Muslim IQ Test - Part Two

Open Book Test

I have a book which is “Sharh Al-Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyah; Fundamental Beliefs of Islam & Rejection of False Concepts”. As one would expect of this book, the beliefs of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah is outlined; the faith stands on five pillars; belief in Allah, His Angels, His Messengers, the resurrection after death and belief in Qadr; the good or bad destiny. We also believe in the Attributes of Allah, with which He qualifies Himself and the Attributes with which Muhammad has qualified Allah. This is therefore, a genuinely good book for students of Islam; it is used as one text in Islamic schools. It was written by the famous Islamic scholar, Ibn Taimiyah.

When we study Islam, as Muslims, we learn the Qur’an, tafsir Quran, basic Fiqh, (later one can study up to PHD in Usool Ul Fiqh; Islamic Jurisprudence), Hadiths (traditions or sayings), the Seera, or life of the Prophet. These are the main subjects in Islamic Studies courses or in the Islamic Universities.

Freedom of Religion

It is fair to say that Muslims are much more interested in learning their religion than in learning about Christianity; apart from interreligious dialogue there is little or no interest in Christianity from Muslims.

We find in the debates for example, a lot of friction; and very little of the vast knowledge available gets touched on, and when issues are discussed there is oftentimes great friction or animosity from the speakers, and or the audience. These debates are like wrestling matches, someone said; they are about scoring, not about learning the truth about the religions being discussed. Otherwise, the debaters should accept much of what his/her opponent says which is sensible, but we find that this is almost never what happens. If you discuss any other subject, besides religion (or politics), you will find people can accept a person’s statements, even opinion, because you have nothing to lose and will likely benefit from this person who may be an authority, or may be someone who is self-taught, and you trust him enough to take him at his word. But when fundamentalist Muslims and Christian evangelicals debate, there is less acceptance of the others word or opinion; his/her authority is almost nil in his/her opponent’s estimation.

What we also find happens a lot, is that Islam is the topic of the debate - it is not Christianity which is in the hot seat. For this reason alone, it is often the case that Islam is put on trial. Islam must prove itself, whereas the Christian is to prove Islam wrong; as the debate moves on, the Christian take the role of prosecutor, judge and jury. He may have many supporters in the audience who will likewise have the same preconceived ideas about Islam which color the proceedings.

I don’t think debates will ever have the effect which Muslims are hoping, for the most part. There are some people who are more successful at debates. But I think debates are generally a bad idea. Also, it largely depends on what the debate topic is, and who the debaters are.

Un-Christian behavior

When I watched some of the debate between Rob Morey and Shabir Ali, I was to say the least, very surprised at some of the things Morey was willing to say on stage in front of cameras.

e.g. “If I say Shabir’s thing is black, you would know what I am talking about” - Emphasis on the word “thing”, by Morey.

I think no Muslim should ever debate this man again, as a protest; who will debate the Christians when they can insult our brothers or sisters this way? And it doesn’t reflect badly on the Muslim. The speech of the Christian reflects very badly on himself only. But on principle, such a person should be boycotted.

Morey was explaining his interpretation or understanding of a hadith, which he says shows that someone saw the Prophet Muhammad’s private part. The prophet, SAWS, was white; the hadith is telling how someone saw the “whiteness of his thigh and the whiteness of ‘the thing’”. “Of Muhammad”, says Morey. Whether there is any interpolation by him is a relevant question. But I am not again debating here what Morey said, just reiterating what was said.

About the length of a shirt

I mentioned the mid-thigh, last time, but also, some Muslim Arabs today even misunderstood a simple thing such as the length of the man’s shirt, if it is the middle of the leg, (the whole leg) or the middle of the shin or lower part of the leg only. If it is the middle of the leg, the shirt will be much shorter, which is how some extremists have interpreted it, who wear short shirts because of their faulty interpretation, whereas the longest a shirt can be is above the ankle. Correctly, the shirt would normally, according to Sunnah, be worn to the middle of the shin, not middle of the leg, which would be at the knee or above that. We see in Pakistan, men wear long shirts but they also wear baggy pants, so their style is not like the style of the gulf people, who wear long white thobes, which almost trail to the ground, sometimes. This is forbidden. Women’s clothing can be longer than ankle-length, men’s should be above the ankle at least, but not above the knee. This is the practice of the people before, and doesn’t have to do with modern styles or what some Muslims wear of their own cultural clothing, which may or may not be acceptable. A similar misinterpretation can happen when reading about “the hand”, some interpret it to be only the palm and five fingers and back of hand, while it is actually means the arm up to and including the elbow, such as the area which should be covered with water during ablution for prayers. Thus, the word for hand and arm up to and including the elbow (in Arabic), is being translated as “hand” in English when it means more than the hand only. This is just an example of a problem in translation.

What Morey wants

Whatever the hadith (above) is speaking about could be disputed, based on the language, and I don’t know what the Arabic has to say. But I will say this; definitely there is nothing in the hadith which would shake any good Muslim’s faith. There is nothing in the Qur’an or the hadiths which is so shocking or disturbing that believers would have their faith shaken. Is anyone honestly very disturbed that a man or woman, who is doing some physical activity, might or might not have become exposed?? The point to remember here is that everything about the Prophet was recorded, whatever people heard or saw him doing, etc. That doesn’t prove beyond any doubt that the hadith above is about what Morey thinks it is about; the fact is it can be misinterpreted. But this is not really my concern, though Morey wishes us to stop there and see what he sees.

I am speaking in all honesty and want to know, is anyone shocked that a person in the public eye, even for a split second, or little longer, might have something of the body or a private part of the body, breast or any other part exposed? When Janet Jackson, famously had a “wardrobe malfunction”, people filmed it and replayed the tape over and over again. I must say, that society is unfortunately very fixated today on such unfortunate occurrences, especially because the person who it happens to is very famous. But years after the fact, no one cares about it anymore or even thinks about it. If it were not for tapes of the occurrence, people would forget all about it, and history would have nothing to record about it; except in some archive which might have mention of it on page two of a newspaper, or in a newsreel or sports reel. Of course, due to society’s fixation about the human body, especially the female body, Janet Jackson’s breast will be seen again in the future, on a special segment, maybe with some editing to hide the majority of what was seen live at the Super bowl. Kids in 2020 will think it’s a hoot, when it airs on America’s Funniest years after the original hyperbole. Not to worry though, I’m sure Ms. Jackson has moved on long ago.

Muslims, similarly can move on from bad experiences, such as the mistreatment of Shabir Ali, by the evangelical Morey; the guy is a jerk. Not only is he a jerk but he is a fat ugly white guy. As one person recently remarked on the internet, I believe it was a comment from a black man, all white American men “look like Michael Moore” (or they are often fat and ugly).

Christian evangelicals like to wear suits like they are very professional; they never seem at ease; and I can’t blame them. I think if you are going to lie and say terrible things about Islam, the Prophet of Islam and Muslims, you will definitely find great opposition, even the type of unseen opposition, recording all that we do and say, and which curses the sinful and non-believers. There is “someone” who sees and hears everything, you can be sure.


The Shrouding of Allah’s Messenger


‘Al-Bukhari reported on the authority of Jabir bin ‘Abdullah [RA], that he said: “While the people were rebuilding Al-Ka’aba, the Prophet Muhammad, SAWS, went with ‘Abbas to carry some stones. ‘Abbas said: “Put your loincloth round your neck to protect you from the stones.” (As he did that) the Prophet, [SAWS], fell to the ground and his eyes turned skyward. Later on, he woke up and shouted: “My loincloth…my loincloth.” He wrapped himself in his loincloth.’ In another report: “His loins were never seen afterwards.”’ (Page 82, al-Mubarakpuri)

This event in which the Prophet lay prostrate and the reclamation of the Ka’aba after it had been partly destroyed due to heavy flooding coincided; the age of Muhammad was 35 years, and it occurred five years prior to his receiving the mantle of Prophethood. (Ibid)

An example of the respect with which people held the Prophet and how they regarded his modesty as sacrosanct, was when the Muslims closest to him prepared the burial shroud of the Messenger of Allah, and had wondered what to do regarding the washing and shrouding of the Prophet, and they decided not to remove the Prophet’s clothes but to wash and bury him while his clothes were on him.

“Muslim IQ test”

Where Morey discusses 25 propositions, which I haven’t yet seen on a video, but I assume part of that was the discussion of the five pillars of Islam. There is nothing in the five pillars of Islam which Muslims and Islamic scholars dispute; anything he has to say would be inconsequential. The fasting, pilgrimage, zakat or charity, etc. are all frankly found in every religion of merit in one form or another. The fact that Muslims pray, fast, etc. or the number of prayers, or fasts, or form of some rituals has nothing whatsoever to do with pagan religion or any other religion. Islam is complete and the rituals were revealed as to the five w’s; what, when, why, who, how (last letter, lol), and I have no doubt that Morey has been reading up on the misconceptions which abound, written by non-Muslims, about the moon god, and other nonsense. It’s like an Illuminati of Islam, except that there is no conspiracy. There is nothing hidden in the religion; I guess the fact, that everything in fact was recorded in Islam, including what may or may not have happened while the Prophet, SAWS, was riding, proves again, that Islam is an open book; there is nothing in the Qur’an or hadiths which can hurt us. We believe in the truth of what was revealed, and anything which is confusing for some people, is only a test of their faith, or a trial for them. Some Muslims unfortunately also will have doubts based on something which is in fact unimportant. The true believers in Islamic monotheism know that it is the truth from their Lord, and we are content with what Allah has given us and we put our trust in Him. We are grateful to Him for our faith, and no doubt we know that the non-believers are always in contention with us about our pure religion.

Summing Up

Aisha called someone a liar, in fact, Omar Al Khattab also warned this man about what he says.

That Muslims worship a moon god, is totally false.

Many accusations which we don’t have the time for are mostly misinterpretation, or blatant falsehood.

Important issues versus unimportant issues; what does Islam say, and what’s relevant today?

The five pillars of Islam and the six pillars of Iman (faith) are what any reader should do as a preliminary study before the study of the Qur’an and hadiths.

The Qur’an and hadiths, in particular, are for Muslims. In other words, the Prophet Muhammad, told us to tell others the good news, that if they believe they will enter Paradise by Allah’s will. Then we should set out for them what are the main beliefs, five main pillars of Islam, and explain to them the six pillars of faith. If they accept, then they can become Muslim.