Questions or confusions of non muslims about muslims in.....

Questions or confusions of non muslims about muslims in general and terrorism in particular in the light of Islam/Quran
PART 1
A few days ago I was asked to write on this topic and I feel it an honour,
BISMILAHIREHMANIRAHIM
The following are some of the confusions in general non muslims have:(these ae the petty issues)
-they think we worship prophet MUhammad (As a historian once wrote we worship a satue called "mohamet")
-they think we all speak arabic
-they belive that we hate art and learning
-they think we dislike women's rights
-and a lot more....
the following are some blunders they create about jihad:
-they think jihad is only by sword
-they belive jihad is to kill people for nothing
-they consider jihad a platform of muslims for world domination
-and a lot more...
here i have listed some things I know from personal experience:
-they think we are killers
-they assume we fast to torture ourselves
-they consider our religion diffucult to understand
-they are 24 hours fearing muslims
-and a lot more...
here are some questions non mulims may/do ask:
-why does islam mean peace when it talks of jihad, i.e. holy WAR?
-why do muslims say Allah?
-why do muslims need to 're program' themselves?
-why do they keep beards and yet shave off moustashes?
-and many more....
here are the true tachings if islam, I know from my knlodge and understanding:
Islam is a religion of peace where blood shed is only the LAST choice as it is a religion that not only purifies man, it also DISCPLINENCES man. WHile the word Jihad means to struglle, for what? well, for perfection of purity, i.e. inward and outward cleanliness. the first and OBLIGATORY jihad is known as jihadunNAFS, which is to wage war against evil in one's own self, only then can you raise arms against enemies of Islam. WHO ARE THE ENEMEIES? THE JEWS? THE CHRISTAINS? WHO? well, the answer is simple, no one naton can be said to be against I slam, (but EXCEPT for jews)rather, we need to think individualy that who is our ally and who is are enemy. WE ARE PROHBITED TO ATTACK! we may only defend each other, which then is compulsory....
this was part 1 i shall continue this way....

_________________
Mein woh hoon jo kisi ne kaha:
HAM NAGHMA SARA KUCH GHAZLON KE HAM SOORAT GAR KUCH KHWAABON KE
BE JAZBA E SHOQ SUNAYEN KIYA KOI KHWAAB NA HO TO BATAYEN KIYA

good works shahzaib!, I would appreciate if someone else volunteers to contribute to this very latest and important topic. Shahzaib I will be adding to your comments but for now I am leaving my office

well.. i read wat u ve written..
u have posed many questions but not many have been answered..
dont misunderstand me...i respect islam
n as u said like other non muslims i dont know much abt islam...
n too feel its complicated...
n spcly abt women's rights..
i ve heard that a man can marry 4 times...can a woman do the same?
in courts..a woman witness is considered half gud to man...
n in case of rape..she cant file case unless she has a witness??
i m nt challenging islam
just want to know is it true????

arsh brar wrote:

well.. i read wat u ve written..
u have posed many questions but not many have been answered..
dont misunderstand me...i respect islam
n as u said like other non muslims i dont know much abt islam...
n too feel its complicated...
n spcly abt women's rights..
i ve heard that a man can marry 4 times...can a woman do the same?
in courts..a woman witness is considered half gud to man...
n in case of rape..she cant file case unless she has a witness??
i m nt challenging islam
just want to know is it true????

People especially non muslims do exaggerate such questions in order to stain Islam, I am not saying that you are doing so, just saying what generally people think about Islam. I will try to answer your questions to best of my knowledge.

1) Man is allowed to marry 4 wives (at the same time) with some conditions, its not like you go outside find a woman and marry her. Man needs to have permission from his first wife. Secondly according to Quran, Allah (God) says that you can marry more than one women only if you can treat them equally in the matters of money, time and rights. so a man should swear and try his best to treat all his wives equally, so if a man cant handle more than one wife and cant treat them equally then he is not supposed to marry another wife. There are a number of reasons why Islam has allowed more than one wife

a) Because in those times men used to be the fuel of the war i-e a number of men used to die during war, so it is a good option to support all those widowed women who could not support themselves. Also because of poverty you can marry poor women to support and help them out.

b) A research study says that baby girls have more chances to survive than baby boys as they have better immunity than baby boys, so in that case we can have more population of women which is of course again takes us to the option of multiple marriages.

So multiple marriages give protection to women, as if suppose women are more in number than men then what do you think they would do if they couldnt find any man to marry? they become the adornment of bazaars. So its better to have someone married with a man than no one.

A woman cant marry 4 men at the same time because it is pretty logical, I dont know what reason Islam gives but if a woman marries 4 men at the same time she wouldnt know that who she is pregnant with, so I think that answers your question.

I believe Islam is the only religion on this planet who gives the most protection to women. West have totally changed the definition of respect for women.

Yes, that is true that womens witness is considered to be half the value of men, but there certainly is a reason behind that. I will ask some scholar about it and answer you soon.

thanx for explaining me this...
i want to say sumthing .. n hope u will take this in gud spirit
tell me honestly....
without taking it personly..
do u relly think these reasons r gud enough?
n spcly in present time can we hold that true?
wen female population is less than male
n there r no wars..
bt i feel these days nt many muslims go for more than one marriagq?(am i rite?)
n is female foeticide a big prblm there in pak too?(thogh i know it is prohibited in islam)
(n i ve heard use of any kind of contraceptives is also prohibited in slam..
is tripple talaq applicable in pak??
i hope u wont mind questioning the religion
thanx again

arsh brar wrote:

thanx for explaining me this...
i want to say sumthing .. n hope u will take this in gud spirit
tell me honestly....
without taking it personly..
do u relly think these reasons r gud enough?
n spcly in present time can we hold that true?
wen female population is less than male
n there r no wars..
bt i feel these days nt many muslims go for more than one marriagq?(am i rite?)
n is female foeticide a big prblm there in pak too?(thogh i know it is prohibited in islam)
(n i ve heard use of any kind of contraceptives is also prohibited in slam..
is tripple talaq applicable in pak??
i hope u wont mind questioning the religion
thanx again

arsh this section was made to answer and clear the questions that some people have about Islam, I am pleased to have you here asking and participating in this section as it is almost desserted. Also, I have no problems in whatever kind of questions you ask or whatever kind of confusions you have about Islam here, we will try our level best to best of our knowledge to answer you. But please bear in mind and always keep this note of mine in your mind that there are two different things (1) Muslims (2) Islam. At the moment most of the muslims especially the muslims who are in a show case to the whole world are not following the teachings of Islam. So please donot get convinced by what muslims do, always spend your attention on the TEACHINGS of ISLAM; not what Muslims do. So the actions taken by muslims should not be implied as Islamic teachings, so stick to Islamic teachings not muslims. Also I am not saying all muslims are wrong doers.
Now the answers to your questions are as follows:

In my eyes these reasons are well enough for polygamy, and so should be in the eyes of a literate person. It is about giving protection to women, because single women especially when they dont have a support of a family behind them and they are divorced or widowed feel quite insecure.
Well, in present times the conditions have been changed and should I say that this is the reason why only a fraction of percent of people in muslim countries specially in Pakistan marry more than one wife at the same time.
Moreover, for your information Population of women in Pakistan is about 54% which is higher than men, and so is the case with some other muslim countries, also these rules are applicable only in an islamic society/country so there is no reason we should compare the population of whole world.

Foeticide, be it any kind is prohibited in Islam, and so is the case with Pak. Islam doesnt teach foeticide of any human being, it is strictly prohibited. Also Islam gives a complete set of rights for women as well as men, so there is no question that foeticide or any contraceptive should be used (by the way same is the case with christianity and judaism ).

Tripple talaq is applicable in all muslim countries and of course in Pakistan. I dont know why you are asking this question because it doesnt make any point to me at this point of time. nor do I know what kind of understanding you have about tripple talaq. btw tripple talaq is another favour and a very logical thing that Islam has given to everyone. It facilitates and tries to glue the ties between husband and wife. Each stage of talaq have some purpose and have a detailed explanation that why it was allowed. If you want to know more about it just drop another post. And ifnext time you want to ask any question can you please give a bit of more explanation for better understanding.

thanx..
i m sorry bt i m still nt clear abt four wives for a man

the sex ratio i found in pakistan is
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.048 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.901 male(s)/female
total population: 1.045 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

why a woman is nt secure if she is single??
if she is educated(that ratio is also v. poor)
n if men respect her(which shud b done acc. to islam)
then why shud she need a manwho is already married to protect her?

allowing man to marry more than once won't worsen the population problem??

even when islam is v. elaborative n gives all kinds of instructions code of conduct
i think it is v. detailed n fix norms for day to day life too....
why child marriage is nt banned in islam

n abt triple talaq..

can a woman give triple talaq??
is it justified to give triplae talaq without any gud reasons??

i have heard women r nt allowed inside mosques...true?
why they have to wear burqa??
is it true that prophet mohammad married twelve imes?including a six year old girl??
i m nt sure abt the last one..
n once again apologise if i have said anything wrong..
coz i truly respect islam..

Appologies about giving wrong figures, as according to 1998 census in Pakistan men are more than women, but before 1998 the women’s population was exceeding men. Anyways, the facts are as follows:

Population 132,352,000
Male 68,874,000
Female 63,478,000
arsh, I can understand why you are still not clear about multiple marriages it is probably because of the culture and region of the world you were brought up or been living, anyways my view point about polygamy was that Islam doesn’t impose on men to marry more than one woman, It is not at all COMPULSARY for men to marry more than one wife it is just an OPTION for circumstances that are not very good for men or women, this is the reason why you find very low % of muslims to marry more than one woman, this is a favour given by God to human beings to facilitate the solutions of the social abuses, which I am sure no other religion gives. Also Islam strongly prohibits the forced marriages and this is a fact, although some muslims sadly don’t follow this teaching. So if you cannot force a couple to marry and they have their own choices and also even if a man is married and woman is divorced/widowed or single and she agrees to marry him because it might resolve her problems or she likes him (whatever) and he does too then I don’t see any harm in happening so, if you think there is any harm then let me know, I am sure you must have heard of Dr. Zakir Naik, I would suggest you to please dedicate some of your time and read the article as follows:

Polygamy - Definition and Guidelines
by Zakir Naik
1. Polygamy means a system of marriage whereby one person has more than one spouse. Polygamy can be of two types. One is polygyny where a man marries more than one woman, and the other is polyandry, where a woman marries more than one man. In Islam, limited polygyny is permitted; whereas polyandry is completely prohibited.
Now coming to the original question, why is a man allowed to have more than one wife?
2. The Qur’an is the only religious scripture in the world that says, "marry only one".
The Qur’an is the only religious book, on the face of this earth, that contains the phrase ‘marry only one’. There is no other religious book that instructs men to have only one wife. In none of the other religious scriptures, whether it be the Vedas, the Ramayan, the Mahabharat, the Geeta, the Talmud or the Bible does one find a restriction on the number of wives. According to these scriptures one can marry as many as one wishes. It was only later, that the Hindu priests and the Christian Church restricted the number of wives to one.
Many Hindu religious personalities, according to their scriptures, had multiple wives. King Dashrat, the father of Rama, had more than one wife. Krishna had several wives.
In earlier times, Christian men were permitted as many wives as they wished, since the Bible puts no restriction on the number of wives. It was only a few centuries ago that the Church restricted the number of wives to one.
Polygyny is permitted in Judaism. According to Talmudic law, Abraham had three wives, and Solomon had hundreds of wives. The practice of polygyny continued till Rabbi Gershom ben Yehudah (960 C.E to 1030 C.E) issued an edict against it. The Jewish Sephardic communities living in Muslim countries continued the practice till as late as 1950, until an Act of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel extended the ban on marrying more than one wife.

3. Hindus are more polygynous than Muslims
The report of the ‘Committee of The Status of Woman in Islam’, published in 1975 mentions on page numbers 66 and 67 that the percentage of polygamous marriages between the years 1951 and 1961 was 5.06% among the Hindus and only 4.31% among the Muslims. According to Indian law only Muslim men are permitted to have more than one wife. It is illegal for any non-Muslim in India to have more than one wife. Despite it being illegal, Hindus have more multiple wives as compared to Muslims. Earlier, there was no restriction even on Hindu men with respect to the number of wives allowed. It was only in 1954, when the Hindu Marriage Act was passed that it became illegal for a Hindu to have more than one wife. At present it is the Indian Law that restricts a Hindu man from having more than one wife and not the Hindu scriptures.
Let us now analyse why Islam allows a man to have more than one wife.
4. Qur’an permits limited polygyny
As I mentioned earlier, Qur’an is the only religious book on the face of the earth that says ‘marry only one’. The context of this phrase is the following verse from Surah Nisa of the Glorious Qur’an: "Marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one." [Al-Qur’an 4:3]
Before the Qur’an was revealed, there was no upper limit for polygyny and many men had scores of wives, some even hundreds. Islam put an upper limit of four wives. Islam gives a man permission to marry two, three or four women, only on the condition that he deals justly with them.
In the same chapter i.e. Surah Nisa verse 129 says: "Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women...." [Al-Qur’an 4:129]
Therefore polygyny is not a rule but an exception. Many people are under the misconception that it is compulsory for a Muslim man to have more than one wife.
Broadly, Islam has five categories of Do’s and Don’ts:
(i) ‘Fard’ i.e. compulsory or obligatory
(ii) ‘Mustahab’ i.e. recommended or encouraged
(iii) ‘Mubah’ i.e. permissible or allowed
(iv) ‘Makruh’ i.e. not recommended or discouraged
(v) ‘Haraam’ i.e. prohibited or forbidden
Polygyny falls in the middle category of things that are permissible. It cannot be said that a Muslim who has two, three or four wives is a better Muslim as compared to a Muslim who has only one wife.

5. Average life span of females is more than that of males
By nature males and females are born in approximately the same ratio. A female child has more immunity than a male child. A female child can fight the germs and diseases better than the male child. For this reason, during the pediatric age itself there are more deaths among males as compared to the females.
During wars, there are more men killed as compared to women. More men die due to accidents and diseases than women. The average life span of females is more than that of males, and at any given time one finds more widows in the world than widowers.
6. India has more male population than female due to female foeticide and infanticide
India is one of the few countries, along with the other neighbouring countries, in which the female population is less than the male population. The reason lies in the high rate of female infanticide in India, and the fact that more than one million female foetuses are aborted every year in this country, after they are identified as females. If this evil practice is stopped, then India too will have more females as compared to males.
7. World female population is more than male population
In the USA, women outnumber men by 7.8 million. New York alone has one million more females as compared to the number of males, and of the male population of New York one-third are gays i.e sodomites. The U.S.A as a whole has more than twenty-five million gays. This means that these people do not wish to marry women. Great Britain has four million more females as compared to males. Germany has five million more females as compared to males. Russia has nine million more females than males. God alone knows how many million more females there are in the whole world as compared to males.
8. Restricting each and every man to have only one wife is not practical
Even if every man got married to one woman, there would still be more than thirty million females in U.S.A who would not be able to get husbands (considering that America has twenty five million gays). There would be more than four million females in Great Britain, 5 million females in Germany and nine million females in Russia alone who would not be able to find a husband.
Suppose my sister happens to be one of the unmarried women living in USA, or suppose your sister happens to be one of the unmarried women in USA. The only two options remaining for her are that she either marries a man who already has a wife or becomes public property. There is no other option besides remaining lonely. All those who are modest will opt for the first.
In Western society, it is common for a man to have mistresses and/or multiple extra-marital affairs, in which case, the woman leads a disgraceful, unprotected life. The same society, however, cannot accept a man having more than one wife, in which women retain their honourable, dignified position in society and lead a protected life.
Thus the only two options before a woman who cannot find a husband is to marry a married man or to become public property. Islam prefers giving women the honourable position by permitting the first option and disallowing the second.

Now there is a misconception here about the security of women while single. The notion of “insecure women” that I said earlier have its meaning in the lines (underlined) in the above article, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Again probably your knowledge about Islam is mere raw. As child marriage is strictly prohibited in Islam, Islam only allows the marriage of adults, please take a serious note of this because these values such as child marriage are imported into muslim culture from old hindu traditions, if some muslim do such deeds then they should not be portrayed as representatives of Islam, Islamic teachings are in Quran and Ahadeeth, so do refer to them before you make any opinion or statements about any other religion.
A woman cannot give triple talaq, now you will wonder that why woman is not given the right of talaq or divorcing his husband but Islam gives protection to woman by giving her the right of seperating with her husband the method is called "khula'h" which means a woman can file a petition against her husband in the court and ask for separation if she has any problem with him. Well about the good enough reason for talaq, I would say if a man doesn’t want to be with his wife can you force him anyway to stay?but the amount that is called HAQ MEHAR which is agreed upon the marriage needs to be paid by husband to his wife if he divorces her which is again a positive thing, e.g same goes with western culture when a boyfriend dumps girls or vice versa is it justifiable to dump someone just on the basis of not being good to him/her or she/he found a better partner? And we see this happening on average every three months for a girl or boy, while talaq ratio in muslims is very low also westereners dont have to lose anything while dumping someone as there is the case of HAQ MEHAR in Islam. So you cannot force two individuals to stay together no matter what the reason is its not just about talaq in islam you can see this in brits and Americans as well, which makes sense.
The answer to rest of your questions will follow:

for your question about "Burqa"
Before the advent of Islam the civilizations all around the globe were indulged in disgracing and degrading women, whether you take the example of Pre-Islamic Arabs, Persians, Indians, Greeks or Romans they all used women for the sake of lust and self satisfaction and even some civilizations didn’t consider women as human beings. Especially pre Islamic arabs and hindus used to burry women alive on their birth, what most disgrace and ridiculous behaviour could you expect from such civilizations.
First of all you should know that ALLAH mentions the hijaab for men before women in Quran:
"Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do."
[Al-Qur’an 24:30]
A man is supposed to lower his gaze the moment he looks at a woman and if any unashamed thought comes to his mind.
The next verse of Surah Noor, says:
" And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons..."
[Al-Qur’an 24:31]
‘Hijaab’ of the clothes should be accompanied by ‘hijaab’ of the eyes, ‘hijaab’ of the heart, ‘hijaab’ of thought and ‘hijaab’ of intention. It also includes the way a person walks, the way a person talks, the way he behaves, etc.
"O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad); that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
[Al-Qur’an 33:59]
Burqa or hijaab protect women from molestation or teasing
I will quote a good example from Dr. Zakir Naik’s IRF (Islamic Research Foundation):
Example of twin sisters
Suppose two sisters who are twins, and who are equally beautiful, walk down the street. One of them is attired in the Islamic hijaab i.e. the complete body is covered, except for the face and the hands up to the wrists. The other sister is wearing western clothes, a mini skirt or shorts. Just around the corner there is a hooligan or ruffian who is waiting for a catch, to tease a girl. Whom will he tease? The girl wearing the Islamic Hijaab or the girl wearing the skirt or the mini? Naturally he will tease the girl wearing the skirt or the mini. Such dresses are an indirect invitation to the opposite sex for teasing and molestation. The Qur’an rightly says that hijaab prevents women from being molested.
Western talk of women’s liberalization is nothing but a disguised form of exploitation of her body, degradation of her soul, and deprivation of her honour. Western society claims to have ‘uplifted’ women. On the contrary it has actually degraded them to the status of concubines, mistresses and society butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers and sex marketeers, hidden behind the colourful screen of ‘art’ and ‘culture’.
The fact that USA is supposed to be one of the advanced countries of the world it also has highest rates of rape in any country in the world. According to a FBI report, in the year 1990, every day on an average 1756 cases of rape were committed in U.S.A alone. Later another report said that on an average everyday 1900 cases of rapes are committed in USA. The year was not mentioned. May be it was 1992 or 1993. May be the Americans got ‘bolder’ in the following years.
Consider a scenario where the Islamic hijaab is followed in America. Whenever a man looks at a woman and any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind, he lowers his gaze. Every woman wears the Islamic hijaab, that is the complete body is covered except the face and the hands upto the wrist. After this if any man commits rape he is given capital punishment. In such a scenario, will the rate of rape in America increase, will it remain the same, or will it decrease?
Burqa or Hijaab does not degrade a woman but uplifts a woman and protects her modesty and chastity.
For more detailed answer to your questions please visit:

	Code:
	http://www.irf.net/irf/faqonislam/index.htm

Women are allowed in mosques but they cannot pray along men because of the reason of hijab which have already been explained, but they can have a separate room/section for themselves in the mosque to pray.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) married Hazrat Aishah at the age of 15, however she betrothed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) at the age of 9 or 10, also note that betroth mean to engage or agree upon getting married but she was actually married at the age of 15 which is the age of maturity and adolescence. More details could be found on the link below:
http://www.readingislam.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1123996016332&pagename=IslamOnline-English-AAbout_Islam/AskAboutIslamE/AskAboutIslamE
Secondly the reason why Prophet married nine women is as follows, the important thing to be considered in this article is that he almost all of his wives were widows before marriage:
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546160

Thanx for elaborating ur points
ur answers n links provide me a lot of information
but my BASIC question is still nt answered..

before going further i want tell u sumthing
in one article u ve compared islam to hinduism n cristianity n islamic culture to wetern society
i want to say that if i am questioning islam i also question hinduism
i dont know much abt cristianity n do not testify western way of living
just bcoz other religions are doing sumthing wrong doesnt mean that ths justify sumthing questionable abt our religion

first of all i agree with u on the point taht y prophet mohammad had nine marriages..
n his wife ws 10 yrs old at time of marriage
u r rite that we cant compare the actions of that time in the modern world
bcoz things were nt same at that time.

n u r right that there is difference in our preceptions,our thinking is not same.
n thats what we r trying to sort out
i know it may nt matter bt want to tell u that i m a Sikh

Firstly abt four marriages
You said that hindu LAW prohibits hindus to marry more than once..nt hindu religion's books

firstly...if hindu religion gives permission to hindus to marry more than once that means this is wrong..nt that islam is right
bcoz two wrongs do not make a right
secondly ..you have given figures abt female population n gays in westewrn country..i dont think we shud b concerned abt that. coz we r talking abt islam n islamic countries ..n wat the position of sex ratio in islamic countries.bcoz if we justify that if female populationis less ..as it is in western coutries as u said so one man shud b allowed to marry more than once so that a woman dont have to b public property(as u said),so the opposite shud b true that if there r less males ..as it is in our countries ..women shud be allowed to marry more than once so that men dont have to bcome public property or watever

thirdly...the stories of hinduism is considered mythology.. characters like ram,hanuman ,durga vishnu,yamraj..r all considered hindu mythology i m sure u will aware abt "setu samundaram controversy" nobody considers prophet mohammad a myth
n no norms abt marriages n what to wear n where n how to do work..in such elaboration is given in hindu religion.. i dont htink other religions give such detailed orders abt do's n donts .. so we cant compare the two
fourthly.. if hindu laws have changed coz they came to know that the old traditions does nt hold gud in present day..it is a welcome step

n even u said that that time cant me compared with modern days

n now wen we know that
there is more population of females than males?(n as we see in fig. its only after age of 65 that females r more than men i.. n i dont think a women need a support after that age .. coz they have children who can take care of them.. n there r no other needs to remarry after 65or do ppl marry women with age of more than 65 yrs too??
n no such crucial war happen these days
when quran is so detailed shudnt there b a clause that if in any case men's population increase those of women then the opposite is allowed...

n u said nt many ppl marry more than once

dont you think if the old rule doesnt hold true these days then it shud b changed????

I m just talking abt one issue ths time coz wen i touch many issue the discussion becomes confusing..
i ve question abt other things too but firstly i want to clear one issue

i hope ths will b taken in gud spirit
thank you

arsh brar wrote:

well.. i read wat u ve written..
u have posed many questions but not many have been answered..
dont misunderstand me...i respect islam
n as u said like other non muslims i dont know much abt islam...
n too feel its complicated...
n spcly abt women's rights..
i ve heard that a man can marry 4 times...can a woman do the same?
in courts..a woman witness is considered half gud to man...
n in case of rape..she cant file case unless she has a witness??
i m nt challenging islam
just want to know is it true????

fisrt of all my dear the answer to the word complicated is: SIMPLIFIED! it seems to the common mind as a complicated religion but to any sensible person who knows Islam even a bit of it will understand it. about women's rights, then i am proud to tell you that women have been given several rights in islam, though some molwis fail to give it a clear picture,let me tell you that women are considered as very respectful people. to say islam prohbits women from working then it is wrong, the best example for any muslim woman to follow is of the wives of the prophet, and Hazarat Khadija was a buisnesswoman, some used to sew clothes, some were experts at embriodery, and so on. you can see from the example that in parents, the mother enjoys a greater place then the father as decipted in this event of the prophet's life:
once a person came to the prophet of islam and asked him in my parents whom shall a give more importance, love and consideration to, the prophet said your mother, he asked for a second time and the reply was the same, when he asked for the fourth yime, the prophet sensed that he wanted to fear father so he said so.
about marrige, the reason why a man can have 4 wives yet a woman can have only one is MEDICAL and SOCIAL. socially it is that if multiple men have intercourse with the same woman, the child born will be a huge problem as his/her name can not be given, who knows which man is the real father, medicaly it si that a woman can get seriously ill if she has intercourse with more than one man, (sorry i am not a doctor that i can tell you what exactly happens).
i've never geard that a woman witness is given half importance, many people who call them selves molwis are actually nobodies, don't listen to them.
this is a reason of LOGIC, you see MANY women trap men by first having intercourse with them and then they trapp them, furthermore, it is death penalty for a rapist, it ofcourse needs to be assured as valid, but with todays world these laws can be altered by religious scholars if they remain within the islamic doctrine, this is the reason islam is considered a religion for all times, this think is called itjehad (not sure of the term).
you see, my dear, that ISLAM is no a religion of raisin questins agaist, it is a discpline of understaning....

_________________
Mein woh hoon jo kisi ne kaha:
HAM NAGHMA SARA KUCH GHAZLON KE HAM SOORAT GAR KUCH KHWAABON KE
BE JAZBA E SHOQ SUNAYEN KIYA KOI KHWAAB NA HO TO BATAYEN KIYA

arsh brar wrote:

thanx for explaining me this...
i want to say sumthing .. n hope u will take this in gud spirit
tell me honestly....
without taking it personly..
do u relly think these reasons r gud enough?
n spcly in present time can we hold that true?
wen female population is less than male
n there r no wars..
bt i feel these days nt many muslims go for more than one marriagq?(am i rite?)
n is female foeticide a big prblm there in pak too?(thogh i know it is prohibited in islam)
(n i ve heard use of any kind of contraceptives is also prohibited in slam..
is tripple talaq applicable in pak??
i hope u wont mind questioning the religion
thanx again

PLEASE don't consider this a personal offence, but you are totaly wrong there, the female popluation is FAR ore than the male popluation in several countries, a few countries, including inda are those with male popluation highier, let me tell you why, it is a fact that:
EVRY DAY 3000 BABY GIRLS ARE KILLED IN INDIA EVRY DAY

_________________
Mein woh hoon jo kisi ne kaha:
HAM NAGHMA SARA KUCH GHAZLON KE HAM SOORAT GAR KUCH KHWAABON KE
BE JAZBA E SHOQ SUNAYEN KIYA KOI KHWAAB NA HO TO BATAYEN KIYA

i dont take it as personal offence...coz i accept that female foeticide rate is v.high in india..
ths is bcoz of low metality of some indian ppl..
n if there is anything wrong in my country or religion...i accept that.. i dont make excuses to defend
n even if female population is more in other countries,it shudnt matter...
coz we r talkin abt india n pakistan...where female population is low...

wen i asked these questions i expected some rational answers...n i thought i ws getting that..
bt now i m demoralised..
wen u ve said that

	Quote:
	that ISLAM is no a religion of raisin questins agaist, it is a discpline of understaning....

there is no point in asking any questions..

n sorry to say
now i m sure that wat i think, is nt my miscnception

just to let you know, I am extremely busy theese days. will come back soon to answer your questions.

hmm....ok..

A Muslim cannot be a terrorist, i need comments from you all.

_________________
Qamar Bukhari

well.... i dont know hw u define a terrorist...??

Terrorist: terror promoter

ya ..indian muslim's cant be terrorist..
...................................

superb job shahzaibkhan and ugwaraich.

_________________

Mates....good discussion forum going on here...just one thing to remember that Hinduism is the oldest religion of all, so what came next can be different in many ways as given above....pls do not compare religions & stick to the subject of the questions.

	Ausboy wrote:
	Mates....good discussion forum going on here...just one thing to remember that Hinduism is the oldest religion of all, so what came next can be different in many ways as given above....pls do not compare religions & stick to the subject of the questions.

G`day Aussie Boy, Hows it going back there ?
We are not comparing religions, just eliminating the confusions.
But if a certain question comesup that have to be answered to continue discussion.

Infact you have compared the religion by saying the Hinduism is the oldest religion, How about you contribute something to
this discussion rather then pointing us? hope to here some good points from you soon.

_________________

Last edited by Anne on Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

arsh brar wrote:

well.. i read wat u ve written..
u have posed many questions but not many have been answered..
dont misunderstand me...i respect islam
n as u said like other non muslims i dont know much abt islam...
n too feel its complicated...
n spcly abt women's rights..
i ve heard that a man can marry 4 times...can a woman do the same?
in courts..a woman witness is considered half gud to man...
n in case of rape..she cant file case unless she has a witness??
i m nt challenging islam
just want to know is it true????

I'l give u the answer of only one Question u r asking about....

a man can marry 4 times, can a woman do the same?

Let me tell u clearly & straight forward,.....

a man can marry four womens, bcoz in case of baby birth u can specify babe's mother & father....

in case of if a women has four husbands.... how can u say which one is father.... or would u like to have a genetical test of any child. lolz

specially in a country where people are die-ying bcoz of food isn't availble.

_________________

First of all let me make it clear that we are talking about the real teachings of the religions, our talk should not be influenced by what followers of those religions do.

	Quote:
	just bcoz other religions are doing sumthing wrong doesnt mean that ths justify sumthing questionable abt our religion

I do agree with your point, lets make it simple then we have two options (1) to be secular (2) Or to follow a religion, lets not talk about first option; which is very easy to confront and everyone understands the significance of religion. Now if you think about the second point then we have two or three big religions in the world
1) Christianity 2) Islam 3) Hinduism

Now if you choose the course of following a religion then you will have to think and do proper reasoning to choose between the teachings of these religions. Although there are other religions as choice but I don’t think its worth considering them because it is very easy to take them out of our option list because of some valid reasons.

This is the reason why we compare the teachings of religions just to know which one is right, because a human mind comes up with all those questions in life as how to lead your life and what is going to happen after death. These religions answer their questions and resolve them.

I suppose I can justify each bit of Islamic Teachings but not the actions done by Muslims, as there is no parity between the two. So repeating myself again that whatever actions muslims do (not all of them); do not represent the teachings of Islam.

	Quote:
	first of all i agree with u on the point taht y prophet mohammad had nine marriages.. n his wife ws 10 yrs old at time of marriage

I should correct you here that his wife was not 10 years old at the time of marriage she was nearly 14 or 15 years old. Please read my post about his marriage properly.

Quote:

u r rite that we cant compare the actions of that time in the modern world
bcoz things were nt same at that time.

n u r right that there is difference in our preceptions,our thinking is not same.
n thats what we r trying to sort out
i know it may nt matter bt want to tell u that i m a Sikh

Firstly abt four marriages
You said that hindu LAW prohibits hindus to marry more than once..nt hindu religion's books

firstly...if hindu religion gives permission to hindus to marry more than once that means this is wrong..nt that islam is right
bcoz two wrongs do not make a right secondly ..you have given figures abt female population n gays in westewrn country..i dont think we shud b concerned abt that. coz we r talking abt islam n islamic countries ..n wat the position of sex ratio in islamic countries.bcoz if we justify that if female populationis less ..as it is in western coutries as u said so one man shud b allowed to marry more than once so that a woman dont have to b public property(as u said),so the opposite shud b true that if there r less males ..as it is in our countries ..women shud be allowed to marry more than once so that men dont have to bcome public property or watever

I do not agree to the idea of man being public. I think you are confusing men and women to be exactly the same creature physically and mentally, which is quite close to wrong. I must say God has made Men and Women differently, Men and Women have same level or rights but they have got different duties.
I don’t know why you cant understand the simplest idea of polygamy as myself, Shahzaib and Iqbal have already explained that what would happen if a woman married multiple men at the same time (Ofcourse she can marry again after divorce or as a widow), this is so simple.
I didn’t want to be more open I thought you could understand the idea but let me be more open now. A woman cannot do multiple things at the same time, they can’t do the job that men can do and men can’t do the job that women can. Women in nature do not have the dominant nature while men have a dominant nature and that’s what most women like about men. Men has always been the bread winner for the family and this is his job, the best and primary job for a woman is to bring up her children in a civilised and best manner, this makes up the best nations, just like a man cannot give birth to a baby and a woman can. Another point to be noted here is that a child can only be identified by his father not his mother, because a woman can have several children from different husbands but a man doesn’t actually give birth to a child but he is the actual cause. The reason why men cannot become a public property is because they are bread winners they are stronger than women in financial matters while woman is stronger than men in taking care and managing of home and households. So men wouldn’t sell themselves for money, but women do because they are helpless and unstable. Men are tough and they know how to survive in tough conditions while woman are different than men in mentality, they easily get stressed out and nervous, this is one of the reasons why we need two women witnesses for a murder in Islam and one man witness. Because women are terrified by the idea of murder and its hard for them to handle the situation. I am not offending genders but this is what I think is true, and there lies the splendour/magnificance or beauty of a woman in being shy, nervous and being dominated by a man (excuse me).

Quote:

thirdly...the stories of hinduism is considered mythology.. characters like ram,hanuman ,durga vishnu,yamraj..r all considered hindu mythology i m sure u will aware abt "setu samundaram controversy" nobody considers prophet mohammad a myth
n no norms abt marriages n what to wear n where n how to do work..in such elaboration is given in hindu religion.. i dont htink other religions give such detailed orders abt do's n donts .. so we cant compare the two

that’s true, this is the beauty of Islam that it guides you throughout your life on each and every matter, its not the obligation to muslims because these are personal matters but it is considered to be best in Islam to follow does and donts. Muslims chose this religion by choice not just by birth and we are not talking about those who chose it by birth. Hinduism is a mythology that’s true, I don’t know why people believe on myths and don’t see the realities. What is reasonable to follow a reality or a myth? The answer gives the statement to why I am a muslim and why others muslims chose Islam and why the teachings about multiple marriage are true. It is an option not an obligation.

	Quote:
	fourthly.. if hindu laws have changed coz they came to know that the old traditions does nt hold gud in present day..it is a welcome step

I don’t think it is an appropriate step to change a religion it is probably appropriate to learn and update the concepts of a religion of handling an issue in the light of other teachings within the same religion. Idea of religion is universal in Islam, just as we can’t say that a Creator is for His creature but we say that creature is for the Creator. Religion is to ease the questions and life of creature to follow the teachings of its Creator. This is the reason why a religion cannot be changed, if you change it then you should change its name as well. But again we can add some bits and pieces in the light of teachings of the religion if we face a modern problem and if the direct solution to those problems is not available in the previous teachings. This is called Ijma, or Ijtehad in Islam.

Quote:

n even u said that that time cant me compared with modern days

n now wen we know that
there is more population of females than males?(n as we see in fig. its only after age of 65 that females r more than men i.. n i dont think a women need a support after that age .. coz they have children who can take care of them.. n there r no other needs to remarry after 65or do ppl marry women with age of more than 65 yrs too??
n no such crucial war happen these days
when quran is so detailed shudnt there b a clause that if in any case men's population increase those of women then the opposite is allowed...

Now this is funny, you are saying that SHOULDN’T THERE BE A CLAUSE IN QURAN, I must tell you that Quran was not the creation of some human being, Quran came on earth as revelations to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) he did not write it himself, Quran’s Author is God (ALLAH), not the human beings. That is our belief, so whatever was sent by God we cannot change it and we cannot say at all that SHOULDN’T there be a clause, this is what chirstians have done to bible, that they have changed it to an extent where it has completely lost its original state. Anyways I don’t know why are you bushing about the same marriage issue as we have already given you so many reasons why a woman cannot marry multiple men.

	Quote:
	y n u said nt many ppl marry more than once dont you think if the old rule doesnt hold true these days then it shud b changed????

Quran cannot be changed, it is a universal book and its teachings are applicable at all times.