Understanding Islam, and reading the Qur'an chapter-by-chapter

[Lechasseur]

I wonder how many people know how to translate the word "Allah"?
I think that a lot of people don't know about this. Maybe not people here, but people in general. It is important to know this possibly before knowing anything else about Islam.

Allah I believe is a contraction of Al-Ilah, "the God", in other words it's a contraction of the word "God"

[Lechasseur]

The Cow is slow going, to be sure. Muhammad by this point in his career was deeply incensed that the Jews of Medina, a community whom he thought would be a natural audience for his message, both scorned him and outright allied with the pagan Meccans against his Muslim community. This is about the time Islam is trying to forge an identity that isn't Arab-style Judaic monotheism.

I actually believe that for a long time (about a century), it was made very, very difficult for non-Arabs to convert to Islam, and that was one of the main reasons the Umayyad Caliphate fell (basically the Umayyads treated the Dhimmi very badly and wouldn't let them convert, so non-Arabs and non-Muslims backed the Abbassids against the Umayyads due to the fact that the Abbassids promised to be tolerant of non-muslims and allow non-Arabs to convert to Islam easily).

[Lechasseur]

Christians, Muslims, and Jews all worship Yahweh. Fixed.

Agreed

[Lechasseur]

When do we get to dogs as pets?  That is a local issue where I live because we have a substantial Bangladeshi community. One little Bangledeshi boy reached out a petted our dog Roby, and then recoiled, knowing that he had sinned.

All of the anti-dog condemnations in Islam are based on Hadith (traditions about the life of the Prophet), not the Quran itself. In the Quran itself, Muhammad passingly mentions hunting dogs and guard dogs in a neutral way, but there's nothing one way or the other about dogs as pets.

I doubt there really was the concept of "pets" in 7th century Arabia, so it doesn't surprise me that the concept isn't mentioned.

[Lechasseur]

Would anyone like me to continue this? What are your thoughts on my posts in this thread so far?

It's quite interesting

[Lechasseur]

You are going to see a lot more about Jesus as you go forward. Muhammad was evidently shocked and horrified by the idea that God could have a flesh-and-blood son and viewed that as idolatrous, but was also very impressed with Jesus as a prophet. Muhammad also will maintain that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross, but rather, a body double of some sort was crucified in his place.

I've heard (to be verified, I'll look for the source) that some early Christians apparently believed that and believed that Simon the Cyrene was crucified in his place, so that may be where the idea in Islam was inspired from.

[Lechasseur]

Not all interpretations of original sin hold that we all bear guilt for the original sin in Eden but that the original sin predisposed mankind to a sinful nature that can only be overcome by God's grace and assistance. Does Islam have anything about a predisposition to either evil or good in mankind?

That has always been how I interpreted Original Sin

[Lechasseur]

Can you expand on the fact that Jesus is viewed by Muslims as the Messiah? That's beyond fascinating to the point of being downright jaw-dropping. Does this mean Muslims believe in a second coming or the appearance of Jesus will create the end times, Rapture, whatever one wants to call it?

We believe when the end times occur, Jesus will come back and fight against the Anti-christ with the Mahdi (he's not a bad guy here) and will lead the believers in prayer.

Yeah. It's funny, these days Judaism and Christianity tend to be the two religions that seem to be grouped together (Judeo-Christian heritage and stuff), but with what I know, in a pure religious belief sense, Christianity strikes me as being a lot closer to Islam than to Judiasm (obviously I'm not saying either one is better or worse than the other). Islam almost strikes me as a form of Unitarian Christianity (with some differences of course) mixed with cultural elements and rules from Arabia (I might have put it badly but I think you get what I mean). I know for example on the Jesus question (Isa in Islam, Yasu in Arabic Christianity) Muslims believe that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary (Miryam I believe it is in Arabic).

And can you clarify on the point of the events leading to the end times in Islam? My understanding is the Mahdi (the 12th Imam who's supposed to come back in Shia Islam, not sure who it's supposed to be in Sunni Islam) is supposed to be a righteous man (not sure what his exact role is supposed to be though) who's supposed to start the war against the Antichrist (al Masih ad Dajjal I believe) and prepare the way for Jesus to come back. Then Jesus is supposed to reappear near Damascus and then kill the Antichrist at Megiddo (Armageddon), reunite Islam, Christianity and Judaism into one religion (din I believe) and nation (umma); then he's supposed to rule for 40 years and then die and be buried in Mecca next to Muhammad. Is that correct? And is there any concept of the Day of Judgement in Islam as there is in Christianity?

And I was also reading that while mainstream Muslims don't believe in the Crucifixion my understanding is they believe he never died and just rose to Heaven at one point), apparently Sufi and Ismaili sects have an interpretation of Jesus' death that's similar (although different to that  of Christianity) believe that Jesus' material body died on the cross but his spirit never died. Is that correct or am I misunderstanding something?

And it's also interesting to see that Islam recognizes the Injil (the Gospel), and they believe that was Isa's Revelation from God to the World.