Studying Islam

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[quote]&quot;Islam is a verb and a noun at the same time.&quot;
The first meaning of &quot;Islam&quot; is the verb from the root &quot;aslama&quot; (a verb), meaning to: &quot;surrender; submit; obey; sincerity and in peace.&quot;

The second meaning of &quot;Islam&quot; is the noun form from the same root, and it describes the last and final form of the way of life as perscribed by the Creator for His Creation. This is the name used in Quran for Muslims to call themselves as followers of &quot;Islam&quot;. This would make them &quot;Islam-ers&quot; in English, but of course in Arabic the prefix &quot;mu&quot; is added to denote the one preforming the action or verb and instead it becomes &quot;mu&quot;-&quot;islam&quot; or &quot;Muslim.&quot;

Why do we have different faces of Islam in different cultures?
         In my opinion  it is because not all of us read the Quran  and we specially in Pakistan believe in rituals so we try to integrate them into Islam. Quran should be our main source of guidance eg. for marriage Quran has given us the basic guidance  like with whom  Nikah is Jayaz , meher, how the nikah should be conducted like consent of the girl and boy. Gathering of a few people to celebrate and announce the union the Valima. Now in Pakistan we have dholki , mayon , mehndi then nikah rukhsati and finally Valima. All the ceremonies we do here are all cultural except the ones pointed out earlier.
               Is there anything wrong in doing these cultural rituals  we do in our marriages? no there is nothing wrong as long as we don't go overboard and do things which are not appreciated in Islam like showing off your wealth and status. spending obscene amount of money on each function like a simple dholki at home with a few relatives and friends verses a dholki in a hired place with a DJ and organised by party organizers and instead of sharing a simple meal you have a lavish spread.  
           The dress we wear in each country is unique to it's own culture and weather conditions. The guidance in Quran is modesty and to cover the chest  for women we all do our own interpretation and dress according to our cultural needs as long as the Islamic fundamentals are covered it should not matter.
            you are right life is very complex and to find answers is  not easy sometimes looking at life when our prophet lived and life now there is no meeting ground. Things have changed science and technology has done that, so what do we do? Reject this life go back to the way it was? We can't do that and we shouldn't do it ....One thing we can do is  listen to our instinct develop our sense of understanding or differentiating good from bad. We are all born with this instinct but we loose touch with it.
               Allah has given us guidance and the instinct of judgement, we are also given the power to decide the path we want to follow that is why we are different from other animals. Now it is up to us how we mold our lives. We have choices to live our life the way we want to if we make bad choices it is not because we were not given the best of tools.
           Life is a trial for all of us some inherit hardship some wealth, yes wealth is also a trial not only poverty.how responsibly you use your wealth is the trial and how bravely you face poverty is the trial in both cases. 
            Life is not smooth for anyone. on one hand a family has 5 kids and the father cannot even feed the children let alone educate them and give them a comfortable life, on the other hand there is a couple financially very sound educated yet they cant have kids. The trial is in both cases. 
                 Everything we do in this life should not be done for a reward, it should be done because it is the right thing to do. When there is no hope so much suffering around it is cruel to talk about sabr, right now what is needed is help and action to alleviate the suffering  we are not in a good situation in Pakistan because of floods so are we going to go and preach Sabr to them ? no we are not that is why people are out there helping as much as they can.
               There are people who are dishonest and corrupt in our country they are more because no one follows laws and no one is held accountable. Allah has given us the sense , understanding and guidance it is up to us to follow that guidance.
                    There is no hierarchy system of scholars in Islam like Christianity nuns fathers cardinals bishops etc. We have the Quran which is unchanged and the same for all.[/quote]

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