World class man… no rush at all - whenever you can 🙏🤙🏻
Discussion
I’m back, so before I say anything again want to put a few definitions out, and also state this is from a Islamic point of view, no other religions even question 5, but it probably is the same for the Church, I’m no scholar, I consider myself a student of knowledge, someone learning as well, I did some research, and found similar answers, I can provide all references if you require but some you may not understand at all due to the fact there are statements in it which wouldn’t make sense to someone who isn’t a Muslim i.e. even basic structure of a chapter name, but the messages are clear so I can give them if you want. A reliable website is called Islamqa.info
This has taken me a few hours to write and compose. So hopefully I haven’t got anything wrong, but note as we know in the Bitcoin space DYOR so what i say, look into it further and see if it makes sense to you. If you want to discuss further it’s probably best we talk on an call or something lol, as all this I typed could have been said within 20 minutes, but it’s taken me hours due to auto corrects, spelling mistakes, this and that lol.
So to begin, you must first understand the basics of Islam before we continue I’ll quickly summarize it;
There are 5 Pillars of Islam. Salah (Establishing the 5 Daily Prayers), Zakaat (Paying 2.5% of our wealth to the poor and needy), Sawm (Fasting in the holy month of Ramadan), Hajj (Doing pilgrimage to Mecca), and finally one which is more spiritual Imaan (Faith, believing in the 6 Pillars of Imaan, 1) belief there is Allah, 2) belief in the Angels, 3) belief in the holy book, 4) belief in messengers of god, 5) belief in the day of judgement and finally the 6) belief in decree so everything has already been written it’s just playing out now)).
Muslims believe in one god, he has no kids, wife etc, he is the creator; he sent messengers to this world to give the message to worship him as their primary purpose in this world, and we believe Muhammad ﷺ is the final messenger for the whole of mankind, and each nation before him were given messengers. There will be no more, we’ve been told the trumpet will be blown by the angel Israfil and the day of resurrection will begin.
What is the message? It’s the testimony we all say; I bear witness there is no god besides Allah, and Muhammad ﷺ is his slave and messenger.
You can see it like this to help comprehend it in your mind. Say, when you bought a Bitaxe, Skot created it, then people distribute it and if you got any tech help you go to the distributors (the trainers) of it as they’re the ones selling it, the website you can call the manual as you download updates for it etc. Similarly, Allah created everything; he sent messengers (the trainers) with the manual; in this case the Quran. You got any questions ask the prophet, and how do we since his passed away? Well not only had the Quran been preserved but the science of Hadith has been preserved (the teachings of the prophet ﷺ).
One aspect to remember is we have been put on this world as a test. Test to see if we submit to him, or go astray. If we pass we will be granted Jannah, if the fail we will be thrown into Jahanam. Additionally; we’ve been given the choice to make decisions. These decisions will be shown to us again when we resurrect and we will know why our judgement was such, I.e. if we go to Jannah or Jahanam we’ll know why our judgment was that.
Some definitions:
Allah - the creator, has 99 attributes which describe him (I can provide a link to all so you can read the attributes), the best description is a chapter called Al-Ikhlas (Chapter 112), also a verse which is the most powerful verse in the Quran also describes him and us, that we have no control over life - Verse 255 of Chapter 2, Al-Baqara, this verse is known as Ayatul Kursi
Humans - us Mankind, first of us was Adam PBUH, made from clay (water and earth).
Jinn - another creation living amongst us - they are Muslims too in this “race of creatures” like us as humans are a race of homosapians, the Jinn race are made from smokeless fire (as stated in the Quran). So there are Muslim Jinns and Kafir Jinns like us humans
Iblis - the Devil, a type of Jinn, not a fallen angel as some may think.
Earth - this world we live in right now
Jannah - Paradise, or the gardens where we will enter if we pass this trial, eternal
Jahanam - Hellfire, eternal
ﷺ - this means May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him
Prophets - we respect all prophets peace and blessings be upon them all
Kutub al-Sittah - the six Books of Hadith which preserve the teaching of the prophet ﷺ (there are many more but these are very well known and used after the Quran), Sahih Al Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Nasa’i, Timridhi, ibn Majah, and Abu Dawud
Hadith - Teachings of the prophet ﷺ which falls under the science of Hadith. Each Hadith is graded and compiled, grades include Sahih - means authentic, Hasan, means good, Daeef means weak - this is just a basic understanding - but the way they’re graded is the science but anything that’s Sahih we must follow as the amount of work to get to Sahih grade means there’s no doubt it’s wrong - hence the books above Sahih Al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are quoted after the Quran.
1. Why does a loving GOD allow children to suffer with bone cancer?
2. Why does he allow a kid to be raped?
I’ll answer one and two together as they’re both calamities within kids:
So I did some research and the answer I said to my colleague is very similar but the scholars provide different examples. I’ll continue with providing mine;
There are many many reasons, these are horrible things that happens not to just kids but people in the world.
There are certain things we don’t know why it happens, but we know Allah is all wise and there must be a reason, we just can’t comprehend it yet or ever as our knowledge of the world is limited.
Then there’s reasonings like many calamities happen to see if we forsake him, to see what we do, some is because say our child died (god forbid this from ever happening..), as a parent that pain we go through challenges how we feel about the world. Some of these calamities also test us to grant us a higher rank in Jannah.
Regarding the rape, I really don’t have an answer, it’s a good question. The thought of it is so messed up, because I’m thinking now, well the child didn’t do anything to deserve that pain, but is that pain there from a young age to see how they turn out in the future? I really don’t know. But what I do know is, there is a lot of stuff we don’t know about this world. There are majority of things Islam has answered for me, but things like this, I have to believe Allah knows why, he knows best why these things happen. It’s like in Islam we’re told men are not allowed to wear gold. But from my understanding no reasoning has been given, just a command. Similarly, when something so bad happens to someone so innocent, only he knows. Does that make him not worthy of worship? Of course not, why? Because who else is worthy for worship? The creator of all things, just because bad things happen and I can’t reasoning my brain, or me become arrogant and abandon him because of my own lack of knowledge and foresight?
One thing that very important for me is the realisation, Allah doesn’t need us. We need him. When we pray we always say, it is you we ask for help as who else is there to help us?
I also think are we the only project Allah has created? Imagine how tiny we are in the universe.. let’s go deeper, forget the universe his the creator; what if there’s other things that his created? How much can our minds comprehend?
Anyways this is going abit off topic, but my main point is, these calamities to kids, there’s some reasoning that us humans can think of and say ok it may be this, there’s this benefit from it even though it’s such a huge disaster. That’s just our brains trying to justify it, but the real wisdom is what Allah knows, and now yes this does involve faith.
But it’s very good to question these things.
3. Why is there so much war if a GOD can click his fingers and stop anything?
So wars are people wanting to fight each other right? Like Muslims ain’t told oh btw go beat that guy up cause his not Muslim or go kill X Y Z cause they’re not Muslim. Commanded to invite people to Islam and bring knowledge to them. Now if it’s the time of war when someone is trying to kill you of course defend yourself even if that includes killing them. For example, at the time of war in the Quran Muslims were instructed to kill the disbelievers, but if they submit and want peace give them that. Do not kill women to children. If you look into warfare in Islam, our conduct is amazing there aswell even though it’s such a crazy subject. It’s to the extent there’s a Hadith that mentions a Muslim had a kafir on the battle field that submitted to Islam but the Muslim killed him and the prophet got enraged as this isn’t our conduct - he submitted and we can’t just kill someone if someone wants peace (ofc if they cheat then and do that for deception and it’s found out it would end in death).
Reference: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6872
Anyway, it’s all related to trials, to see if we pass to go to Jannah or Jahanam. You could say our creator did “click his fingers” in the time of Musa (Moses ﷺ) when Moses split the sea and drown the Pharaoh. Allah can do what he likes. Btw each prophet had their miracles that they did through supplication which Allah made happen. These prophets are just human, just the best of us as they had a relationship directly with Allah.
4. Why if religion is peaceful are majority of wars fought over religion?
I don’t know; but my guess is because human nature wants to hide from the truth. Islam didn’t just start wars, people didn’t want to believe in the message so they started wars. In Islam we’re told to defend ourselves. It’s like this post I wrote about, have a read it relates to a certain extent:
https://primal.net/e/note1dyjfhppd9rtgqfn40r0j7qesfu4jw408xpz7w9z5lhtz7kxvppwqkhpx2j
5. Why do the churches ask for money if GOD can provide?
Allah is the provider of all - charity is a righteous act. It cleanses our bad deeds, so it’s a form of worship. That doesn’t mean people are not corrupt and will misuse those funds. Don’t forget any charity given isn’t for people to just relax and enjoy lol, it’s given to maintain places of worship, feed the poor and needy. If you give me 10mil and I say I’m gna build XYZ to help the poor, and then I become greedy and keep 5 mil by hiding it, that doesn’t make the religion bad, it’s my trial that I’ve just stolen. I’ll answer for that when it’s the day of resurrection. But does that make the act of giving to a place of prayer bad? No. We humans do the actions.
By the way Muslims place of worship is called a Mosque or Masjid
This took me ages to type. Sorry if there’s any mistakes. But if you require references of some of the stuff I said please clarify and I’ll grab them. Question 1 and 2 can be searched on Google and search Islamqa.info as they’re reliable from what I’ve seen they provide references, not just opinions. I’m just layman, not a scholar, I consider myself a student of knowledge as I seek knowledge.
#islam #religion #faith
Btw I put some references but if you scroll all the way down it shows the websites dunno why it deletes it from the text itself and makes it blank.
Thank you brother! Does Islam require you to give 10% of your salary to the church or congregation like Christianity does?
No, not at all. We’re obligated to give Zakaat ( a Pillar of Islam ) there are rulings on this regarding calculation.
So 2.5% of one’s wealth that is above a certain threshold of gold / silver that one owns (or in this day and age fiat, soon Bitcoin when it takes over haha)
So this 2.5% is anything above the threshold of items you have as disposable like say I got 200k sat in my bank accounts - I’d have to pay on that, say I make 200k profit from my business I’d have to pay on that but say I have a 5mil house, I wouldn’t pay on that as I’m using it, say my business has 20m worth of property and assets, I wouldn’t pay on that as it’s in use. It’s basically anything that isn’t needed.
That’s how including crops and stuff aswell, but the ruling is to have the item for minimum of 12 months before we pay Zakaat on it. So say I just sold a flat and had 100k in my bank, sitting there, it has to go above 12 months before I’m obligated to pay Zakaat on it. Say within the 12 months I use that 100k and spend it all, I’m not obligated as I don’t have it anymore.
This Zakaat can only be given to the poor and needy, so people that can’t eat, are in severe debt etc. you can’t just give it to X person cause you felt like it. It has to go to the poor and needy. Also it can’t go to parents for example if they were poor because as a child it’s your duty to look after them and feed them and shelter them, they can eat from your wealth obviously in necessities. If my dad wanted a Lamborghini Reventon, and I am struggling to pay rent obviously I’m not obliged to give him what he wants. He doesn’t need the reventon, regardless of how psychologically reving the car will make him feel lol.
Zakaat is also only compulsory on the person that can afford it. If you don’t meet the threshold then you don’t give as you’re not financially capable to give.
But yeah no. There is no obligation of a fixed amount to give to a Masjid in other sense. However; we as Muslims should donate to charities and masjid for the better of the Muslim Nation, and for Kafirs which are poor and needy like homeless people or beggars etc.
This falls under the category of something called Sadaqah which is voluntary donations. As I said one benefit is cleansing my past sins by giving in the name of Allah.
So two main points here:
1. Zakaat is Compulsory, a pillar of Islam
2. Sadaqah is Voluntary, a good deed
Finally, Zakaat falls under two categories. Zakaat al-Maal and Zakat al-Fitr, Zakaat al-Maal is the example I gave above. Obligation on your wealth. The second one Zakaat al-Fitr again is an obligation for the one that has enough to eat and extra for a specific day - Eid al-Fitr - one of two days we celebrate in the year as Muslims, this is the festival of breaking the fast after the holy month of Ramadan ends.
Zakat al-Fitr is donated not through money, but through actual food. Foods that you would pay Zakaat on, for example, Rice, Wheat, Dates, Pasta etc. if we have enough food to eat on Eid we must also give a threshold of food to the poor so they can also eat on Eid and not be hungry on this joyous occasion. This must be given a day or two before it’s confirmed that the holy month of Ramadan has finished (1st day of the next month is Eid al-Fitr)
Anyways this is getting very technical for a someone wanting to learn more, but there’s many categories to study. The best place to start would be Aqeedah, which basically is the fundamental of Faith, and Imaan, so what does it mean to worship only one god. Islam is a monotheistic religion, as is Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism etc. And the main reason I practice Islam is, through time Islam hasn’t changed whereas the rest have been tampered with by men, and whatever is in the man’s heart. That’s not enough for me to follow something, as it has to be untouched imo or the message can be anyone’s and I won’t be following anyone if I follow someone or something in this case Allah.
I forgot to mention, Zakaat is only given once a year. You can pick the day you want to give it and just do it from that day you meet until you don’t meet the threshold again (12 months period). Or you can begin it from the day you’re obligated to give Zakaat. Also Muslims don’t follow the Georgian Calendar, we follow the Hijri Calendar which is based on the Lunar Cycle, so the Moon rather than Solar being the Sun (which is the Georgian Calendar).
How many days in an Islamic year based on the following statement? How many years have you been down the religious rabbit hole? Also… is BTC allowed in your religion because of interest? #bitcoin
Lunar calendar is roughly 11 days shorter than Solar year.
I would say properly for around 7 years, but I started to question stuff 14 years ago and slowly learn bits and bobs. Always asking questions to what’s important to me in my life to see if Islam effects it or not.
What interest in BTC? BTC is PoW not PoS, you need to get that .ETH ENS out of your mind hahah
So Interest is completely prohibited and there are difference of opinions on “Crypto” but Memecoins are haram as it’s gambling and no utility. Basically a casino.
But yeah what interest on BTC? I’m intrigued as have I been losing out or something HODLing all these years where you know a hack to accumulate more faster!
How do Islam people get around the whole interest issue?
Here in SA they buy exotic cars and they sell at a profit which is interest but apparently that’s fine..
Do you ever have guests on your podcast?
It’s prohibited meaning doing it is a major sin, that doesn’t stop people from sinning of course.
What is SA? South Africa? And buying and selling isn’t interest, interest is where I sell you X for X amount and then say you pay me back Y amount and every year dependant on how I feel I increase Y amount as it’s a variable rate. That’s unfair on the person who bought product Y for Y initial price. Obviously I’m super simplifying it - I’m out in London at the moment so I may respond late.
I am happy to have podcasts, but I haven’t had any yet, I don’t know what I’d discuss with someone else as my streams I just provide data and news, if it wasn’t Bitcoin and Web3 based I would stream on my other channel JBINZALA Philosophy as that’s more off topic and life related