I would like to become a musilim

http://www.islamonline.net/english/newtoislam/new2islam14.shtml


اختيار الأصدقاء
Choosing Your Friends
Choosing Your Friends Humans have always been social creatures and in need of friends and companions. A good part of our lives is spent in interaction with others. For Muslims like us who are living in a society where we are clearly a minority, the issue of choosing the right companions is essential for preserving our Deen. Befriending righteous and virtuous Muslims is a necessary means for staying on the Straight Path. In an authentic Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "A person is likely to follow the faith of his friend, so look whom you befriend." [reported by Abu Dawood & Tirmidhee]. Mixing with followers of any way other than that of the Guidance results in a change in one's behaviour, morals and conduct. If we accompany such friends, then we inherit their habits, behaviour and perhaps even their religion. Such a Muslim would find himself in a situation where he is willing to hide his or her Islam in front of those who despise it (those whom he considers as friends) and to separate from the believers. When this situation occurs, a point is reached when there is a very slight difference between the Muslim and his wrong-doing companion. Many times a Muslim is encouraged by his friends to do evil and to forget his duties. The result is that Muslims themselves are often ashamed to leave them to perform prayer, their friends thus causing them to clearly deviate from the Right Path. Instead of making friends with the misguided ones we should befriend the righteous but still treat everyone else in a gracious and just manner. In another Hadith, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "The example of a good companion and a bad companion is like that of the seller of musk, and the one who blows the blacksmith's bellows (respectively). So as for the seller of musk then either he will grant you some, or you buy some from him, or at least you enjoy a pleasant smell from him. As for the one who blows the blacksmith's bellows then either he will burn your clothes or you will get an offensive smell from him." [Bukhari & Muslim] In his commentary of this Hadith, Imam an-Nawawi said that the Prophet (peace be upon him) compared a good companion to a seller of musk and spoke of the virtue of having companions who are good, who have noble manners, piety, knowledge and good culture. Such are those who grant us from their virtue. And he (peace be upon him) forbade us to sit with those who do evil, commit a lot of sins and other bad deeds, as well as with innovators, backbiters, and so forth. Another scholar said: "Keeping good company with the pious results in attainment of beneficial knowledge, noble manners and righteous actions, whereas keeping company with the wicked prevents all of that." Allah the Exalted says in the Qur'an: "And (remember) the Day when the wrong-doer will bite his hands and say: Woe to me! Would that I had taken a path with the Messenger. Woe to me! If only I had not taken so- and-so as a friend! He has led me astray from this Reminder (the Qur'an) after it had come to me." [25:27-29]. He also says: "Friends on that Day will be enemies one to another, except al-Muttaqoon (i.e. those who have Taqwah)." [43:67] In two authentic narrations of the Prophet (peace be upon him) we were commanded to keep company with a believer only, and told that a person will be with those he loves. So if we love and associate ourselves with those who are misguided, we should fear for our fate. The wise person is the one who prepares himself for the Hereafter, not the one who neglects his faith and falls into the trap of Satan who tells him that he will be forgiven and that he can do whatever he wishes. If we truly believe that the best speech is the Speech of Allah and that the best guidance is the guidance of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), we should act in accordance with them, lest we build a proof against ourselves. From another perspective, a “believer is the mirror of his brother,” and if he sees any faults in the other believer, he draws his attention to it in an acceptable manner, helps him to give it up and to wipe away any evil that he may have. We ask Allah to make us of the righteous ones and give us companions who will take us away from His wrath and lead us to His pleasure and Paradise.

Source

http://english.islamway.com/bindex.php?section=article&id=190

18- نظرية الإنفجار الأعظم للكون

18- The Big Bang

The Big Bang

In the Holy Quran we read: "Haven't the unbelievers seen that the heavens and the earth were joined together (in one singularity), then we clove both of them asunder.” (21:30) This verse reflects the unity of creation as a dominating factor in the orderly form of the universe throughout its evolutionary history from one stage to another. However, long before discovering the established phenomenon of the red shift, and its logical consequence of describing our universe as an expanding one, scientists used Einstein's theory of general relativity to extrapolate back in time and came to the striking conclusion that the universe had actually emerged from a single, unbelievably small, dense, hot region (the Hot Big Bang Model of the universe). Formation of the Universe In 1948, George Gamow modified Lemaitre's hypothesis into the "Big Bang theory" of the origin of the universe. In this theory, Gamow proposed that the universe was created in a gigantic explosion, whereby the various elements observed today were produced within the first few minutes after the Big Bang, as the extremely high temperature and density of the universe would fuse subatomic particles into the chemical elements. More recent calculations indicate that hydrogen and helium were the primary products of the Big Bang, with heavier elements being produced later within stars. The extremely high density within the "primeval atom" would cause the universe to expand rapidly. As it expanded, the smoky cloud of hydrogen and helium thus formed would cool and condense into nebulae stars, galaxies, clusters, super clusters, black holes, etc. This explains the original singularity of the universe; its explosion to a huge cloud of smoke from which the different heavenly bodies were formed by separation into eddies of various masses followed by condensation. The condensed bodies were arranged into stellar systems, clusters, galaxies, supergalaxies, etc., and the formed galaxies started to drift away from each other, causing the steady expansion of the universe. The Glorious Quran describes these three successive stages in the verses (21: 30), (41: 11) and (21: 104). The first and the third of these verses are discussed above, while the second reads: "Then He (Allah) turned to the sky while it was smoke, and ordered it the earth to come into being willingly or unwillingly, they answered: we do come in willing obedience*" (41: 11)

19- كيف نشأت فكرة النشوء والتطور

19- How Did the Error of the Evolution of Religions Come About?

How Did the Error of the Evolution of Religions Come About?

The common feature of all these evolutionary theories is that they are opposed to belief in God. This is the philosophical basis of the mistaken idea of the evolution of religion. According to the false claims of Herbert Spencer, a leading proponent of this error, primitive human beings had no religion. The first religions supposedly began with the worship of the dead. Other anthropologists that support the deception of the evolution of religion propose different accounts. Some say that religion has its source in animism (the attribution of life and spirit to nature); others think that religion came from totemism (the worship of a symbolic person, group or object). Another anthropologist, E.B. Taylor, believes that religion developed through history from animism (the attribution of life to nature), to manism (ancestor-worship), polytheism (the belief in many gods) and ending in monotheism (the belief in one God). This theory was put forward in the 19th century by atheist anthropologists and, presented in various scenarios, it has been kept alive every since. But it is nothing more than a deception. As archeological and historical evidence has shown, contrary to what these scientists have proposed, there was from earliest times a monotheist religion that God revealed to humanity through his prophets. But at the same time there have always been deviant, superstitious beliefs coexisting with monotheism. Just as today there are people who believe that God is the One and Only deity and lead their lives according to the religion He has revealed, there are also those who are in error, worshipping idols of wood and stone, Satan, ancestors as well as various spirits, animals, the sun, the moon and the stars. And many of these people are not backward; on the contrary they are very advanced. There have also been those throughout history who have not obeyed the precepts of the monotheist religions revealed by God and tried to eliminate moral values. The Qur’an tells us of various individuals who wanted to include superstitious beliefs and practices in religion and ended up altering and destroying the true religion revealed to them. Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say “This is from God” to sell it for a paltry price. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for what they earn! (Qur’an, 2:79) This is the reason why some people who believed in the existence and unity of God and obeyed His commands abandoned true religion in the course of time and espoused deviant beliefs and practices. In this way, deviant beliefs and practices came into being. In other words, contrary to what some have proposed, there has never been a process of religious evolution; but true religion was at certain times distorted an replaced by deviant religions.

20- لا يوجد عصر حجري أبداً

20- There Never Was A Stone Age

There Never Was A Stone Age

In the supposed period described by evolutionists as the stone age, people worshipped, listened to the message preached by the envoys sent to them, constructed buildings, *****d food in their kitchens, chatted with their families, visited their neighbors, had tailors sew clothes for them, were treated by doctors, took an interest in music, painted, made statues and, in short, lived perfectly normal lives. As the archaeological findings show, there have been changes in technology and accumulated knowledge over the course of history, but human beings have always lived as human beings. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/104.jpg This Late Neolithic necklace made from stones and ****ls now only reveals the artistry and tastes of the people of the time, but also that they possessed the technology needed to produce such decorative objects. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/105.jpg Doors, a model table and a spoon dating back to 7-11,000 BC provide important information about the living standards of the people of the time. According to evolutionists, people at that time had only recently adopted a settled lifestyle and were only newly becoming civilized. Yet these materials show that there was nothing missing from the culture of these people, and that they lived a fully civilized existence. Just like we do today, these people sat at tables, ate using plates, knives, spoons and forks, played host to guests, offered them *******ments and, in short, lived regular lives. When the findings are examined as a whole it can be seen that, with their artistic understanding, medical knowledge, technical means and daily lives, Neolithic people lived human lives just like those before and after them. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/106.jpg 12,000-Year-Old Beads In the light of archaeological discoveries these stones, dating back to around 10,000 BC, were used as beads. The perfect holes in the stones are particularly noteworthy. Such holes cannot be made by hitting the object with a stone. Tools made out of steel or iron must have been used to make such perfectly regular holes in such hard stones. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/107.jpg A 12,000-Year-Old Button These bone buttons, used around 10,000 BC, show that the people of the time had a clothing culture. A society that uses buttons also has to know about sewing, cloth and weaving. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/108.jpg The flutes in the picture are an average of 95,000 years old. People who lived tens of thousands of years ago possessed a musical culture. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/109.jpg A 12,000-Year-Old Copper Awl This copper awl dating back to around 10,000 BC is evidence that mines and ****ls were known about and used in the period in question. Copper ore, found in crystal or powder form, appears in seam form in old, hard rocks. A society that made a copper awl must have recognized copper ore, managed to extract it from inside the rock and have had the technological means with which to work it. This shows that they had not just stopped being primitive, as evolutionists maintain. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/110.jpg 9-10,000-Year-Old Needles And Awl These needles and awl, which go back to around 7-8000 BC, are important evidence of the cultural lives of the people of the time. People who use awls and needles clearly led fully human lives, and not animal ones as evolutionists maintain. http://www.thestoneage.org/res/116.jpg This stone carving is 11,000 years old. According to evolutionists, only crude, stone tools were in use at that time. The fact is, however, that such a work cannot be produced by rubbing one stone against another. Evolutionists can offer no rational and logical explanation of how the relief in question was formed and made so accurately. Intelligent human beings using tools made out of iron or steel are necessary in order to be able to produce this and other similar works. Of course, throughout history, there have of course always been those living under simpler, more primitive conditions as well as societies living civilized lives. But this by no means constitutes evidence for the so-called evolution of history. Because while one part of the world is launching shuttles into space, people in other lands are still unacquainted with electricity. Yet this does not mean that those who build spacecraft are mentally or physically more advanced—and have progressed further down the supposed evolutionary road and become more culturally evolved—nor that the others are closer to their “ancestral” ape-men. These merely indicate differences in cultures and civilizations. Over the course of history, of course, major advances have been made in all fields, with great strides and constant development in science and technology, thanks to the accumulation of culture and experience. However, it is neither rational nor scientific to describe these changes as an “evolutionary” process in the way that evolutionists and materialists do. Just as there are no differences in physical characteristics between a modern human and someone who lived thousands of years ago, so there are no differences in regard to intelligence and capabilities. The idea that our civilization is more advanced because 21st century man’s brain capacity and intelligence are more highly developed is a faulty perspective, resulting from evolutionist indoctrination. The fact is people in very different regions today may have different conceptions and cultures. But if a native Australian may not possess the same knowledge as a scientist from the USA, that doesn’t mean his intelligence or brain haven’t developed enough.

Many people born into such societies may even

be ignorant of the existence of electricity, but who are still highly intelligent.

21- العلمانية والقيم الأخلاقية

21- Secularism and Moral Values

Secularism and Moral Values

by Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris Moral values, such as honesty, trustworthiness, justice and chastity, are originally innate values which Allâh planted in the hearts of mankind; then He sent His messengers with a system of life in accord with this innate disposition to affirm it. "So set your face toward the religion, as one by nature upright; the instinctive (religion) which Allâh has created in mankind. There is no altering (the laws) of Allâh 's creation. That is the right religion but most people do not know." [Surat Al-Rûm:30]. A believer adheres to these moral values because his nature, fortified by faith, induces him to do so, and because the religion he believes in commands him with them and promises him a reward for them in the Hereafter. Secularism, on the other hand, even in its less virulent form that satisfies itself with removing religion from political life, rejecting it and the innate values as a basis for legislation, undermines the two foundations for moral values in the hearts of mankind. As for secularism in its extreme atheistic form, it completely demolishes these two foundations and replaces them with human whims, either the whims of a few rulers in dictatorial systems or the whims of the majority in democratic systems. "Have you seen the one who has taken his own desire as his god? Would you then be a guardian over him?" [Al-Furqân:43]. Since whims and desires are by their nature constantly changing, the values and behaviours based on them are also mutable. What is considered today to be a crime, punishable by law with the severest of penalties, and causes its practitioners to be deprived of certain rights granted to others, becomes permissible tomorrow, or even praiseworthy, and the one who objects to it becomes " politically incorrect." This shift from one point of view to its opposite, as a result of society's estrangement from innate religious values, is a frequent occurrence. However ignorant a traditional society may be, it, or many of its members, will maintain some innate values; but the further a society penetrates into secularism, the fewer such individuals will become, and the more marginal their influence will be, until the society collectively rebels against those same innate religious values it used to uphold. There may be another reason for some traditional Jâhili cultures to maintain innate religious values: they might appeal to their desires, or they represent their heritage and do not conflict with their desires. "And when they are called to Allâh and His Messenger to judge between them, Lo! a party of them refuse and turn away. But if the right is with them they come to Him willingly." [Al-Nûr: 48-49]. Their relationship with truth is similar to Satan's, as described by the Prophet (sallAllâh u alayhe wa sallam) to Abu Hurairah, whom Satan had advised to recite Ayâât al-Kursi when going to bed: "He told you the truth, even though he is an inveterate liar." Contemporary Western, secular societies are the clearest examples of the shifting, self-contradictory nature of jâhili civilization. From one angle it views culture and the values it rests upon as a relative, variable phenomenon. However, from another angle it characterises some values as human values, views their violation as shocking, and punishes their violators severely. The sources of this problem are two fundamental principles which democratic secular societies rely upon. The first is majority rule as a standard for right and wrong in speech and behaviour; the second is the principle of individual freedom. These two principles will necessarily conflict with each other if they are not subordinated to another principle that will judge between them. Secularism, by its very nature, rejects religion, and in its Western form it does not consider fitrah (innate values) a criterion for what is beneficial or harmful for humanity. It has no alternative but to make these two principles an absolute standard for what behaviour is permissible and appropriate, and what isn't. The contradiction and conflict between these two principles is showing itself plainly in some of the current hot issues in these societies. Those who advocate the acceptance of homosexuality and the granting to avowed homosexuals equal rights and opportunities in every aspect of life, including military service, base their argument on the principle of individual rights. They see no one as having the right to concern themselves with what they call their " sexual orientation." The same argument is made by supporters of abortion. You frequently hear them say incredulously, "How can I be prohibited from freedom of choice in my own affairs and over my own body? What right do legal authorities have to involve themselves in such personal matters?" The only argument their opponents can muster is that this behaviour contradicts the values held by the majority of the population. Even though the basis for many people's opposition to abortion is moral or religious, they can't come out and say so openly, nor can they employ religious or moral arguments, since secular society finds neither of them acceptable. If we accept that there is no basis for values except individual or majority opinion, and that it is therefore possible for all values to change from one era to another, and from one society to another, this means there is no connection between values and what will benefit or harm people in their material and spiritual lives, which in turn means that all values are equality valid and it doesn't matter which values a given society accepts or rejects. However, this means that all behaviour considered abhorrent by secular societies today, such as sexual molestation of children and rape of women for which it has serious penalties, are considered repulsive only because of current inclination, which might change tomorrow, so certain serious crimes may become acceptable, based on the principle of individual freedom. The reason a secularist is confused when posed with certain questions is that his repugnance toward such crimes is not really based on these two principles, which have become the only accepted bases for argument in societies dominated by secularism; the real reason for it is the remnants of the moral feelings he still possesses from the original nature with which Allâh endowed him, and which linger on in spite of his secularism. Perhaps the confusion of the secularist would increase if he were asked for what reason he had given such precedence to these democratic values, until he made them the standard by which all other values and behaviours are judged. If he says his reverence for them is based merely on current personal preference and inclination, or on cultural chauvinism, he will have no reply to one who opposes him on the basis of his contradictory personal preferences, or because the norms of his society differ from those of the other. The flimsy foundation of values in secular societies makes them liable to turn at any time against all the values they currently hold dear. It also paves the way for them to descend to their practices of the occupation and colonisation of weaker nations. There is nothing to make them refrain from doing so, once one of them stands up and announces that there is a nationalist benefit to be gained by it and a large number of fellow citizens believe him. His policy proposal becomes official policy, based on the standard of majority approval. It is, however, as you can see, an approval based on nothing more than greed. This has been the justification for every transgression in history. In fact it is the basis on which any animal attacks another. Personal freedom and majority rule are not, then, the fundamental values on which secular culture is based. That is because freedom entails choice, but it is not the criterion for that choice. I mean that whoever is given the freedom to choose needs a standard that he can use as the criterion for his choice. Likewise, majority opinion is not itself the standard; it is merely the result of many individual choices made on the basis of some standard. So what is the basis for the choices of a free individual and a free society in the secular system? It is, without the slightest doubt, those whims and desires which have taken the place of the real Deity.