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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Islam, Science Fiction, and Religion..... |
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| Anonymous |
| 05/11/03 at 12:54:24 |
| A friend of mine recently posted a link to your site and I wanted to respond to your query re:Islam and it's lack of appearence in modern science fiction. It is important to remember that, for the most part, science fiction writers take a rather dim view of religion since it has been linked time and again to rather unpleasent things. I'm thinking here mostly of Christianity. Certainly the events of 9-11 have done much to smear the image most people have of Muslims- but 9-11 is an isplated incident caused by terrorists who were clearly not acting in the spirit of Allah (George Bush even said as much, and I have to give him credit even though I hate him). It's important to remember that many of science fiction's most notable writers are Atheists- Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek), Arthur C. Clarke (2001- A Space Odyssey), Issac Asimov (more then 100 books), Chris Carter (X-Files creator), Robert Heinlein (Starship Troopers), and so on. While I sympathize with your position, I am myself a Buddhist, and don't believe in God. If Islam is going to be represented in future settings, Islamic writers must take it upon themselves to write science fiction that shows their religion both in a positive light and still existing in the far future. To be fair- one rarely sees any reference to religion at all in science fiction. One could make the argument that The Matrix is a Zen movie and that the most underlying themes in Star Wars are really a combination of Buddhism and Taoism (The Force). For a representation of Islam in science fiction- I suggest Dune. Clearly to me the Fremen of Arrakis are Muslims while the Harkkonins are essentially white Imperialists and the "Spice" is simply a metaphor for Oil. Talk to you soon- |
| Re: Islam, Science Fiction, and Religion..... |
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| Ameeraana |
| 05/11/03 at 21:46:25 |
| Hello there Anonymous I was a Buddhist before my reversion to Islam last year in August. It is interesting you say you do not believe in God because all the Buddhists I know believe in God. However, the most important thing to concentrate on in Buddhism is [i]suffering[/i] rather than the worship of [i]God[/i]. Buddha never denied the existence or non-existence of God. I cannot remember the whole thing I learned but I was taught that Buddha kept silent about God perhaps because India was so deep in idolatry that monotheism would have been too drastic. I also remember reading that one of Buddha's disciples did ask Buddha about whether or not God exists and Buddha kept silent. He was asked again he said something like, "if you have a stomach ache, do you concentrat on God, or the pain?" and also said something like, "our concentration is to be focused on relieving the suffering of the world, not God"--- something to this effect. It was so long ago..... Ameera |
| Re: Islam, Science Fiction, and Religion..... |
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| Mulla |
| 05/13/03 at 15:22:03 |
The idea of writing or making pictures or movies with Islamic themes is actually something not appreciated by the mainstream Islamic models of todays...... Even though its is very much needed and was such a good medium for propogation of Islamic values but unfortunately the mass of Islam decided to follow rather then lead....... Plus what ever "good" or benefical widom muslims would like to impart on the other societies is already there one way or the other,,,,,what we are left with is the political dominance of Islam which is actually the most problamatic of all..... There is so much sci fi in quran and hadees that I had to abondon reading both for months cause I couldnt focus and my teachers were coming to the conclusion that I am going nuts....but really there is so much sci fi in quran and hadees that if I talked about it openly I would be a Rushdie , lol, but just like Buddah the public was not ready for the message hence I keep silent.... For example: the word in Quran for deen, quran, islam is "nazala" meaning "sent down" , in fact it means " transfer or a load from a higher point to a lower point" which was actually the verb for un loading camels in deserts of arabia but give u thinking a punch and think that un load actually is "down load" ..........and Quran as a text and as a file was "down loaded" to the heart of Muhammad ibn Abdullah the prophet in line with the rest of the prophets...... The real word is down load, and if u take out all the stops and pauses from quran , it will becom a single file which was download to the heart of the receiver in 23 years , plus the first vision of Quran shown to the rasool was on a screen of some sorts it was not a tablet, when Rasool said i cant read, and then he was "charged" by gabriel by holding against his own chest...... that tablet according to ibn saad was of liquidy nature, meaning some sorts of a screen, like a laptop screen minus the keyboard.......... I mean there is more to this I cannot talk as I am "institutionalized" thinker but some how I break free and think sometimes....... Hamza Yousef, who is now called a sheikh knows about my thinking and actually has helped me put some stuff together for ulema to study and think about.......thats all I can say for now .........and dont u guys go and tel himmmmmmmmm...hush! Mulla! |
| Re: Islam, Science Fiction, and Religion..... |
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| bhaloo |
| 05/14/03 at 21:26:30 |
| [slm] There was this movie out a year or two ago called Pitch Black. In this movie Earth no longer existed, but they had this Muslim family that went for Hajj on another planet, and would use Arabic phrases like Allahu Akhbar and Mashallah, and Insha'Allah. And they would show them praying. |
| Re: Islam, Science Fiction, and Religion..... |
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| Aztec_pilgrim |
| 05/16/03 at 22:20:48 |
| Pitch Black was a pleasant surprise,for it turned out to be a pretty entertaining film....I don't remember the muslim family ,so gotta rent it again! Also brother Mulla : There are now tablet pcs,which allows you to either use it as a monitor for a desktop pc or can be detached and the interface is done o the screen itself, just like the pocket pc's(just today I downloaded a program called qibla compass,and this allows you to point towards Makkah ,this is for the pocket pc ) |
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