Educational Experience
I have spent an educational day. With all this hoohaw over angry Muslims making the Pope apologize, I decided to read their sacred writings. I read the Koran a while ago but most of Islamic practice is based on 'hadiths', which are words of various important Muslims from long ago. This is where they get the pray five times/day thing and the Ramadan thing etc. So today I sat down determined to read these hadiths, at least the most famous ones.
1)One of them described Muhammed as the most beautiful human ever born and then went into detail among which it said that his nose was so long that he nearly got it wet every time he drank anything, his shoulder joints stuck out but his hands and feet were 'chubby'.
2) Another one told about travels in the life of Muhammed including an episode where he was under the protection of some fellow who was responsible to get him from point A to point B and that involved being away from a food source for a few days. So this man amazingly breast fed him.
3) Then there was an interminably long one explaining 'temporary marriage' which is confusingly similar to prostitution. Muhammed warmly recommended it to his followers, told them to be sure they didn't come up to the end of their lives having missed it. "You should enjoy them, and they should get their payment. It is a rental." This, unlike plain old fornication, does not get you stoned to death because the woman is compensated. Permanent marriage is also a money transaction since the husband must provide a dowry up front.
4) Lots of them explain what happens before, during, and after death for all kinds of people. When you're just about to go, the devils line up on one side of you and the angels line up on the other side. The devils are very excited and they are all black with hair down to the ground and fire coming out of their eyes and they're waving around whips made of fire. At the last second, you can see them, which inspires some people to make a split second conversion right at the end. Of course the angels don't seem very appealing either, "With bodies like insects and very thin from so much worshipping." Everyone is resurrected and Muhammed's mother, at the time of her death, was too shy to die because everyone is resurrected naked, so she got a one-person exemption from that. Muhammed gave her his shirt to wear in the resurrection.
5)The Imams are kind of like Islamic Popes, supposedly every word they speak is straight from God and they can't sin. An Imam will be the last person on earth left standing because God always has one available in case someone needs guidance. Imams know all, they even know when they're going to die and how it's going to happen. You must accord an Imam the respect you'd show to God. On one occasion someone disrespected an Imam and Muhammed made that person's entire village line up while someone came down the line dousing their mustaches with the liquid from a camel's stomach.
6) Hadiths about marriage explain why it is not necessary to marry a female slave. Also, they make it clear that a young woman can be married if her father consents whether she consents or not. To divorce a woman, a man says to her, "I divorce you," three times. If he's unable to talk for some reason, he may communicate his intentions with an appropriate gesture, but that wasn't specified. A woman can't divorce a man. A man can have up to four wives at one time as long as he's able to support them up to the level of her family back home. So much is said about prohibiting a man from marrying his mother that I wondered if that was a problem at one time in that part of the world.
Anyway, you can read it for yourself by going to this site... http://www.shiacode.com/
Two hours later...I seem to have kept on reading this material. In fact I branched out and read a lot of sites by people who converted to Islam. Then I read an enormous site by Islamic authorities who answer questions from Muslims all over the world about what can and cannot be done by a Muslim.
1) A Muslim woman may not pluck her eyebrows, can't cut the hair on her head, but she must remove all body hair.
2) Muslim women must stay indoors. May only go outside if there is actual necessity, not for fun or to go visit friends, etc.
3) It is encouraged, recommended that Muslim extended families live together. A man only HAS to leave his childhood home after marriage if he is wealthy and his wife insists that he provide her with her own home. If he isn't rich, is merely middle class, he's got to provide his wife a private bedroom and bathroom separate from the rooms the rest of the family ever use. If he's poor, he only has to provide a private bedroom. So a woman marrying a man who isn't rich can expect to spend her life with her mother-in-law if that's what her husband wants.
4) A Muslim woman is not supposed to look at or to speak to men other than her husband. If she has to talk to a man other than her husband, she's supposed to use a loud, harsh voice and only speak what has to be said for business reasons, meanwhile keeping her eyes on the floor.
5) Muslim female education is mostly about the Koran. If a girl wants to be educated beyond this religious instruction, she first needs to spend at least three years in strictly religious training to protect her from non-Islamic influences she'd meet outside the home. Girls who do go to school should be taken there by a father or brother and then picked up by these family members, no riding public transportation or driving themselves. There are some well educated Muslim women, but these women should be able to prove necessity. For example if a woman has no men in the family to take care of her and no prospect of marriage, she can say that she's got to get an education so she can support herself.
6) Muslims are not only forbidden alcohol, no dancing, no kind of Western entertainment, they may not listen to music at all. On the question and answer site, a man asked if it would be OK for him to listen to tapes of someone reading the Koran if there was a musical background to the voice and the answer was that NO, he couldn't.
The more I read, the more I do not understand those who convert to Islam. People raised in that culture may not know anything else. However, to voluntarily go from a life of freedom to a narrow little tunnel through life, why would anyone choose that? The interesting thing is that there are lots and lots of converts. I read quite a few sites where people recounted their conversion experience, how they did it in spite of being shunned by family and former friends.
1)One of them described Muhammed as the most beautiful human ever born and then went into detail among which it said that his nose was so long that he nearly got it wet every time he drank anything, his shoulder joints stuck out but his hands and feet were 'chubby'.
2) Another one told about travels in the life of Muhammed including an episode where he was under the protection of some fellow who was responsible to get him from point A to point B and that involved being away from a food source for a few days. So this man amazingly breast fed him.
3) Then there was an interminably long one explaining 'temporary marriage' which is confusingly similar to prostitution. Muhammed warmly recommended it to his followers, told them to be sure they didn't come up to the end of their lives having missed it. "You should enjoy them, and they should get their payment. It is a rental." This, unlike plain old fornication, does not get you stoned to death because the woman is compensated. Permanent marriage is also a money transaction since the husband must provide a dowry up front.
4) Lots of them explain what happens before, during, and after death for all kinds of people. When you're just about to go, the devils line up on one side of you and the angels line up on the other side. The devils are very excited and they are all black with hair down to the ground and fire coming out of their eyes and they're waving around whips made of fire. At the last second, you can see them, which inspires some people to make a split second conversion right at the end. Of course the angels don't seem very appealing either, "With bodies like insects and very thin from so much worshipping." Everyone is resurrected and Muhammed's mother, at the time of her death, was too shy to die because everyone is resurrected naked, so she got a one-person exemption from that. Muhammed gave her his shirt to wear in the resurrection.
5)The Imams are kind of like Islamic Popes, supposedly every word they speak is straight from God and they can't sin. An Imam will be the last person on earth left standing because God always has one available in case someone needs guidance. Imams know all, they even know when they're going to die and how it's going to happen. You must accord an Imam the respect you'd show to God. On one occasion someone disrespected an Imam and Muhammed made that person's entire village line up while someone came down the line dousing their mustaches with the liquid from a camel's stomach.
6) Hadiths about marriage explain why it is not necessary to marry a female slave. Also, they make it clear that a young woman can be married if her father consents whether she consents or not. To divorce a woman, a man says to her, "I divorce you," three times. If he's unable to talk for some reason, he may communicate his intentions with an appropriate gesture, but that wasn't specified. A woman can't divorce a man. A man can have up to four wives at one time as long as he's able to support them up to the level of her family back home. So much is said about prohibiting a man from marrying his mother that I wondered if that was a problem at one time in that part of the world.
Anyway, you can read it for yourself by going to this site... http://www.shiacode.com/
Two hours later...I seem to have kept on reading this material. In fact I branched out and read a lot of sites by people who converted to Islam. Then I read an enormous site by Islamic authorities who answer questions from Muslims all over the world about what can and cannot be done by a Muslim.
1) A Muslim woman may not pluck her eyebrows, can't cut the hair on her head, but she must remove all body hair.
2) Muslim women must stay indoors. May only go outside if there is actual necessity, not for fun or to go visit friends, etc.
3) It is encouraged, recommended that Muslim extended families live together. A man only HAS to leave his childhood home after marriage if he is wealthy and his wife insists that he provide her with her own home. If he isn't rich, is merely middle class, he's got to provide his wife a private bedroom and bathroom separate from the rooms the rest of the family ever use. If he's poor, he only has to provide a private bedroom. So a woman marrying a man who isn't rich can expect to spend her life with her mother-in-law if that's what her husband wants.
4) A Muslim woman is not supposed to look at or to speak to men other than her husband. If she has to talk to a man other than her husband, she's supposed to use a loud, harsh voice and only speak what has to be said for business reasons, meanwhile keeping her eyes on the floor.
5) Muslim female education is mostly about the Koran. If a girl wants to be educated beyond this religious instruction, she first needs to spend at least three years in strictly religious training to protect her from non-Islamic influences she'd meet outside the home. Girls who do go to school should be taken there by a father or brother and then picked up by these family members, no riding public transportation or driving themselves. There are some well educated Muslim women, but these women should be able to prove necessity. For example if a woman has no men in the family to take care of her and no prospect of marriage, she can say that she's got to get an education so she can support herself.
6) Muslims are not only forbidden alcohol, no dancing, no kind of Western entertainment, they may not listen to music at all. On the question and answer site, a man asked if it would be OK for him to listen to tapes of someone reading the Koran if there was a musical background to the voice and the answer was that NO, he couldn't.
The more I read, the more I do not understand those who convert to Islam. People raised in that culture may not know anything else. However, to voluntarily go from a life of freedom to a narrow little tunnel through life, why would anyone choose that? The interesting thing is that there are lots and lots of converts. I read quite a few sites where people recounted their conversion experience, how they did it in spite of being shunned by family and former friends.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home