I’ve always liked Imam Shafi’e’s way of describing his positions, acknowledging what scientists would call the “error bars” around his conclusion. Today my day job follows on from my academic tendencies. Even so, there were still things that I was more sure of than I should be, and things I did not know if I could do. My area of dogma was not about a particular science or religion, it was about knowing myself – and God has shown me that I in fact did not know myself as well as He, and that I could grow in character where I thought I could change no more.

Indeed, knowledge is quite fractal. the more you learn, the more you become aware of yet more you would need to learn. Only the ignorant are sure about everything. People are uncomfortable with uncertainty, despite it being the very fabric of everything’s existence. Having to constantly review a whole lot of contextual “grey” and then distil it to a few black/white rules and process for people to follow that would serve them well without them having to have an expert’s grasp of the underlying “grey” – this is what made me appreciate and understand why God had to reveal our religion in the way He has. There are some absolutes that exist, to be sure, but far fewer than we think there are.

The message of the afterlife is akin to the message of global warming in the reason why people find it difficult to accept. The main difference is that the former definitely will happen, and the latter only very probable with possibility of being averted. In both cases they involve a future danger that nobody can prove will happen until it actually does, but can only present evidence that it will. Yet the severity of the consequences if the message is true warrants action from today, warrants changing behaviour and lifestyles. Waiting for proof (i.e. it has happened) is all and good, but it will be too late. Taking action from now will be wise, but what if the message is untrue and you changed your life “for nothing”?

This is the psychology of humans, and the decision every human must make when confronted with revelation. It will always require faith, because everyone is different and we can’t personally see the future. There is no one exactly identical to you that you can say, ‘have my exact clone accept Islam first and see what happens, and if it changes his life and saves him I will do so back in the past’. Similarly you can never tell with 100% certainty this person or that person is wrong, you can only act on what you think is probably the case. Simple honesty should prevent you from representing this probable decision as an absolute truth.

Wa3likum assalam
Much appreciated,Yoosef!

i do agree – if u do not know.. someone has to get knowledge from people who do know. It does not restrict someone what channel is used to gain knowledge. If someone uses facebook or youtube to gain knowledge then it is nothing wrong if he knows about the quality of the one who is talking about islamic issues. In many cases people do not know a lot and could get wrong informations. Then it is recommended to find other means of communication – face to face in a mosque with someone who talks your language. whatever language you do understand 😉

wa salaam

AAWW,
I believe it is a Hadith.

After doing a search on Google with the word “hadith” followed by “I make sure I never sleep with any rancor in my heart towards another”, I found the following pdf document among thousands of sites:
http://mylifeisislam.com/iconimages/Purification%20of%20the%20Heart.pdf
It is called: Purification of the Heart.
May Allah swt make it useful to you and me. Ameen.

Salam, I think it means an urge almost like an itch to go and tell the whole world about what happened or what you have done etc.
W.salam