Let us look at the following from Matthew 15. This is an important passage written but extremely misinterpreted by Christians and allows them to eat anything, thus breaking the Law of food permitted, which in turn, meant disobeying the Law of God Almighty.

Quote:

Matthew 15 1Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus (B)from Jerusalem and said, 2"Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." 3And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4"For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.' 5"But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God," 6he is not to honor his father or his mother[a].' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7"You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'" 10After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand. 11"It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." 12Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" 13But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14"Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." The Heart of Man 15Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us." 16Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also? 17"Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20"These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

The question asked by the Pharisees was: "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

That was the question and finally, the answer was "These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

In other words, Jesus said it was okay to eat with unwashed or dirty hands.

Did the Pharisees ask,"Is everything lawful for your disciples/followers to eat? No such question was asked. The question had nothing to do with getting permission to eat non-kosher or haram food or unlawful food.

Jesus' message was to talk properly, kindly, nicely and politely as harsh and dirty words coming out of the mouth of a person, could be filthier than the food that was eliminated.

Even Peter could not understand. And what happened after that? All food became lawful. Instead of an iota, an entire "I" of the Law was changed due to overzealous reporting by the gospel writer and the misinterpretation .

Let us also take a look at this, which the disciples, Paul and other founders of Christianity forgot to remember. I have made the fonts to appear in dark blue:

7"You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,
BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
9'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,
TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"

Isaiah's prophecy came true through the lips of Jesus, when various doctrines such as trinity, hypostatic union and incarnation came up through the percepts of men. Did they not?

 

 

Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters�yes, even his own life�he cannot be my disciple

Hasan

 

You can not love your family so much that you do not follow GOD.  GOD must come first in your life.

 

The Cost of Being a Disciple

 25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters�yes, even his own life�he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

 28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

 31"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

 

The New Living Translation renders it as: "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison�your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters�yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple." ( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2014:26;&version=51 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2014:26;&version=51 ;)

 

The Contemporary English Version is less literal and expresses the intention even better: "You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life." ( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2014:26;&version=46 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2014:26;&version=46 ;)

 

Yes, I could see how these could be troubling. Especially since the dress codes set forth in the Bible are generally no longer practiced. What ever happened to women covering their hair or having their heads shorn in shame? (I Corinthians 11:2-16) Celebrating rituals like Christmas, Easter, etc, with their Pagan origins, praying only on Sundays or Christmas instead of constant remembrance of God. Praying towards altars, crucifixes, statues of Jesus and Mary, the sky, etc...

 

6If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.

 

LOL!  Shasta Muslims HAVE to pray towards Kaaba.  Christians do not have to pray towards alters, or statues of Jesus and Mary.  We don't have statues of Jesus and Mary in my church.

 

LOL!!  Shasta you are a hoot!!  Muslims do  not recognize that Islam carries on many pagan rituals.  Christians understand that many celebration ideas were "borrowed" but changed the meaning to Christian.

 

Prior to the time of Constantine's "conversion," Christians were persecuted not so much for their profession of faith in Christ, but because they would not include pagan deities in their faith as well. Then, with Constantine's emphasis on making his new-found Christianity palatable to the heathen in the Empire, the "Christianization" of these pagan deities was facilitated. For example, pagan rituals and idols gradually took on Christian meanings and names and were incorporated into "Christian" worship (e.g., "saints" replaced the cult of pagan gods in both worship and as patrons of cities; mother/son statues were renamed Mary and Jesus; etc.), and pagan holidays were reclassified as Christian holy days (e.g., the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia celebrations were replaced by http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/xmas/ - Christmas celebrations; an ancient festival of the dead was replaced by All Souls Day, rededicated to Christian heroes [now http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/hallow/ - Hallowe'en ]; etc.). A transition had occurred -- instead of being persecuted for failure to worship pagan deities, Christians who did not agree with the particular orthodoxy backed by the Emperor were now persecuted in the name of Christ! "Christianized" Rome had become the legitimate successor of pagan Rome! This is the sad origin of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Do you have a cross?

 

Excerpt from the The Road to Mecca:

 

�One day I asked a hajji, who understood a little English: �Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in the stillness of one�s heart? Why all these movements of your body?� As soon as I had uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man�s religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:

�How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as his soul? Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God�s holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.

First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, God is the Greatest, reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.

Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He forgive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance. Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.

After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; we ask Him to give us of the good of this world and of the good of the world to come. In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying, Peace and grace of God be upon you and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.

It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God which is what Islam means and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.

 

Borrowing is a loose term. So, you don't celebrate any of these holidays?

 

 

 

Do you feel that because Muslims perform certain rituals they are more humble?

 

Throwing stones at the pillars of satan- Is that in the Quran?

"Do you feel that because Muslims perform certain rituals they are more humble?"

 

I think that performing certain rituals such as praying at minimum five times daily allows the act of prayer to become so ingrained in your life that you are in a constant state of remembrance of God.

 

It isn't the act of performing the ritual that makes you humble, it is the meaning of the ritual and your intention in performing it that humbles you.