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Living \r\n the Quran

Al-Anam \r\n (The Cattle)
\r\n Chapter 6: Verses 102-103

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Divine \r\n Intervention
\r\n \"That is Allah, your Lord! There is \r\n no god but He, the creator of all things; then worship ye Him; and He \r\n hath power to dispose of all affairs. No vision can grasp Him. But His \r\n grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted \r\n with all things.”

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Allah has no limitations on His power. He may intervene or not \r\n intervene into the affairs of mankind as He chooses. As such, \r\n the possibility must always be acknowledged that Allah may choose \r\n to set aside the natural laws of His creation. Further, He may \r\n chose to alter the choices, abilities, skills, and behaviour of \r\n any given person at any given moment in time. In the final analysis, \r\n everything is contingent upon the will of Allah. The insignificance \r\n of mankind in relationship to the glory, exaltation, and power \r\n of Allah is such as to make it a complete folly for mankind to \r\n assume it has complete knowledge of the will of Allah.

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Source:
\r\n \"Understanding Islam\" - Jerald F. Dirks, p. 276

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\r\n Understanding the Prophet's Life
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Be a Mirror!

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It is the duty of a Muslim to keep an eye on the deeds and conduct \r\n of fellow Muslims and to try to help them to stay on the straight \r\n path. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) enumerated \r\n the conditions to be met in the task of advising others: \"Each \r\n one of you is like a mirror to the other. You should rectify the \r\n wrong you note in him.\" (Tirmidhi) In another \r\n hadith the Prophet said: \"Every \r\n Muslim serves as another Muslim's mirror. He safeguards his rights \r\n in his absence as well.\" (Abu Dawud) The \r\n following norms emerge in light of the above ahadith:

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1. One should not look for the \r\n lapses and weaknesses of others. For a mirror \r\n does not seek defects. Only on coming face to face does a mirror \r\n reflect you.

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2. One should not be criticised \r\n in one's absence. Once again the similitude of \r\n the mirror should be kept in mind; it does not reflect someone \r\n in absentia.

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3. One should not exceed limits \r\n in criticising someone else. For a mirror does \r\n not magnify or diminish any feature.

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4. Criticism should be forthright \r\n and free of any ulterior motive. For, once again, \r\n a mirror does not entertain any revenge or grudge.

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5. One's criticism should be made \r\n with sincerity, genuine concern, pain and love. \r\n This removes any bitterness caused by criticism. Sincerity in \r\n this context signifies one's concern for the ultimate accountability \r\n in the Hereafter. One should help a fellow Muslim in order to \r\n avoid any punishment for him on the Day of Judgement. Nor should \r\n one entertain any superiority complex. Rather, one should take \r\n oneself as weaker than and inferior to the person criticised by \r\n him. Humility and not arrogance makes mutual care and advice effective.

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Source:
\r\n \"Inter-Personal Relations\" - Khurram Murad, p. 35

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Blindspot!
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God and Hollywood

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The Islamic concept of God has often been called the \r\n most uncompromising monotheism, next to Judaism, \r\n in the world. Islam has a very definite concept of God and how \r\n to understand Him, and it has \r\n no time for concepts that bring God down to the level of human \r\n imagination. With the establishment of Islam \r\n as a third major influence in the religious life of North America, \r\n Muslims must face a new set of challenges and opportunities. \r\n Chief among these is battling the distortions about God and \r\n His nature that appear in the mind of the general public and \r\n in popular culture.

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In addition to promoting disbelief in God, a trend that Islam \r\n abhors, today's movies have transformed God into a fun-loving \r\n old man, such as in the Oh, God movies (starring George \r\n Burns) or have typecast Him as a stern, yet fickle being as \r\n portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in Joan of Arc, or even \r\n as a kind of glutton for punishment as in Mel Gibson's The \r\n Passion of the Christ. Given that Christians worship Jesus \r\n as God, the portrayal of a confused blue-eyed flower child in \r\n white robes running around Galilee doesn't help the image of \r\n God either (think of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar). \r\n In Hollywood, God seems to be whatever the director wants Him \r\n to be. Hey, and you don't have to pay Him!

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Muslims shun all movies and cartoons about prophets. Disney's \r\n kid-oriented portrayals of such figures as Moses and Joseph \r\n and the never-ending stream of made-for-TV movies about David \r\n and Jesus are considered in poor taste by Muslims, who see any \r\n attempt to represent the physical features of a prophet as wrong.

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By showing the face of a prophet, these movies and cartoons \r\n give people a false idea about what the prophet looked like \r\n and thus they begin to judge the prophet by the actor's looks \r\n and performance. People become less interested in the prophet's \r\n teachings and more so in his charisma. When \r\n was the last time you saw an unattractive man playing the part \r\n of a prophet? How many such movies made you desire to transform \r\n your life? These kinds of cinematic \r\n portrayals offer a good story, not a God-inspired way of living, \r\n which is, incidentally, what the prophets really stood for.

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Source:
\r\n \"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam\" \r\n - Yahya Emerick, pp. 40-41

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