By General on 12/28/2008 12:58 PM

Please see:

http://revelation-online.blogspot.com/search/label/Theism

Press older posts below right to see the other books.

You will see 2 buttons, Rapidshare or Filefactory. Rapidshare is the best one, but only allows 1 download at a time. When using Filefactory, you go down the new page that opens and will see a grey small window beneath a red window. In the grey window you see the lowest sentence given in blue (Download with filefactory Basic), this is the link to the free download.

By General on 12/28/2008 12:54 PM

Please see:

http://revelation-online.blogspot.com/search/label/Islam

Press older posts below right to see the other books.

There are some very good books among them, the cambridge companion to the Quran, the Blackwell companion to the Qur'an, the Qur'an an Encyclopedia by Leaman, the Qur'an and the secular mind, Islamic Legal Theories by Hallaq.

 

You will see 2 buttons, Rapidshare or Filefactory. Rapidshare is the best one, but only allows 1 download at a time. When using Filefactory, you go down the new page that opens and will see a grey small window beneath a red window. In the grey window you see the lowest sentence given in blue (Download with filefactory Basic), this is the link to the free download.

By AY Mol on 27-12-2008 19:42

Ahmed Ali explains in his Qur'an translation:

"Qata'a means to cut, but when used with different nouns it means different things idiomatically, for which see Raghib and Taj al-'urus, such as to stop someone from speaking when used with lisan, toungue, or cut off the road when used with sabil, or become hopeless when used with rajul,man, etc. In 12:31, for instance, qata'na aidihunna means they wounded their hands or stopped peeling fruit, not cut off their hand. Hense here, in 5:38, it could also mean to stop their hands from stealing by adopting deterrent means, for the next verse, 39, speaks of repentance and forgiveness whith overtones of rehabilitation, which would be lost if the hands were cut off completely or amputated. Similarly in v.33 tuqtta'a could mean to restrain them by putting fetters on one hand and one leg.

During the Ummayyad caliphate, the punishment for theft was flogging."

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By AY Mol on 25-12-2008 17:29

In traditional Islamic theology, the terms Muslim and Momin are used to indicate a religious person following the Islamic religion. This concept is a later development when the understanding of the Qur'anic message was changed from a rational, scientific socio-secular guideline that was sent by the First Cause of all existence, into a dogmatic religion, that although was still very tolerant and openminded, lost sight of many of the original goals of the Qur'anic message.

When researdching the Qur'an, it is observed that Muslim and Mumin are secular condictions of humans, not specifically bound to religious beliefs, but on their peaceful and humanistic output.

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By General on 12/22/2008 4:01 AM

By Kamran Pasha

It’s a miracle (Obama, that is) The Hajj, the grand Pilgrimage to Mecca, has just ended after having attracted a record four million Muslims from all over the world for a week of worship in the vast Arabian desert. I attended this year for the first time and experienced one of the most remarkable and transformative events known to humanity. Believers of every race, nation and age brought together to transcend our differences and unite before God.

But there was one topic that was on everyone’s lips as we sat together under a tent in the pilgrim camp at Mina – the improbable election of Barack Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the United States. Everyone I spoke with expressed wonder at God’s will in bringing such remarkable change after eight years of George W. Bush. Most were hopeful that Obama could restore to America its prestige as the moral leader of the world, squandered so recklessly by an Administration that redefined the meaning of the word “hubris.”

There was much...

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By General on 12/21/2008 7:02 AM

 When researchers ran a computer simulation of the universe rewinding towards the big bang, they made an unexpected discovery. At first, the universe started becoming smaller and denser as the galaxies converged, but then instead of becoming infinitely dense at the big bang, the universe bounced and started expanding again. So is our universe recycled from an older cosmos?

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By AY Mol on 18-12-2008 1:09

New book available in the library:

Fakhr al-Dīn al Rāzī’s methodology in interpreting the Qurān by Shalahudin Kafrawi.

 

Many studies have been done of Fakhr al-Dinal-Razi and his system of thought, taking into account his contributions from theology, philosophy, and exegesis. However, works specifically devoted to his exegetical thought have been few. In fact, none of these has dealt with al-Razi’s exegetical methodology in the light of his basic assumptions regarding the Qur’an. In view of this fact, the present thesis aims at elucidating Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s methodology in interpreting the Qur’an in his magnum opus, known by the title al-Tafsir al-Kabir or Mafatih&dotbelow; al-Ghayb. In order to achieve this purpose, we will focus on his interpretation of the third chapter of the Qur’an, printed in volumes 7, 8, and 9 of the standard edition of his work.     In overall terms, al-Razi contributed greatly to the dissemination of a rational approach to the study of the Qur’an. Yet, he could...

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By AY Mol on 17-12-2008 10:16

 Allah created man superior to animals by giving him the distinguished ability to reason, looking forward that he would make use of this prized possession. How could it be possible that Allah Himself would give man a faculty and did not intend and appreciate its use? It does not make sense. He has elaborated in the Quran that,

هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوا أَشُدَّكُمْ ثُمَّ لِتَكُونُوا شُيُوخًا وَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُتَوَفَّى مِنْ قَبْلُ وَلِتَبْلُغُوا أَجَلا مُسَمًّى وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

“It is He Who has created you from dust; then from a sperm-drop; then from a leech-like clot; then does he get you out as a child; then lets you (grow and) reach your age of full strength; then lets you become old,- though of you there are some who die before;- and lets you reach a Term appointed; in order that you may use your reason.” [40:67]

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By MaxQ on 12/7/2008 4:21 AM

A question that has perplexed Islamic scholars for centuries is the existance of strange initials in the beginning of various Quranic chapters. These initials consist of the first fourteen letters of the Arabic alphabet ordered its old numeric value form and are:أ ح ر س ص ط ع ق ك ل م ن ه يKnown as Tawaasiin and Hawaamiim, these intials exist in distinct patterns as follows:Alif Laam Meem - المAlif Laam Meem tSaad - المصAlif Laam Raa - الرAlif Laam Meem Raa - المرKaaf Haa Yaa 'Ain tSaad - كهيعصdTaa Haa - طهdTaa Seen Meem - طسمdTaa Seen - طسYaa Seen - يسtSaad - ص'Haa Meem - حم'Haa Meem, 'Ain Seen Qaaf - حم عسقQaaf - قNun - نThis paper is meant to provide an in depth study of the background of these initials, and also present possible explanation that may help the reader in understanding the Quran better.Contemporary TheoriesVarious scholars including Hamiduddin Farahi, Shabbir Ahmed, and going as far back as Imam Raghib Isfahani have proposed the meanings of the codes that, in the author's opinion, only provide...

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By AY Mol on 7-12-2008 12:33

" 'Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us' (Matt 1:23). The reading 'virgin' is that of the Septuagint version of the Greek Bible, and Matthew's gloss, interpreting the symbolic name Emmanuel as a pointer to the superhuman nature of the miraculous child, also implies that a non-Jewish readership was envisaged. Jews would have known that the name Emmanuel ('God with us') signified not the incarnation of God in human form, but a promise of divine help to the Jewish people.Readers familiar with the Hebrew Isaiah would have been perplexed by Matthew's argument because the word used by the Old Testament prophet was 'young woman' (in Hebrew 'almah'), and not 'virgin' (in Hebrew betulah). A young woman becoming pregnant is not the same as a virginal conception. The misleading rendering of 'almah' as parthenos ('virgin, maid') was corrected in the later (first of second century AD) Greek translations of Isaiah; all of them substituted 'young girl'...

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