Can muslims give blood, have organ transplants etc. ?


I know some religions don't allow this, even some christian groups don't.

Peace....


I've seen it stated by muslims and read in quran that muslims believe in all the prophets sent by God. However I notice mention is only made of Moses, Noah, Lot, Abraham, and Jesus Christ. There are many prophets between Abraham and the comming of Jesus Christ. Are the other prophets not known, not acknowledged or not worth mentioning? I'm interesting in knowing the muslim view of say Isaiah or Malachi, or even John the forerunner of Jesus Christ.


Shamms

http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...gen.asp?url=fre


T he Rev. Franklin Graham, who outraged Muslims in 2001 when he said that Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion," told an interviewer for Wednesday's edition of ABC News "Nightline" that he hasn't changed his mind about the faith.


Asked by ABC correspondent John Donvan whether Muslim groups had succeeded in altering his outlook about Islam, Graham said "No."


"Do they want to indoctrinate me? Yes. I know about Islam. I don't need an education from Islam," he said. "If people think Islam is such a wonderful religion, just go to Saudi Arabia and make it your home. Just live there. If you think Islam is such a wonderful religion, I mean, go and live under the Taliban somewhere. I mean, you're free to do that."


Franklin Graham is the successor to his father as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, based in Charlotte, N.C. He was interviewed Sunday in New Orleans, where Franklin and Billy were leading an evangelistic festival.


The younger Graham angered Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks when he told NBC News: "We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."


In a subsequent Wall Street Journal piece, Graham wrote that he doesn't think Muslim believers "are evil people because of their faith. But I decry the evil that has been done in the name of Islam, or any other faith - including Christianity."


That article said "the persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islamic conquests and rule for centuries." Graham said the Quran "provides ample evidence that Islam encourages violence in order to win converts and to reach the ultimate goal of an Islamic world."


Some of Graham's fellow evangelicals subsequently expressed concern that his comments might endanger Christian missionaries working in Muslim countries, strain interfaith relations and make America's war on terrorism seem to be a Christian crusade against Islam.


Billy Graham has avoided such comments about Islam and President Bush has consistently depicted mainstream Islam as a religion of peace.


Another U.S. evangelist, the Rev. Pat Robertson, said of militant Muslims on his Monday telecast: "These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with."


"The goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination," he said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/418467.html


Bonnie Rochman, Staff Writer


Local Muslim leaders condemn attempts to link Islam's holy book to the actions of a man who hit nine people as he drove a sport utility vehicle through the heart of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus earlier this month.


The Islamic Association of Raleigh called a news conference Wednesday to take issue with Mohammed Taheri-azar's assertion in letters to news outlets that the Quran justified his attack.


In one letter, Taheri-azar wrote that he had read the Quran's 114 chapters 15 times. Marc Conaghan of the Muslim American Public Affairs Council said he didn't read it closely enough.


"This is totally untrue," he said.


Sanctity of life is taken seriously in the Quran, said Imran Aukhil of the Islamic Association of Raleigh.


Aukhil quoted from the Quran: "Whoever kills a man unjustly ... it is as if he has killed all of humanity, and whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of humanity."


The panel sought to distance the Muslim community from Taheri-azar and avoid a backlash. "Muslims in general should not be held responsible because Muslims in general have not made any mistakes," said Ihab Saad of the Muslim American Society.


Saad said he will pray for Taheri-azar even though he has tarnished the image of Islam.


"We feel angry in the way a father feels angry when a son does something wrong," he said. But he spoke of the need to "give support to your brother whether he's oppressed or the oppressor."


Hani Chohan of the Islamic Association said there are no plans to communicate with Taheri-azar in Central Prison.


(People interested in learning more about Islam are invited to an Open House from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Islamic Association of Raleigh, 808 Atwater Street. Details: www.islam1.org or 834-9572.)

<b>ABASA</b>


He frowned and turned away


when there came to him the blind man


How could you tell? He might have sought to purify himself


or become reminded and might have benefited from Our reminder.


As for him who is indifferent,


to whom you were attending;


you will not be held responsible if he would not purify himself.


Yet to him who came to you with zeal on his own


and with fear of Allah in his heart,


you gave no heed.


It should not be so! Indeed, this is but an admonition;


let him who wants, accept it.


It is written in scrolls, which are honored,


exalted, purified,


and which remain in the hands of scribes,


who are noble and virtuous.


Recognize your Creator and fulfil your obligations


Woe to man! What a disbeliever he is!


Out of what Allah has created him?


Out of a semen-drop! Allah created him and then fashioned him in due proportion,


then makes his way of life smooth for him,


then causes him to die and stows him in a grave.


Then He will surely bring him back to life when He pleases.


By no means has he fulfilled the duty that Allah had assigned him.


Let man reflect on the food he eats,


How We pour down rainwater in abundance


and cleave the soil asunder.


How We bring forth grain,


grapes and nutritious vegetation;


olives and dates,


lush gardens,


fruits and fodder,


as a means of sustenance for you and your cattle.


On the day of judgement no one shall


care about his own mother, father, brother or children


Finally when there come the deafening blast,


on that Day each man shall flee from his own brother,


his mother and his father,


his wife and his children.


For each one of them, on that Day, shall have enough concern of his own to make him indifferent to the others.


Some faces on that Day shall be shining,


smiling and joyful.


And some faces on that Day shall be dusty


and veiled with darkness.


These shall be the faces of the disbelieving wicked.

Greetings to all who care to read this.


I am an american. I'm not crazy about it - but I am grateful for the benefits the virtue of my birth has allowed me. I am not christian, exactly - to my own heart, truth is inherent in the universe, and exists independant of religion and philosophy. To me, this Truth is the undeniability of existence, of conciousness, and of our interactions.


In my country, it is often difficult to know what is fact (not Truth, neccessarily) and what is not. I suppose this is true of much of the world. The media is a commercial entity, the platform of the economy at times - at least, so it has seemed to me. This kind of distrust exists between all governments and their people, I suppose.


My country tells me that muslims hate me for no other reason than that I was born in america to a christian family. I find this hard to believe. Perhaps it is only because I have never been possessed of religious Zeal. To do good works in this world, it seems to me that religion is moot - there are billions of people on this earth and many of them are suffering. In my heart, I feel that all suffering begins with Man's actions. By virtue of this feeling, I believe that only by respecting one another's paths in life, and by understanding that collectively we have the ability to create a paradise on earth. I am not interested in guidance, and feel no call to islam, or any other religion for that matter. I do not need confirmation of God, he is obvious to me.


None the less, there is pain, there is war. I believe these things are essential to the ultimate evolution and growth of mankind - for if we have no struggle, then how are we to grow? How is iron to be shaped into something beautiful if it is not put to the coals?


So, it seems to me that the friction between Islam and the West - and indeed all other similarly misguided conflicts of this sort (racism, nationalism, any of these baseless conflicts) - exists to be overcome, and in the process hopefully we will as the race of Man, rather than the subdivisions therein, understand the significance of the differences we have.


Pardon my tendancy to be so opinionated - to the enqueries.


I am taught that the followers of Islam, if they are truly dedicated, must somehow take part in the Jihad against non-muslims - I may have misinterpreted exactly the details of what constitutes Jihad, but this is not the relavant detail here. What I have difficulty with is why this would be so? I can understand religious Zeal to a point - all of us seek meaning for our lives, seek some kind of confirmation that we are not really transient things. We fear oblivion, deep within the core of our existence, and so we subscribe to any number of mythologies or ideals which can assure us that we need not fear non-being. I cannot understand, though, how the destruction of others can somehow achieve this in-transience. What is the philosophy of Jihad? Why would Allah be pleased with this? I can on one hand understand the human philosophy of peace through homogenization, it follows some logic - but, there will most certainly always be friction between groups of people. Even two individuals will always find contention - so it seems to me that following this philosophy of homogenization is flawed. In the end, true peace seems to me to be a matter of simply not killing. When the threat of death is no longer an object, no nation need fear another. This is extreme idealism, of course, but is it not just as flawed as it's opposite, and for the same reasons?


I don't believe that we should invade the middle east. I don't think it's our business - this war is politically and economically motivated, according to what I am able to understand from the scheme of it all. At the same time, though, many of the countries in the middle east have spent decades and centuries under opression. I cannot myself deny that the way Islamic countries treat their women is abhorrent - not because I feel that Islam is a bad religion, but because the central tenet of human thought is preservation of the Self - to inflict upon another, regardless of gender or creed, is a crime against oneself as much as another. I do beleive this should be stopped - not to enforce my own beliefs upon the men of Islam, but rather to preserve the dignity, life, and wellbeing of the women. THey are, however, not the only cultures to produce such a social structure, so I see this as a socialogical condition rather than a religious flaw. However, what I do not understand is this: Why are there such exceptions to peace allowed within the Islamic faith? I could ask the same question of any other religion that sanctions such treatment of it's followers, or any human being for this matter, but honestly, no other religious group is cited as wanting to kill me. Christians kill as well, but at least their bible does forbid it. This is a human flaw, not a religious one. The same could be said of such practices in Islam, I suppose, but I have seen many verses (translated to english, understand,) which could very easily be interpreted to sanction violence. I will make no solid assumptions, as I do not practice Islam.


It is said by every religion that their own ways are the only ways - well, not all religions, actually, only those generally known to be violent historically.... - but one cannot deny that social structure developes first, then theological structures develope as a means to explain and justify life, and then sociological changes take place to accomodate interpretation of that explanation. This is the way human cultures develope.


Most monotheistic religions cite their founders as the strict authority on existence. Who's to say who is truly correct in that citation? The span of time is great, certainly dwarfing the span of the life of humanity. In one thousand years, who's to say that all of this will not be ancient history, the long forgotten squabbles of a childlike race of Man? Transience, no matter how hard we struggle against it, is inherent to the nature of the universe. Everything ends, everything changes. Only it's total existence is in-transient, it's configuration is never the same. This isn't religious talk, this is direct observation of the world, contemplation on the nature of those observations and of what is observed, and the corresponding intuitive understanding of the total representative truth of existence.


To me, this conflict makes no sense. To my own thoughts - humanly flawed as they ultimately must be, as all human thought must be, even those thoughts of the prophets of all holy books - it is simply an act of barbarism on everyone's part. To kill for any reason except to sustain one's own life is counter to human thought. We all wish to survive and live life, so why deny others that same right?


I have felt removed from this war, as many in my country must also feel. It is not on our shores, it is across the ocean. I feel almost guilty for this lack of insight, because it is such an important matter. My questions are unclear, I realize - it is the way I think, I suppose. I would deeply appreciate any meaningful insight into the nature, not the facts, of this issue. Facts are transient and unreliable. Nature is up for interpretation, observation, and speculation - Truth, though, is inherent. I hope that through a thorough accounting of the nature of this war, the Truth can be made obvious to all of us.


I have considered the idea that perhaps Islam is simply being twisted towards evil ends. That may be true... but in this case the responsibility for the war is placed squarely on the shoulders of those who subscribe to it. I personally tend to believe that if a holy scripture can be interpreted, by any stretch of philosophy, to say that one man MUST kill another, it is invalid, as is the reasoning behind it. I have a hard time believing that the kind of man - in this case Muhammed - who would believe in saving his people, in guiding his people, towards an ultimate paradise, would wish for the destruction of his fellow man. To say that what is wished for is the Conversion, rather than death - and that ultimately destruction is the result of the unwillingness to convert - reduces one to nothing more than a petty Tyrant amongst ignorant people, a bully who only wishes to control, offering an impossible ultimatum.


Many thanks for all insight.


Reminder: All that is, is the sum of the Truth of the Divine - be that Allah, Jehovah, or any of the many names - therefore, there are no lies, only Truth unwilling to be seen so easily.

In the recent times we have seen blasphemous attacks on our prophetS.A.W)and the reaction 0f the muslimworld towards it,the strong boycotts and protests all over.let us anylise how much we love prophet and follow him in our daily lives..


we should know with certainity that Allah protects His prophet(s.a.w.) and we also call people to support him,but it is imperative for people to firmly understand,especilly during these days of great trials and tribulations,that supporting the prophet(s.a.w) is practised firstly within our selves..


How?


by loving him(s.a.w.) that he becomes more beloved to us than our families,our children,our wealth and even our own souls,as has been related in an authentic Hadeeth that Omar (r.a) said to the messanger of Allah(s.a.w)


"you are more beloved to me than everything except myself"


so the messanger of Allah (s.a.w) said "no, until I become more beloved to u than even ur ownself"


Umar said "By Allah ,O meesanger of Allah(s.a.w)you are now more beloved to me than my ownself"


so the messanger of Allah said"Now O ,Omar."


so this is what is wajib upon us,and loving the messanger of Allah(s.a.w)is by following his guidance.


It is surprising these days that alot of people call you to boycotting themselves look like George or John.their pant/trousers are absurd,their hair are long and fashioned in a weird style,they shave their beards and moustache and women without their hijab and join them,so if you look around you you would find that it is as if you are living somewhere in Europe or America.


such are people who are giving out these papers against the blasphemers.This indicates the love for the religion is present in the hearts of the believers.But brothers and sisters,have u taken advantageof such opportunity to give Dawah to these brothers and sisters who are in this situation.Meaning for e.g(u say to him)may Allah reward you,this indicate that you love the messangerof Allah.(s.a.w)you are protective over him and have been angered, for the pleasure of Allah due to his messanger being insulted....,but my brothers/sisters,listen ,the prophet of Allah was insulted by jews.they performed sihr on them.they tried to kill them by pushing boulder over his head.yet, he died while his breastplate was with a jew as collectral for 20 saaof sha,eer-he didn;t boycotte them.but my brothe,r/sister, u have fallen into something greater than what u are calling me to (stay away from)The prophet has ordered you to boycotte in their manner by saying;


...Do not resemble the jews or christians(Hassan-trimadhee)


He( s.a.w) also said"whoever imitates a people, he is one of them.


The hadeedh is clear,but nowadays u can see that a lot of Muslim resemble the Jews and christians.their beards are shaved, their hair fashioned to resemble them, they drss like them.so why don,t we boycotte these products instead,i.e,clothing ,about which prophet(s.a.w) said to abdullah ibn Amr."O abdullah,this is the attire of disbelivers,do not wear it"


so Abdullah put up the fire and burned them.(muslim)


likewise


we see that modesty among men and women has become non-existent among muslim families.Mixing amongst men and women has become prevelent.copying the jews and Christians in their cultures and ways of indecency and open lewdness.celebrating their festival and taking part in all of their immodest acts without any hesistation whatsoever.Where as the Prophet(s.a.w)has said,"O,company of Emigrants,there are 5 things with which you willbe subjected to trial and i seek refuge in Allah that you meet them,Immoralitywill never appear ina people till they publicly commit-but plague will spread among them and such diseases which were not found amongyour predecessors who passed (before u)hassan ibn Maajah


our women have left their hijab and have thought their honour lies in shamelessly displaying their beauty


Aboo Huraira (r.a) reported Allah,s messanger as saying:"of the people of hell there are two types i have never seen,the one possesing whips like the tail of the ox and they flog people with them.The 2nd one,women who would be naked inspite of their being dressed.,who are seduced(to wrong path)and seduce others.Their hair is high like the humps (OF CAMELS)These women will not enter jannah and they will not perceive its odour ,although its fragrance can be perceived from such and such a distance'.(muslim)


They swearby Allah to you (muslims) in order to please you.but it is more fitting that theyshould pleaseAllah and His Messanger,if they are believers.(Soorah Taubah9:62)


(say (O Mohamed s.a.w to mankind)if u love Allah,then follow me.Allah will love you and forgive you, your sins.And Allah is often Forgiving.Most Merciful")(Soorah Aal-Imraann)


so brothers/sisters of islam ,it is wajib upon us to be a student of knowledge,that we do not get carried away by storms ,or emotions,reather we traverse upon well thought out principles and legislated evidences that were related by the messanger of Allah(s.a.w)and his companions of guidance,the immams of Ahlus-sunnah.May Allah have mercy upon them


May Allah help us to take the correct decision always.

Simple question this one.


Does Islam allow the celebration of birthdays?

http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...gen.asp?url=rch


ROME Rome's chief rabbi is drawing praise from both Jewish and Muslim leaders for his plans to visit the main mosque in the Italian capital today.


His office says Riccardo Di Segni will be the first chief rabbi in Rome to pay a visit to a mosque, and his action is meant to promote inter-religious dialogue.


An Italian newspaper (Corriere della Sera) has reported that the rabbi would meet with the secretary-general of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy, and the president of the Muslim World League in Italy.


.

Assalamu'Alaikum


Dear Brothers and Sisters,


Islamic Relief are doing some research in to those of us who have ever considered donating to a Muslim charity. There is a questionnaire on their site, please take a few minutes to fill it in and help them out, insha'Allah.


http://www.islamic-relief.com/eng


Jazakallah khairun wa salaam


Najm


P.S. an after thought - I'm not involved with this research I'm just trying to get as many Brs and Srs as I can to fill it in, insha'Allah