RE: Quran, cultural Islam, and what is outdated

May Allah Guide us all. I totally agree with Br Carl. As a muslim I try to submit myself to Allah and let Allah guide me to whatever station I am ment to be in. 



AsSalam









 --- On Mon 02/09, Carl Howard < [email protected] > wrote:

From: Carl Howard [mailto: [email protected]]

To: [email protected]

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 18:25:28 -0800 (PST)

Subject: [Progressivemuslimsnetwork] Quran, cultural Islam, and what is outdated



Salaam everyone-<br>I am sorry to see that so many people are leaving<br>since I am just joining. It seems there should be some<br>good discussions.  Since I didn't grow up in a<br>"Muslim" culture, I cannot connect to some of the<br>issues that seem to be troubling some of the people<br>here.  I will not say that I "converted" to Islam<br>because when I first started reading the Quran some<br>years ago, it just seemed so straight up and right on<br>in so many ways.  I simply discovered I was a Muslim<br>already but didn't know before to call myself that.  <br><br>I am not sure what people are saying is "outdated".  I<br>am surprised at how much is there that couldn't<br>possibly be known 1400 years ago, like the earth being<br>egg-shaped and worker ants being female and lots of<br>other little scientific factoids about the earth and<br>universe and animals and our own biology.<br><br>Th
 ere are a lot of ideas to struggle with, true. <br>That's where having others to discuss it and get input<br>from is helpful.  Still, I feel that the Quran is not<br>a book we read so much as a book that reads us.  Our<br>understanding is drawn out from our own hearts, not<br>put into us by the words on a page. <br><br>Being more a student of natural sciences than of<br>social sciences or history, I may be missing some of<br>the ideas that seem to be upsetting others.  A lot of<br>times I think God is deliberately not telling us the<br>more complicated stuff because it forces us to use our<br>hearts and minds and eyes to try to find out.  That is<br>the way understanding can really be internalized, with<br>a lot of effort and really going after wanting to know<br>something.  <br><br>If we cop out and let some human "authority" tell us<br>the meaning and just buy it whole cloth, what ar
 e we<br>learning?  Like suppose I don't understand the meaning<br>of some word or verse and I ask some "scholar" and get<br>told it means this or that, because all these other<br>credentialed folks and traditional ideas says it means<br>that.  If all that meaning and tradition comes from<br>some other historic culture than I came from and I<br>can't identify with it, what is to convince me that<br>that is really the meaning?  <br><br>God said the Quran was sent down to all peoples, not<br>just Arabs.  OK, so if I get intimidated by all those<br>credentials and agree to that meaning they tell me and<br>then go around parroting it, do I understand anything<br>yet?  If someone tell me it means so and so, and that<br>doesn't draw that understanding out of me as I<br>continue to study the passage, then it doesn't have<br>that meaning, not to me.  <br><br>If the discussion with someone else 
 does help connect<br>the dots of the ideas and a particular meaning really<br>does click and feel comfortable, then I agree I really<br>have learned something.  But that learning and<br>understanding has been drawn out of me from within,<br>not shoved in from the outside.  <br><br>Maybe I grow and have different experiences and<br>awarenesses, and now an old understaning isn't<br>comfortable anymore.  God says if all the seas were<br>ink they would run dry before the words of God ran<br>out.  So maybe there is still a whole lot more meaning<br>in those self same words and we are able to read them<br>in new ways.  It is that sort of dialog and<br>exploration that I am hoping this group would be<br>about.<br><br>Best,<br>Carl<br><br><br>__________________________________<br>Do you Yahoo!?<br>Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online.<br>http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html<br><
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