Submission: Keeping it simple

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transgressions. Not yours, not my wife’s or my children’s and not anyone else’s. I will answer for me and me alone. I do not require Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, the saints or anyone else to save me nor do I believe they could. I need the message they taught. Believe in God alone. 

6)  I am neither Shia nor Sunni (God says not to make sects out of His religion, 30:32). I read the Quran and accept if for what it is. If it’s not in the book I’m not worried about it.  This is not meant to be disrespectful but to be blunt. It doesn’t matter to me what hand Muhammad used to eat with or anything else people claim he did. Same goes for any other prophet. This includes Moses, Jesus, Noah, etc.

7)  Suicide is forbidden. (4:29). I can’t explain suicide bombers, don’t ask me to. I think it’s stupid to take your own life and evil to murder people in the name of religion.

8)  Heaven and Hell are eternal (2:80-82). You go to one or the other…forever.

9)  I don’t eat bacon. Get over it. There are only 4 things I cannot eat. Have you seen the rest of the menu on the planet? Praise God! I’m pretty sure I can live without breaking God’s prohibitions. This can be found in the Quran (6:145, 16:115).

•  Carrion.
•  Running blood. Remember the original Red Dawn movie where they kill the deer and drink the blood. Yeah, not going to happen.
•  The MEAT of pigs. Lard is not prohibited.
•  Food blasphemously dedicated to other then God.

10)  I really don’t understand the trinity. Please, don’t try to explain it to me. Others have tried and it doesn’t make sense to me.  Both Jesus and Mary were created by God. Anything that was created by something can be destroyed by something. God is eternal and cannot be destroyed or die as Mary and Jesus did.

Nor do I believe Jesus was God incarnate or the “son” of God. God has no need for sons. He created everything, has power over everything, knows everything, etc.

11)  If it ever walked or talked on this planet, I will never pray to it. This includes the prophets, the messengers or the “saints”, which I still don’t get. Apparently there are “saints” in some branches of Islam. I just found this out a few years ago. In my logic, anything that existed on this planet was created by something else which follows it can be destroyed by something else and therefore has limited power.

12)  I believe in evolution, but I don’t believe we evolved from monkeys (32:7, 15:28).  Evolution is a divinely guided process. The Quran talks about this (21:30, 24:45). Please don’t hit me with what you consider to be “hard science”. I am not discounting science; I have my own reason for my belief which is actually based on mathematics and the prime number nineteen.  If you’re curious, ask and I’ll point to the material, God willing.

As mentioned earlier, I have no expectation I will change anyone’s mind. You shouldn’t have expectations you will change mine either.

Jason

Fulfilling our obligations

[3:76] Indeed, those who fulfill their obligations and lead a righteous life, GOD loves the righteous.

[3:77] As for those who trade away GOD's covenant, and their obligations, for a cheap price, they receive no share in the Hereafter. GOD will not speak to them, nor look at them, on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them. They have incurred a painful retribution.

From these verses of the Quran, we can see that all humans have certain obligations to fulfill in order to enjoy God’s grace and be redeemed by Him. In the Quran, God has provided us with the information we need about our obligations and how to fulfill them. There are both religious obligations and obligations for everyday righteous living.

Obligation is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “An act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment.”

Religious obligations

Our religious obligations include the religious practices: The Contact Prayers (Salat), the obligatory charity (Zakat) (2:110, 6:141, 20:14, 22:78), fasting during the month of Ramadan (2:185) and performing Hajj pilgrimage for those who can afford it (3:97, 22:27-29).

Observing the worship practices also helps us develop and strengthen our souls—our real selves (2:177, 30:44). Since the religious rites are so important for developing our souls, we need to be careful not to be distracted from them by this worldly life. The example of Solomon comes to mind; he became preoccupied with his beautiful horses and missed a Contact Prayer (38:30-32).

Furthermore, obeying God is part of our obligation (24:52-54). We obey God by

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