Death is coming

The closer death creeps up upon me the less I am able to understand the reasons for life or living.

Yes I have experienced a close family member dying and unlike television it takes decades to handle such a thing. To think I am going to put my family through such a thing when I finally leave is more horrific to me than the thought of death itself.

My life was and is still a learning experience but when all said and done what am I to do with all this accumulated learning over my lifetime if I just die. There is no logic or reason to this.

Long ago I became aware that the God story that is sold to the majority is just a nice story to give mankind with a message of a basic layout of how nice life could be if everyone followed these ideas. Not many in life do and if one thinks about it the good and evil structures actually depend on each other. The good that can be experienced in life is only understood as good when there is it's opposite to compare it to. This is not rocket science only common sense in reality. I am not saying we need to experience bad but understanding in it is needed to appreciate the great things many of us can have in our lives. From birth to death there are many ways mankind helps his fellow man. How many ways can you help?


Friday, April 29, 2011

A Short History Of Islam

By Owen Jones


The teachings of Islam were handed down to humanity through Mohammed who is widely thought of as the last, so far, in the line of Middle Eastern prophets. The first was Abraham of Judaism fame, then there was Jesus for Christianity and then came Mohammed. Mohammed was born in about 570 AD in Mecca, western Saudi Arabia and died 62 years later in 632 in Medina.

The Koran, or the 'Recitation' in English, consists of 144 chapters and was related to Mohammed by God. These teachings were written down by his scribes during the course of 23 years.

Like its antecedent religions, Islam is a monotheistic religion and its narrative includes stories or references to Abraham, Moses (and the Ten Commandments) and Jesus, but does not accept Christianity's claim to his divinity.

Another major variance from the Middle Eastern religions before it, is that Jews trace their ancestry through Abraham's son Isaac, whereas Muslims trace their history through Abraham's son Ishmael by another wife.

The root of the word Islam - 's-l-m' - means 'peace' and 'submission' (to God). A Muslim's association with God is determined by the 'Five Pillars of Islam'. These five pillars are: Shahadah (profession of faith); public and collective prayer five times every day; charity to the poor; fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest of places to Muslims, at least once in their lifetime.

Islam has stringent dietary laws, notably about eating pork, and prohibitions against promiscuity, stealing, gambling and deceit. Muslims worship in Mosques and the services are led by Imams. The most critical time to pray is at midday on a Friday, which is the Muslim Sabbath.

The vast majority of Muslims are Sunnites, who are the traditionalists, and the remainder are Shi'ites or 'partisans'. This could roughly be compared with the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. The variances between the two sects in the both religions have caused untold misery for centuries and there is no sign of it ceasing any time soon.

There is significantly more known of Mohammed than of Jesus. Mohammed was raised by his uncle and at the age of 25 he became a trader. At the age of 40, in 610, an angel instructed him to proclaim the word of God. He was not welcomed in Mecca but the authorities invited him to quell the city of Medina in 622, which he did.

His condition for accepting this quest was that the people accept the word of God. This they did - this move is known as the Hegim and it is the date from which Muslims record modern history - like the Western world uses the birth of Jesus.

By 632 Mohammed was dead, but by then the vast majority of Arabs were Muslims. For one reason or another, Islam spread east and west from Saudi Arabia taken usually by Arab traders probably. Islam never actually got a foothold in Europe (except Spain) but it did move East quite extensively.




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