Mamoon
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[MENTION=139765]Arham_PakFan[/MENTION]
To understand these concepts, we first need to understand what Islam is. I will get to the point of Jesus and Madhi, but we need to explore the religion first before we can proceed, since we have to follow a consistent rationale. Unlike in some other religions, there is absolutely no room for miracles in Islam. As [MENTION=138980]TalentSpotterPk[/MENTION] explained in his last post, the Prophet (SAW) himself claimed that he cannot perform miracles, because he is only a human. What more do we need than that? The life of the greatest individual in history of Islam tells us everything that we need to know about the religion, who himself claimed that he was nothing more than a human being.
He was not taller than others, he was not stronger than others, he did not have any special physical powers and attributes. He needed food and he needed sleep. He lived up to an age that was normal for people in his time. We often hear that people in the past lived up to a 1,000 years and more, but that is nonsense. Before the advent of modern medical science, people generally did not live very long and would age quickly, so 61 (or 62 or 63) was a normal age for his time. Now, lets get to Islam itself.
It is very important to note that although the message of Islam is universal - since the ethics and morals can be applied in any society in any era - the audience was a 6th CE Arabian society, that was quite benighted compared to the other great civilizations of that time. Of course we hold these early Muslims in great esteem because Islam would have survived without their faith, but we must also understand that the intellectual capacity of these people was not equivalent to the intellectual capacity of modern people. Similarly, people in 1,000 years will be far more intelligent than you and me, simply because of the advancement in education and progression in technology.
Let's consider the example of Prophet's (PBUH) ascension to the Heavens, which I believe was a dream. However, the general tradition is that the Prophet went from Mecca to Jerusalem on a flying horse, before ascending to the Heavens from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, same place where Jesus is supposed to land on his return to Earth.
My question is, why did God send a flying horse to transport the Prophet (SAW) from Mecca to Jerusalem? Why didn't He simply teleport him, or transformed in some form of a spaceship that was well beyond the technology of that time? Why use an animal to which the 6 CE Arabian people could easily relate? Do you think that he would have mounted a flying horse if that journey would have happened in 2017 rather than than 621 CE? Do you think the audience of 2017 would have accepted the idea of journeying on a flying horse?
Similarly, all these tales of Adam eating a forbidden fruit and getting banished from Heaven, Musa (AS) transforming his staff into a snake, the good looks of Yusuf (AS) were so intense that women would end up chopping their fingers, the moon was split into two by the Prophet, a lamb appeared from the sky for Ibrahim (AS), there are rivers of milk and honey in Heaven, Allah Almighty sits on a throne above all the Heavens, the Iblees refused to prostate to Adam, the concept of angels etc etc., Jinns can possess humans etc etc. are nothing but folklore, and should not distract us from the message of God.
We need to understand that these examples were meant for a specific audience to aid their understanding. Let's interpret the description of the Heaven. Would you be able to impress a modern day audience by rivers of milk and honey? Of course not, because these things can be easily recreated by man today. Again, let's bring the Prophet (SAW) to the modern world: do you think he would have given the examples of rivers of milk and honey to a 2017 audience?
Furthermore, it is my belief that Iblees and the angels are not physical beings. Iblees is nothing but a representation of our deep, animalistic desires. It is what the Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud called the 'Id'. Without morals and ability to distinguish right from wrong, we will all cater to our deep, unconscious desires; we will all be savage animals; we will kill, we will steal, we will rape. Basically, we will do everything that is considered immoral in a moral society. However, this is a complex psychological concept, which is quite difficult to understand even in the modern world.
So, how do you explain to a 6 CE Arab society? isn't the idea of an evil entity made of fire enticing, us to do evil more appealing and convincing? Similarly, the concept of a genderless being called angel, which is free of sin is nothing but a representation of a human state where we have completely managed to control our Id. You must have heard the common Urdu phrase 'Wo banda to bilkul farishta hai', often used to describe a person with very good behaviour and conduct.
Angels are made of light, so again, compare the 'fire' and 'light' metaphors. Fire is something that can destroy and burn you if you are not able to keep it in control, while light is wisdom and enlightenment. Deep down, we are all fire, we are all Iblees. The challenge for us is to make our morals and our conduct so esteemed that we become angels and thus learn to control our fire, and have our light illuminate others. Genderless because when we reach this level of spirituality, we can say that we are in control of our desires which a normal man or woman is not.
Have you ever wondered why miracles have stopped happening since the advent of science? Why for example, you will never see a staff transforming into a snake, or a lamb appearing from the sky? That is because these things never happened in the first place, This is folklore that has been passed from generations to generations, and have been greatly exaggerated over the course of history as well. Today, many people believe that the angels are more than 500 ft tall and have wings that have span of a 1,000 ft.
Centuries ago, the same angel might have been 50 ft tall with 100 ft wings. Prophet Yusuf (AS) must have been very handsome, as a lot of people are, but at the end of the day, he was only a human, and no human can be beautiful enough to have someone chop his/her fingers while cutting fruit, simply because they could not concentrate on anything else. We often say that that thing gave me a heart attack, but that does not mean that we get a literal heart attack. If someone takes it literally, thousands years later, you might have people believe that a certain thing gave people a heart attack.
Hazrat Isa (AS), like the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), was only a human being and he is not alive. A human being cannot transcend into the skies and then come back from the Heavens thousands of year later. Similarly, you will not see a one-eyed man called Dajjal who will be out to ruin the world but will be stopped by Mahdi. As I said before, the foundation of religion is blind faith, i.e. the belief that God exists. However, if we believe that God exists, then we must also believe that he has created nature, which He never violates. He didn't even violate it for His most important Messenger.
As [MENTION=138980]TalentSpotterPk[/MENTION] mentioned, there was a time when I was a borderline Atheist. I had lost faith in religion and all these fairytale-like stories, but then I started to understand the religion better and once I realized that these tales of miracles that we hear and how another miracle awaits us with Isa (AS) returning along with the emergence of individuals called Mahdi and Dajjal is nothing but misinterpretation and misrepresentation, which together lead to folklore which is what gets passed from generations to generations. I started to look beyond all of this, and my faith has never been stronger. Now the question is, what does Dajjal represent? For me, Dajjal is what the Western world is today. It is increasingly becoming one-eyed because of they way it sees Muslims and Islam as nothing but terrorists. Close your one eye and you will only see half of what you can see. That is what is happening in today's world, Muslims and Islam are being judged through one lens only.
Look beyond the flying horse, the staff turning into a snake, the rivers of milk and honey, the Iblees made of fire and the winged, genderless angels, the living Isa (AS) and the one-eyed Dajjal, and you will reach a spiritual level that you had not attained before. These things are not significant in the grand scheme of things, and you do not need them to be a good Muslim. However, these things can certainly weaken your faith.
I am sorry for the very long post, but I had to write a detailed post to do justice to your query.
To understand these concepts, we first need to understand what Islam is. I will get to the point of Jesus and Madhi, but we need to explore the religion first before we can proceed, since we have to follow a consistent rationale. Unlike in some other religions, there is absolutely no room for miracles in Islam. As [MENTION=138980]TalentSpotterPk[/MENTION] explained in his last post, the Prophet (SAW) himself claimed that he cannot perform miracles, because he is only a human. What more do we need than that? The life of the greatest individual in history of Islam tells us everything that we need to know about the religion, who himself claimed that he was nothing more than a human being.
He was not taller than others, he was not stronger than others, he did not have any special physical powers and attributes. He needed food and he needed sleep. He lived up to an age that was normal for people in his time. We often hear that people in the past lived up to a 1,000 years and more, but that is nonsense. Before the advent of modern medical science, people generally did not live very long and would age quickly, so 61 (or 62 or 63) was a normal age for his time. Now, lets get to Islam itself.
It is very important to note that although the message of Islam is universal - since the ethics and morals can be applied in any society in any era - the audience was a 6th CE Arabian society, that was quite benighted compared to the other great civilizations of that time. Of course we hold these early Muslims in great esteem because Islam would have survived without their faith, but we must also understand that the intellectual capacity of these people was not equivalent to the intellectual capacity of modern people. Similarly, people in 1,000 years will be far more intelligent than you and me, simply because of the advancement in education and progression in technology.
Let's consider the example of Prophet's (PBUH) ascension to the Heavens, which I believe was a dream. However, the general tradition is that the Prophet went from Mecca to Jerusalem on a flying horse, before ascending to the Heavens from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, same place where Jesus is supposed to land on his return to Earth.
My question is, why did God send a flying horse to transport the Prophet (SAW) from Mecca to Jerusalem? Why didn't He simply teleport him, or transformed in some form of a spaceship that was well beyond the technology of that time? Why use an animal to which the 6 CE Arabian people could easily relate? Do you think that he would have mounted a flying horse if that journey would have happened in 2017 rather than than 621 CE? Do you think the audience of 2017 would have accepted the idea of journeying on a flying horse?
Similarly, all these tales of Adam eating a forbidden fruit and getting banished from Heaven, Musa (AS) transforming his staff into a snake, the good looks of Yusuf (AS) were so intense that women would end up chopping their fingers, the moon was split into two by the Prophet, a lamb appeared from the sky for Ibrahim (AS), there are rivers of milk and honey in Heaven, Allah Almighty sits on a throne above all the Heavens, the Iblees refused to prostate to Adam, the concept of angels etc etc., Jinns can possess humans etc etc. are nothing but folklore, and should not distract us from the message of God.
We need to understand that these examples were meant for a specific audience to aid their understanding. Let's interpret the description of the Heaven. Would you be able to impress a modern day audience by rivers of milk and honey? Of course not, because these things can be easily recreated by man today. Again, let's bring the Prophet (SAW) to the modern world: do you think he would have given the examples of rivers of milk and honey to a 2017 audience?
Furthermore, it is my belief that Iblees and the angels are not physical beings. Iblees is nothing but a representation of our deep, animalistic desires. It is what the Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud called the 'Id'. Without morals and ability to distinguish right from wrong, we will all cater to our deep, unconscious desires; we will all be savage animals; we will kill, we will steal, we will rape. Basically, we will do everything that is considered immoral in a moral society. However, this is a complex psychological concept, which is quite difficult to understand even in the modern world.
So, how do you explain to a 6 CE Arab society? isn't the idea of an evil entity made of fire enticing, us to do evil more appealing and convincing? Similarly, the concept of a genderless being called angel, which is free of sin is nothing but a representation of a human state where we have completely managed to control our Id. You must have heard the common Urdu phrase 'Wo banda to bilkul farishta hai', often used to describe a person with very good behaviour and conduct.
Angels are made of light, so again, compare the 'fire' and 'light' metaphors. Fire is something that can destroy and burn you if you are not able to keep it in control, while light is wisdom and enlightenment. Deep down, we are all fire, we are all Iblees. The challenge for us is to make our morals and our conduct so esteemed that we become angels and thus learn to control our fire, and have our light illuminate others. Genderless because when we reach this level of spirituality, we can say that we are in control of our desires which a normal man or woman is not.
Have you ever wondered why miracles have stopped happening since the advent of science? Why for example, you will never see a staff transforming into a snake, or a lamb appearing from the sky? That is because these things never happened in the first place, This is folklore that has been passed from generations to generations, and have been greatly exaggerated over the course of history as well. Today, many people believe that the angels are more than 500 ft tall and have wings that have span of a 1,000 ft.
Centuries ago, the same angel might have been 50 ft tall with 100 ft wings. Prophet Yusuf (AS) must have been very handsome, as a lot of people are, but at the end of the day, he was only a human, and no human can be beautiful enough to have someone chop his/her fingers while cutting fruit, simply because they could not concentrate on anything else. We often say that that thing gave me a heart attack, but that does not mean that we get a literal heart attack. If someone takes it literally, thousands years later, you might have people believe that a certain thing gave people a heart attack.
Hazrat Isa (AS), like the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), was only a human being and he is not alive. A human being cannot transcend into the skies and then come back from the Heavens thousands of year later. Similarly, you will not see a one-eyed man called Dajjal who will be out to ruin the world but will be stopped by Mahdi. As I said before, the foundation of religion is blind faith, i.e. the belief that God exists. However, if we believe that God exists, then we must also believe that he has created nature, which He never violates. He didn't even violate it for His most important Messenger.
As [MENTION=138980]TalentSpotterPk[/MENTION] mentioned, there was a time when I was a borderline Atheist. I had lost faith in religion and all these fairytale-like stories, but then I started to understand the religion better and once I realized that these tales of miracles that we hear and how another miracle awaits us with Isa (AS) returning along with the emergence of individuals called Mahdi and Dajjal is nothing but misinterpretation and misrepresentation, which together lead to folklore which is what gets passed from generations to generations. I started to look beyond all of this, and my faith has never been stronger. Now the question is, what does Dajjal represent? For me, Dajjal is what the Western world is today. It is increasingly becoming one-eyed because of they way it sees Muslims and Islam as nothing but terrorists. Close your one eye and you will only see half of what you can see. That is what is happening in today's world, Muslims and Islam are being judged through one lens only.
Look beyond the flying horse, the staff turning into a snake, the rivers of milk and honey, the Iblees made of fire and the winged, genderless angels, the living Isa (AS) and the one-eyed Dajjal, and you will reach a spiritual level that you had not attained before. These things are not significant in the grand scheme of things, and you do not need them to be a good Muslim. However, these things can certainly weaken your faith.
I am sorry for the very long post, but I had to write a detailed post to do justice to your query.
...... unbelievable.
