Messages

Dear Gahaiile

Salam.

It seems to me that it says, believe if you are convinced and don't deceive yourselves or others. And do not be like hypocrites.

Allah knows best.

(curious to know about your understanding on this vesre.)

Dear Nura

Salam

I am also agreed greatly with Brother Joseph's view. "Current traditional salat fulfills the requirement of the Quran, there is no need to re-invent the whole prayer ritual."

But it also seems to me that, actually here we are compromising a few things for a greater cause (congressinal prayer). Otherwise, silent prayer is meaningless.

Even behind Imam if you utter words, you do it silently. But Quran commands to use moderate tone. And if we all start to recite various (different) verses behind the Imam with a moderate tone, it will make a chaos undoubtedly. It is not coherent for a congressional prayer also, I think. So to hear the recitation of Imam (when he recites) seems to acceptable also.
And of course, when Imam recites silently, we are free to read verses or any other prayers silently. I am agreed with you that we must not keep silent in that case.

Dear Nura
Salam

You said
"This ayat (7:204) does not mean that when someone is reciting Quran now ( current times) in prayer, we have to remain silent and listen."

first of all, Is there any verse in Quran which clearly state that we have to recite Quran during salat. I know, salat involves utterance ( 4:43). But is it necessarily Quran recitation? If we take this as quran recitation, then why not to follow 7:204 as hearing the Imam.

I always like your responses very much.

Best regards.

Dear relearning

Salam.

I did not mean 'merely read it repeatedly' will help anyone. Thats meaningless. I did mean to read it repeatedly to understand its meaning.
I never said " the more you repeat the more you believe? like chanting your anthem?".
I meant, the more you read (to understand) the more you understand. I experienced it personaly. I should have said it clearly.
And yes, I think it does not talk to just anyone. It will talk even to a disbeliever/skeptic also, if he/she earnestly sincerely read it to understand its message.

Allah knows best.

regards.

Salam
Brothers.

Hassan 3000
Thanks for your kind co-operation. It helps a lot. Specially the comments of the post, as you said.


Hassan A
Thanks for your response. All religious assertions are not given in the Quran directly, I think. Some we can deduce indirectly from its suggestive verses.

As Brother Joseph said in his article that from a Quran's perspective, it appears that the punishment of the fire of Hell is automatically not eternal for anyone that enters it...
And As we know from Quran that there would be no death after our second death...
Then the question arises, what would be the state of those who are not going to suffer in hell for eternity.

After reading the facebook post and comments from Brother Joseph and others, I think, I got my answer, or at least it became more clear.


Forum Administrators/ QM Moderators Team
The facebook discussions are too long. It would be nice, if it were included as a summarized statement at the tail of the main article or as a different link. Just a suggestion. I thought it will hell help others.

Thanks to everyone.

Best regards.

4:29
O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you Traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful!

There are variations in translation of the verse (part).

Yusuf Ali translated as "Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves". But many other translated as
"and do not destroy one another" (Muhammad Asad),
"and do not kill your people" (Shakir)
"and kill not one another" (Pickthal)

In arabic the word is 'anfusakum' means yourselves. Then why they translated it as 'one another'? Which is correct?

Salam.

Dear wanderer

Very much possible that it roots from hadith.
I also lightly remember about the facebook post of Brother Joseph. Would you please provide me the link, if you can.

Dear Gahaiile

There are a lot of people who claim themselves as farm believer in God and hereafter, but are also engaged with huge wrong deeds (such as taking bribe, not performing regular salat, cutting off the ties of relationships, lying, showing pride and arrogance, stealing, backstabbing etc. which are punishable according Quranic laws). They also do some good also (such as observing fasts, visiting the sick and giving charity etc.).  Then which would be the status of them - "in submission" or not? 
We can say (for the sake of argument) that these people are not in total submission. Only God knows the truth. The question was about them.
Allah said in Quran that He will forgive everyone except mushriks, if He wills. Some other places it is stated that He will forgive small sins, not great sins. But He also set some rules regarding good and bad deeds. Hence the argument comes, whether after punishment for those bad deeds the forgiveness will come for these believers or not.

Thank you both for your response.

Regards.

Dear Brother Joseph Islam

Peace be upon you.

I really don't want to be engaged much with the issues regarding afterlife. But to satisfy one of my relative's query once again I just read your article titled IS THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL ETERNAL. Quite convincing. In the FINAL THOUGHTS you said:

"This is what this article attempts to explore and challenges the commonly held belief that the punishment of the fire of Hell is automatically eternal for anyone that enters it."

Surprisingly, many of our society believes that, if any muslim, who believed but have done wrong to themselves, will go to hell but after their due punishment they will enter paradise. And the punishment of hell eternal is only for kafir and mushriks. I do not know where this idea stem from? Somewhere else I have also read that after due punishment, with kafir and mushriks the hell will be vanished. Thus they (the writers) justify the eternity. Interesting.

Anyway, Is there any clue from the Quran that after due punishment muslims will enter paradise?

Best regards.

Dear Aayankhan

Salam.

please read the section 4 (subhead Expiations) of the following article :

http://quransmessage.com/articles/hajj%20FM3.htm.

The following verse will be helpful, God willing. 

002.196
And complete the Hajj and the Umrah for God. But if you are prevented (From completing it), then send such gifts as can be obtained with ease (Arabic: is'taysara) and do not shave your heads until the offering reaches its destination. And whoever among you is sick or has an ailment of the head must pay a ransom (Arabic: fidya) of fasting or charity or sacrifice (offering). And when you are secure, then whoever took advantage of the Umrah followed by the Hajj then he must make an offering of whatever (can be) obtained with ease of the sacrificial animal.  But whosoever cannot find (such offerings), then a fast of three days during the Hajj and seven (days) when you have returned; that is, ten in all. That is for him whose folk are not present at  Sacred Mosque (Arabic: Masjid al-Haram). And fear God and know that God is strict in punishment.

It did not work. I put verse number in the search box (on the right side of top) and it results : Sorry, no matches were found.

Any other suggestion?

Dear Wakas
Salam

Thanks for your response. But I did not mean it. I mean the discussions on the mistranslated/ misinterpreted verses.

Thanks.

Dear eliiah

Salam.

In the following article by Brother Joseph this issue has been discussed. Hope, it will help you.

http://quransmessage.com/articles/sujud%20FM3.htm.

regards.

Dear Brother Joseph Islam
and Moderators

Salam.

In this forum, along with other issues, many mistranslated verses/words  of the Quran were discussed. Is it possible to open a different section regarding only these matters. Then it would easier for us to take a look over such verses at a glance. This section can be named as Verses/Words of Quran or anything like that. All the headlines/entry would be titled as chapter and verse number.
I feel embarrassed/recoiled to raise this issue. A few months earlier, i proposed for a concordance/index and was agreed to take part in a concerted effort. But I failed to do that awfully.
Anyway, If possible, consider my request. If you think that would be an excess/ superfluity, then leave it.

Best regards.

Dear Wanderer
Salam

Like Amira and others, I haven't also found any totally accurate translations yet. In each translation there are some mistranslations/personal interpretations of original Arabic words. Its very disappointing.

An example is the translation of 7:31 (part)
" O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer" (Yusuf Ali),
O children of Adam! attend to your embellishments at every time of prayer (Shakir).
But I think its simple translation is, "O Children (of) Adam! Take your adornment at every masjid,"
Dont know why some translators included "time" or "every time of prayer".
Pickthal and some other translators (like Arthur John Arberry, N J Dawood ) also translated it to the point.
On the other hand, in translation of 9:97 Pickthal translated the word 'al arabu' as "the wandering Arabs". Many others translated it as bedouin which is baseless. But its simple meaning is " Arab' people" irrespective of where they dwell.

When needed I follow the following link which includes all renowned translation of a particular verse at a glance.
http://www.islamawakened.com/index.php/qur-an.

To be more specific of the meaning of any verse I take a deeper look into a word by word translation.
http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?

I think, in addition, a Dictionary and Concordance will be a great help also.

I am a novice in learning Quran. Just sharing my experience.

I think no one can claim and should not without examine it. Every believer of each religion should examine his own scripture to find the truth. One must not recieve/abandon his own religion without scrutiny. Thats blind following, disgrace for his own intelect.

Quran numerously invites its reader to examine the truths it presents. It will be clear only when one read it. It would be more clear when  read it repeatedly and earnestly.

One more thing, clarity depends on the ability to discern also. There are some clear verses which are the foundation, as Quran informs us, which are also sufficient to be guided to straight path. But there are also some verses which need deep knowledge to understand. (3:7) These are also explained. But these are for the knowledgeable reader. Without special knowledge one can not even understand the theory of relativity, one of the most popular theorem of last century.

There must have many reasons- political, social, cultural even family traditions which clouded/persuaded the mind of people and made them misguided. This is easy. Even at the time of prophet (pbuh) it happend frequently. We generally think that each companion of the prophet (pbuh) was a true follower. This might not be the case. Many people embraced Islam or converted to protect themselves. There were many other interests also. 

Some verses of Quran are time and space bound, I think. Such as 33:53. there are many others. Some verses are for exlusively for the prophet (pbuh) also.  When it says, O believers! not necesarily it is a call for all the believers to come. If we read with context, I think it would be clear to us whether it is for the then believers or for every believers.

Quran must have a historical frame. But we dont need it to understand the Book. Those details could fullfill our curiosity, but God did not send the Quran as a history book or He sent not it to fullfill our curiosity also. Its a guide book.

Once again, after reading a few times now I think, Quran becomes clear to its earnest reader. It does not talk to just anyone.

Sorry for being so long.