Did You Say "Christian Islam"?
Sorry, Does Not Compute!
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Combining Islam with Non-Islam Is a Nonstarter
Here is the simple equation: Islam is Islam and non-Islam is, well, non-Islam. And the two do not mix.
So there is no such thing in Islam as Christian Islam, Hindu Islam, Judaic Islam, Atheist Islam or Islam patched on to something else that is non-Islam.
Islam is from God; non-Islam is from all of us: human beings. Islam, thus, is divine revelation; non-Islam is a jigsaw puzzle of human invention and ingenuity.
Non-Islam is a human effort to solve problems and find answers to pressing and often persistent human questions, whereas Islam is divine guidance with regard to all of the above: truculent and trenchant problems as well as difficult-to-decipher questions.
Islam has as its source God Almighty who is complete power and perfect knowledge. Non-Islam, on the other hand, has its roots in human knowledge and power, both of which are flawed and imperfect.
That is why while areas of overlap may and do exist between Islam and non-Islam, the two may often be quite divergent from one another.
That is also why mixing Islam with non-Islam often doesn't give you a colorful quilt, part Islam part non-Islam, but it yields a thick brew that is fully non-Islam in its essential composition as well as in its purpose and import.
That is why to combine Islam with non-Islam is a nonstarter. It falls flat on its face ab initio - right from the very beginning.
What about Combining Christianity
and Islam then?
What about it?
Islam is Islam and Christianity is Christianity and hammering the square pegs of one into the round holes of the other may lead not so much to a harmonious fit or true enlightenment but to a lot of broken pegs and damaged holes. The sparks you may see flying are from the resulting short circuit.
As a result, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists or Atheists who have an interest in Islam, or accept Islam and become Muslim, are just that: Muslims - pure and simple. They are not, at the same time, part Christians, part Hindus, part Jews, part Buddhists or part Atheists, while the other part of their existence is now devoted to Islam.
They have willfully and deliberately left their Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Atheist past behind. They have now assumed a new identity and embraced a new culture, zeitgeist, worldview and perspective on everything including life on earth and in the hereafter.
Islam does not use a hyphen to mark its identity such as Christian-Muslims, Jewish-Muslims or Atheist-Muslims. From this point of view, there are no hyphenated Muslims in Islam.
Ascription vs. Achievement:
Islam Reverses World's Worship
of Race, Tribe and Gender
This, however, does not mean Muslims are not, at a certain level, part of the natural milieu of life on earth such as history, geography or ethnicity. They are. Those are characterizations that arise out of the accidents of living in this world. Every one of these "accidents," however, most meticulously planned and executed by Allah the maker and master of the humankind.
Islam recognizes them for what they are, accidents of birth and circumstance, and works with them for the benefit of all. At the same time, Islam continually invites and encourages people to leave those limitations behind and work to transcend the constraints they impose on individuals, groups, societies and cultures.
Islam wants human beings to subordinate what they cannot control to what they can. It wants them to adopt standards of excellence and reward that are based on achievement and not on birth, heredity and ascription.
Surely we made you part of various group and tribal and social structures, says the Qur'an. But that is mainly so you would recognize and easily identify one another. You should know, however, that the real mark of excellence and exaltation in the eyes of God, however, is one's character, values and beliefs and not one's racial, ethnic, geographic, gender or some other identity acquired through the accident of birth.
Islam to the Rescue of the World:
A Merit-Based System of Human Differentiation
and Social Stratification
Islam, thus, with one mighty swipe, reverses the world's age-old apotheosis - worship - of race, color, gender, ethnicity, caste, tribe and territory and replaces it with a new merit-, character- and achievement-based social dispensation of human differentiation - stratification, if you will - of a certain kind.
The miracle of Islam is that it thus set in motion another social trend that came to be the lodestar of human culture and civilization for the future. It is pursuing this powerful new trend that human societies and cultures sought to distinguish and elevate themselves in subsequent ages.
You will notice this to be the case with Islam with regard to most if not all of its teachings: the world follows and moves to synchronize with Islam and its teachings and not the other way around. It is Islam that the world needs, and has always needed, to pull itself out of the morass of moral confusion, social degradation and cultural stagnation in which it found itself in the past and continues to find itself even now.
Conceit, Arrogance, Greed:
Some Reasons Why Some People Hate
Islam and Muslims
Why does the world then not see this fact? And why does it not give credit to Islam for its contributions and achievements? Why does the world not recognize Islam as its friend and benefactor?
Why do some people seem to fight Islam and Muslims against all dictates of rationality and civilized behavior? Why do some people hate Islam and Muslims so?
Reasons for this are many and complex. But at the core of many of them may lie a simple dynamic: a thing called human nature. Human beings by nature are greedy, arrogant, jealous and fearful.
