QM Forum
Personal Experiences => Discussions => Topic started by: Reader Comments on March 06, 2017, 11:03:26 PM
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Asslamo Alaikum. I wanted to contact you to the you your work is brilliant and ask you if you plan to continue to update your website.
First off, your work is a great resource for me on Islam and extremely concise. I always found a few problems in some aspects of mainstream Sunni Islam (I also agree with you on that it is wrong for us to divide into sects) but overall remained a Muslim and always attempted to think rationally about each and every part of Islam. As such, when it came to certain Hadith's being indefensible and certain narratives on these clearly secondary sources I did some research. My thinking began as a question of, "If Muhammad (SAWS) was the Prophet of God, why would he do something that contradicts the revelation and/or adds to it?" Before this, I also never considered Hadith as 100% infallible; it seemed clear to me, even as a child, that oral traditions and methods of keeping it authentic can succeed to a certain degree but will not be protected as God's word. Your opinions and arguments seemed extremely rational and made sense to me when I first found your website, and they also satisfied my moral compass. I have but the greatest respect for your endeavours and am glad I could find like minded thinking.
I have a few questions for you. What is your opinion on Hadith being used as interpretative guides and as general life guides for day to day things than don't run contrary to the Quran's message? I read your article on secondary sources being filtered through the Quran, but it seemed unclear exactly how much trust you place in the Hadith. Personally, I think mass reported Hadith's and Hadith's which directly link back to the Prophet can be taken but should always be carefully examined and analyzed. I also wish to ask your opinion on the previous revelations. I enjoyed and agreed with your opinions on the People of the Book and the clearing of misconceptions about "Kufr," but what opinion do you have on exactly how the different revelations relate? Obviously abrogation is a false concept within the Quran and it seems ridiculous to me when I was first introduced to it, but is their abrogation from one scripture to the next, or is it confirmation? Is their any clarification on why different scriptures were revealed at different times? I was in a discussion with a Jewish fellow and he told me he found some theological problems with Islam because it professes to abrogate the other scriptures but the previous scriptures like the Torah state law cannot be added or subtracted from. I disagreed with him and was of the opinion that it confirms and that each nation is tested with what they were given as Surah Maidah states, but an article or an explanation from your end would be extremely beneficial and hopefully as accurate as your other explanations are.
I also wish to ask if you plan to update your articles or broadcast them in other forms (YouTube)? I say this because I think Muslims would benefit from having a source like yours and that your explanations of the Quran are logical and make sense. Websites like Islamqa seem to be at the very forefront of Islamic Q&A's, and they profess views like apostasy being punishable by death. Also, I stated earlier that I don't like to classify myself as a sect, but is their people who share this type of opinion on the Hadith (seems relatively uncommon) or more resources for this narrative?
Thanks you for reading and I hope you get back to me soon.