Answer to Patty

Do you even know the difference between "to worship" and "to show respect", Muslima?

How is this Muslim (below article) form of "worship" any different from our prayers said in our churches in front of a statue of Jesus?  Are you committing idolatry by facing east and praying here?  Or are you showing respect?  That's what we are doing in our churches.  We are showing honor and respect:

The Qibla, for any point of reference on the Earth, is the direction to the Kaaba. In Muslim religious practice, supplicants must face this direction at prayer. Some non-Muslims believe that Muslims worship the Kaaba; Muslims themselves say that the Kaaba is simply a focal point for prayer.

Muslim groups in the United States disagree as to how the qibla should be oriented - some believe that the direction should be calculated as a straight line drawn on a flat map, like the familiar Mercator projection of the globe; others say that the direction is determined by the shortest line on the globe of the earth, or a great circle. At times this controversy has lead to heated disputes. Flat-map Muslims in the United States pray east and slightly south; great-circle Muslims face in a north-easterly direction. In both cases, the exact orientation will vary from city to city. [5]

Some Muslims carry qibla compasses that tell them which direction to face no matter where they are,

We no more commit idolatry than you do, Muslima.  We are perfectly aware of what constitutes idolatry....and since to commit idolatry would send us to Hell, we certainly would never do such a thing.

You state "your opinion regarding the Catholics and idolatry"...what a nerve.  I would not think of saying, "well, the Muslims say they do this but I believe they do something else"....that's truly an air of false superiority!  Believe what you will.  I know the truth, and perhaps one day you will know the truth about Catholics and idolatry too.  Hope so.

God's Peace.

Dear Sister Herjihad!

Please sister do not commit a sin by saying it's Ok, please sister! Our Prophet Mushammed (SAWS) hads destroyed all the statues in Mecca. This is a sin sister! This is the biggest that Allah does not forgive! This is Shirk BIlleh!!

Whe they read what we say about worshipping statues, they change their argumentation. Sister, we are Muslims, do not be fooled!

This is dangerous sister! I know their religion very well. I sued to have to do their pray when i was small until my parents stopped me because an old lady taught me. This is Haram!!!!!

When you enter a church, the first thing you see is the statue of jesus in the centre. they kneel to it and sign themselves. StafEllah!!!! They say Jesus is the son of God!STAFELLAH! STAFELLAH!STAFELLAH!!!

Sister, if they had not changed the message of the Bible and change the words of Allah, Allah would not have given us the Holy Koran. We kept it in Arabic so that no one can modify the Message.

Please sister, this is not because someone is nice to you that you have to follow them in Shirk and say that this is OK...

Remember the sourate that says they have their religion and we have ours.

I say this because I care for you. the Shaytan comes to you very softly to make you commit a sin. He knows he cannot make you fail by big sins, so he will by small, and this lead to the biggest sin of all: ShirkBIlleh....

Salam sister

Muslima

Muslima,

I was raised in the Russian Orthodox Church.  I have since left.  But there is a difference between worshipping and the use of an icon.

An Icon is a focal point.  Like the Kaaba.  The prayer doesn't go TO the statue, the prayer is to Heaven.  All the Icon, Statue, Mosaic does is gives us a focal point. 

Now there are some who go to far.  In South America there are many who take it too far when a Statue or thing exhibits a miracle.  Most of these are fakes perpetrated by men and the Catholic Church works quickly to find the hoax to save people from their own stupidity.

But Muslima.  You might believe one way, but its still insulting to presume to instruct someone else in their faith.  There are many things that I could do the same with about Islam.  There are some (a few, some....not all) who place Muhammed (pbuh) above all other Prophets.  This is a grave sin in the Quran.  You are to respect all Prophets equally.  Yes, I have witnessed with my own eyes that for some....this is not the case.  Muhammed (pbuh) had been put higher than Moses, Abraham or Isa. (pbut) 

But, there are Muslims who are guilty of this that would argue that they don't do it.  That they just respect him as a man and the Last Prophet.  Who am I to call them a liar?  Its not my place.

Patty and I and others have explained to you that the prayers are not directed at the inanimate object.  Idolatry is when you are worshipping the IDOL as if IT were the person, god or angel.  Not praying to a Saint, God or Angel while viewing a representation of them.  The prayer is going TO those people. 

IN the wake of the worldwide protests against the blasphemous cartoons, it has come to light that the ignorance, real or feigned, of the enlightened West regarding Muslim belief about the Prophet of Islam, as also about Prophets of other religions, is tragic and disappointing.

Those who caused such a grave offence to Muslim sensitivity globally were so pathetically ill-informed not only about the person of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but also about how the Muslims are required by their faith to revere and respect other Prophets of God, specially those named in the Bible and Quran.

It appears that the present-day Christian Europe has not shed from its collective consciousness the vulgar, indecent and entirely unfounded accounts about the Holy Prophet, whose name was deliberately and derisively distorted and circulated by the Christian clergy in mediaeval Europe to ignite the Crusades that lasted for well over two centuries. If it is so, then it is most unfortunate, as it belies the West�s tall claim that it has discarded the religious baggage of yore, having embraced secularism which stands for the belief that the state machinery, moral values, citizens� mindset and educational system should be independent of religious prejudices and predilections.

In Islam, a Prophet, such as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), is neither God�s offspring, nor His incarnation, nor even His shadow on earth. They were all mortals like any one of us except that they received revelation from their Maker. The Prophet of Islam declared many a time, as can be seen in the text of the Quran that �he was only a mortal like any one else with the difference that it was inspired in him that our God is one and only God� (18: 110 & 41:6). And, as desired by the Almighty, he proclaimed: �Glory to my God! I am no more than a mortal Messenger� (17:93).

The one attribute common to all Prophets of God that distinguishes them from ordinary folks is that they received �revelation� from the Divine Being through a spiritual or �angelic� medium. And, it is entirely God�s prerogative to choose Prophets to convey the Divine dictation to fellow humans for guidance on the right path. The Quran confirms this in these words: �God sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command to whom He wills� (16:2). Similarly, the Quran affirms that all Prophets received �revelation�: �God did not send any Prophet from among the inhabitants of that place who were not given the Divine revelation� (16:109).

Such being the status of all the Divinely-inspired Prophets, the Muslims are required to treat all of them as equally respectable and venerable. The Quran records this fact: �The believers (i.e. Muslims) say that they make no distinction between any of God�s Prophets� (2:285). But what is not permissible for the believers � differentiation between Prophets � is the Almighty�s prerogative. He can, and He did, distinguish and differentiate. In this regard the Quran states: �out of the Prophets, some have been caused by god to excel others � some to whom He spoke, while some of them He exalted in degree, and some, like Jesus son of Mary He supported with the Holy Spirit� (2:253).

In this excerpt from the Scripture, there is reference, evidently, to three Abrahamic Prophets � Moses to whom God spoke, Jesus Christ who was provided support through the holy Ghost and Prophet Muhammad whom He �exalted in degree.� This particular excellence of the Prophet of Islam is also confirmed by an earlier Makkan Surah 94 addressed to him while he was facing tyrannical opposition from Makkan polytheists: �Has god not caused your bosom to open up? And eased you of the burdensome weight that had (metaphorically) bent your back? And exalted your fame?�

Commenting on the phrase: �exalted your fame� Marmaduke Pickthal, the blue-blooded British Muslim, observes (vide his translation of the Glorious Quran) that �speaking of his fame as exalted must have seemed particularly misplaced at that time of humiliation and persecution, but today from every mosque in the world, the Prophet�s name is cried as that of the Messenger of God five times a day and every Muslim prays for blessings on him when his name is mentioned.�

The point arises as to why Muslims pray for Allah�s blessings on him when he, according to his own statement preserved in the Quran, was no more than �a mortal messenger� and had announced, right in the beginning of his apostleship as recorded in the Quran, that he �neither possessed the treasure of Allah nor had knowledge of the Unseen, nor was an angel, but followed only what was inspired in him� (6:50). Not only this. He had, at the same time, declared that �he had no power to benefit, nor power to hurt, except that which Allah willed� (7:188).

Then what are the reasons for such extraordinary attachment of his followers with his memory and devotion to his name by generations after generations of believers throughout the world?

For the answer, just consider the facts: An unlettered person born and brought up in a family and place not familiar with formal education, attaining manhood in a country devoid of literacy and learning traditions where there was no study circle like that of the Greek philosophers and where lived no consummate genius who knew the history of the rise and fall of nations, or had studied various theological systems, or was well-versed in ethics and social sciences, or was an authority on law and legal doctrines and so on and so forth.

A person with no formal education having spent 40 years of his life amongst his townsmen, mostly in public and partly in the seclusion of a cave, one fine morning comes out of the cave, stands on the summit of a hill and gives a clarion call to his elders, chieftains of tribes and ordinary folks to listen to his words that were inspired in him by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. And then the stream of inimitable verses of the Quran shedding light on all conceivable topics that concern human life � from creation to culture, from ethics to criminal law and social justice, from worship to trade and commerce, from waging war in self-defence to making peace with stubborn foes and sworn enemies.

The stream kept flowing for a little over two decades and in the words of Lane Poole, �his doctrine falling upon a people prone to quick impulses and susceptible of strong impressions worked a revolution� (�Moors in Spain�).

But it was not oratory and erudition alone that had attracted his fellow citizens� attention to him. It were also his pragmatism, practicality and unmatched ability to implement, by personal example, all the precepts that he preached. This rare quality acted as a magnet and bound to him all who come close to him who are till today remembered with utmost deference by Muslims, wherever they are, as the Prophet�s Companions (may God be pleased with them).

None of them disobeyed him while he was there and none of them even thought of betraying him. They all accepted him as their leader in this life and their intercessor in life hereafter. Not because they had seen him performing miracles but because they saw in him the signs of a miraculous person, a Divinely-inspired holy man, who was not a recluse, but more active and more involved than others in social, political and administrative affairs of the ideal state which he founded with the collective efforts of his followers. He succeeded in his mission in his life time although he had not even a quarter of a century to work his way through hardships and adversity to accomplish what he was destined to attain.

It is such a person who has inspired and guided the past and present generations of believers and, God willing, the scripture and the example left by him will continue to inspire and guide generations to come till time ceases to tick.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/24/op.htm

The Quran clearly states..

002.285
YUSUFALI: The Messenger believeth in what hath been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believeth in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers. "We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of His messengers." And they say: "We hear, and we obey: (We seek) Thy forgiveness, our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys."
PICKTHAL: The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying.
SHAKIR: The messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers; We make no difference between any of His messengers; and they say: We hear and obey, our Lord! Thy forgiveness (do we crave), and to Thee is the eventual course.

And I'm not talking about the Hajj.  I'm talking the 5x daily prostration to the Kaaba.  Are you not bowing to the Kaaba?  No your not.  I'm not bowing (well, when I was Orthodox) to the icon.  I'm bowing to God.  The Icon is just there to remind me. 

Remember, most of early christianity was taught to the illiterate.  Many did not even have their own written languages.  Pictures were necessary in those days.

If you'd rather discuss about Muslims, then don't come to the interfaith discussions and make presumptions about stuff you don't understand.