665instr@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Ian) (05/29/91)
>In my opinion, a Muslim is a person who upholds the principles of Iman and >Islam, which are: > >Iman: 1) Belief in God > 2) Belief in the Angels > 3) Belief in the prophets > 4) Belief in the Holy Books > 5) Belief in the Judgement Day > 6) Belief in Qad'q and Qad'r > > >Islam: 1) declaring that there is no god but Allah and Muhamad is his messenge > 2) praying 5 times daily > 3) fasting in the month of Ramadhan > 4) paying zakat and fitrah > 5) performing the Haj > >(4) and (5) are only for people who have the financial means to do so. Thank you for the info. I think I understand what God, the prophets, Judgement Day and maybe the Holy Books mean in Islam. But what do the Angels and Qad'q and Qad'r mean? Iman means "faith", doesn't it? Thanks. -- Ian Chai Internet: chai@cs.ukans.edu Bitnet: 665instr@ukanvax I don't believe in flaming. If I appear to be flaming, either (a) it's an illusion due to the lack of nonverbal cues or (b) my sprinkler system has suffered a momentary glitch, so just ignore me until it's fixed.
mmdh@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mazen.mokhtar) (05/30/91)
In article <1991May29.145428.21338@wpi.WPI.EDU> 665instr@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Ian) writes: >Thank you for the info. >I think I understand what God, the prophets, Judgement Day and maybe the Holy >Books mean in Islam. But what do the Angels and Qad'q and Qad'r mean? Angels are creatures of Allah (God). They have no physical needs and they cannot disobey Allah. Aproximate translations: Qada' (no q) : [Judgement] Allah knows/decides what is to happen. Qadar: : [Power] Allah makes His Will happen. Note that Muslims do not believe in predestination, we believe that we have the freedom to act despite the fact that Allah knows the future, this is because we do not know Allah's will. Since Allah is timeless, rather than saying Allah knows something _before_ it happens, I like to say Allah knows something _happened_ at time x, even if it is in the future. That explains why the Qur'an refers to the will of Allah in the past tense most of the time (this is not the only explanation.) The point is that everything happens by the Will and Knowledge of the Creator. None can disobey, none can hide anything. When I move my hand, it is Allah who moves it for me, even if I move it to steal. It is only because Allah explicitly wills it that any atom moves at any given moment. When we disobey, we disobey his command, but that is only because He gave us that ability. We choose because He allowed us to choose. The concept of freedom of choice is difficult because humans cannot construct a machine that chooses for itself, they can only construct a machine that chooses for our perpouses. In the end we are accountable for our acts, a burden we do not know how to place on what we construct. >Iman means "faith", doesn't it? The meaning of Iman is more like "conviction". Faith is a close enough concept that that is the translation many people use, but it has overtones of irrationality that 'Iman' and 'conviction' lack. One has Iman because one has reason to have Iman, so one would not say 'I may be wrong, but I have Iman in X'. Mamdouh Maher