Faith Freedom International

[murat]

the hadiths as far as ive read are accounts of the prophet muhammed's sayings and behaviors. there are many books, many of them in disagreement with eachother and even the quran itself.

i believe that hadith MAY have some historic value but it should never be of any religious importance. the quran itself states that no other book should be needed or used by a muslim to conduct his/her affairs.

the hadiths themselves had been written down and compiled up to 300 years after the death of muhammed. consider what a single years length is, now consider the amount of distortion from tradition, language/dialectic discrepency, particular interest groups, lack of official or reliable record that may occur, now temper all that with 300 years and moreover 1400 years (todate).

all revolutionary ideas encounter political manipulation, its peculiar to me that with a general consensus amongst the muslim community over the legitmacy of the quran and a general disagreement over that of every other piece of literature and philosophy outside of the quran, that some leaders and peoples would choose to abrogate verses from the quran with other ideas that are obviously anything but quranic.

ive read the quran and it does not seem to me violent or agressive in nature. furthermore, the accounts of muhammed are not important, it is supremely the quran if one is to be truly muslim. the prophets life and affairs are of concern between only him and the lord by tenet of the quran itself. as well the requirement put forth by the quran to be muslim are hardly difficult to achieve nor do they seem to me unreasonable; prayer charity fasting pilgrimage (or equal) and most of all the belief that there is only one lord

i personally dont believe that religion was meant to be a social institution to make a "group" or "team" of people, rather it is a code of conduct for oneself that hopes to facilitate peaceful social interaction while minimizing conflict. it is not one to be imposed on anyone else, nor does it allow one to judge another''s worth. there are specific instructions against those very notions.

to me religion is very unlike nationlism or any sociopolitical organization (mind you i am aware that religion is sometime distorted to this end with an implict hierarchical system). religion is what you do day to day based on a principled belief system and once one goes out of that system, they are no longer religious regardless of what their bumper stickers say.

peace