A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. I got a few comments by non-Muslims prompted by my post on Christmas and it's pagan origins. Masha'Allah all comments were very respectful but I feel it's more expedient to reply to them in a separate blog entry as opposed to commenting on an older post so others may be involved if they wish.
I have taken the liberty of copying the last 2 comments by Steve and Fisher and then I will post my reply below it. Really it isn't rocket science, I am sure ya'll can follow. lol
Fisher said...
Sorry, I must have missed the post containing (your) conversion story. Perhaps you could link me to it, and I can read it. :-)
Yes it can be found here on my blog; look under Islam or salaat. I will try and put a searchable box up on my blog soon insha'Allah.
And you'll have to forgive me for partially fulfilling the stereotype, but I do tend to be a bit of a gadfly when it comes to questioning people on why they believe what they believe. The reason for that, I suppose, was that I was a very skeptical teenager who rejected all religions. Now that I've become a Christian, I don't really see the "inconsistencies" that you say that you saw. Sure, there are "apparent" contradictions, but I find that they all go away the more I study the problem passages.
Now, that being said, I can't help but wonder... you say you can't accept Jesus being God or son of God, and being a Muslim, I suppose you now say that he is just a prophet and didn't really die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice... what I want to know is what do you do with OT Messianic passages such as Psalm 110, Isaiah 9:6-7, 53:3-12? It seems to me that those beliefs were predicted long before Christianity even arrived, and I wonder how Islam can affirm Jesus' messiahship in light of those passages.
Steve said...
"To be succinct, I had (by the time I was 13) issues with: Jesus being God AND son, inconsistencies as far as picking and choosing what to take from the OT, and serious inconsistencies between versions of the Bible and even books of the NT." (This was from my previous reply to Fisher.)
Can you clarify what you mean by inconsistencies between versions, and perhaps explan (sic) what (if at all) this had to do with the issues that arose in your mind?
Fisher and Steve or anyone else interested: please see http://anaashad.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-path-to-islam.html for a story of my conversion.
As for any more in-depth answers...this just isn't what I enjoy. :-) My husband is HUGE on interfaith dialogue (he is a respected shaykh/mufti/fiqh scholar) and this is the type of conversation he relishes. Me, not so much. I love to answer questions about Islam for those who know nothing of the religion or who are afraid of it; I like to help dispel myths and show people the beauty and justice that is inherent in Islam.
Comparative religion just isn't my cup o' tea. I believe what I believe and I do so with intelligence and due diligence :-) but that doesn't mean I intend to take hours of my precious free time (4 kids remember?) to look up Biblical passages to try and justify my beliefs. No more than I would go to a non-Muslim's blog and ask them to reason why they believe what they believe.
Of course, on my own blog, I will post whatever I feel like posting; if I wanna proclaim my religion from the minaret (so to speak) so be it. If I want to post something I feel is beneficial or can make other people question their actions, I will do that also. But to be drawn into a long, drawn-out debate/discussion on the whys and whats... well I just don't wanna.
To be honest, I don't even want to discuss this with my husband because he ADORES this type of interaction BUT I am the typist in the house which will (yep you guessed it!) keep me busy during my precious quiet time at night trying to keep up with his train of thought.
So thanks for reading, I hope you learn something you didn't before about Islam and Muslims, but if you want interfaith dialogue of the deeper kind, I would encourage you to contact your local masjid and ask them for a knowledgeable brother you can debate with instead. :-)
And with Allah lies all success.
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