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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| A Few Questions |
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| Julie |
| 03/17/02 at 21:12:11 |
| I hope you're all up to answering a lot of questions. ;) Here goes... 1) Is there any particular reason why the Quran is in the order it is? I don't understand why the first thing that was revealed is found in surah ninety-something. 2) Where do dinosaurs fit in with creationalism? Did humans and dinosaurs live at the same time? 3) Continuing on the theme of evolution/creationalism, what is the Islamic theory on remains of neanderthals and other pre homo sapien beings that have been found? 4) From what I understand, the Day of Judgement is something that's supposed to come at the end of time when all people will be gathered before God to account for what they did during their life. However, I also thought that once we die, we're supposed to be "woken up" by an angel in our grave to be questioned about our life. Following that, we either go to heaven or hell. Does that mean that we're questioned twice, once after we die, and once at the end of time? I'm totally confused about this. ::) 5) In the Quran, in some places is says that we were created from clay (or dirt, or something like that...), in others it says that we were created from a clot, and again in others it says that we were created from a sperm drop. What exactly is it that we're created from??? 6) I'm just wondering about this: I saw a prayer timetable for July for where I live (Toronto), and during this month, the last prayer time starts around 11:00 pm, and sunrise is around 5:40 am. That gives you at most six hours of sleep a night. Maybe some people take a nap during the day, but that's hard to do when you're a student and you have class all day long (yes, some people have school in July). When do you manage to get enough sleep? Okay, I'm stopping here for now. Anyone who answers all these questions deserves a []! Julie :) |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Aabidah |
| 03/17/02 at 22:31:46 |
| [slm] I don't know the answers to all of your questions, but InshaAllah I'll do my best to answer a couple. #1. The order of the Qur'an as we know today is not the same order as it was revealed. Every Ramadhan, Jibreel (as) would visit Rasulullah [saw] and would recite the whole Qur'an with Rasulullah [saw] once. Rasulullah [saw] would have the scribers record the order in which Jibreel (as) would recite with him. So, the order in which Jibreel (as) recited to Rasulullah [saw] is the order of the Qur'an we have today. #4. I have to check some stuff for that. InshaAllah i'll try to answer that later.. [wlm] Betul |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Kathy |
| 03/18/02 at 09:46:12 |
| I am not a learned one- but I will tackle a few of these. [i]( mystyle is of few words)[/i] #2- dinasours- to the best of my knowledge we have no diffinative that they did not exist. Are they a part of creation? Sure- Allah swt created everything! From an Islamic viewpoint- humans and dinasours exhisting at the same time- I have not heard about either way- however- crocodiles and komono dragons are still amounst us. Guess it depends on what period you are asking. #3- check this site out: http://www.harunyahya.com/newspopup.html #5- Adam, the first and beginning of man, is from clay, the clot is the sperm and egg combined and starting to form a baby. Sperm drop- is the fluid from the male- the part that mates with the females egg. - So in otherwords- all of the above do apply to us! #6- Many of us stay awake to pray the last Isha Prayer- the go to sleep. Some of us set our alarms and get up to pray. For the Fajr prayer- many of us set our alarms pray and stay up- others go back to sleep. It seems difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier. |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Julie |
| 03/18/02 at 20:40:06 |
| Thanks for the answers so far Betul and Kathy. :) I have a question about this: [quote]Rasulullah [saw] would have the scribers record the order in which Jibreel (as) would recite with him. [/quote] So did these scribes see Gabriel too, or did Muhammed have to re-recite everything to them after so that they could write it down? [quote]Many of us stay awake to pray the last Isha Prayer- the go to sleep. Some of us set our alarms and get up to pray. For the Fajr prayer- many of us set our alarms pray and stay up- others go back to sleep. It seems difficult in the beginning, but it gets easier. [/quote] Yeah, I guess you just have to adapt. It must help to be a morning person. ;) [quote]3) Continuing on the theme of evolution/creationalism, what is the Islamic theory on remains of neanderthals and other pre homo sapien beings that have been found? [/quote] Thanks for the link Kathy, but I'm really just looking for a short and simple answer. I was never taught anything about religion when I was little, and I was fed all the evolution stuff at school, so the whole idea of creation is pretty new to me. Here's a rephrased version of the question that I hope someone won't mind answering: Is ANY form of evolution recognized in Islam? (i.e. we're not from apes, but maybe our bodies haven't always been the same?) If no, what's up with these so-called neanderthals and other "people"? Looking forward to reading some more answers. :-* Julie :) |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| ascetic |
| 03/18/02 at 23:03:26 |
| Assalam Aleikum, Question#1 is answered best by Syed Abul A'la Maududi in the introduction to his commentary, "The Meaning of the Quran". This is how he puts it: ****** Order A little thinking in the light of the difference between the Makki and the Madani surahs will also answer the question why the surahs of the Qur'an were not arranged in the sequence in which they were revealed. This question is also important because it has been used by the enemies of Islam to create misunderstandings about the Qur'an and make ridiculous conjectures about the present arrangement of the surahs. They are of the opinion that "Muhammad's (peace be upon him) followers published it, without any discernable order as to chronology or otherwise: merely, trying as would seem, to put the longest chapters first . . ." Such conjectures as this are based on ignorance of the wisdom underlying the order of the Qur'an. Though it was to be the Book for all times, it had to be revealed piece-meal in twenty-three years according to the needs and requirements of the different stages through which the Islamic Movement was passing. It is obvious that the sequence of the revelations that suited the gradual evolution of the Movement could not in any way be suitable after the completion of the Qur'an. Then another order, suited to the changed conditions, was needed. In the early stages of the movement the Qur'an addressed those people who were totally ignorant of Islam and, therefore, naturally it had first of all to teach them the basic articles of Faith. But after its completion the Qur'an was primarily concerned with those who had accepted Islam and formed a community for carrying on the work entrusted to it by the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). Obviously, the order of the complete Book had to be different from its chronological order to suit the requirements of the Muslim Community for all times. Then the Qur'an had first of to acquaint the Muslims thoroughly with their duties concerning the regulation of their lives. It had also to prepare them for carrying its message to the outer world which was ignorant of Islam. It had also to warn them of the mischiefs and evils that appeared among the followers of the former Prophets so that they should be on their guard against them. Hence Al-Baqarah and similar Madani surahs, and not Al-Alaq and similar Makki surahs, had to he placed in the beginning of the Qur'an. In this connection, another thing should also be kept in view. It does not suit the purpose of the Qur'an that all the surahs dealing with similar topics should be grouped together. In order to avoid one-sidedness at any stage of its study, it is essential that the Makki surahs should intervene between the Madani surahs and that the Madani surahs should follow the Makki surahs, and that the surahs revealed at the earliest stages of the Movement should come between those revealed in the later stages so that the entire picture of the complete Islam should always remain before the reader. That is the wisdom of the present order. It should also be noted that the surahs of the Qur'an were not arranged in the present order by his successors but by the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) himself under the guidance of Allah. Whenever a surah was revealed, he would send for one of his amanuenses and dictate it word for word and direct him to place it after such and such and before such and such a surah. Likewise in the case of a discourse or passage or verse that was not meant to be an independent surah by itself, he would direct him to the exact place where it was to be put in the surah of which it was to form a part. Then he used to recite the Qur'an during the Salat (prescribed prayer) and on other occasions in the same order and direct his Companions to remember and recite it in the same order. Thus it is an established fact that the surahs of the Qur'an were arranged in the present order on the same day that the Qur'an was completed by the one to whom it was revealed under the guidance of the One who revealed it. ****** Hope that answers your question. I recommend you read the entire introduction at http://muslim-canada.org/introstudykoran.htm It answers a lot of questions for the first time reader of the Quran (like What is the Central Theme of the Quran, What is the difference between Makki and Madani Surah's, the Style, the method of compilation etc.). Insha'llah you'll find it as useful as I did. ---------- Question#5 As someone previously replied, we all came from Adam (AS) and he was created from clay: (Yusuf Ali) Surah 3:59 [i]The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was. [/i] The other two things you cited (clot, sperm) are some of the stages of creation: [i]"He makes you in the wombs of your mothers in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness." [/i](39:6) [i]"Then We placed him as a drop in a place of rest." [/i](23:13) [i]"Then We made the drop into a leech-like structure. Then of that leech-like structure, We made a chewed lump.Then We made out of the chewed lump, bones, and clothed the bones in flesh.Then We developed out of it another creature." [/i] (23:14) For a detailed look at "A SCIENTIST'S INTERPRETATION OF REFERENCES TO EMBRYOLOGY IN THE QUR'AN" read Dr. Keith L. Moore's article: http://islamicity.com/Science/Moore/ |
| 03/18/02 at 23:39:35 |
| ascetic |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| momineqbal |
| 03/19/02 at 02:06:04 |
| [slm], Nobody seems to have answered Q4. It is true that we will be questioned two times. Once in our graves which would be basic questions like Who is your Lord, Who is your Prophet, What is your religion, then on the day of judgement we will be questioned more fully, with each and every minute detail being brought before us in clear terms. It is not true that we go to heaven or hell after the questioning in the grave. The state in which we will be after that questioning is called 'barzakh'. It is some kind of a middle gound between the life in this world and the life that is to come after. The final judgement will be carried out by the command of Allah on the last day. Eqbal |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| khanzadeh |
| 03/19/02 at 04:44:14 |
| [slm] Brother Harun yahya's booklet on evolution is technically very sound and is very well written. The brother knows what he is talking about. He really means business and his booklet is online at his website. It is a must read for everyone getting a secular education. I used to think, before I read the booklet, that evolution provides a good model for the time being and its ok to use the model just for the lack of a better one. My argument was that a scientific model is simply a tool that may be badly designed initially and may be replaced by a more sophisticated one in the future. But the booklet shatters that belief also. I had heard about the booklet a couple of times before but never bothered to check it out. I did it today and am now about to finish it. Here are the main points: 1. The theory of evolution is an instrument of the atheists and the materialists to reject the existence of a creator! 2. The theory is based on speculation and blind/dogmatic faith in evolution. 3. The theory has been descredited time and again only to be revived through modification, sophistry, and academic fascism. 4. There is a growing body of people starting to take creationism seriously. 5. The probability of life happeining by chance, given the age of earth, is absolute 0. 6. There has been no evidence of 'transitional forms' (intermediate beings) and all evidences put forward are mere speculation. 7a. Cromagnons, homo erectus, neanderthals, etc are human races that became extinct or were assimilated. There is no evidence of them being inferior in any way to modern humans. In fact, variations in bone structure are similar in todays races. The other forms touted as pre humans were species of apes. 7b. According to evidence modern human fossils have been found that date back 3 million years! 7c. Gradual evolution has gone out of favor. Step evolution is probabilistically impossible. 7d. Thus evolution never happend in humans or in other species. 8. Almost all of the pictures in print or otherwise are imaginary. 9. Einstein, Planck, Newton, etc were not atheist but were either christians or jews. Einstein was a zionist even! The first point is the most interesting. To get the details, you should read the entire booklet. To my limited knowledge: 1. The only evolution in humans according to hadith is that humans have gotten weaker! 2. Adam (AS) was about 60? feet tall, according to a hadith (correct me folks). 3. The people of 'Aad, as mentioned in the quran, were so strong that they used to rip out trees from the gound. 4. Adam (AS) was the first human being. All mistakes are mine. Hope that helped. |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| khanzadeh |
| 03/19/02 at 04:48:36 |
| [slm] Why didn't anyone mentioned punishment of the grave? For me it is an article of faith. Whats up with that? |
| NS |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| bhaloo |
| 03/19/02 at 09:55:24 |
| [slm] This is a pretty good article on the journey of the soul. http://members.cox.net/arshad/souljourn.html Adam (a.s.) was 90 feet (60 cubits) and humans have been decreasing in size since that time, there was a scientific article even supporting this concept that i posted on the old board. Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.246 Narrated by Abu Huraira The Prophet said, "Allah created Adam in His picture, sixty cubits (about 30 meters) in height. When He created him, He said (to him), 'Go and greet that group of angels sitting there, and listen what they will say in reply to you, for that will be your greeting and the greeting of your offspring.' Adam (went and) said, 'As-Salamu alaikum (Peace be upon you).' They replied, 'As-Salamu-'Alaika wa Rahmatullah (Peace and Allah's Mercy be on you).' So they increased 'Wa Rahmatullah.' " The Prophet added, "So whoever will enter Paradise, will be of the shape and picture of Adam. Since then the creation of Adam's (offspring) (i.e. stature of human beings is being diminished continuously) to the present time." |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| eleanor |
| 03/19/02 at 14:32:45 |
| [slm] Hi Julie :) I'm going to try to answer some of your questions.. I admit to not having read through all the above posts, severe lack of time, but hopefully this won't be too repetitive and will throw some light on those foggy areas of Islam :) 1) I'm going to steal a part of the introduction in my "The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an" by M.M. Pickthall. It reads: All the Surahs of the Qur'an had been recorded in writing before the Prophet's death, and many Muslims had committed the whole Qur'an to memory. but the written surahs were dispersed among the people. This soon became a problem for within two years of the Prophert's death, many of those who had memorised the entire Qur'an were killed during a battle. It was therefore decided to collect the written protions and prepare a complete and undeniably authentic writen copy of the Qur'an. This was done under the instruction of Abu Bakr, the first caliph. A master copy of the Qur'an was kept in the custody of Hafsah, one of the Prophet's wives. With the passage of time, people in different places started to differ on the Qur'an's contents. To end such disputes once and for all, Caliph 'Uthman formed a committee composed of the Prophet's Companions and those who had memorized either all or part of the Qur'an. All existing copies were collected during the reign of 'Uthman and an authoritative version based on Abu Bakr's collection and the testimony of those who could recite the entire Qur'an from memory was compiled. This is the Qur'an that exists today, which is regardedas traditional and as being arranged according to the Prophet's own instructions. The caliph 'Uthman and his helpers, all Companions of the Prophet and the most devout students of the revelation, saw that this task was commpleted. the Qur'an has thus been very carefully preserved. The arrangement is not easy to understand. Revelations of various dates and on different subjects are found together; verses revealed in al- Madinah are found in Makkan surahs; some Madinan surahs that were revealed quite late are found in the front of the Qur'an while the very early Makkan surahs come at the end. This arrangement is not haphazard, however, as some have hastily supposed. Closer study reveals a sequence and significance, for instance, with regard to placing the very early Makkan surahs at the end. The inspiration of the Prophet progressed from the internal to the external, whereas most people find their way through the external to the internal... Another disconcerting peculiarity proceeds from one of the beauties of the original and is unavoidable without abolishing the division of the verses, which is of great importance for reference. In Arabic, verses are divided according to the rhythm of the language. When a certain sound marking the rhythm recurs, there is a strong pause and the verse ends naturally, although the sentence may go on to the next verse of the several subsequent verses. This is the spirit of the Arabic language. Unfortunately, attempts to reproduce such rhythm in Englsih have the opposite efffect. 2) It is my understanding of it that dinosaurs lived before humans, although it is absolutely feasible that they lived at the same time... Just because we have been unable to come up with a fossil of a human that comes from the same time span, does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that they did not co-exist. I think in Islam, there is no evidence either way. 3) Well, I read the book by Haroun Yahiya, "The Evolution Deceit". It certainly opened my eyes. Basically what he says is that there is no definite link between monkeys and humans. That the fossils which have been found are really really far apart from each other in terms of evolution, that in fact many many "in-between stages" are missing. Neanderthals probably did exist. As a human race. Not descendants of monkeys. It's not too difficult to imagine. Just look at the diversity that we have in the world today. Look at the different bone structures of for example Aborigines and white Europeans. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the whites evolved out of Aborigines or Mauris or Africans or whatever, which is what Charles Darwin tried to prove. And if this was the case, then why are there still so many different types of humans still alive today. Why haven't the "fittest" survived and the weaker ones died off? And another thing - they also discovered the same ape species [i]still alive today[/i] which Darwin claimed was the ascendant of man... So if they had to evolve to survive, then why are some still alive today? The book is really really good. Except for the last couple of chapters where it gets a bit spacey.. I'd recommend it to you. 4) I think while skimming through the other posts, I saw a good answer on this but I'll give you my 2 eurocents worth anyway.. My understanding of it is - We die. We are buried. If we were "good" during life on earth we are made comfortable, if we were "evil" then we have to wait in cramped and painful conditions. At the end of the world, or the end of time, or the Day of Judgement, an angel will blow a trumpet which will make such a horrific sound that everyone who is still alive will drop dead. Then [i]all[/i] the dead will be awoken.. ie everyone who has ever lived and died on earth. We will be returned into our earthly bodies. Then we will be judged on hand of the reports of our two angels who are with us all the time and record all our good and bad deeds. Then Allah will decide if we make it into Jannah or not. Warning - the following is not an Islamic viewpoint..just my opinion Do you know something? This kind of fits with people who claim they can talk to people who have died. I always wondered why all the horrible evil people (ie murderers etc) were just as content and able to speak with the medium. This points towards something bigger. That they are, if you like, in a "waiting room", and will stay there till we are all awoken from the dead. 5) Also well answered by someone else - Adam was made from clay, Eve was made from his rib, and we are all descendants of them. So we are made from clay (ie Adam) and from the sperm of our fathers and the egg of our mothers. The clot forms when the sperm meets the egg. 6) Well answered again, Masha Allah. It's a pain, but you get used to it. Do I get a [] now? wasalaam eleanor :-* |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Julie |
| 03/19/02 at 19:53:37 |
| Sure Eleanor, here's a whole bunch for you: [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] Thanks to everyone who answered my questions. :) I'm much more clear on everything now. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on that book by Haroun Yahiya. :-* Julie :) |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Yasin |
| 03/19/02 at 20:22:07 |
Hi julie, You can read some of harun yahya's articles from here [url]http://www.harunyahya.com/m_articles.php [/url] ThE-YaSkA ;-) |
| Re: A Few Questions |
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| Sis_Malak |
| 03/20/02 at 15:47:05 |
| [slm] :-) I wanted to help you out with the question on what happens after we die. I don't have the book with me right now, but I will try to paraphrase. The book I read it in is "the Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam" by Yahya Emerick. According to this book: After the person dies, he is awoken in the grave and questioned on the basic things mentioned earlier: Who is your God, who is your prophet, etc. If the person passes this test with the right answers, he will go back to sleep and dream of jannah until the Last Day. :) If the person fails the test, he will go back to sleep and be tormented with visions of the Hell Fire until the last day. :'( On the Last Day, if the person is not sent directly to the Hell fire, the person will be questioned fully about their entire life, and witnesses will be brought forth for them or against them. After they are questioned, they will be sent to walk across a bridge, which has a name I can't remember tight now. The bridge is very hard to cross, and while crossing over it, one will be able to see jannah at the end, and the Hell fire underneath it. If the person was granted jannah, they will make it all the way across safely. If not, they will fall along the way. *Some people will fall and be punished for a time, but will be able to leave the Fire later and enter jannah. I hope this was helpful for you, and inshallah I was accurate in my memory. I will try to borrow the book from my sister and give you more detail, inshallah. Also, regarding the question of the order of the Qur'an, I learned that the order is due to one of caliphs (Umar?), who is the one to take all of the suras that had been written down and put them all together into one book. They were put in order basically from longest to shortest. Does anyone know if this is accurate? [wlm] :-) Sis Malak |
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