Re: on original sin

Salaam Afdhere,

I don't know how you get yourself into these arguments, but sometimes we need to agree to disagree, especially when your proofs are not proofs.

"We said; 'go from this (garden), surely my guidance will come to you and then whoever follows my guidance neither shall fear nor grief. and as for those who disbelieve and reject my guidance, they are the inmates of the hell-fire; in it they shall abide.'"(qur'an, 2:38-39)"

The quote from the Quran shows in my mind the exact opposite of what you are trying to show.  Despite the betrayal of God that Adam and Eve show, the immediate consequence is being expelled from the Garden.  Not women and men being damned to hardship for all eternity for what happened in said garden.  God then lets them know they have other chances to make the right choices or not.  In my mind this shows that God trusts men and women and in their ultimate ability to choose.

And what is this "cleansing ourselves from sin, daily"?  I don't agree with this statement.  I don't see this supported in the Quran either.  Its true that we are human beings and that we are not perfect like God. The way you say sin makes it seem a dirty thing.  Sinning is simply making mistakes.  When we make mistakes we repent.  We don't "cleanse" ourselves.  We are already cleansed because God made us.  Our souls aren't defiled.  

You also forget that the devil and the jinn are attempting to turn us away from God's way.  You might believe in this figuratively and not literally, but either way...it is an external struggle against the things of this world of which our body might be a part.  Intrinsically we are not full of sin.

When you say cleansing ourselves daily from sin all I can think of is a character in a book, I think its the scarlet letter, where the minister is whipping himself everyday for his sinful thoughts.   If we have so-called sinful thoughts we forgive ourselves because we are being tempted by the world not because we are inherently bad.  If we falter and act on those thoughts we have strayed...but again, after the example of the Garden, we can stop, repent and pray for forgiveness.  We begin again with a clean slate and new-found knowledge.

I agree that there is constant evil around us.  But not in us.  And finally, as Na'eem stated about fitrah.  How do You reconcile and explain that term from traditionalist scholars with jihad al nafs?

Laura Hussain