Salaam (Peace)

Religious people are often accused of blindly following a "book", rather than thinking for themselves, but religion does not teach that, especially Islam. Spirituality is part of Religion. The following Hadith (Saying) of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) shows that religion promotes and encourages self awareness, individuality, and freedom of choice. Does your religion promote this as well??? The teachings of "Holy Books" and the examples of Prophets and Messengers are tools of spiritual growth, so why reject religion in the name of spirituality?

Wabisah ibn Mas'ud related that the Messenger (SAW) said "Wabisah! You have come to ask me about good deeds and bad deeds!" and I said "Yes." And the Messenger (SAW) joined his fingers and held them over his chest, and said "Ask your heart, ask your heart. A good action is what the heart is at peace with while a bad action is one that causes doubts, even if other people tell you that it is right."
(Ahmad)

then why when you follow your heart do so many religions/people complain ?

Salaam (Peace)

I believe this is primarily because of the separation of Religion and Spirituality. Many religious people have abandoned spirituality for religion just as many have abandoned religion for spirituality. Also, many people are doing that because of personal issues and hidden agendas that have nothing to do with "right and wrong", spirituality or religion. It becomes a tool to lash out at the world rather than the intended purpose of guidance, and spiritual growth. This is obviously anticipated by the Prophet (SAW) in his words, "even if other people tell you that it is right."

Following a religion is a choice, if it promotes and encourages self-awarness to the inviduals who
want to follow it then so be it. But, it's a choice; not everyone feels the same way.



Following your heart? Thats a vague concept. Are you trying to say follow your deepest inner feelings, "conscious"?
Consciousness is so abstract, and opinions vary wildly on it. My inner conscious tells me to stay clear of religions,
as I feel deeply that they are corrupt.

Salaam (Peace)

Yes indeed, the innermost feelings of the true self. The Arabic word for heart, used in this Hadith and throughout the Quran is "qalb", which means, "center", "core", "essence", and curiously "to invert", "to turn upside down" [lots of mystic stuff attributed to that root meaning]. Studying Islam reveals that self awareness, and self purification is an ever present part of the religious path. Opinions vary, no doubt about that - very beautiful - I would never tell anyone to not listen to their inner conscious, even in their rejection. To do so would be encouraging that person towards hypocrisy. I would add that you should stay clear of anything, not just religion, that you feel is corrupt.

Excellent posts my friend, I agree with them completely. The point of real faith should be to seek God, to know Him, through more than just beliefs contained in a book. Religion is aimed outward, spirituality, inward. The two are radically different.

You're absolutely right!! Couldn't have said it better myself..

Because the book's of man are often flawed and are subject to interpretation. Why follow another man's word when you have the whole of the Universe to teach you if you open yourself to it.

lol that is basically what I am advocating.....

Salaam (Peace)

So be open to everything excepts humans? Why should I hold my human interpretation as the only valid one? These flawed books of man would also include science, history, and all books. Other people are part of the universe too, why ignore them and discredit them just because they're not me.

If one took all the bad out of every religion then it would equal the unconditional love Of Spirit,(GOD) Imo.

Yes My belief, which is my religion (Unconditional love) Employes what you said and More, Labeling it - (My belief) anothers belief, Thought or religion Is not what God/ Or Allah's love is all about, and to align my self with one of these Labeled" groups is to set one up for a great fall, One will answer to his Own spirit for how he lives or does not live, and God, Father < Allah will still love The one judging his own spiritual growth, One definatly will not be Blaming God or the religion he decited to align himself with, But it will be understandable, And God will tell this, but the individual may not believe, cause he can't forgive himself.

I do not condemn any for their beliefs in Spirit or God, and it is understandable why all do believe as they do.

All I can do is teach Mine by example , not fear.

Love Omnaka

There is bad and good things in all books, just cause some of it is good doesn't mean all of it is good or bad. The Quran was written 1375 year ago. If someone gave me an astronomy book of the same age I would say it was a out of date. Remember, "Men and books lie. Only nature does not lie." Thomas Paine.

One need not discredit another , To believ what he believes.
There is nothing wrong with holding one's own belief which does not conform to another's belief.

Check all beliefs and Gain knowledge from them, Then from this experience and knowledge make your own belief.

There is no one belief fits all, Thats not how God made It.

Live your Love.
Or Belief.
Love Omnaka

Salaam (Peace)

If someone rejects the idea of Divine Revelation, then that makes sense, but I do believe in Divine Revelation. Thomas Paine said this in the 1700's right? Is his quote outdated as well???

No, It evolves right along side Creation.

Sorry I know that was not For me , I could not help myself.

Love Omnaka

I'm not Knocking Your religion Brother , but the Muslim religion says something about Those who believed, then did not, and what those who believe are supposed to do those who have switched , or do not believe. This does not Jibe with the love of The God I know, again, Knowing ones own belief has nothing to do with any religion, or group belief, So if your religion teaches to know fdrom the heart, Does it also not condemn those who do, but do not knoew from the heart of the Q'uran or Hadith?

Love Omnaka

Somethings never go out of date, but Quran like all books of man has some truth and some faults. I just don't believe everything I read no matter when it was written.

Salaam (Peace)

Those who do not believe are not to be punished by those who do, those who wage war against us must be combated, according to strict guidelines, until the aggression stops. Apostasy is not a punishable crime according to Islam, but treason is, just as it is here in the USA. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) sent Muslims to Abyssinia (a Christian Nation) during the first 13 years of his mission when they were being severely persecuted by the Polytheists, he said they would be treated justly there. He also had a Jewish neighbor, with whom friendship was made. The position of execution being imposed upon non-believers and apostates is based upon one very questionable Hadith, and the fact that such a position contradicts the Quran in several places. Surah 109 called "Al Kafirun" [The Unbelievers] says "to you be your way to me be mine."

Here are the words of some scholars on this issue.

Islamic Research Department, Al-Azhar University

"The Islamic Research Department of Al-Azhar University has called the penalty for apostasy as null and void and has said that the ways of repentance are open for the whole life. ... So an apostate can repent over his mistake anytime during his life and there would be no fixed period for it." [Al-Alamul Islami, the weekly organ of Rabita Alam al-Islami, 23rd August 2002, quoted in Dr. M. E. Subhani, Global Media Publications, 2005, p. 25]

Dr. Jamal Badawi
[Professor Emeritus, St. Mary's University, Canada]

"The preponderance of evidence from both the Qur'an and Sunnah indicates that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself a mandatory fixed punishment (hadd), namely capital punishment." [Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?"]

"when a man in Madinah apostated from Islam, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) neither ordered his execution nor punished him in any other way, and when the man finally left Madinah, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) never sent anyone to arrest him or punish him because of his apostasy." [Apostasy-Dialogue with Dr. Jamal Badawi]

Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali
[Professor of law at the International Islamic University of Malaysia; author of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, 2003 and Freedom of Expression in Islam, 1994]

"The controversy been exacerbated further by reliance on the provision in the Sunnah which authorizes the death penalty for apostasy without due consideration of other evidence in the Sunnah to the effect that punishment by death was meant only for apostasy accompanied by hostility and treason. ... The Prophet did not treat apostasy as a proscribed offense (hadd), but, on the contrary, pardoned many individuals who had embraced Islam, then renounced it, and then embraced it again. ... [T]he Qur'an is consistent in its affirmation of the freedom of belief and it fully supports the conclusion that the objectives of the Shari ah cannot be properly fulfilled without granting people the freedom of belief, and the liberty to express it." [Chapter: Freedom of Religion in Mohammad Hashim Kamali’s Freedom of Expression in Islam Islamic Text Society, 1997]

Dr. Rachid Ghannouchi
[leading Islamic thinker and philosopher, and also a scholar on the European Council for Fatwa and Research]

"The first challenge was that of ar-ridda (the turning away or back, or apostasy, from Islam), which Ghannouchi views more as a military insurrection than an act of apostasy." [quoted in Dr. Azzam Tamimi's Democracy: The Religious and the Political in Contemporary Islamic Debate]


Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl
[Distinguished scholar and Professor of Law and Islamic Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA]

But while the Koran mentions ridda, it never calls for the execution of apostates. There is no record of the prophet killing an apostate himself. And executions of apostates have been rare in Islamic history. "The common argument is that it clearly contradicts the Koran, which says there should not be compulsion in religion," said Khaled Abou El Fadl, an Islamic law expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. [In Kabul, a Test for Shariah]


Shaikh Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani
[former Professor of Fiqh and Usul al Fiqh at Imam Muhammad b. Sa'ud University in Riyadh. Founding member, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in the USA in 1981; founder-member of the Council of the Muslim World League in Makkah; , a member of the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah since 1987; and President of the Fiqh Council of North America since 1988.]

"Apostasy is not a simple act. It has several parts. We cannot simply say that someone left the religion. We must look at the reasons and actions that come before leaving the religion. Suppose one becomes an expatriate and fights against the U.S, (for example). This person would be tried and convicted of treason and usually killed. But if one leaves a religion without causing harm to others or engages in treason, then there is no punishment. The Qur'an is blatant about the fact that there is no compulsion in religion. Some people at the time of the Prophet would convert in the morning and leave Islam at night. The Prophet then announced that those joining in Islam in good faith are welcome, but those who join only to then leave and discredit Islam and then encourage others to fight Islam, that is considered treason and treated as a crime in the same way as U.S. law." [Interveiew]

Dr. Louay Safi
[Executive Director of ISNA Leadership Development Center; Ex-President, Association of Muslim Social Scientists]

“Traditionalist scholars have long embraced classical positions on apostasy that consider the rejection of Islam as a capital crime, punished by death. This uncritical embrace is at the heart of the drama that was played in the case of the Afghan convert to Christianity, and which would likely be repeated until the debate about shari’ah reform and its relevance to state and civil law is examined and elaborated by authentic Muslim voices. … Indeed, one cannot find in the Qur’an any support for the apostasy (ridda) penalty. … I am inclined to the increasingly popular view among contemporary scholars, that ridda does not involve a moral act of conversion, but a military act of rebellion, whose calming justifies the use of force and the return of fire. … A Christian or a Jew who converts to Islam is no more a Christian or a Jew, but a Muslim and must be respected as such. By the same taken a Muslim who convert to Christianity is no more a Muslim, but a Christian and must be respected as such.” [Apostasy and Religious Freedom]

agreed .