Why is there so much hate between Hindus and Muslims in India?
I will speak only for myself!Yesterday I attended a Muslim wedding as the bride and the groom both happen to be my schoolmates and it's a love marriage.Scene 1:Bride's dad show up.Friend 1: Hello uncle. Uncle: Hi.Friend 2 (Prajapathi): As-salamu walekum. Uncle: Waalaikum salaam.Me: Namaste uncle. Uncle: Namaste beta.Scene 2:Bride's brother turns up.“Veg is upstairs. Have soon before the non-vegetarians (he meant Muslims) invade veg counters”. He accompanied us and made sure we tasted every dish.Scene 3:All the male guests hugged the hosts. Brahmin, lingayat, Muslim, Christian,Prajapathi, Gowda. Every damn person.More than 50% of the guests were Hindus.Do you see any hate here!?I am neither proud of any of the above instances because this is how it is supposed to be.I have changed 7 schools, 2 colleges, 8 houses, 6 different localities over past 25 years and have not witnessed any actions that shows hate towards any religion or community.We are brahmins. My dad's best friend is a Christian. My best friend is a Muslim. And my mom…well she doesn't have many friends.The majority of commoners in India are living a peaceful life with the other religions.There is a problem of mis-interpretation among the masses and the media is very well aware of this.We hate those who preach against hinduism, we do not hate Muslims.We hate those who slaughter cows. We do not hate Muslims.We hate those who destroy temples. We do not hate Muslims.We hate those who spread terror/violence. We do not hate Muslims.P.S: This is what I have heard. Correct me if I am wrong. Who are Hindus? All the citizens of Hindustan are Hindis. It seems even in Mecca the Indian Muslims who go for pilgrimage are/were addressed as “Hindis” because they are from Hindustan.It's my nation. It's your nation. It's our nation.Let us do all that is possible to keep it united.:)Edit: There are too many comments and I am not able to go through & reply to all of them.There are people with Muslim names who just agreed and sent hearts.There are people with Hindu names who disagreed and threw some eggs at me.You see. We speak for each other;) That's the beauty of my country. My answer is complete now.Lots of love to all of you in the comments section.
Is it necessary for Muslim women to wear the hijab? If so, why? What if they don't wear it?
Hijab is a universal idea of standardizing the criteria for Modesty of Women and men alike. It’s a wide concept to standardize a women appearances applicable to all phase of life mother,sister, fiancee, wife,daughter etc.A hijab is a veil worn by some Muslim women in the presence of any male outside of their immediate family, which usually covers the head and chest. The word ḥijāb in the Quran refers not to women's clothing, but rather a spatial partition or curtain.When used in the context of women,hijab in Quran means modest dressing to protect women’s dignity and assurance of protection.The term can refer to any head, face(optional), or body covering worn by women that conforms to a certain standard of modesty.Terminology wise, Hijab can also be used to refer to the respectful seclusion of women from men in the public sphere, or it may denote a metaphysical dimension, for example referring to "the veil which separates man or the world from God".Most often, it is worn by Muslim women as a symbol of modesty and privacy. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam and Muslim World, modesty in the Quran concerns both men's and women's "gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia."The Qur'an instructs Muslim women to dress modestly.However, questions like, The type of veil? Amount of covering?, Face to be covered or left open ? etc. depends on wide variety of cultural, social and personal aspects and there should not be any concrete rule governing them.Below picture depicts the cultural variations in hijab worn by muslim women in various parts of the world.Hope the above explanation clarifies your query upto satisfactory extent.
Where can I find counter arguments to David Wood's arguments against Islam?
Excellent question, difficult though because David is an expert in the studies of Islam. I would just look at the Muslim sources from the likes of the Quran, Authentic Hadiths, and Sunna. If you try to go to the Islamic apologists like Shabir Ally, Zakir Naik, Ahmed Deedat, Yusuf Estes, Zaid Shakir, Khalid Yasin, Hamza Yusuf et al., you’ll be disappointed because they cannot successfully refute the Acts 17 Apologetics team. In fact, David says that they’ve tried to get these Muslim apologists to defend Islam in debates with them, but they refuse to take the challenge. Good luck! ;)
My parents don't let me listen to music?
Your parents sound like complete control freaks. Heaven forbid I doubt you will be this type of parent. You'll just have to wait it out until you are not living in this house. Somehow you manage to listen to this music elsewhere. Continue the lie to your parents and listen to your favorite bands in other ways. Then one day when they compliment you on your good school grades or for helping around the house, etc. tell them you have done well despite sneaking in some easy listening music from time to time. Tell them you respect their wishes that you can't own an Ipod but you have used it and it didn't make you a bad person. But as parents they are wrong in not trusting you more. Why shouldn't you go to a prom if the others are going? This type of control is not helping you respect them. Respect is not giving in to someones whims it means you tolerate other people's point of view.
Getting eyebrows done is haram but how come most Muslims wax and pluck their eyebrows?
well it still forbidden, tweezing, waxing, plucking,, all same. Its just not allowed to remove hair from that portion and you can only remove it if that makes ure face look ugly, getting problem in getting married due to heavy brows or husband doesn;t like them as they are heavy. Always remember Allah is aware of your intentions, Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and Allah has cursed those women who does tattoo and who make their eye brows. Rest Allah knows the best~!
In Islam....what is thighing, and if true, can it be carried out on infants?
nocturnal- is there any statement in his question about the prophets character? also...any potential convert has the right to question everything they hear about Islam, after all, changing religions is not something to be done with blind faith or taken lightly. Questioning everything they hear makes sure that they understand every arguement that could be thrown at them from non belivers who question their commitment to Islam. Living in a non-muslim country, non-muslims hear many, many bad things about islam, so to even have someone seeing past that and being genuinely interested in it is a blessing. And remember headswin.......if it is not in the Qu'ran, it can be argued. Because the Qu'ran is the word of God. Hadiths and Scholars are man, so be quick to doubt their claims unless they agree with what is said in the Qu'ran. Yes noctural- we must always be patient with prospective converts! headsiwin= As you can see, there is NOTHING in the Qu'ran that allows 'thighing'. Man by himself is prone to flaws, even so called scholars of that religion....catholic priests have been caught molesting young boys...but we know that is terribley wrong. Just as some scholars could say 'thighing' is legitimate, but we know otherwise! Please continue your path to Islam. I deal with the same doubts you are having too, but I soon plan to convert regardless because Allah knows best!
How do non-Muslims feel about azaan on loudspeakers at 5AM?
I am an atheist but still I have to listen Azaan from a mosque and Prayers (Morning Aarti) from a Hindu temple.My Home in Delhi is 100 meter away from a Temple and around 150 meter away from a Mosque.Every morning at 4 AM Azaan starts from Mosque and After 1 hour, around 5 AM, Temple Aarti (Hindu praying) starts. As an atheist/lazy/not so early morning person i was forced to listen both of them, But in-last 15 years my body is used to these things, but it does feel annoying sometimes.When Sonu Nigam raised a question about azaan in the morning i was completely in support of him. Why should we listen to everything that we don’t need? Maybe language of the Tweet bothers many Muslims but i think normal people like me will completely agree with him.Instead of finding solutions we often jump onto the conclusion. Oh!! he is Anti-Muslim, He wants to join politics, Bollywood is not giving him many singing opportunities that’s why he is frustrated. Oh come on…… He doesn’t need sympathy of Bollywood he can earn enough by singing on live shows.I think one should ask these question time to time and we as a society should try to find a solution instead of making them national news or Hindu vs Muslims debate. The problem with our society is that we don’t want to dive into the core issue.“Arrey bhai…… Bhavnao ko samjho” (try to understand his emotions).Solutions are also there but i know nobody wants to listen to them.Solution 1:We can make radio stations for local community with frequency like 90.9 for Azaan and 90.8 for morning prayers, 91.0 for Gurubani and 91.2 for Church prayers. If anyone wants to listen to Azaan/gurubani/Aarti then switch on the radio, tune into particular frequency and listen it, enjoy and switch off the radio after you’re done with prayers.I will add more solutions in future, you can also suggest some solutions in comments.Solution 2: (Suggested by Sumanth Madambadithaya)Make an Android or iOS App which will have Live Azaan, Live Aarti or Live Gurubani. Your can search for your nearest Mosque/Temple/Church/Gurudwara. (Limitation: it will need smartphone and internet connectivity).
What teachings can be used to back up this interpretation? What historical arguments can be made against this?
to SD. 1. Speculative philosophy prevailed in india even before the Lord Buddha. His philosophy was developed into a vast corpus of logic by his followers, until Nagarjuna developed a comprehensive system of explanations of the Universe. This held sway and other philosophers challenged it in many ways. Adi Sankara was one of them. His point of departure was to integrate the authority of the Vedas into the philosophy. That made him acceptable to the orthodox philosophers. But they called Adi Sankara the "Buddhist in Disguise". So, he did'nt defeat buddhist philosphers very badly at all! 2. Hinduism was not a unified religion during Sankara's time. the great divide was between religions that accepted the authority of the vedas and those that didn't. Sankara postulated the vedas as authority; and hence was ranked as a Sanatani. Later on, the priestly class appropriated this and Max Muller called it Hinduism. 3. Sankara didn't destroy buddhism. It was strong and prevailed through its great Universities and spread over the world. Buddhism was 'destroyed' only after the Muslim conquests in North India. The University at Nalanda was razed to the ground by Muslim invaders. Its valuable collection of manuscripts was burnt down. 4. In the South, Bhakti cults became popular by a tremendous propaganda campaign. buddhist places of worship were taken over as temples. Kings withdrew patronage. Vedic religion was also 'defeated' by bhakti forms 5. It is said that a jain monk helped by Goddess Saraswati nearly defeated him but Goddess Saraswati was knowing that Shankaracharya was anshavataar of Shiva so at once she took back her speech power from the Jain monk. He remained like dumb in the debate and Shankaracharya won. If he might had spoken perhaps today Hindusim might had been even more shrinked.