Saturday, September 15, 2007

Does God have a religion?

DOES GOD HAVE A RELIGION?

You can clearly substitute your beliefs and your scriptures with that the one's I have quoted, as I am familiar with them.

Qur'aan - Sura Ikhlas

112:1 SAY: "He is the One God:
112:2 God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being.
112:3 He begets not, and neither is He begotten;
112:4 and there is nothing that could be compared with Him.

The Vedas and Bhagvad Gita have identical words, they will be added over this weekend.

Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Bahai's are trained to know that GOD is not a physical being, he or she is genderless, it is not an object nor is it definable. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) experienced the presence of God during Meraaj and was described as Noor or the light. Is that the experience of being nothing and being everything as the Hindu Philosophy puts it. Nidi Nidi. Sarmad went nuts with the idea as well and Moses saw the light too.

God has consistently asked in Qur'aan not to define him in human terms, it is an abstract energy that gives life and that is the cause of all existence. It is just one single source. The Jews go even further and resist containing G_d in words.

Whereas, the Christian and Hindu theology trains one to believe that God created humans in his own image, and they have come to understand God in human terms, God is personal and God has appeared in human form for them and that is how they relate with the creator.

The Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian, Shinto and Tao are trained to be Karma centered rather than God centered. Everything has to have a balance, when one loses that balance through bad actions, a trade off for regaining that energy becomes necessary. Which the other religions explain in terms of repentence, forgiveness or doing lot of good to offset the bad karma.

All the belief systems are legitimate to the believers. The above are not crystal clear boundaries, there is a lot of overlapping in all the ideas above. I hope you can see the essence in all these beliefs; Accountability, Justice and Equilibrium.

Equilibrium is the key, every thing is created to have its own balance including humans with themselves and with others. When the balance is disturbed, Law of Karma becomes operative squaring out the negative and positive energies, and those items that are not squared out, has to be squared out, if not in this world, it will be in the mysterious next world either through the concept of re-birth or eternal life after death.

The idea of re-incarnation or continuation of life after death in different theologies has the same essence; when the rest of the issues are squared out in our life time, the unsolved justice will be accounted for in the continuum after this life. This gives hope to the mankind that Justice prevails and inturn brings about an equilibrium to the human psyche. Whether we watch a movie or bad things happen to us in our real life, we yearn for that elusive justice and it is there.

Does God have a religion?

Well, he created us, each one of us with our own fixtures. Qur'an, Al-Hujurat, Surah 49:13: "O mankind! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. The noblest of you, in sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Allah Knows and is Aware."

God continuously acknowledges the existence of the human kind in all its glorious forms, indeed Qur'aan begins with the idea of the world(s) 1:2 "All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds," and ends with,114:6 "from all [temptation to evil by] invisible forces as well as men.". Men meaning the human kind.

One may see the clarity and acknowledgement of different pathways laid out by the creator and he tests us 109:6 "Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine!" Contrast this with the verse from Al- Hujurat, Surah 49:13 above

Religion is a manual to understand oneself and one's relationship with the creator (creation).

I do not think God has or needs a religion, we have and we need it. I am open to learning through your comments. It is an open field, let's enhance each other with knowledge.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: "Good for Muslims and good for the world." His personal Website is www.MikeGhouse.net and his articles can be found on the Websites mentioned above and in his Blogs: http://MikeGhouseforAmerica.Blogspot.com and http://MikeGhouse.Sulekha.com . He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town

http://www.mikeghouse.net/ http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/

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quraan burning

Planned Muslim Response to Qur'an Burning by Pastor Jones on September 11 in Mulberry, Florida

PRESS RELEASE
August 19, 2013| Dallas, Texas

Mike Ghouse
Text/Talk: (214) 325-1916
MikeGhouse@aol.com

Mirza A Beg
(205) 454-8797
mirza.a.beg@gmail.com

www.WorldMuslimCongress.com


PLANNED MUSLIMS RESPONSE TO QUR'AN BURNING BY PASTOR JONES ON 9/11/13 IN MULBERRY, FLORIDA

We as Muslims plan to respond to pastor Terry Jones' planned burning of 3000 copies of Quran on September 11, 2013 in positive terms.

Our response - we will reclaim the standard of behavior practiced by the Prophet concerning “scurrilous and hostile criticism of the Qur’an” (Muhammad Asad Translation Note 31, verse 41:34). It was "To overcome evil with good is good, and to resist evil by evil is evil." It is also strongly enjoined in the Qur’an in the same verse 41:34, “Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend.”

God willing Muslims will follow the divine guidance and pray for the restoration of Goodwill, and on that day many Muslim organizations will go on a “blood drive” to save lives and serve humanity with kindness.

We invite fellow Americans of all faiths, races, and ethnicities to join us to rededicate the pledge, “One nation under God”, and to build a cohesive America where no American has to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of fellow Americans. This event is a substitute for our 10th Annual Unity Day Celebration (www.UnitydayUSA.com) held in Dallas, but now it will be at Mulberry, Florida.

Unwittingly Pastor Jones has done us a favor by invigorating us by his decision to burn nearly 3000 copies Quran on September 11, 2013. Obviously he is not satisfied by the notoriety he garnered by burning one Qur'an last year.

As Muslims and citizens we honor the free speech guaranteed in our constitution. We have no intentions to criticize, condemn or oppose Pastor Terry Jones' freedom of expression. Instead, we will be donating blood and praying for goodness to permeate in our society.

We plan to follow Jesus Christ (pbuh), a revered prophet in Islam as well as Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – that of mitigating the conflicts and nurturing good will for the common good of the society.

We hope, this event and the message will remind Muslims elsewhere in the world as well, that violence is not the way. Muslims, who react violently to senseless provocation, should realize that, violence causes more violence, and besmirches the name of the religion that we hold so dear. We believe that Prophet Muhammad was a mercy to the mankind, and we ought to practice what we believe and preach. We must not insult Islam by the negative reactions of a few.

We can only hope it will bring about a change in the attitude of the followers of Pastor Jones, and in the behavior of those Muslims who reacted violently the last time Pastor sought notoriety – We hope this small step towards a bridge to peaceful coexistence would propel us towards building a cohesive society.

Like most Americans a majority of Muslims quietly go about their own business, but it is time to speak up and take positive action instead of negative reaction. May this message of peace and goodwill reverberate and reach many shores.

Lastly, we appreciate the Citizens of Mulberry, Florida, Honorable Mayor George Hatch, City Commissioners, police and Fire Chiefs for handing this situation very well. This will add a ‘feather of peace’ in the City’s reputation. We hope Mulberry will be a catalyst in showing the way in handling conflict with dignity and peace.

We thank the Media for giving value to the work towards peace rather than conflict.






URL- http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2013/08/planned-muslim-response-to-quran_18.html



Thank you.

CIVIL DIALOGUE

The people in Dallas are making an effort to understand and clean their own hearts first, when we are free from bias, it would be easy to share that with others. Islam teaches us in so many ways to "respect the otherness of others" and it is time we find simple practical ways of doing it.