[GJM] Atheistic Social Constructionists, The Qur'an, and other Belief Systems .

Sat Nov 25 08:14:54 MST 2006

Dear Margaret,

  Greeting for peace,

  With praises to Almighty for giving us the intellect and the knowledge of names of things..food that we eat and the air that we breathe..I would like to note that those who reject the communications of messengers as recorded in the Holy Quran and then present people with no faith in the communications as role models are hurting themselves..I find your writings inspired by such men who believe in false atheistic social constructionist accounts about ethics,aesthetics and epistemology...about the origin of the world and about so many other issues..I concluded for categorising the narratives in atheistic,polytheistic and monotheistic narratives..Please see the conceptual organisation of mine...at http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org

  I know all you say and also guess about the responses in the atheistic narrative..Spirit is a gift of life and we get this spirit working either in abidance to the commands of Allah or in abidance to the commands of Satan...People not believing in Moses (PBUH) and Jesus (PBUH) and not ready to study the word of God may take recourse to the version of X,Y.Z..about the word of Allah/God/..the creator of all universes .."Muslims" believe in the communications of the word of Allah.

  I may not be able to convince you ..I have chosen to follow the word of God..and I find that suitable for addressing the ecological and all challenges..All the messengers were asked to communicate and not be worried about the result..as the guidance for men and women is from God only.

  I will be grateful for the reference for the verse as I have not come across such a verse..I know of verse calling the beleiver to obey Allah and obey the messengers..Muslim send greetings of peace to all messengers..I send greetings with the hope of guidance to you..we need to prayer for our guidance consistently...Muslims recite the first Sura in all Salats...where a prayer is there for guidance from Allah..we never get arrogant...unless for asserting the word..even there is protocol for using the best means of communications with non-Muslims..

  With best wishes

  Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
  Delhi

marguerite hampton <ecopilgrim at aabol.com> wrote:
        BA285063-5BCE-11D4-AF8D-0050DAC67E11  2.0  Letter  Letter\rice_fields.imf  Elegant Paper  Stationery  Rice Fields  SU1CTDEsNDEsgUmBSTAkkcGNgZmVTY0wNCxNhYUoiU0kOMEoTYGBjYEoJDSZnSyFhUksSU1CTDIsMCwsSU1CTDMsMCwsVHlwZVZlcnNpb24sMywxLjAs  3F1C3EBF-9C64-4EB2-8E14-F6404F491F29  repeat  #eff3f7  left  0px  ANIM3D00-NONE-0000-0000-000000000000  0  ANIM3D00-NONE-0000-0000-000000000000  1  6486DDE0-3EFD-11D4-BA3D-0050DAC68030  0  6486DDE0-3EFD-11D4-BA3D-0050DAC68030  1  C3C52140-4147-11D4-BA3D-0050DAC68030  0  X-ASN,X-ASH,X-AN,X-AP,X-AD  ;              Dear Dr. Alam, 

  I return your greetings for peace and engage you in dialogue with the utmost respect.  .  

  May I suggest that not only are there many "tracts" in Christianity but in the Islam view of religion as well.  In their book, "The Laughing Jesus" authors: Freke and Gandy refer to Islamic Gnostics as well as Christian Gnostics who are attempting to "set the record straight".  So we have those from differerent cultural backgrounds who are attempting in today's world to bring gnosis (knowledge) 
  to the forefront as a viable alternative to religious Literalism.  

  Let me quote a pasage written by Freke and Gandy.  "Prophets are dangerous people because they profess to speak for God, which gives them a claim to absolute authority.  Prophethood is a form of idolatry, because the prophet comes to represent God in the same way as a statue.  Living prophets are far more dangerous than stone statues, however, because prophets are people with their own agendas.  People with a puffed up sense of their own significance, who really believe they can tell others what God thinks. People who have become inflated with their own delusions of grandeur and demand that they themselves be treated like God." 

  So, it has been with many of the prophets of the past. While most prophets begin with a total reverance for God, in the end the ego takes over and turns the relationship upside down as appears to have happened with Muhammad as witnessed by this statement taken from the Qur'an.  :

     " One may be negligent towards God but one must be respectful toward Muhammad. ". 

  Really!!!!!!  How convenient for Muhammad to be able to make a "power play" by aggrandizing 
  himself and placing himself "above God".  What appears is that almost all religions slip up and are replete with human foibles such as these that are most telling. 

  In view of this, Dr. Alam, it is my feeling that ALL religions must be looked at with a questionable attitude relative to conveying "the word of God".  And when viewed from this perspective I do believe  Dr. Chopra has a valid point. Indeed, may I also suggest that those of us, like myself, whom  you label "athiest", are perhaps more spiritual than those who follow blindly and without question a prophet?   

  One of the things I am forced to ask is: "How many so-called religious beliefs are based in cultural bias?"  And, "Are cultural boundaries part of reality or are they only figments of our imagination which mainly emanate out of ego?"  Although many cultural beliefs may also emanate out of 
  location and so-called ownership rights of land and the oil and mineral rights which underlie it.
  Which brings up the question as to "who is entitled to rights of ownership"?  Only the few, or does the Earth belong to all of us equally?   Do we have rights to land ownership any more than we have rights to own another person in slavery?  

  What appears to me, Dr. Alam, is that there are ethical questions and equal rights which supercede a prophet's belief system and need be openly discussed today.  But using the word 
  of God is a convenient way for prophets to attempt to override the ethics of God isn't it and claim for their own that which rightly belonged to the people. 

  And, it is again, my humble feelings that those of us who truly care about achieving peace
  and sustainability must be constantly vigilant in order to preserve the ethics of God in whom 
  the people may place their trust? 

  Don't you agree, Dr. Alam? 

  marguerite aka eco  

  .          
  .  

  Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:08:45 -0800 (PST)
  From: Muhammad Mukhtar Alam <mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com>
  Subject: Re: [GJM] Qu'ran for sorting out intra-Christian disputes
  To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice
    <discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>
  Message-ID: <20061124070845.64803.qmail at web31703.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

  Dear Margaret,

    Greetings for peace,

    I have got memories of reading so many tracts on anti-Church litereture and that is the reason I suggest the need to visit the communications of God in Qur'an. Please read the account there and I am sure a lot of misunderstanding about the communications of God willl be removed...Qur'an is the source of Knowledge that needs to be read by all who are discussion the issues affecting us..

    I support your call for the Vatican to be more open. Deepak Chopra is not correct in generalsing conclusions for 'religion' as he is misguided. People need to turn to Qur'an and the authoritative sources on Qur'an with translations by Muslims...I stress on translations by Muslims as people with atheistic perspective tend not to see the divine origin of the communications where no human distortions has been permitted and protection of the verses has been taken by Allah.

    Atheistic routes are outrightly wrong. We can never get a consensus in atheistic routes.

    Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam

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