourselves. That we ourselves are doing it
despite the words of God?
Why is it then that we are calling each other ?muslims? and ?non-muslims?? I.e. dividing ourselves, and still claim to believe in the words of God which says NOT to do that?
The rules and regulations in the quran are not there first and foremost to punish anyone; they are there to tell us how to behave in order for all of humanity to live in a best possible and balanced way.
This is your opinion. Evidence please.
Well, if this is not the case then the opposite must be true, the quran is there, first and foremost, to punish us and not to guide us. I do not hold that as very likely.
If you are a person who tries to live according to the words of God then you may be a ?muslim?. If you don?t, you may not be. But, again, this is not for us to decide.
Whatever pledge you give is not worth anything, unless you follow it up with actions. To claim to be a ?muslim? doesn?t make you a ?muslim?. To claim to be a cook doesn?t make you a cook.
Nobody can enter an ?islamic domain? through a pledge, only through the way of life and our actions. Way of life and actions according to the words of God
is the ?islamic domain?.
You can not ?sign on? as a citizen of islam and due to this be required to abide by the laws of islam. It is the other way around. It is only through abiding by the laws of islam that you may
become a ?member? of that community.
If the quran is not ?a guide to an optimal form of democracy (?
rule? by the people)? then what is it?
When it is informing us of how to behave, live and function, is it not guiding us to the best way of life? Is it not giving us clues as to how to ?
rule? ourselves within the framework of the system of God?
It is not difficult to understand the text in the quran saying ?an eye for an eye?. If we follow this to the letter does it mean that if somebody makes another person blind, he/she must also be blinded?
Does this make sense? Is this the best solution for everybody? Or is the one who has been wronged, and the humanity at large, better off by finding another solution to the situation at hand?
When we translate ?laa yuminoon? into meaning ?they do not believe?, we must try to find out what this ?believe?-thing is. It does not take too much research to find out that it means a kind of belief based on a certain degree of knowledge. I.e. they actually do not have knowledge enough to ?believe? with certainty.
The acquisition of knowledge is made inaccessible to them.
Yes, the quran is obligatory on us, but if we take every word in the quran literally we have not understood the message from God. It says that we have to study all of it and find what is ?best?.
Now, ?best? for whom, for God, or for one particular individual, or for the human community?
Regards
Ali Omar