Questions on Islam....

You're so great for responding! Thank you so much. So I have another question about the age factor, if a child attends mosque and as an adult decides not to attend anymore does that make them a non Islam or how exactly does it work? I know that most adults decide which religion a child will be what happens when the child becomes an adult and does not want to be Islamic anymore for whatever reason? I am also interested in knowing which came about in a conversation I was having with a friend who practices Islam, are most of the people that are mentioned in the Christian Bible really prophets in the Koran, Jesus, Noah, Abraham? My child's name is Noah and my friend quickly pointed out that the name was looked upon by the Islamic faith as a prophet. I found it very interesting, and also wonder what else the Koran and the Bible share. I am trying to read the Koran on the web I found a link here on mylot and I haven't gotten too far into it because being online is sometimes hard for me and the site will not allow you to download it, or if they do I have not figured it out yet. Is Qur'an the Arabic, because I'm sorry I have only seen it spelled Koran. Please correct me if I am spelling it wrong because I would never want to offend anyone by a simple mistake. Again thank you so much for helping me understand Islam, I believe that there is a lot of Americans that are ignorant of the Islamic way and if I can educated myself than I can also try to pass that along and educate others.

I told you, didn't I? nakeebi posses a great knowledge in Islam and raise any question on him.

Thank you for your encouraging words, Shamika. ZephyrSun appears to be genuinely interested to know about Islam. Let me introduce Islam. It is a monothiestic religion believing in one God (Allah) and Prophet Mohammed (Peace & blessings of Allah be upon him)is his messenger. Monothiestic message in Islam is that we all human beings are His creations and His slaves. Therefore, there is no discrimination amoung us in terms of colour, caste, wealth, power and nationality etc. Yes, from the inception of first man, Adam on earth there were prophets (Peace be upon all of them) were sent by Allah to the mankind. Noah, Abrahim, Moses and Jesus (PBUT)are some of them. Present day Islam is a link in that continuous chain of prophets and scriptures. Unfortunately, all other religions do not recognize this fact and continue to remain as separate religions. Logically there can not be different Gods for different religions. Then there will be a clash among these Gods. There is one and only God for all mankind whether you call Him with any name other than Allah is up to you. A Muslim child can later revert to athiesm or any other religions when it grows up as an adult. There is no restriction in Islam for that. But in an Islamic state where this person holds any strategic position and if it is found that it is detrimental to the security of the state then there is a ruling in Islam that the person who reverts to other faith must be killed for treason. I will Insha Allah write more on this subject later.

hi my friend, i'am a muslim and i want you to know that islam has no age if you want know anything about islam from A to Z i will be thankful and happy. just ask any question that comes to your mind and dont fear that i will misunderstand you .

***correction: Post delivery bleeding woman...

Thank you both for responding. From what I have been told from my friends Islam does recognize certain Biblical people, although I haven't gotten that far in the Koran to know for sure. After the first response I am rather curious as to why only the men are required to pray on Fridays.

I think here in the US or maybe I should say that the area of the US I live in there is a lot of discrimination against Arabs and Muslims. It is very sad. Thank you for responding with the helpful information.

I think its great. More people should be able to discuss their belief systems openly and without scorn. Keep it up :-)

Thank you, I was trying to be extremely respectful because I truly wanted to know and I didn't want to offend anyone by asking.

Thank you that would be great.

I'm afraid that your answer has left me with some more questions. My first question is-When I hear or see someone with the word sheik in front of their name does that mean that they are a Muslim priest or not always? I remember when I was in high school my class when to the mosque by our school and I remember the woman that showed us the mosque telling us that Muslim meant "one God" so I started this discussion I didn't want anyone to be offended if I said Muslim so I referred to the people that practice Islam as just that. I didn't look to see where you were from before I responded to you but I personally and of course I do not speak for all Americans do not believe for one second that all the people of Islam are represented by the freedom fighters or as we call them in America extremists. I prefer extremists because all religions have extremists and the word doesn't represent the population or religion as a whole. Thank you so very much for taking the time to respond.

Actually accepting Islam is believing in it and testifying willingly: "I bear witness that there is none to be worshipped other than Allah, and Prophet Muhammad is His messenger". However, to socially authenticate the acceptance of Islam, it is done in front of some Muslim authority and few witness. When one accept Islam willingly, his past sins will be forgiven and will be like a new born baby. Grizme: 'Muslim' actually means "One who submitted(to God)". Muslim derived from Islam, which means 'submission' or 'Entering in Peace' which itself derive from the word 'Peace'.

Not at all, i'm not offended in any way, i love it when people take time to ask questions about islam, instead of jumping it with accusations when they dont know what its truly about. as for your questions: A sheik is an Arabic word for a wise old man, back at the old days when islam was young, it was sheiks who understood the quran pretty well and explained it to other people, so the name kinda stuck. and the word "Muslim" doesnt really mean one god, no. It means "to believe in one god" or "to accept one god" If you have any more questions, dont hesitate to ask

Well I want to first thank you for responding. Some of the Christian religions believe that once a person is saved they are always saved, meaning that if they stop going to church then they were never really a Christian to begin with. Other Christian based religions believe that a person can backslide, meaning that they were once save by the blood of Jesus Christ but they have decided to stop for whatever reason. But, from what I have read from the Bible, Jesus is the way, not the church. So going to church does not make one a Christian just as not going to church does not make one a non-Christian. Of course the last statement is only my opinion and I truly am not a mainstream Christian. I had religion (Christian based) forced upon me as a child and growing up to not really like religion much because it tends to make some people to judgemental for me. If I remember correctly from my world history classes in high school and please forgive me if I am wrong because that was a long time ago, isn't Friday the Holy day? If you don't mind me asking, why is only the men required to pray? I have been to a mosque and seen how they seperate the men and women into different sides.

***Correction: a modest dress that do not show except what there appear apparently.

It is so refreshing that the people on this site that come from the faith of Islam are so willing to talk about it. In the part of the US I live in I don't believe that it is easy for them. There are many Americans that believe that Muslims are evil people, I am not one of those people. I wish that it wasn't true that a lot of Americans make generalizations about other cultures based on a few people that belong to that culture. I really want to thank you for adding more comments and knowledge to this discussion. I have always had such a great respect for Muslims because they do so much to keep their faith so pure and in all honesty I never knew much about extremeist until the awful event in my country several years ago, and the event didn't change my views on the religion. But, I am very shocked that a lot of Americans did and it really saddens me. I am curious about something and maybe you would be able to help me. Is it our media that tends to paint a picture of Islam being anti-women? I really do not have a better term for it. I hear a lot that the veil is oppressive for women, I guess that seems a little to crazy sounding, but then I don't know the history of it. Although I sometimes believe that some try to compare it to the burkka (I guessed at the spelling sorry).

Harley, I had forgotten about the blood types being unclean, I was raised by a Christian family and I must be honest and say that I do not practice any religion at this point in my life for many different reasons, but, a lot of people do not know that the Bible (Christian) says the same thing in the Old Testament somewhere. 9/11 was an awful event for the entire world because there were so many people from all over the world, not only US citizens that were killed. I remember the day very well and I also remember when I could collect myself and go out into public my friend that owned the store down from my house said I was one of few that had come in that day, he is a Muslim, and had been disrespected by customers that day and for a long time after. Of course Americans did not start yelling about every brown haired white man after Timothy McVye blow up the Federal Building killing many innocent children in the process. Americans are very close minded, not all but a good number of them. It is sad, I keep hearing over about this man that is running for president, his wife has said that this is the first time she has been proud of her country. People are upset that she has said this, and I couldn't agree with her more. Our country is sad, it's full of hate and discrimination. The media does play a huge roll in a lot of sterotyping. I do believe that the US has made some improvement over the screening, but it is still not good. I remember when they first started doing it, on the television it was reported that anyone that looked like an Arab man was to be stopped. It wasn't until after the government found videos of actual Americans (white) training in the extremeist camps that it changed. Sorry I am unable to call extremeists Arab, Islamic, or Muslim because I think that it is insulting to those people that are called that. Exteremeist are in a class of their own to me. It really reminded me of this country before the 1960's. I wanted to know exactly what an Arab man looked like, but no one was ever very informative about that one. If we based the actions of one person or a group of people, no one would like anyone. I have to say that I believe that those who practice Islam have a great deal of respect. I really do not like other religions that go door to door trying to get you to come to their church or change to their religion. I have never had an Islamic person come to my door trying to convert me, I seen a discussion here that some woman had posted, she was upset because someone left a Quran on her doorstep and she was going to throw it away. I was so upset by this. I myself would have seen this as a nice act, and I could never throw anyone's religious book away. I believe that there are too many womem that dress trashy. I personally believe that women should dress as they feel comfortable. See we have to go back to the media again, but, they act as though women are forced to dress the way that they do. Which I do not believe that because I have seen girls probably in their teen years at the malls here and they are by themselves (in a group) and they have a veil on. Now, I believe that if they were opposed to wearing it that they would take it off while their parents aren't around. Some Americans do not use common sense. It is much easier to be afraid then it is to learn. I choose the latter. I would much rather learn, I would rather someone get upset by my lack of knowledge and yell it to me, then to never know. I do not take your reply negative in anyway, you are talking your time to teach me. I am very thankful for that. I also know that sitting here typing looses all emotion so I just read the words and do not try to add emotion. Besides if I believe the media, you would not be doing this, because I am just a woman. But I hope that everything you and the others have told me and taught me can help me when I have the opportunity to tell someone that is being nasty about Islam how Islam really is. Whether they take it to heart, I can only hope. One less racist person on the planet is a huge step. I wanted to look at your profile and I had to laugh. My best friend in school (many years ago) was a Muslim girl. She and her family came here from Lebanon and it was the first time I had ever met anyone that was from a different religion and I was so surprised that they didn't celebrate Christman and she said that it was so neat at Christmas time with all of the houses decorated with lights, your comment that said Merry Christmas made me think of that.