Spiritualizing Islam

[Mussabahire]

After reading many articles on this website, I am convinced that one of the many reasons why we Muslims are backward, intolerant, extremist and foolish is our blind following of the fatwa or scholar opinions without contextualizing those opinions and being too extreme in performing the rituals and small sunnah without understanding the main objective of these rituals. My question of plea is : How can we spiritualise Islam from those backwardness and make people understand that Islam is more than 5 pillars? how to convince muslims to focus on the objective instead of the rigid rituals? Any book you can recommend will be appreciated. I am looking for Misquoting Muhammad by AC Brown an Hadeeth by Sh. Atabek. Thanks!

[Man of Faith]

As long as people worship an image of something instead of being symbiotic with that image in practice they will never become spiritual.

People think that if you ritually "pray" (ramble some monotonous phrases) five times per day then GOD will automatically help them with no additional input on their part but they only speak without action because GOD does not do the hard work for them. It is a misconception.

It is modern Paganism. Begone with gods.

When you utter a prayer it is for your remembrance of what to realize and you may end it with 'amen' which means 'be it so'. Amen = Realize (something). Mumin is a person who is realized in the (image) ALLAH through action, deed and behavior.

Du'a is the Arabic word for prayer (beseeching) and not salat.

Salat is the Arabic word for guidance and not huda(n). A'qum assalateh means "pay attention to/heed the guidance" referring to what spiritual sources offer of guidance. GOD said to Moses: "I am with you as long as you uphold/follow the guidance" (NOT as long as you pray ritually). ص ل و (saad-lam-waw) means "follow closely" and it is what you do when you follow guidance. صلوة (salawateh) turns the root into an object which can easily be translated as just guidance because it is what you follow. This claim can be verified by working using an ancient Arabic dictionary in a rational way.

A Musalla is a spiritual source from where you gain salawateh. It can be a congregation in a temple or other building where a cleric is teaching. The root itself can be used to form a verb for to be actively guiding/teaching like that GOD and the malekateh guide the prophet (not give blessings as the sectarians interpret it).

A righteous cleric or insightful man can teach people in the image of ALLAH opposite of what many people in this forum say if they have something insightful to say. The sectarian clergy has ruined the concept unfortunately and people do not know what to believe. You know, a blind man cannot lead another blind man. But a man with eyesight can lead the blind man and even open the blind man's eyes (allegorical).

Huda(n) is the Arabic word for grace/gift.

Dhekr is when you honor someone.

Prayer to GOD is not overly important because GOD already knows what you need before you open your mouth, and GOD has no needs or wants so worship is pointless. GOD has no huge ego.

When sectarians can understand the above there may be a spiritualization. And yes, they must understand that S - L - M (Seen Lam Meem) means sound and A'slam means "be sound". The opposite of sound is broken. People can probably think themselves what it means to be sound in soul and body with focus on the spirit. Running around with AK-47's killing people yelling "Allah a'kbar" one can argue whether it is salam. Just the phrase shows they do not know what it would mean.

Salaam

[عوني]

No it has nothing to do because Muslims somehow failed to recite Gods name five times a day or because a Muslim couldn't fast the entire Ramadan. It has nothing to do with Muslims doing the Shahada wrong. It has to do with the fact that the majority Muslims are living in Asia, in countries with terrible education, ethics and morals. This is mostly due to dictatorships that suppress critical thinking while increasing radicalism.


What Muslims need to do in these countries is to develop their critical thinking. Do not allow money to be flown to religion but allow the funds of the country to flow to education for the citizens of the country instead. Increase the Human Index Development. This is a challenge especially in the Gulf-countries were the regimes there are backed by the West and are referred to as 'moderate regimes'. When such regimes are removed the theocracy there will probably be removed too, and maybe no funds will be spent on religious ideologies let alone on religion itself anymore. Tribalism is destroying the Gulf-countries.

However not all Muslims are backward. This is a generalization. Many Muslims born in the West are doing great, and this is because of the education, ethics and morals they are given. Muslims are far off better in countries such as Sweden than in countries such as Saudi-Arabia. Between Sweden and Saudi-Arabia I'd choose Sweden any day. Sweden makes the Gulf-countries look like a joke. Hilariously the Gulf-countries rely on oil but Sweden has almost as good economy as these countries without using oil. Sweden humiliates the Gulf-countries. The Gulf-countries are a JOKE especially the UAE and Saudi-Arabia.


Anyway the point is that the 'Muslim world' as some might say lack good education. Their education is being ruined by theocracy. The key is to establish secularism and then to spend the funds on the education for the citizens of the country. Secularism and democracy plays a huge roll. The Islamists are the one that are destroying education. They are the reason to why countries such as Afghanistan for example are being destroyed. They are a huge enemy. They are the ones who are making these countries primitive.



'Muslim reformers' often spread this propaganda that many Muslims often suffer because of the fact that they aren't living to Gods way. This is complete propaganda. It is the fact the education is not be given enough attention and funds. Sure this will kill religion but it is the only way to counter extremism/backwardness. We can interpret Islam into hundred different ways but that won't make us 'cursed' as the Muslim reformers say. It is the fact that those who are backward have a terrible education, ethics and morals. This happens when religion takes over state hence theocracy.

As we see in the West were Christianity was completely removed and funds weren't going to religion anymore. They were going to the right thing which is education while ethics and morals were changed. This killed Christianity as Science humiliates religion. This also reduced the religious extremism in the West a lot due to modern ethics and morals kicking in.

[Reee]

Du'a is the Arabic word for prayer (beseeching) and not salat.

Salat is the Arabic word for guidance and not huda(n). A'qum assalateh means "pay attention to/heed the guidance" referring to what spiritual sources offer of guidance. GOD said to Moses: "I am with you as long as you uphold/follow the guidance" (NOT as long as you pray ritually). ص ل و (saad-lam-waw) means "follow closely" and it is what you do when you follow guidance. صلوة (salawateh) turns the root into an object which can easily be translated as just guidance because it is what you follow. This claim can be verified by working using an ancient Arabic dictionary in a rational way.

A Musalla is a spiritual source from where you gain salawateh. It can be a congregation in a temple or other building where a cleric is teaching. The root itself can be used to form a verb for to be actively guiding/teaching like that GOD and the malekateh guide the prophet (not give blessings as the sectarians interpret it).

But how then do you explain 107:4-6: So woe to those who pray,  who are heedless of their prayer, Those who make show
Your explanation makes sense in the second mention of the word (107:5), but not so much in 107:4, as they are NOT following the guidance.

In general, I agree with you, but your translations don't fit always.

[Man of Faith]

Ree,

My translations do not usually fit because the mainstream translations/interpretations are faulty.

You have to pay attention to that it says lilMusaliin, i.e. the source of صلى from root صلو (sala). 107:4 Woe to the guides, 107:5 those who are heedless of their guidance. 107:6 Those who only want to be seen...

You can see it speaks of people who speaks of guidance, who are eager to talk about righteousness, but do not really follow their own words and love the focus they get.

So my translations make sense. And salawateh means guidance, as an object.

It has been 1-2 years of study of the salawateh phenomenon, but I am on the verge of heavy progress lately.

Abraham is also called a Musalla because he was a guide for the people.

Salaam

[hicham9]

Abraham is also called a Musalla because he was a guide for the people.

I beg to differ,

In 2:125, G-D instructed us (the people) to take/adopt Abrahem's mqām as mṣlē (مصلى) [not the qurānic figure himself!]!

SLM

[Man of Faith]

Hicham,

They were told to take the lesson of his exemplary way of living. Musalla refers to that.

Salaam

[hicham9]

Ok, MOF!

I respect your opinion/understanding,
even though I retain the right to disagree with it.

~ Be sound ＼(-_-)

[Reee]

107:4 Woe to the guides, 107:5 those who are heedless of their guidance. 107:6 Those who only want to be seen...

You can see it speaks of people who speaks of guidance, who are eager to talk about righteousness, but do not really follow their own words and love the focus they get.

OK, makes sense, though it still also makes sense to read it as prayer (and insincerity as the only criterion that invalidates prayer).

[Man of Faith]

Ree,

It does not translate as prayer. The word pray du'a stands for.

It is a misconception about Quran.

Hicham,

Okay. No problem. What is your interpretation of m'salla then if not "source of guidance/pathtaking"?

In my understanding, meem is a referral prefix and means "thereof", so thereof + salla, with salla referring to unspecified target of following (i.e his example).

I consider the narration to say that Abraham's example of devout service was something to be followed.

No matter what, it does have nothing to do with prayer.

Salaam