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I suppose it would look ritualistic and repetitious to a Non-Muslim. Having begun life as a Catholic and the routine of daily mass, it seems quite free of routine for me.
Well I hope you like the website, I worked hard setting it up. I still have not finished it. I began it as an online Mosque for North Dakota Muslims who have difficulty getting to a Mosque. I set the website to teach the basics of Islam to both new reverts and life long Muslims who have no contact with an Islamic community. We are quite scattered up here and seldom see each other.
Woodrow it is ritualistic and repetitive. I am speaking from first hand knowledge of having taken part in Muslim prayer for the 2 years I was active in a local mosque.
In the prayers muslims line up and the prayers are led by the Imam and the form is absolutely very ritualistic.
My parents used to be Catholic and there is nothing in Catholicism that is even remotely like Muslim prayer.
Woodrow it is ritualistic and repetitive. I am speaking from first hand knowledge of having taken part in Muslim prayer for the 2 years I was active in a local mosque.
In the prayers muslims line up and the prayers are led by the Imam and the form is absolutely very ritualistic.
My parents used to be Catholic and there is nothing in Catholicism that is even remotely like Muslim prayer.
Blessing ones self with holy water upon entering the church. Genuflecting before entering and leaving a pew. The constant Kneeling, genuflecting, standing and sitting at specific points in the mass etc. Just for starters.
I believe you will find the Islamic form of prayer to be somewhat similar to the Jewish form. The obligatory 3 daily Jewish prayers and our 5 have much in common. Perhaps to some they are ritualistic, but to an adherent Jew or Muslim we see them as expressions of love.
The obligatory 3 daily Jewish prayers and our 5 have much in common.
Jews, too, at one time, had 5 daily prayers that were combined into 3 daily prayer services: evening, morning and afternoon on weekdays; 4 prayer services on Shabbat and Yom Tovs; and, 5 prayer services on Yom Kippur.
Jews, too, at one time, had 5 daily prayers that were combined into 3 daily prayer services: evening, morning and afternoon on weekdays; 4 prayer services on Shabbat and Yom Tovs; and, 5 prayer services on Yom Kippur.
Some Muslims combine the prayers also and reduce them to three during the work or school days.
I'm a bit of a stickler for following the traditional Sunnah, not quite to the degree of the Salafi, but a bit more orthodox than most Hanafi which is the Madhab I adnere to.
I wonder if polytheism helps people feel closer to their god.
Christianity and the Hindu religion both seem polytheistic to me, and their members seem to be very close to their gods. Christians feel they have Jesus constantly walking beside them and guiding them. All I know about the Hindus is that Ghandi prayed to his favorite god Rama as he was dying, so Gandhi must have felt very close to him.
Maybe the polytheistic religions let people have an all-powerful god at a distance, but also keep a personal god close to them at all times.
Islam and Judaism appear monotheistic, but they also seem like social clubs where the adherents just have to follow a bunch of rules. I wonder if their members think their god is as close and personal to them as Jesus is to the Christians.
Since I am an Atheist, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I really am curious what you all think.
Bumping up this interesting thread.
Hinduism believes in one force, eternal and transcendent, that manifests as the world of names and forms. What this also means that this spiritual force also present in every aspect of this world. So yes, Hindus do feel “closeness” with god because he is within us. We are never seperate.
Bumping up this interesting thread.
Hinduism believes in one force, eternal and transcendent, that manifests as the world of names and forms. What this also means that this spiritual force also present in every aspect of this world. So yes, Hindus do feel “closeness” with god because he is within us. We are never seperate.
Bumping up this interesting thread.
Hinduism believes in one force, eternal and transcendent, that manifests as the world of names and forms. What this also means that this spiritual force also present in every aspect of this world. So yes, Hindus do feel “closeness” with god because he is within us. We are never seperate.
"one force"? Potential differences causing a sea of information exchange. .
There are two main branches of thought about the relationship between the Jiva, life, and Brhman, which is the Existence, and which is causeless, eternal, transcends time and space, is everywhere, and there is nowhere that it is not present.
The world, and all life forms are also made of the the same Brhman which exists within since there is no place that it is not present. Life forms are made of material body and mind, intellect, consciousness, and Atma, the soul or spirit that is the awareness that we exist.
The world that we see as separate from us is due to Ignorance which is also causeless. The purpose life is to destroy that ignorance by knowledge of true self. Our true self is not the body and mind which are subject to decay and death, but the eternal Brhman which resides in us as Atma.
We realize this knowledge through conscious understanding, right attitude, right action, and meditation.
This is non-dualism, there is not two, but only one single existence. In Sanskrit it translates to Advaita, not-two.
The other branch is Dvaita, Twoness, which believes in a creator god: we are in essence the same Brhman, but Atma and Brhman will always be separate as two, Jiva and Deva. The purpose of life is to reach Heaven where we live a life in service to God. We reach it through right living, doing all the prescribed religious rites, devotion and prayer, purity and charity, pilgrimage etc.
Psalms 82:1
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
Psalms 82:6
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Zechariah 12
In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
John 10
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Come Judgment day the evidence of Jesus Lordship in my life will be the chiefest of examination.
I trust in the Lord with all my heart and do not depend on my own understanding and in every thing I do I seek His influence and intervention and He prepares/d me and my path for His agendas.
There is no source on earth better than the Holy Spirit Jesus "provided" to teach us God's will in our lives.
On judgment day false teachers will be under the greater judgment.
God is not obligated to compromise with man's invention, no matter how many are suckered into them.
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