Salaam everyone
I disagree Brother Naseer. The thing is if something criminal has taken place in the Name of Allah or Islam, we as Muslims should condemn it and not overlook it. Our mission in this world is to worship Allah, and we shouldn’t think for one second that this is just for the Arabs, the Indians, the Africans etc etc but for everyone! How do we do that? By spreading the Message of Islam. If there are people who think the only way we can spread this Message or show dominance of Islam through violence…well it hasn’t exactly achieved anything but more hatred, and if people hate to accept Islam because certain terrorists have made them lose confidence in it, who is to blame? We are! In fact we will also be punished for allowing such a person to enter the Fire because we made them hate Islam.
Now we can’t satisfy everyone that is true – some have made it their mission to damage the reputation of Islam, and terrorists do nothing but give these Islamophobes the ammo to attack Islam. These Islamophobes insult Islam and the Far-right Extreme Muslims go nuts about it, and do further bombings – it just becomes a cat-n-mouse game! Also I do feel what happened was wrong – if they did kill those innocent people then they will be held accountable for their deaths on the Day of Reckoning – even if they were muslim or not. One should realise that being a muslim isn’t something small – its a big thing! Its a ticket to Allah’s Mercy i.e. Eden! So we need to set by example! We are the chosen ones of Allah!
Some will say “oh those people dead were non-muslism therefore they deserved it” – well what about those brothers and sisters who have died by suicide bombs, car bombs, etc etc in public places in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria…need I go on?! I want to know has terror reached to such an extent that we are killing our own people to justify the means to an end – which is what? Allah’s wrath or Allah’s mercy?
Now Sister Sunna you have said the mind of a terrorist is irrational – they have no logic to them. But could it be that some become terrorists because they are brainwashed? I mean it is easy to make a non-practising muslim an extremist. If they have been leading a purely westernised lifestyle, but want to be “reborn muslims” they will do anything to negate their previous lifestyle by going to the other extreme and do things which they feel, in a perverted distorted way, duties for the Ummah like kill as many non-muslims as possible. Also because they have felt they led a life of sin, they feel that martyrdom will be the only way to negate that. But then you want to know are they (who are wanting to do these missions in public places) doing it out of sheer selfishness? I mean their goal is to be martyred..no one will stand in their way – be it some young girl, or an elderly lady, a muslim etc etc. As martyrdom carries huge benefits in the Hereafter, and it is a pillar that stands alone in Islam, have we become blinded by the notion of martyrdom that we will do ANYTHING to get it – we will start fights and hope that we get martyred in the process, and if an innocent is dead – “no biggie as long as I am a martyr”. Regarding those brothers and sisters who blow themselves up as a means of desperation… one can kind of sympathise with their reasons (although I will still not agree with them) -they have lost everything, be it family members, their livelihood, wealth etc. Their voices are no longer heard -Their government have failed them – justice has failed them. They have become the very thing they didn’t believe in – after all it’s the only way to make the government notice them.

Read Hamza Yusuf’s blog article of Deferred Dreams, Self-destruction and Suicide Bombings:
https://www.sandala.org/blog/-919

In certain cases certain people become terrorists because they are promised that their families will be looked after especially if they are poor. For instance, one of the terrorists, involved in the Mumbai Attacks in India, said he did it as long as his family were given money from which they could look after themselves. Then there are some terrorists who want to do it simply for the fame and power, like Breivik in Norway. But are all terrorists associated with religion? What about those terrorists who go into schools killing innocent children? Why aren’t those murderers considered terrorists by the mass media and by the people???

Forgive me because I have not read the whole article but sometimes you find other Muslims on the web who what I term as ‘Apologetic Muslims’ who want to let others non-Muslims Know how sorry they are about everything and end up putting Islam in the dock like it’s some kind of a criminal, rather than pointing out their problems and showing how their actions lead to others reacting in this way but that it is there actions that are responsible for the chaos and violence all over the world.

Khadija L.

And where’s the part where a kind Christian woman had to arrange the funeral for Tsarnev because muslims refused to do so?

Thank you all for reading, and for your feedback and kind words!

W salaam, Darya, thanks for bringing this up! I think it’s important to keep in mind that Christianity was once God’s perfect religion, too, and as such, there are many similarities between our beliefs – that is, the fact that Christians believe something doesn’t mean that we don’t. Christianity is an important part of Islam’s history, which is why, for example, although we don’t celebrate Christmas, we still respect the Bible.

I was surprised when I learned this, but idea of man being created in God’s image is actually believed in Islam – far more metaphorically than you’re thinking. Christians add a literal spin to the idea of man being created “in God’s Image,” i.e. that Jesus is God’s human form who lived out the human experience and then gave himself up for mankind. We obviously don’t believe that, but there are Hadith and passages in the Quran that reference our attributes as being derived from those of God.

There is a Hadith narrated in both Muslim and Bukhari that states “Allah created Adam in His own image” that can be interpreted in a variety of ways, which you can see here: http://seekersguidance.org/ans-blog/2009/08/16/what-does-the-narration-allah-created-adam-in-hishis-image-mean/.

The Quran also states in Surah As-Sajda, “Such is He, the Knower of all things, hidden and open, the Exalted (in power), the Merciful – He Who has made everything which He has created most good: He began the creation of man with (nothing more than) clay, and made his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised: but He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His spirit. And He gave you (the faculties of) hearing and sight and feeling (and understanding): little thanks do ye give!” (6-9).

Our intelligence and our ability to love extend far beyond the biological instincts that animals possess. We have the capacity to learn, to create, to care, to forgive – those qualities have to come from somewhere, and they are all limited portions of God’s unlimited capacities. We derive from Him – NOT vice versa. God gave us knowledge – a very limited portion of His knowledge – that He did not give the angels. He gave us free will to live our lives as we choose on Earth, under His limited parameters. It is said that a mother’s love for her child is nothing compared to the love He has for His creation – another indication that what we are capable of is just a fraction of His capability.

None of this means that we are in any way divine, or that He is in any way human – quite the contrary. We can’t do anything without His will, and the idea that we were made in His image simply means that any good we have in us is a gift from Him, a mere glimmer of His own qualities. We were given certain privileges because He knew what the angels did not. And then, of course, we have qualities in us that are uniquely human and we do not attribute to God, like eating, sleeping, sinning, etc.

I hope that clarifies what I meant :).

-Sunna

The God of Abraham the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth………. Who created us with love in His image ……. – I thought it is a Christian Concept that humans are created in God’s image. Don’t we Muslims believe God is Unique and NOT like his creations?

Perhaps, I misunderstood your sentence. If so, I apologies.