#qur'an says

[snowfelledayah]

Testimony of Faith

The very first pillar of Islam, outlined in the Qur'an (3:18), is Shahada or Testimony of Faith.

What people may not know: The Shahada should never contain the name of the Prophet(AS) -- doing so would violate Qur'anic instruction which in and of itself would make Shahada invalid. This is a problem considering the majority of Muslims include the Prophet in their Shahada both at the time of conversion, and every single day in prayer.

Shahada is an act of worship, and worship belongs solely to God, not man. Adding the Prophet's name to the Shahada is a true bid'a ('heretical innovation') -- either you believe the Qur'an when it states it is complete, fully detailed, and sufficient, or you add things to it and therefor you reject the Qur'an's message.

While there is a clear requirement to believe in the messengers (plural) as part of Islam, there is zero instruction to worship them or create testimony-of-faith including them. We are also very clearly instructed by God to make no distinction between the messengers of God (2:285, 46:9).

The only part of the Qur'an mentioning the second part of the Shahada with the name of the Prophet is (63:1) in which it states this is what the hypocrites come to say to you. It appears nowhere else in the Qur'an (sufficiently detailed, complete).

Islam is the act of submission to God and God alone. Even Jesus(AS) said "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29).

Islam is the act of submission to God and God alone. Even Jesus(AS) said "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29).

So what is the correct Shahada?

Phrased for recitation:

Ashhadu Alla Elaha Ell-Allah ("I bear witness that there is no god but GOD").

Technically speaking the second item "alla" is actually "anna la" but it combines to create idgham -- smooth recitation), or even shorter, "Laa Elaaha EllAllah" (There Is No god But God). I use the "E" here instead of a capital i simply because it is easier to tell where the short i sound ends and the "L" sound begins, otherwise it looks like this: Ill)

References:

(2:285) The messenger acknowledges in what was sent down to him from his Lord and those who have acknowledged. All acknowledged God, His angels, His books, and His messengers, "We do not discriminate between any of His messengers;" and they said, "We hear and obey, forgive us O Lord, and to you is our destiny."

(3:18) God bears witness that there is no god but He; as do the angels, and those with knowledge; He is standing with justice. There is no god but Him, the Noble, the Wise.

(6:162) Say, "My contact prayer, my devotion and offerings, my life, and my death, are all to God the Lord of the worlds." (6:163) "He has no partner, and this is what I was commanded; I am the first of those who have peacefully surrendered."

(21:25) We did not send any messenger before you except that We inspired him that: "There is no god but Me, so serve Me."

(39:45) When God Alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not acknowledge the Hereafter are filled with aversion; and when others are mentioned beside Him, they rejoice!

(46:9) Say, "I am no different from the other messengers, nor do I know what will happen to me or to you. I only follow what is inspired to me. I am no more than a clear warner"

(63:1) When the hypocrites come to you they say, "We bear witness that you are the messenger of God." God knows that you are His messenger, and God bears witness that the hypocrites are liars. (63:2) They have chosen their oath as a deceit, thus they repel from the path of God. Miserable indeed is what they do.

[apollos-olives]

COULD YOU ELABORATE ON THE BLACK MAGIC IN THE QURAN RECITATIONS :( THATS SO AWFUL AND ITS RAMADHAN TOO

apparently some people make youtube accounts to post "quran recitation videos" for muslims to listen to, but in the background there are whispers of black magic :( islamophobes are making quran videos with black magic and muslims are accidentally falling for it. the lengths people go to hate on islam and harm muslims is disgusting

[soul-of-sereniity]

Oh Allah, bless this kind of love 🪽

“And from him, He created his wife”

Hawwa (eve), who was created for Adam's left rib, from his back while he was sleeping. When Adam woke up and saw Hawwa, he liked her and had affection for her and shee felt the same towards him and Allah swt bind them in the beautiful relation Husband -Wife. An authentic Hadith states.

[itistimetodisappear]

Uh oh workmate is racist

[readerswholearn]

Aqeedah series XXVI

[diablerieholic]

The fact that on game nights I'm still milking the pope saying frociaggine for all it's worth

[goodplace-janet]

I tried to tell my arabic tutor that i memorized four verses (of a poem) but instead i said i protected four houses, how is y'all's friday going

[songofwizardry]

i stumbled across a Rumi quatrain on tumblr today and it reminded me to go looking for my favourites, so here's a few, all taken from Kulliyat-e Shams-e Tabrizi, with the caveat that i do not speak Farsi and I have read them all as translations only. more notes on translation at the end, but all of these are translated by Zara Houshmand, and taken from the archives of The Iranian.

#1771

#57

#1584

#1316

and the note on translation: these are of course not the Coleman Barks translations, the most popular English translations. i think the orientalism and... de-Sufi-fying and de-Muslim-ifying of the Barks translations and a lot of English-language and Western perception of Rumi is much more discussed now (Jawid Mojaddedi, who is writing a translation of Rumi's multi-volume Masnavi, says, "The Rumi that people love is very beautiful in English, and the price you pay is to cut the culture and religion.") if you're interested, Persian Poetics has a great twitter thread about it and their website has text, audio, and video resources where they've talked about it. and this article from Ajam Media is a short read and an interesting comparison of a few different translations.

if you enjoy Zara Houshmand's translations, she has a book of translations of Rumi's quatrains, Moon and Sun. there's many translations of Rumi's works not by Barks, that prioritise different things: you can 100% find a translation that isn't Barks, and Rumi's work is. so beautiful and so much better when you are not reading whatever uhhh... interpretation Barks came up with.

[the-quran-the-heart-and-coffee]

In the name of Allah

the most Gracious...

the most Merciful...

Bismillah is the grace of Allah... Saying His name to begin an action shows just how much we trust Him to look over our lives... that no matter what... Allah is ever Present... and He is the most Gracious... most Merciful Lord...

What do you say Bismillah to, that - according to you - is most exclusively beautiful?

(Mine is that we wake up and go to sleep, with Allah's name as our protection ❤️... Think of it... isnt there always that one person we think of as soon as we wake up... and theyre the last person we remember before we sleep... How beautiful is that, our Rasool ﷺ taught us to remember Allah like that in absolute gratitude...)

[crescentmp3]

hiii! 'tis me.

[lightup0nlight]

🌟 ❛And whosoever have taqwa of Allah, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).❜ [QS 65:2]

🌟 ❛And He will provide him (the person of taqwa) from (sources) he never could imagine…❜ [QS 65:3]

🌟 ❛...and whosoever has taqwa of Allah, He will make his matter easy for him.❜ [QS 65:4]

[snowfelledayah]

Fisher of Reels

Over the last few months there have been several reels popping up on my feed from Orthodox Jewish women talking about "what my life is like" -- and I love it! I love learning about other religions and other cultures, it's really cool. I really love, respect, and admire the beauty, devotion, and culture of Orthodox Judaism.

Then one day, I was surprised to find one from a Muslim woman basically doing something similar, and I thought "this is awesome!"...

... until I saw the content.

One of these things is not like the other

The thing about watching videos about Orthodox Judaism is that the content creators clearly state I am an Orthodox Jew. But when someone states This is my life and I'm a Muslim, you could be getting anything under the sun. This can lead to a lot of frustration and also general confusion, particularly for non-Muslims who being told "This is what Islam is".

So in the case of this video, we see a Muslim woman wearing a Niqab in every video (which is fine, but not representative of every Muslim), often with her husband, explaining what her life "as a Muslim" is like, which has the possibility to teach people the only thing they can expect from "Islam" is "this one thing in particular", and that is really far from the truth. I do wish we had better terminology to separate various types of practice in Islam, but there aren't any really good ways to distinguish, and here we are.

One of the videos that really grinds my gears is the one where they talk about what kinds of food we can or cannot eat. The video portrays the Muslim woman flitting around various situations where she explains Halal and its relationship with Kosher, and how Kosher food is normally Halal "except for this product right here, it says Kosher but I have to do an extra check for Vanilla Extract because that wouldn't be Halal (permissible)" -- quote is not verbatim, but to the spirit of what was portrayed.

So let's talk about that. Let's talk about the evils of Vanilla extract.

A shocking revelation

This may come as a shock (especially to mainstream Muslims who often focus more on hadith and sunnah than anything else) but the Qur'an does not tell us to avoid alcohol -- especially including its presence in small quantities in things like vanilla extract. The Qur'an does outline issues surrounding intoxicants / alcohol, and it advises us caution, but it's not entirely what you might think -- or what you may have been told.

A wretched hive of scum and villainy... we must be cautious

First, the Qur'an tells us (2:219) that alcohol (intoxicants to be clear, so remember, that's not just alcohol which some seem to conveniently forget) has the potential for great harm, but also great benefit, though the harm does tend to outweigh the benefit, which is fair. Drug and alcohol use tends largely not to be a constructive practice, and while some people might claim to 'just like the taste', there are a thousand drinks that taste better, so the bottom line is this: the main reason we drink is that we like the effects, be that mental, emotional, social, physical, and so on.

We drink because it alters our state of mind and body in a way that can be pleasant, and in moderation, there may be nothing wrong with that (the Qur'an does not say this, but it is a statement reasonable to make by using logic and reason, something the Qur'an does instruct us to do). The Qur'an outlines the dangers by which we should be cautious, but mentions there are benefits to the same product and stops short of making any kind of 'command' or 'legal injunction' to completely avoid it. This makes sense as we remember anything can become an addiction, anything can become a problem, if we allow it.

Instead, the Qur'an leaves us to our own social and/or moral devices to make this choice for ourselves, but with caution (see below).

Interfering with the wifi

Next, we are told not to be intoxicated when we pray (4:43) which again seems entirely fair. Intoxication affects our mental, emotional, and physical state, and therefor would heavily distract our focus from God.

This is not a big or unusual ask, and it is a fairly common thing in a wide variety of religions. Even in various forms of Paganism and/or Polytheism, it was ill-advised to go before the Gods while your mind is altered. We've known in terms of Divinity that this can be a Bad Idea(tm) for thousands of years.

The devil, you say!

Finally, the Qur'an goes on to mention (5:90-91) intoxicants are a tool of "the devil" and bears an evil that spreads dissonance between humans and distract us from God's path, which continues to make sense: if you've allowed alcohol or drugs to become a problem for your life, there are ways out which can and should be followed; but 5:90 in particular is interesting in its perpetual mis-translation among both English and Arabic speakers. The last sentence is frequently stated to be "and you should avoid them" (intoxicants, gambling, altars, and arrows of chance), but it actually says to avoid him (aka "the devil"): You shall avoid him so that you may be successful.

This outlines what we're meant to avoid isn't exactly intoxicants so much as the idea of harm, and again, anything in our lives has the potential to become harmful. We cannot so narrowly define the idea of 'harm' to that of alcohol or gambling or any other single perceived negativity without remembering all the things in our lives that are colloquially considered 'permissible' that could also become harmful should we misuse or abuse them.

It just so happens that things like alcohol start out a bit on the dicey side to begin with and can lead more quickly down a path of hurt.

What about Hadith? (Insert scholar here)? (Insert fatwa here)?

... sure, what about it?

Hadith are primarily hearsay, the words of man written down after the word of God. While some hadith have value in assisting us in the understanding of religious and cultural practice, they are not the word of God and never have been. As for scholars and fatwas, the compaction of the words of man on top of the words of man over and over again throughout the centuries has led to a degradation of the Divine that must be stopped at all costs.

Never forget, the Qur'an specifically encourages us told not to follow tradition blindly and to think for ourselves, and warns us that those who do not think will lead us astray:

6:115-116: The word of your Lord has been completed with truth and justice; there is no changing His words. He is the Hearer, the Knower. If you obey the majority of those on earth they will lead you away from God's path; that is because they follow conjecture, and that is because they only guess.

Ideas of man in any age are finite.

So what about Vanilla Extract?

Using alcohol in a way that is not proverbial 'sin' is, in fact, not prohibited by the Qur'an, plain and simple. In fact it's not even discussed beyond the point where it is mentioned it has both harm and benefits (the benefits are not really extrapolated).

At no point does the Qur'an tell someone to avoid vanilla extract -- or anything else really -- because it has a drop of alcohol in it.

In no way does the Qur'an instruct us to eschew establishments or people where alcohol is present, though logic dictates if alcohol is a trigger for your addiction or habit, avoiding it makes logical sense in that capacity.

The Qur'an demands we think critically and evaluate life with reason, logic, and all of our senses, and not to blindly follow any tradition or status-quo. It encourages us to be open-minded and listen to all views on various topics and follow what is best, even if it is new or different. The references for these are all over the Qur'an but you can start with 3:137, 6:115-116, 7:179, 8:22, 10:100, 12:111, 17:36, 26:5 and 38:7 (definitely not limited to these points though).

So unless vanilla extract is driving you to hate your neighbor -- in which case you may want to not only stop eating vanilla extract but also contact a consultation with a medical professional, because that is wild my friend -- you are fine, and we really need to stop flying in the face of logic and reason suggesting otherwise.

TL;DR this for us: what does the Qur'an tell us?

The Qur'an tells us that intoxicants have both harm and benefits, though the harm tends to outweigh benefits. We are told intoxication can bring dissonance between human beings and distracts us from God. We are told not to be intoxicated when we pray. Finally, we are told to avoid harm in order to succeed in life.

The Qur'an says nothing about a drop of alcohol in food, the use of alcohol in medical practice, friends or establishments where alcohol is present, or even using alcohol in quantities that are not causing harm in your life. Instead, the Qur'an warns us that drinking has the possibility of leading to Bad Things(tm), and if we end up in the 'bad things' territory, we should stop what we're doing and turn to God instead.

[pencopanko]

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are very similar (if not the same), actually

So I was scrolling down the #palestine tag for any updates and important information, and I came across this:

And I think we need to sit down and talk about this.

I am a Muslim. I live in Indonesia, a country that is predominantly Muslim and a lot of Muslims here also support the Palestinian cause. Hell, even our government supports it by not only allowing Palestinian goods enter the country without fee, but also by taking in Palestinian refugees and even acknowledging the status of Palestine as a state while not having any political ties with Israel. The topic of the Palestinian tragedy has been spoon-fed to us at schools, sermons, media, etc., so your average Indonesian Muslim would at the very least be aware of the conflict while non-Muslims would hear about it from their Muslim friends or through media.

However, there is a glaring problem. One that I keep seeing way too often for my liking.

A lot of them are antisemitic as hell. The sermons I would hear sometimes demonize Jewish people. Antisemitic statements are openly said out loud on social media. Some are even Nazi supporters who would literally go to anime cons and COSPLAY as members of the Nazi party. This is not just an Indonesian Muslim problem, no, but this is a glaring issue within the global Islamic community as a whole. Today, this sense of antisemitism is usually rooted in general hatred towards the Israeli government and its actions against the people of Palestine, but antisemitism amongst Muslims are also rooted in certain interpretations of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith mentioning Jewish people and Judaism (particularly the Bani Israil), but in a way that is more ridiculing instead of life-threatening when compared to how antisemitism looks like in the Western world.

As someone who prefers to become a "bridge" between two sides in most cases, I find this situation to be concerning, to say the least. While, yes, it is important for us Muslims to support Palestine and fight against injustice, we must not forget that not every Jewish people support the Israeli government. A lot of them are even anti-Zionists who actively condemn Israel and even disagree with the existence of Israel as a state as it goes against their teachings. A lot of them are also Holocaust survivors or their descendants, so it is harmful to think for one second that Hitler's actions and policies were justified. It's just like saying that Netanyahu is right for his decision to destroy Palestine and commit war crime after war crime towards the Palestinians.

As Muslims, we also need to remember that Jewish people (the Yahudi) are considered ahli kitab, i.e. People Of The Book along with Christians (the Nasrani). The Islam I have come to know and love has no mentions of Allah allowing us to persecute them or anyone collectively for the actions of a few. While, yes, there are disagreements with our respective teachings I do not see that as an excuse to even use antisemitic slurs against Jewish people during a pro-Palestine rally, let alone support a man who was known for his acts of cruelty toward the Jewish community in WW2. They are still our siblings/cousins in faith, after all. Unless they have done active harm like stealing homes from civilians or celebrating the destruction of Palestine or supporting the Israeli government and the IOF or are members of the IOF, no Jewish people (and Christians, for that matter) must be harmed in our fight against Zionism.

Contemporary antisemitism is similar to (if not straight up being the exact same thing as) contemporary Islamophobia, if you think about it; due to the actions of a select few that has caused severe harm towards innocent people, an entire community has been a target of hate. Even when you have tried to call out the ones supporting such cruelties, you are still getting bombarded by hate speech. It's doubly worse if you're also simultaneously part of a marginalized group like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. as you also get attacked on multiple sides. This is where we all need to self-reflect, practice empathy, and unlearn all of the antisemitism and unjustified hatred that we were exposed to.

So, do call out Zionism and Nazism when you see it. Call out the US government for funding this atrocity and others before it that had ALSO triggered the rise of Islamophobia. Call your reps. Go to the streets. Punch a fascist if you feel so inclined. Support your local businesses instead of pro-Israel companies.

But not at the cost of our Jewish siblings. Not at the cost of innocent Jewish people who may also be your allies. If you do that, you are no different from a MAGA cap-wearing, gun-tooting, slur-yelling Islamophobe.

That is all for now, may your watermelons taste fresh and sweet.

🍉

Salam Semangka, Penco

[tamamita]

I’ve heard some people lately say Islam is a disgusting religion mostly because of aisha’s age. My gut instinct is that calling Islam “disgusting” is itself nasty and islamophobic, but this bit does bother me. How do you and other Muslims reconcile this part of the quran

Easy, it doesn't appear in the Qur'an, nor is this narration ever mentioned in Shi'i literature

[readerswholearn]

[writingwithcolor]

Depicting Real World Religions Alongside Constructed Religions

Maya asked:

Hi WWC! Thank you so much for this blog, it's an infinitely wonderful resource! Do you have any suggestions for how I can balance representation of real religions with fantasy religions, or should I avoid including these together? Does the fact that certain things bleed over from our world into the fantasy world help legitimize the appearance of real world religions? I feel like I can come up with respectful ways to integrate representation in ways that make sense for the worldbuilding. For instance, no Muslim characters would practice magic, and both Jewish and Muslim characters would conceive of magic in ways that fit their religion (rather than trying to adapt real religions to fit my worldbuilding). I also have some ideas for how these religions came about that fit between handwave and analogous history (though I realize the Qur'an is unchangeable, so I'm guessing Islam would have come about in the same way as IRL). BTW—I'm referring to humans, not other species coded as Muslim or Jewish. I may explore the concept of jinns more (particularly as how Muslims perceive fantastical beings), but I definitely need to do a lot more research before I go down that road! Finally, I saw a post somewhere (*but* it might have been someone else's commentary) suggesting to integrate certain aspects of Judaism (e.g., skullcaps in sacred places/while praying, counting days from sundown instead of sunset) into fantasy religions (monotheistic ones, of course) to normalize these customs, but as a non-Jewish person I feel this could easily  veer into appropriation-territory.  *One of the posts that I'm referring to in case you need a better reference of *my* reference: defining coding and islam-coded-fantasy

[This long ask was redacted to pull out the core questions asked]

"Both Jewish and Muslim characters would conceive of magic in ways that fit their religion (rather than trying to adapt real religions to fit my worldbuilding)."

Just a note that while having religion be part of magic is a legitimate way to write fantasy, I want to remind people that religious characters can also perform secular magic. Sometimes I feel like people forget about that particular worldbuilding option. (I feel this one personally because in my own books I chose to make magic secular so that my nonmagical heroine wouldn’t seem less close to God somehow than her wizard adoptive dad, who is an objectively shadier person.) I’m not saying either way is more or less correct or appropriate, just that they’re both options and I think sometimes people forget about the one I chose. But anyway moving on—

Your decision to make the water spirits not actual deities is a respectful decision given the various IRL monotheistic religions in your story, so, thank you for that choice. I can see why it gets messy though, since some people in-universe treat those powers as divine. I guess as long as your fantasy Jews aren’t being depicted as backwards and wrong and ignoring in-universe reality in favor of in-universe incorrect beliefs, then you’re fine…

"I saw a post somewhere (but it might have been someone else's commentary) suggesting to integrate certain aspects of Judaism (e.g., skullcaps in sacred places/while praying, counting days from sundown instead of sunset) into fantasy religions (monotheistic ones, of course) to normalize these customs, but as a non-Jewish person I feel this could easily veer into appropriation-territory."

That was probably us, as Meir and I both feel that way. What would make it appropriative is if these very Jewish IRL markers were used to represent something other than Judaism. It's not appropriative to show Jewish or Jewish-coded characters wearing yarmulkes or marking one day a week for a special evening with two candles or anything else we do if it's connected to Jewishness! To disconnect the markers of us from us is where appropriation starts to seep in.

–Shira

To bounce off what Shira said above, the source of the magic can be religious or secular--or put another way, it can be explicitly granted be a deity or through engagement with a specific religious practice, or it can be something that can be accessed with or without engaging with a certain set of beliefs or practices. It sounds like you’re proposing the second one: the magic is there for anyone to use, but the people in this specific religion engage with it through a framework of specific ideas and practices.

If you can transform into a “spirit” by engaging with this religion, and I can transform into a “spirit” through an analogous practice through the framework of Kabbalah, for example, and an atheist can transform through a course of secular technical study, then what makes yours a religion is the belief on your part that engaging in the process in your specific way, or choosing to engage in that process over other lifestyle choices, is in some way a spiritual good, not the mechanics of the transformation. If, on the other hand, humans can only access this transformative magic through the grace of the deities that religion worships, while practitioners of other religions lack the relationship with the only gods empowered to make that magic, that’s when I’d say you had crossed into doing more harm than good by seeking to include real-world religions.

Including a link below to a post you might have already seen that included the “religion in fantasy worldbuilding alignment chart.” It sounds like you’re in the center square, which is a fine place to be. The center top and bottom squares are where I typically have warned to leave real-world religions out of it.

More reading:

Jewish characters in a universe with author-created fictional pantheons

–Meir