kseeker wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:18 am
As much as I agree with you.. a lot of your arguments, which require me having a brain, also question the need to pray or do wudhu.. why would Allah want him creatures to leave everything and start a physical ritual five times a day, every day.. a bath is not enough to get taharat but wiping your hands on your head and your feet in a certain way are?.. believing that every book revealed by Allah has been changed, except for the Quran (well that sounds very convenient)...
Don't get me wrong.. your points and your logic make sense and I agree with them.. but those logic can be applied to invalidate pretty much everything in our Shariaa.. this book is supposed to be written under guidance of 4 imaams and completed under Imam Muiz.. now do we say that were they even influenced by their cultures? did they miss this? or did Qazi Noman sneak this in? or is this book false altogether...
Faith is belief without proof. One should use their brains.. but there is a fine line in using the brain to distinguish between right and wrong.. and to make excuses to choose what we believe and ignore what we don't like....
If Allah did not want you to think, why did he give you a brain and developed in you a very keen sense of logic, an inner sense of what makes sense and what is absurd? Obviously, if Allah wanted you to be a brainless zombie he would have made you one. As to the other points you raise.
Yes, if you feel that the physical ritual of prayers as prescribed say in the Daim or elsewhere makes no sense do not do it. Remember, again, there is no precise prescription of rituals for these things in the Qur'an and so it is perfectly okay to have variety in these things, and not judge others or even yourself in following a very narrow and ritualistic set of movements, for example. Lets take namaaz. Many Sunni groups join their hands together and do not raise their hands to their ears when going from one position to another, for example. Does it invalidate their namaaz? Are you the one to judge? Is even S Qadi Noman the one to judge?
To say "faith is belief without proof" is absurd in the highest degree. In fact, it shows you know very little about Islamic and Ismaili philosophy. In Islam there is no such thing as "belief without proof". In verse after verse in the Qur'an there is exhortation to mankind to consider the proofs around them for a Creator and His essential goodness. Ismaili philosophy prides itself on being a logically based belief system, in which nothing should be believed just because so-and-so says so. It has a deep set of principles from which the theological ideas are built and nowhere it is said "just believe blindly". If you believe blindly, as you seem to do, then it is sad.
As to why Imam's did not object to the content in the da'im. First, consider that the Imams lived in a time very different than ours. Hence, the guidelines in the da'im are essentially for the consideration of the local jurisprudence in the Fatimid empire. There is no reason to believe that anyone considered these guidelines to extend forever into eternity. In fact, it is absurd. Before the establishment of the empire, what book do you think they followed? Do you think, and can you prove, that the things in da'im were followed even before the book was written down? Again, in Islam the only real thing that is 100% certain the inviolability and permanence of the Qur'an. Nothing else.
Let me give you another example. The Imams apparently wrote or commissioned Ikhwan as-Safa that talks of many things, including science. Many of the things written in that book are factually wrong. So do you reject modern science too, just because Ikhwan says something that is contradictory to what have learned since that book was written? That book was written by Imams directly and so perhaps, following your logic, it is even more correct than the da'im. So should we reject modern science, modern logic and modern understanding? If you say "yes", I feel very sad and sorry for you. In fact, even the Imams, if they were alive today would consider the rasaail of the Ikwan as something of historical interest, not something that provides concrete factual information.
Finally, I want you to consider that there are rather literally thousands of different strands of Islam. Are you suggesting that all of them are wrong because they do not follow FGM or other things in the da'im? Only you are correct because you read some book from 1000 years ago, written in a kingdom that could not ensure its own survival for more than 150 years and has vanished?
Friend, I do not wish to argue with your endlessly. I do not engage here too often, but your suggestion that FGM should be practiced because it is in a 1000 year old book needs to be challenged. This absurd belief leads to great harm. FGM is not some funny ritual we do and all laugh about. It has serious and permanent consequences for girls that last her all her life. It has serious implications for the rights of women and the ability of mullahs to control our lives. In any case, FD folk and Aga Khanis do not follow FGM, even though they consider da'im to be an important book. Hence, it is clear that things in it are not to be taken as written in stone. One can use one's judgement and chose not to do things which cause physical harm and mental trauma to little girls. Again, I urge you to use your brain. Allah gave you a brain you to so you can use it. Not so you can lock it up and fall into an intellectual stupor.
Detractors of Oz just as eager to jump the gun and declare victory as Oz was 