Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Brief Thoughts For a New Islam


Lorin Jenis

Recommended Posts

I intended to write a book about the need for a Protestant Reformation in Islam which would bring us the freedom to criticize the Qur'an as a book that was shaped by history, culture, and the Prophet's psychology. The process by which the Qur'an was compiled is particularly suspect, and evil men with their own agendas could easily have authored large portions of the text. If the Qur'an is fallible and only occasionally inspired, then the important thing in Islam---if there still is an Islam---is our immediate, experiential relationship with the Mystery that we call Allah. Much remains to be said about the advantages or disadvantages of anchoring ourselves in Muslim culture and practice, or abandoning symbols and stories as much as possible in a quest for pure contemplation. To the extent that I have chosen the latter alternative, I meditate instead of performing salat (formal prayer).

The book turned out to be a mere booklet, and I posted the entirety of it online at briefthoughtsforanewislam.net. When I wrote this booklet I placed myself in the presence of Allah, Jibril, and Muhammad and created a silent space in my mind. The verses of this "scripture" formed themselves one by one in the silent space. I do not ask that anyone believe that they are revealed or even that I successfully came into the presence of God. Just look at them because you are curious, and maybe one or two of them has an idea that you will like. It will take you only ten minutes to carefully read the entire text, if you wish to do so. I also created a blog with explanatory material, "New Kind of Muslim", newkindofmuslimblog.net.

I ask only one thing: please be kind to me and refrain from severe criticism and mockery. My name, Lorin Jenis, is prominently mentioned in the Preface to this heretical "New Qur'an"---and according to Sharia law I have committed several crimes of heresy and even apostasy and ought to be executed multiple times. I intend to publicize this work, but my fate may be like Salman Rushdie's or worse. I have dreampt that I could be abducted by agents of the Ayatollah and taken to the State Mental Hospital in Tehran. No, I am not paranoid and I am not exaggerating. The Islamic clerical establishment in the Middle East is as repressive as the Soviet Union under Stalin. Only that fact that I live in the United States will protect me from the results of the fatwa that is inevitable when this book becomes known to the inhabitants of the world's Islamic nations.

What follows are a few sample verses.

  • All things material and all things human are imperfect, and that includes religious texts and religious institutions.
  • Muslims believe that there is an eternal Qur'an in heaven that is perfect, but the Qur'an on my desk is not that book.
  • Countless passages in the Qur'an contradict the most basic prayer of the Muslims: "In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful."
  • Allah is merciful, and therefore hell does not contain multitudes of people and never will. Very few people will ever go to hell---only a handful in fact.
  • The term "hellfire" is a misnomer, for if there are flames in hell they are only symbolic of the torture inflicted by a guilty conscience.
  • The apostle Paul often said "Christ in us". And we can say, "Allah in us". He or She is not "out there".
  • Al Hallaj said, "I am the Truth." I say that the human spirit is God.
  • Choose either atheism for Western and Southern Asia, or a less radical alternative, a Protestant Islam. The middle ages will end.
  • I could accept an atheistic Islam if it saw that the depth of what we are, the human spirit, is God.
  • Any God that is real is not a gigantic Ego, as people usually think, but is selfless, egoless.
  • The voice of God is the voice of that which logically cannot have a voice.
  • When women become imams and muftis the partitions will disappear, and if the mosque must be remodeled, it will be.
  • It is Allah who wants to end discrimination against women, and He or She even wanted Al Mahdi (the Rightly Guided One) to be a woman.
  • When I said that Islam needed a Protestant Reformation it was because I despaired of bringing it into the 21st century.
  • Because Islam is a conservative religion, people think that Allah must be conservative also. No, He or She is a revolutionary.
  • As a revolutionary, Allah is a firebrand whose flame has ignited every movement for freedom in the world.
  • A religion of the human spirit needs religious symbols or it will not go deeper than the rational centers of the brain.
  • Even an atheist can access the symbols that lead to the depth of the psyche, which is the region that religion tries to explore.
  • Jesus is not so very different from the Buddha; if Muhammad seems different it is because the Qur'an is flawed.
  • It is possible to find a Jesus-like Muhammad in numerous verses of the Hadith (narratives).
  • The real Allah can certainly be found in the Qur'an but it is like looking for a scattering of flowers in a brier patch.
  • I am like a doctor that Allah called on the phone to come in and perform a surgery.
  • I am Rightly Guided but I do not want you to follow me; I want you to be Rightly Guided too.
  • It is difficult to teach inner freedom to a people who have been strictly regulated since childhood, but that is the task.
  • Inner freedom means that I follow basic ethical principles instead of six thousand laws.
  • If the birth of the freedom of the human spirit cannot take place in Islam, the religion will die.
  • A life lived spontaneously is far better than a life lived by Sharia. God can live in the spontaneous heart.
  • Allah can dwell in the spontaneous, child-like heart because He or She is like a spontaneous, ever-creative child.
  • The law that governs the creativity of the child at play is not a law in a book, but the law of attention to the creative moment.
  • Allah does not look at you as though He or She were another person. Allah looks at the world through your eyes.
  • Allah perceives the world through you because He or She is what you are in the depth of your psyche. Allah is the imperishable human spirit.
  • The unconquered and unconquerable human spirit and the divine spirit are the same thing.Allah can dwell in the spontaneous, child-like heart because He or She is like a spontaneous, ever-creative child.IThe real Allah can certainly be found in the Qur'an but it is like looking for a scattering of flowers in a brier patch.The real Allah can certainly be found in the Qur'an but it is like looking for a scattering of flowers in a brier patch.t It is possible to find a Jesus-like Muhammad in numerous verses of the Hadith (narratives).is possible to find a Jesus-like Muhammad in numerous verses of the Hadith (narratives).

 

Edited by Lorin Jenis
vocabulary
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't have to go to that extreme ends of futility ...
~

Quote


Mowlānā Jalāloddin Balkhi, known in Persia as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī and in the West simply as Rumi, was born on September 30, 1207 C. E. in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, then on the eastern edge of the Persian Empire. Rumi descended from a long line of Islamic jurists, theologians, and mystics, including his father, who was known by followers of Rumi as “Sultan of the Scholars.” When Rumi was still a young man, his father led their family more than 2,000 miles west to avoid the invasion of Genghis Khan’s armies. They settled in present-day Turkey, where Rumi lived and wrote most of his life.

~

 

~

Oh ... ' Rumi ' means Roman by the way ...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have obviously put a lot of thought into this and i don't want to put you off.

However, i don't think the need is for islam to undergo a reformation as christianity did The problem is not religious as it was in the catholic church but cultural

Until islam moves into 21st century cultural practices it wont be a constructive force.

There are still elements of christianity which are very similar to islam mostly in the protestant denominations.

 These include Patriarchal families ,  rigid  and unchanging cultural beliefs about gays women abortion marriage etc

 However these constitute a much smaller percentage of christians than fundamentalists do in islam This is probably because many islamic counties have only had  half a century of modern economic and  social reform in which to change, while the west made many of these changes in the 1800s and first half of the 1900s

For example islam in the middle east was still  the religion of a patriarchal tribal based society of nomadic herders where women had no economic value  ntil into the  mid/second half of the 20th century  when oil revenues began to change the countries involved.

This is true for the west a s well. For example in the west , only when women came to have economic value after the second world war did they begin to gain real economic equality and freedom. They gained some limited social and political freedoms after ww1, again due to changes in society, but when we were married in 1976, my wife could not open a bank account or get her own passport without my permission She could not retain her own name or legal  identity, and had to change her name legally to mine.  and that is only  about 40 years ago, in an advanced western democracy.  In the seventies girls who got pregnant out of wedlock still left home for a while to have their child because the shame was so great The sexual  revolution of  the late sixties and seventies changed everything  This was caused by the contractive pill and the increasing female participation in the workforce outside of their homes

150 years ago the great modern gap between fundamentalist islam and modern christian/western  values did not exist, a s both were more similar. Until 1882 a married woman in england could not own her own property as she was not recognised a s  a separate legal identity and all her goods and chattels became her husbands  In france it was 1907 before a woman had any control over any income she received form work or property. Rape in marriage only became a criminal offence in the late 1960s Until then no woman in the west could legally refuse sex with her husband.  Until the late sixties a woman who got married had to give up her government job as married women were expected to stay at home and have children.. Until 1984 in the netherlands a mans  opinions and regards over their children, legally outweighed his wife's, for example, in deciding what school to go to, or where the family would live 

This wiki site makes for fascinating, informative and down right scary reading for most modern young people.

In 2015 many modern western countries were only just getting around to banning female genital mutilation and forced marriages of women. 

Only in 2016 did germany make it rape to have sex with a woman who said No. Until then it was only rape if the woman forcibly resisted or fought the man. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_legal_rights_(other_than_voting)

Edited by Mr Walker
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Delete all religions. 50% of the world`s problems solved.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Lorin Jenis said:

I intended to write a book about the need for a Protestant Reformation in Islam which would bring us the freedom to criticize the Qur'an as a book that was shaped by history, culture, and the Prophet's psychology. The process by which the Qur'an was compiled is particularly suspect, and evil men with their own agendas could easily have authored large portions of the text. If the Qur'an is fallible and only occasionally inspired, then the important thing in Islam---if there still is an Islam---is our immediate, experiential relationship with the Mystery that we call Allah. Much remains to be said about the advantages or disadvantages of anchoring ourselves in Muslim culture and practice, or abandoning symbols and stories as much as possible in a quest for pure contemplation. To the extent that I have chosen the latter alternative, I meditate instead of performing salat (formal prayer).

The book turned out to be a mere booklet, and I posted the entirety of it online at briefthoughtsforanewislam.net. When I wrote this booklet I placed myself in the presence of Allah, Jibril, and Muhammad and created a silent space in my mind. The verses of this "scripture" formed themselves one by one in the silent space. I do not ask that anyone believe that they are revealed or even that I successfully came into the presence of God. Just look at them because you are curious, and maybe one or two of them has an idea that you will like. It will take you only ten minutes to carefully read the entire text, if you wish to do so. I also created a blog with explanatory material, "New Kind of Muslim", newkindofmuslimblog.net.

Hi Lorin Jenis,

1st I would like to welcome you to UM, this is your first post so before proceeding, I wish to welcome you to the community and may your stay be a long and productive one.

Before actually stating any opinion on the matter, I must say that it is rare for a Muslim to actually consider his/her faith dispassionately and objectively but you do seem to be in the correct path in that regard.

Yes I would agree with you that Islam as we know the religion does need a reform of the type that occurred to Christianity, where one man started a change that had many far reaching implications that in essence freed the religion from a dead end path of ritualism instead of a life changing interaction between God and mankind.

Now my question. For you what does Islam mean?

Is it merely a religion or something more than that?

Your answer will determine how you view your own religion.

For most of the world, religion is separate from culture and politics, in Islam it is not. It is one and the same thing.

If there is any where to start, that is where the change needs to take place.

Edited by Jor-el
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mr Walker said:

You have obviously put a lot of thought into this and i don't want to put you off.

However, i don't think the need is for islam to undergo a reformation as christianity did The problem is not religious as it was in the catholic church but cultural

Until islam moves into 21st century cultural practices it wont be a constructive force.

There are still elements of christianity which are very similar to islam mostly in the protestant denominations.

 These include Patriarchal families ,  rigid  and unchanging cultural beliefs about gays women abortion marriage etc

 However these constitute a much smaller percentage of christians than fundamentalists do in islam This is probably because many islamic counties have only had  half a century of modern economic and  social reform in which to change, while the west made many of these changes in the 1800s and first half of the 1900s

For example islam in the middle east was still  the religion of a patriarchal tribal based society of nomadic herders where women had no economic value  ntil into the  mid/second half of the 20th century  when oil revenues began to change the countries involved.

This is true for the west a s well. For example in the west , only when women came to have economic value after the second world war did they begin to gain real economic equality and freedom. They gained some limited social and political freedoms after ww1, again due to changes in society, but when we were married in 1976, my wife could not open a bank account or get her own passport without my permission She could not retain her own name or legal  identity, and had to change her name legally to mine.  and that is only  about 40 years ago, in an advanced western democracy.  In the seventies girls who got pregnant out of wedlock still left home for a while to have their child because the shame was so great The sexual  revolution of  the late sixties and seventies changed everything  This was caused by the contractive pill and the increasing female participation in the workforce outside of their homes

150 years ago the great modern gap between fundamentalist islam and modern christian/western  values did not exist, a s both were more similar. Until 1882 a married woman in england could not own her own property as she was not recognised a s  a separate legal identity and all her goods and chattels became her husbands  In france it was 1907 before a woman had any control over any income she received form work or property. Rape in marriage only became a criminal offence in the late 1960s Until then no woman in the west could legally refuse sex with her husband.  Until the late sixties a woman who got married had to give up her government job as married women were expected to stay at home and have children.. Until 1984 in the netherlands a mans  opinions and regards over their children, legally outweighed his wife's, for example, in deciding what school to go to, or where the family would live 

This wiki site makes for fascinating, informative and down right scary reading for most modern young people.

In 2015 many modern western countries were only just getting around to banning female genital mutilation and forced marriages of women. 

Only in 2016 did germany make it rape to have sex with a woman who said No. Until then it was only rape if the woman forcibly resisted or fought the man. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_legal_rights_(other_than_voting)

we should reverse everything above besides mutilation for a period of 6666 days. and instead of american and australian men deciding what to do with islam let us support the woman there and here first, clean house we domestic, take away american interests there if profit alone, let us use weapons of bombs for new years eve celebrations, bomb a spot over and over, crater down, until we can hear the earth saying is that all you got and spin and dance her merry way.

i will cry if i read the wiki please heads up when it shows improvement.

we need goddess religion by injecting her into all of judea christian islamo thought. and unite those three and make the men share temples, not like the women get prime seating or back room invites, and the wall has to go if they won't let women wail at it, for israel, oh is real, our god is one and a girl, even your name that you wrestle with god, self is no good, but many do that knowing they did their ladies wrong.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, toast said:

Delete all religions. 50% of the world`s problems solved.

delete your own agenda by 50% and be an example. take care of your houses and leave the rest to their women.

religion is the way to spirituality and equality by letting goddess surge continuee

a person who does not believe in the goddess is not 50% atheist for she wants you to believe in self first, they are 100 percent atheist in most religions, if you find self you will know her and him

Edited by I hide behind words
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, I hide behind words said:

delete your own agenda by 50% and be an example. take care of your houses and leave the rest to their women.

religion is the way to spirituality and equality by letting goddess surge continuee

a person who does not believe in the goddess is not 50% atheist for she wants you to believe in self first, they are 100 percent atheist in most religions, if you find self you will know her and him

What?

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, toast said:

What?

lolwut

cannot add more

but truth is weirder than any fiction you've seen, but pretty doggy let us see the eyes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Allah's want ad ended up in Real Estate---I guess the newspaper staff thought it had something to do with his home.

Allah want ad resized.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Muslims will read this book where I stay the average Muslims don't even subscribe to secular newspapers there are magazines and newspapers custom tailored for them and those who even read secular or nationalistic tend to either ignore or criticize them. There are already plenty of books videos with criticism of the things you mentioned and btw Islamic countries like Pakistan have recently introduced blasphemy laws which will make Isp and social sites to block these kind of attempts. can you show me one average Muslim which is not some high intellectual scholar or some professor who has ever accepted any criticism of Islam or the book? 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It does not matter it is written for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, kartikg said:

I don't think Muslims will read this book where I stay the average Muslims don't even subscribe to secular newspapers there are magazines and newspapers custom tailored for them and those who even read secular or nationalistic tend to either ignore or criticize them. There are already plenty of books videos with criticism of the things you mentioned and btw Islamic countries like Pakistan have recently introduced blasphemy laws which will make Isp and social sites to block these kind of attempts. can you show me one average Muslim which is not some high intellectual scholar or some professor who has ever accepted any criticism of Islam or the book? 

and to counter this type of belief and you are not alone kartig, just grabbed on last example, the net is not going to democratize them, or bring progressive issues to the fore, it will bring others who hate them, good for them to cut us off, our government should do blackouts of net but profit over people here as in saudi arabia

his list is like satanic almost and not as effective for them but for us we can see he wants empowered muslims and by girl power

it is not for scholars who known truth but remain silent there and no one wants to publish feminine revolution happening in homes yet

true secret cells, open secret cells, the spirt rose when romance died, count it began when a princess in france said no dad i will marry who i like

and then minstels sang about it south of france first and then all over the world almost but not likely yes? well romance blossomed in secret there too

it died when they dragged emos out of class in iran for boys wearing tight clothes and longer hair than them nevermind it was less overall bearded ones who should not kill weaker

and girls with shorter hair and same tight clothes,, school admin let em in, government kill squads did their massacre and most ignored it, minstrels know

and then in la hor pakistan supreme court case to be heard over girl who said same as princess of france, no dad, mom, aunts, brothers, mayor, mullah, police, haters i will marry boy i love down the block not my cousin

so they press kidnap charges, boys family said no we love the girl she came on her own we sheltering, and it went up the chain of courts, appeals, and on big day they woman relatives of her killed their own

the men would have in private but it was in public and her fiance just cried and said help as others did, he stripped some in wailing, and romance died in 2011 or so

the woman decide in the end they have blood on their hands, but will realize first as we begin to sing about them now that grieving for the emo martyrs of iran and super juliet of pakistan

and for romance in general but as always we are sick of fashion crime too and that is a constant and once we win that war the others will be easy

 

they ignore their own hearts our propaganda and shock news for profits of crusade memory lives on but crusades also means these fools fight each other at least the darkest muslim country is free from real darkness

the rot of spirit and soul and willing to be a product for price and then pay for that kind of news and repeat it all over in your mind, i am a free human, not under govt control or the medias, or the family curses of social tradition that harms us, here we have horrible molestation all over families i seen and we cry about alliyah and dancing boys of afgahistan

what they show in public is what we hide in houses, mothers ignore lots to keep new man, or it was uncle, and grandparents are in charge and deny, and horrible business behind closed doors will last longer than what is at front of house for them, congrat your investigative reporters and economic spying cause people in charge only care for that here, keep them down so we profit, we will fall in 50 years if we don;t change and business failing means more prayers for those in need but rejoice too for our dominion ends and sustains here and there negative vibes, woman will always care in the end and we dont value them here full force. so that is another reason lehman brothers must go for as arianna said they were not lehman brothers and sisters

islam and christians will not read the spell of blessings on both sides of the coin, the edge, within, even if cannot be spent and cursed, it is worth it, free balancing, do your part without complaint but know it will change

no curses here for any, when america falls men follow your women, you will as even science shows they stay more calm under emergency as kids are on the line and men believe fight-or-flight reaction is taking action, fool mid brain thinkers, we must save ourselves run but where?, we must destroy them, run to your tvs AND internet.

sorry for those who also read news and net and get negative vibes, it is simple as freeing your mind like en vogue said and the rest will follow

blessings to all who skim across and see the pattern of text, that is enough for you to know every word, it will return to you when ready, the time delay mechanism is best

not brief but best

 

 

Edited by I hide behind words
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If my booklet is of interest or value to anyone it may appeal to (1) ex-Muslims with a mystical tendency who want to find someway to return to Islam without abandoning reason or enlightened values (2) Muslims who are ready to abandon Islam, and (3) Westerners who are interested in Islam and Sufism and would like to bring Allah into their spiritual practices without accepting the Qur'an. An established author, a better writer than myself, might find some interesting ideas in my booklet and could introduce them into the spiritual and political debate that always occurs among academic Muslims in western countries. I envision students in secular universities in Muslim nations secretly reading my booklet. But for the most part it will be ignored, and if not ignored prohibited. I predict that Islam will "die" in about 100 years. Allah told me that Islam will not accept the "New Qur'an" and that He or She will cut Islam off from life the way a gardener might sever the branch of a tree. The severed branch will soon die and become brittle, and only the other branches of the tree will live to see the future of man. Unfortunately much that is beautiful in Islamic civilization and Muslim culture will die when the religion dies. Secular culture will replace religious culture. Socialist dictatorships might persecute the remnants of the religion and transform the major mosques into museums. 500 years from now some people will still be Muslims, just as some people are still Zoroastrians.

The Rightly Guided One came at the end of the Age (not the end of time) to purify the religion, but when the imams and muftis ignored the Imam, Allah destroyed them by withdrawing His or Her spirit from them.

Edited by Lorin Jenis
grammar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Lorin Jenis said:

If my booklet is of interest or value to anyone it may appeal to (1) ex-Muslims with a mystical tendency who want to find someway to return to Islam without abandoning reason or enlightened values (2) Muslims who are ready to abandon Islam (3) and Westerners who are interested in Islam and Sufism and would like to bring Allah into their spiritual practices without accepting the Qur'an. An established author, a better writer than myself, might find some interesting ideas in my booklet and could introduce them into the spiritual and political debate that always occurs among academic Muslims in western countries. I envision students in secular universities in Muslim nations secretly reading my booklet. But for the most part it will be ignored, and if not ignored prohibited. I predict that Islam will "die" in about 200 years. Allah told me that Islam would not accept the "New Qur'an" and that He or She would cut Islam off from life the way a gardener might sever the branch of a tree. The severed branch will soon die and become brittle, and only the other branches of the tree will live to see the future of man. Unfortunately much that is beautiful in Islamic civilization and Muslim culture will die when the religion dies. Secular culture will replace religious culture. Socialist dictatorships might persecute the remnants of the religion and transform the major mosques into museums. 500 years from now some people will still be Muslims, just as some people are still Zoroastrians.

You forgot to add when as you said when islam dies along with it's beauty it's ugliness will also die, women will be free no more bombing and who knows what more beautiful things will blossom with room to grow I see art will flourish esp sculptures and painting so will music. I don't see end of islam as end of world or beauty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@kartikg What you say is absolutely true, but at a funeral it is considered polite only to mention how wonderful the gentleman was.

Edited by Lorin Jenis
vocabulary
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Jor-el Because I was born and raised in the United States Islam is a religion for me, more than a political or cultural system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Islam WILL change, as all religions change. They cannot avoid it, as they reflect socio economic realities of their time, even if they are slow to respond to such changes, which can happen very rapidly.

Unless a religion is, "fit for purpose" ie it serves its believers well, it cannot and will not survive. For example, as women gain social, economic and political power in  any country, a religion which denigrates, or seeks to disempower, women simply will not  be able to survive.

In 1961 only 34% of women  in australia worked, and no married woman could work for any govt dept. Today about 60% of women work   Our whole culture has changed in those 50 years  and with it the nature of religious belief in australia.  affecting things like right to work,  marriage equality,  contraception, abortion, family structures,  child rearing,  family size, divorce,  and so on. A person from the 60s would not recognise the nature of society today  if the y had not lived through the transition period. . 

Edited by Mr Walker
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Lorin Jenis said:

I intended to write a book about the need for a Protestant Reformation in Islam which would bring us the freedom to criticize the Qur'an as a book that was shaped by history, culture, and the Prophet's psychology. The process by which the Qur'an was compiled is particularly suspect, and evil men with their own agendas could easily have authored large portions of the text. If the Qur'an is fallible and only occasionally inspired, then the important thing in Islam---if there still is an Islam---is our immediate, experiential relationship with the Mystery that we call Allah. Much remains to be said about the advantages or disadvantages of anchoring ourselves in Muslim culture and practice, or abandoning symbols and stories as much as possible in a quest for pure contemplation. To the extent that I have chosen the latter alternative, I meditate instead of performing salat (formal prayer).

The book turned out to be a mere booklet, and I posted the entirety of it online at briefthoughtsforanewislam.net. When I wrote this booklet I placed myself in the presence of Allah, Jibril, and Muhammad and created a silent space in my mind. The verses of this "scripture" formed themselves one by one in the silent space. I do not ask that anyone believe that they are revealed or even that I successfully came into the presence of God. Just look at them because you are curious, and maybe one or two of them has an idea that you will like. It will take you only ten minutes to carefully read the entire text, if you wish to do so. I also created a blog with explanatory material, "New Kind of Muslim", newkindofmuslimblog.net.

I ask only one thing: please be kind to me and refrain from severe criticism and mockery. My name, Lorin Jenis, is prominently mentioned in the Preface to this heretical "New Qur'an"---and according to Sharia law I have committed several crimes of heresy and even apostasy and ought to be executed multiple times. I intend to publicize this work, but my fate may be like Salman Rushdie's or worse. I have dreampt that I could be abducted by agents of the Ayatollah and taken to the State Mental Hospital in Tehran. No, I am not paranoid and I am not exaggerating. The Islamic clerical establishment in the Middle East is as repressive as the Soviet Union under Stalin. Only that fact that I live in the United States will protect me from the results of the fatwa that is inevitable when this book becomes known to the inhabitants of the world's Islamic nations.

What follows are a few sample verses.

  • All things material and all things human are imperfect, and that includes religious texts and religious institutions.
  • Muslims believe that there is an eternal Qur'an in heaven that is perfect, but the Qur'an on my desk is not that book.
  • Countless passages in the Qur'an contradict the most basic prayer of the Muslims: "In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful."
  • Allah is merciful, and therefore hell does not contain multitudes of people and never will. Very few people will ever go to hell---only a handful in fact.
  • The term "hellfire" is a misnomer, for if there are flames in hell they are only symbolic of the torture inflicted by a guilty conscience.
  • The apostle Paul often said "Christ in us". And we can say, "Allah in us". He or She is not "out there".
  • Al Hallaj said, "I am the Truth." I say that the human spirit is God.
  • Choose either atheism for Western and Southern Asia, or a less radical alternative, a Protestant Islam. The middle ages will end.
  • I could accept an atheistic Islam if it saw that the depth of what we are, the human spirit, is God.
  • Any God that is real is not a gigantic Ego, as people usually think, but is selfless, egoless.
  • The voice of God is the voice of that which logically cannot have a voice.
  • When women become imams and muftis the partitions will disappear, and if the mosque must be remodeled, it will be.
  • It is Allah who wants to end discrimination against women, and He or She even wanted Al Mahdi (the Rightly Guided One) to be a woman.
  • When I said that Islam needed a Protestant Reformation it was because I despaired of bringing it into the 21st century.
  • Because Islam is a conservative religion, people think that Allah must be conservative also. No, He or She is a revolutionary.
  • As a revolutionary, Allah is a firebrand whose flame has ignited every movement for freedom in the world.
  • A religion of the human spirit needs religious symbols or it will not go deeper than the rational centers of the brain.
  • Even an atheist can access the symbols that lead to the depth of the psyche, which is the region that religion tries to explore.
  • Jesus is not so very different from the Buddha; if Muhammad seems different it is because the Qur'an is flawed.
  • It is possible to find a Jesus-like Muhammad in numerous verses of the Hadith (narratives).
  • The real Allah can certainly be found in the Qur'an but it is like looking for a scattering of flowers in a brier patch.
  • I am like a doctor that Allah called on the phone to come in and perform a surgery.
  • I am Rightly Guided but I do not want you to follow me; I want you to be Rightly Guided too.
  • It is difficult to teach inner freedom to a people who have been strictly regulated since childhood, but that is the task.
  • Inner freedom means that I follow basic ethical principles instead of six thousand laws.
  • If the birth of the freedom of the human spirit cannot take place in Islam, the religion will die.
  • A life lived spontaneously is far better than a life lived by Sharia. God can live in the spontaneous heart.
  • Allah can dwell in the spontaneous, child-like heart because He or She is like a spontaneous, ever-creative child.
  • The law that governs the creativity of the child at play is not a law in a book, but the law of attention to the creative moment.
  • Allah does not look at you as though He or She were another person. Allah looks at the world through your eyes.
  • Allah perceives the world through you because He or She is what you are in the depth of your psyche. Allah is the imperishable human spirit.
  • The unconquered and unconquerable human spirit and the divine spirit are the same thing.Allah can dwell in the spontaneous, child-like heart because He or She is like a spontaneous, ever-creative child.IThe real Allah can certainly be found in the Qur'an but it is like looking for a scattering of flowers in a b

Hello Loren Janis: :st 

First, even though you grew up and live in the states, I hope you take care. It sounds pretty stressful for what you are going through. 

I liked this post, because of your sharing of your religion, your belief, and your ideals for it. I find it interesting, and unless I'm getting it wrong, it seems in favor of the rights of those including women. In which a lot of main religions seems to be conservative of. I grew up secular here, so I have an outside understanding, and a :huh:  and :no: of the rules and attitudes of some devout toward others even not in their religion. 

Also, it's interesting how various religions go through a change, or that a subset of religions break away due to the need of change within it. I wouldn't think that Islam wouldn't be a part of that. I would think there would be differences like there are in Christianity and Judiasm. (<========= Did I spell that right?) Anyhow, I also have my own belief system now, and feel the lack of materialism in your thoughts (booklet?) seem to match my thoughts in my unique belief. 

I really hope there is a lack of ill will and violence when change and breaking away happens, but reading your post, I'm afraid that's not the intent of some. :( I believe in beliefs and things in religions are personal and subjective and everyone should honor each other. I feel change does make sense. :yes:   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Lorin Jenis said:

Allah's want ad ended up in Real Estate---I guess the newspaper staff thought it had something to do with his home.

Allah want ad resized.jpg

One thing I miss when Jay Leno was on the Tonight Show, was his Monday night newspaper ad readings. When things were misprinted and hilarious. :lol:   I think it happens everywhere. *shrugs* 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, I hide behind words said:

but truth is weirder than any fiction you've seen,

FYI: I`m not HST,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why even bother with a new islam, just create a new faith based on the best of all the other ones. Then reduce that down to a simple philosophy and there you go. Wait......I can do that right now. 

main-qimg-da4a25380b8ab02e4c970939d11ed9

Now quit being jerks to each other!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, XenoFish said:

Why even bother with a new islam, just create a new faith based on the best of all the other ones. Then reduce that down to a simple philosophy and there you go. Wait......I can do that right now. 

main-qimg-da4a25380b8ab02e4c970939d11ed9

Now quit being jerks to each other!

You jerking Islam to make new.

Leave it to them all evolves.

Difference is only one here I read knows Sufi vs Salafi influence and how they oppose and rise and fall in different countries at different times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.