If you can't beat them, Join them

[Neptin]

This thread was inspired by the the thread; How can the God Alone movement advance?

Remember your first phase as a sunni when you realize how much beautiful and convincing Islam would be if you abide by the Qur'an alone? Excited, you share your discovery with family and friends, even random Muslims on internet and social media only to be met with staunch rejection, scolding and condemnation.
This excitement wane completely, replaced with distraught feelings mixed with loneliness and lack of spiritual companionship. You see Muslims, Christians and Jews going to their respective temples, celebrating their religious festivals but with your new found beliefs, you have been devoid of such spiritual community. It is hard enough being in the minority, but being the only one is a lot even harder.

This is one reason some of us register and participate here. But over time, we find this forum is no replacement for the offline community and companionship we lack.  Hence, the thread: How can the God Alone movement advance?

Some few posters on the thread seem to downplay the significance of gaining more followers for the movement. Aside companionship and community building that more followers means, more followers motivates us and bring fresh ideas on Qur'anic verses.

With that being said, the bad news is that this community may have to wait for an extremely long time to see the any significant growth. With the dominance of the traditional narrative in the mainstream, who knows how many decades or centuries from now until it happens?

The question is, how many of us are capable of this waiting? The dominance of the traditional narratives is reinforced by middle eastern governments, universities, mosque and literature. How many God alone mosque exist in the world today?

People hate being in minority, to most people the minority connote weakness. Most people have a conformist mentality and for them falling in the minority breed insecurity and vulnerability. Remember a famous question traditionalists often ask?
"How can majority of Muslims be mislead for over a millennium?"


In a nutshell, we might refute the traditional narratives with websites, forums or books but to the average Muslim or non-Muslim considering Islam, the fact that we make barely 3% of the Muslim world, with no country or mosque to our name invariably nullify our argument. We thus can't beat the traditionalists and so the average Muslim continue to stick with the traditionalists.

[Neptin]

Sorry for the long post, friends.

But what do you think? Do you agree with me that "If you can't beat them, Join them" mentality is a significant reason why the Qur'an alone movement is unpopular in the mainstream?

[Jafar]

Don't (Try) to beat them, yet join and love them ALL...

What I remember when I was an (exclusive) Sunnis was the feeling of 'superiority' that "we" are the only enlightened folks, who have the ONLY authentic holy book authored by God among other holy books which are claimed to be from God, who are blessed with the "last prophet" which life story are well documented. And feel pity to those who are beyond my own group who are either tricked by Satan into believing a false belief that a person was Son of God or eternally cursed by God throughout generations due to their sin of killing God's prophets and also rebellion of worshiping Golden calf or condemned to be tortured for all eternity due to worshiping idol. I try to share my 'enlightenment' to them by converting them to my religion which is the one and only true religion so they can earn God's blessing and escape the punishment of eternal torture.

And then I start to do 'self criticism' and realized that the above belief of mine was a mistake... I thank God for it...

[Scribbler]

Salamun alaikum.

I remember the time when I was first convinced of accepting the Quran as the sole religious authority about 5 or 6 years ago. Then I shared my thoughts of following the Quran alone to some of my family people, and I also remember how they refused to believe me except for my mother and brother, alhamdulillah. My two cousins with whom I shared my findings rejected me, and they were probably thinking how misguided I became. However, with all my enthusiasm and excitement, I used to keep arguing with them every other day and try to show them how ahadeeth cannot be a part of God's religion. I also had some small arguments with my father and aunt, but they rejected me. Now I don't talk about these with anyone anymore, and sometimes I wonder if I should remind/warn them about it from time to time?

To answer your question from my personal experience with my family, I think the main reason they don't want to let go off traditional Islam is because it's hard for them to accept that how can their fathers, relatives and teachers be all wrong all together? They simply cannot fathom the fact that they ALL can be wrong including the scholars they listen to. They are dumb, deaf and blind if you ask me, and they don't have a sincere heart. So yes, I do think that because the traditionalists cannot be beaten, the minds of the average muslims tell them to stick to the majority because the majority is "stronger" and therefore less likely to be wrong.

[huruf]

What I find is that declaring to be Qur?an alone does not make a person more tolerant or reasonable or better in any way. Sometimes it is disappointing and ismal to see how a declared Qur'an aloner can be the most biggoted one can hope not to come accross. So in fact declring oneself Qur'an alone means much less of what many of those self-declared Qur'an aloners would desire. In fact many are worse that some "traditional muslims who in fact have a better attitude towards accepting the differences of feeling  and opinion on religious matters and in any matter.

So in fact, I would insist on being better persons rather than holding this or that view or opinion on religion.

As to majority or minority, one should not take a determination based on that. Sincerity is fundamental. f one cannot be sincere then one simply cannot be anything. Better be completely alone than in fake company. In fact to some extent we are ech of us alone. There is no person tht hold 100% all the same views as another one. Which is at it should be because it is by rubbing with something different how we evolve and develop.

Salaam

[Zulf]

Huruf has made a mature and sharp observation, that also Quran-aloners can be biggoted or worse.

I've seen alot in the past that there has been a certain holier-than-thou attitude amongst the quran alone group... which is just as arrogant as any other religion. Quran-alone is simply a sect and religion like any other one, except not so dogmatic and well defined.

Religions and sects demand your belief in them.
Belief by definition is when you pretend in front of yourself that you know something.
Belief is when you DON'T know. Either you know, or you don't know. If you don't know, you believe.
Belief doesn't necessarily have to do with religion and the divine though.

So, whether one should belong to a group or not depends on how lonely you feel inside, and how allergic you are to bullshit. If you need a lot of solace and comfort, then you should join some sect. Otherwise, just go your own way with a completely open mind, knowing that you virtually don't know anything.

Adhering to a religion is basically about survival. You need a feeling of psychological and social survival... and that's what it is all about.

It's funny how people wonder "How can majority of Muslims be mislead for over a millennium?". Well, isn't humanity as a whole, in general, more or less living in delusion? Religion is just institutionalizing the delusions, and shoving it down people's throats with all sorts of threats.

[reel]

I feel guilty for not being able to promote the movement.

It hurts to see 8 year old brides. I am okay with being in the minority. Even in sect, never discussed Islam much with the outsiders.

Ads actually can help to promote the movement.

Quran-alone is simply a sect

You are not a sect if you are following Quran.

[parvez mushtaq]

.......................

The question is, how many of us are capable of this waiting? The dominance of the traditional narratives is reinforced by middle eastern governments, universities, mosque and literature. How many God alone mosque exist in the world today?

.....

Great ! salafi's got their own masjid,hanafis got their own ,same do shia,ahamdiya .....salafis discourage their folks performing  salah behind hanafi and the vice verse ,shias never welcome the sunni in their masjids and ahamadiya were not considered  as Muslims .....So you want one more masjid called masjid-e- Quran alone
what about salah ......of course your should differ from those crowds and ...yes of course you will claim your pattern  is derived from Quran which our people forgot
highlighting this I mention a verse from Quran in our previous encounter . Whereas , there was a era in Muslim ummah in which Jews and Muslims used to pray under one roof .even today the rabbi has given fatwa that Jews can pray in masjids .
but we want to divide our self in whatever possible  .
A Quran alone masjid must be place in which people  of any religion/sects can perform their prayers  otherwise it will be a masjid of some new sect

[hawk99]

Peace to all.

The God alone movement is not a contest but guidance from our creator for those
who reflect, it will grow thru personal contact maybe not at the pace that one wishes
but as Allah wills.   I believe one day a leader or leaders will emerge that will contribute
to the movement.

[Cerberus]

I do not agree with you. like huruf, zulf, hawk, and parvez have tried to say, and I think the real reason is that once you start to know yourself and know the real you from the not so real you you'll start working on becoming more of the real you and that is quite hard, and that is all what this life is for I believe. Therefore there is no point in insisting on others' fault when there is faultiness in you, and of course you cannot aim for a "god alone movement" when you're not even god worthy. It clearly revolves around the individual.

Right from quran:
"And to each is a direction that he will take, so you shall race towards good deeds. Wherever you may be, God will bring you all together. God is capable of all things."

It's obviously different people from different sources, however still one path and one destination that each individual should take. The difference is only superficial.