Confusing and Confused Terms

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim

Assalaam alaikum

Soo... as you may have noticed, my legions of adoring fans (yeah, right), I have once again not posted for over a week. I have a very good reason this time! You see, I had an envelope on which I had recorded all of my ideas for blog topics, and... I lost it. I know what you're thinking: how could a scrap envelope possibly get accidentally discarded? Well, my friends, I just don't know what this world is coming to. Good news, though: I started a new list on the instructions page for my Spanish composition. I really do have my priorities in order.

So, I have had this post idea for a while, and I was motivated to finally do it after receiving an email from a good friend that her step-mother had forwarded to her. Now, I've only met this woman (the step-mother) once, and only Allah is the Judge: I want to avoid passing judgments, but my friend does say that she forwards emails such as this a lot, and this one is just a prime example of ignorance, which I hope this woman does not possess:

As Christians we should do what we can to stem the tide of Muslim purposes.

This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes, is a well-known leader in prison ministry. The man who walks with God always gets to his destination. If you have a pulse you have a purpose.

The Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion per capita in the United States , especially in the minority races!!!

Last month I attended my annual training session that's required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who explained each of their beliefs.

I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. The Imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video.

After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers.

When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked: 'Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world and, that by killing an infidel, (which is a command to all Muslims) they are assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?'

There was no disagreement with my statements and, without hesitation, he replied, 'Non-believers!'

I responded, 'So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can have a place in heaven. Is that correct?'

The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.'

He sheepishly replied, 'Yes.'

I then stated, 'Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr. Stanley ordering all Protestants to do the same in order to guarantee them a place in heaven!'

The Imam was speechless!

I continued, 'I also have a problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me!

Let me ask you a question: Would you rather have your Allah, who tells you to kill me in order for you to go to heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and He wants you to be there with me?'

You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame. Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the Diversification training seminar were not happy with my way of dealing with the Islamic Imam, and exposing the truth about the Muslims' beliefs.

In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. to elect the President!

I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us send it on! This is your chance to make a difference...

FOR GODS' SAKE! SEND THIS ON!

Before I even get to the constructive part of my blog, I would just like to briefly comment on the gullibility it would take for a person to actually believe this is a true story. Required gullibility: lots and lots and lots.

I'm not going to even deal with how offensive this lie is. I will mostly try to intellectually analyze where some confusion might come up. I would like to just pose one quick question, though, rhetorical as it may be: what's the point? What do people hope to accomplish by sending this letter on to others? Do they hope to get people to convert to Christianity from Islam? Do they hope that people will stop reverting to Islam? Do they hope people will go out and start killing Muslims?

One more quick rhetorical question: even if all Muslims were ordered to go out and kill non-Muslims, then why aren't we? I mean, if we're promised heaven then what does it matter if we get caught? Just a question of logic.

An idea: we aren't ordered to kill the "infidels."

My mini-rant is over. Now onto the logic.

First, but not really foremost, I want to clear up the confusing concept of:

Imam

Many people seem to think Imam=pastor/priest, etc. But according to Sunnah, anyone can be Imam. My husband is Imam every day, and he has no religious training. Imam is essentially the person that leads prayer or gives the khutbah (sermon). In general, a Sheikh would be more influential because in order to be called Sheikh, religious training is required. So most (not all) of the time when people think that an "Imam" said something or ordered something, it was actually probably a Sheikh.

Onto our next important concept:

Jihad

So, although the supposed narrator of that story asked about the meaning of the English word "infidel," he did not ask about the Arabic word "jihad."

These people speak Arabic. Literally, as you can read by clicking that link, "jihad" means "doings ones utmost to realize [ie: fulfill] a goal." In Arabic, even in the Qur'an itself, the word used to describe war is "qital."

Though we Muslims do not joke about Allah and his messenger Mohammad (SAW), we do joke about jihad. Yes, it's true. Because a jihad is a struggle for one's faith. For example, my jihad is coming to terms with the saddening levels of ignorance I see regarding Muslims and Islam all the time. I have a jihad to come to terms with Islam's view on homosexuality. None of these involve killing anyone.

The joke, of course, is when something like finals are coming up. Say we're standing together by the food court or something and one of us has a final in something nightmarish... chem. The departing individual might laughingly say "Sorry, I have to go--I'm off to wage jihad. Assalaam alaikum." Hahaha!

Infidel

The Arabic word that is often translated as "infidel" is "kafir." Now, for a brief Arabic lesson. A really neat thing about the Arabic language is that words that are related have similar consonant sructures. For example: the word "kitaab" means "book" and the word "kataba" means "to study."

Now, it is true that many people translate the word "kafir" to mean "disbeliever." There is one place in the Qur'an that describes Allah as "kufr." Since anyone with knowledge of the Arabic language can tell you about the relation between words with similar consonant structures, it is clear that "kafir" and "kufr" are related.

When the word "kufr" is used to describe Allah it means "concealer." Allah is the Best Concealer of Mistakes, is what it's saying. Clearly, a word used to describe the One God cannot be related to the word meaning "disbeliever." Obviously, God cannot disbelieve.

A better translation for the word most people would translate as "infidel" (you will notice, by the way, that Muslims will rarely if ever actually use the word "infidel"--it's always in a translation done by some random American) is closer to "concealer" that "disbeliever," because Muslims believe that everyone is born in submission to God, but that part of people is later concealed from them and their hearts and minds harden.

Allah

This, to me, is the most important one. I have surprising news for some Christians out there: you are all servants of Allah too. Allah simply means "God" in Arabic. Muslims prefer to use the word "Allah" rather than "God" because in you can't differentiate between "God" (ie: the One True God) and "god" (ie: an idol), while in Arabic, the word for God is "Allah" and the word for god is "ilah."

Arabic-speaking Christians in the Middle East call God Allah too. In fact the Aramaic word for God is Aalah... which means that Jesus (AS) would have called God Aalah... suspiciously close to "Allah."

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Soooo... I hope most people out there are sound enough to realize that most of the Muslim world has NO problem with non-believers, so long as we are respected by them. There are definitely some fringe weirdos in the society, but for the most part we are ridiculously normal people.

Hopefully, you have a better understanding of some key words that you hear a lot: the word Allah being used as though it's any different from God, etc etc etc... you read the post.

Til next time!