Religion, in many forms, has had the most profound influence on human society throughout history. It’s been the basis for many human traditions, value systems, and conflict throughout the history of human civilization. Understanding religious traditions, relationships, and foundational beliefs enables humans to understand their differences and better prepare themselves to make decisions regarding religious interactions in the appropriate context. Religions are considered to be reliable and important in answering the most profound questions of human existence; where do we come from? What should we do while we are here? Since religion is so important so are the holy texts, because they put into words/ writing of guideline of what that religion is all about. In this essay I will attempt to explore and discuss a passage from Gospel of Luke 10:25-37 “The Good Samaritan” and “Surah Ar Rahman” from 55th Sura of the Qur'an and their relation to that particular religion. “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions – he had money too.” Margaret Thatcher Firstly, The Good Samaritan was not an actual historical figure; he was a fictional man in a story that Jesus told to a religious legalist who was trying to justify his unwillingness to walk the walk. It story showed that the Priest and Levite did not love their neighbour as the Samaritan did, so the only one who was a neighbour to the wounded man was the Samaritan. Clearly, the message Jesus was trying to communicate was that "Love your neighbour as yourself" which means to show mercy and kindness to everyone we you come across. This passage reflects what Christianity care teachings “taught by Jesus” are to good by everyone, which can be observed i... ... middle of paper ... ...er of Allah. However, god protect the writing of Quran but humans still possess free will and it mean they change or twist the “MEANING” of the words in their own languages to suit their agendas. And because of that there are many sects in Islam today but they all have the same Quran. In Conclusion, these passages from two different religions contain message and clues to questions regarding human existence. I can quote the whole scripture and recite Quran word-to-word, but unless we are willing to get involved and change, we are only blowing smoke. Yet, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Buddhists, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, the poor, the homeless, the unattractive, gays, lesbians, the handicapped, the mentally ill, and countless other groups are still sometimes the victims of ridicule, hatred and discrimination.
When a group uses religious ideology to control a population, the religious texts, in the case the Qur’an, are usually interpreted to suit the agenda of the group, because “they have different values and beliefs”2. The reason that the texts are used and intentionally misinterpreted is fairly obvious. Iran, where 99% of the population is Muslim, coupled with the fact that Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the word of god, one who can...
...god will always save Quran from variations. Also Hezb’allah did not establish to revenge the hundreds of years of oppression and marginalization. Indeed, hezb’allah along with the Lebanon military has contributed in protecting the Lebanon land from many wars with Israel. Although, second article did not have much information to set the main reason of the Sunni-Shia differences. It had a wrong Idea of the meaning of caliphs. Caliph does not has to be a leader of the whole Islamic nations. Caliph is an Arabic name of leader, there is nothing special about the word any less you do not have a good sense of the meaning of word. The Islamic aversions are very deep that have follow our ancestors, which make the aversions even harder to solve. Muslims groups need to need to believe the common essential beliefs and forget the simple disagreements to live in a peaceful life.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
The Qur’an is believe to the ultimate source of God by many Muslim believers. It contains 114 suras for the believers as the core practices of the Islamic religion and Muslims throughout the world recites its verses (Chang, Lecture. 1/21/14). They believed the prophet of Allah was Muhammad, who received the words of Allah through Angel Gabriel, and was passed on with the Qur’an during Ramadan. Angel Gabriel one night came to Muhammad “in clear human form” (“Scripture and Tradition in Islam- The Qur’an and Hadith” 104), and gave the messages from Allah to him. From the establishment of the Qur’an, Muslims have viewed the book as the last revelation of their god Allah, and thus are the true words from God for their ways of life and in reaching Allah in their afterlife. The book also teaches “mankind’s responsibility assigned by God” (Gordon 115). Therefore, Muslims practices in ways to prove their devotion towards the new religion of Islam by being faithful, and performing religious practices.
And when Our clear signs are recited to them, those who look not to encounter Us say, ‘Bring a Koran other than this, or alter it.’ Say: ‘It is not for me to alter it of my own accord. I follow nothing except what is revealed to me.’ [10:15]
In the discussion that follows, I will often talk of what “the Qur’an intends,” or what “the Torah means to say” on a topic. It should be understood that I am not ascribing human attributes to inanimate books, but rather that I am intentionally avoiding the conflict inherent in naming the author of these books. Depending on one’s tastes, one could understand the Qur’an’s intention to be either Muhammad or Allah’s intention. Likewise, “the Torah means to say” could really be understood as what either Moses or G-d means to say. Either way, the important point is that somebody thought through the stories and decided on which words were worthy of being included in the holy texts and which were not. One of the underlying assumptions of this paper is that the stories were written down the way we find them today for a reason, and this paper intends to shed light on some of those reasons.
INDTRODUCTION “Sex and Religion”? Those two don’t really go hand in hand,” commented a freshman student from UF. Like this student, numerous people around the world believe this misconception to be true. Whether people argue for or against the importance of gender in religion, more than just what goes on in the bedroom has been heating up lately. Many debates have sparked due to the negative connotation associated with sex when confronted about its position in religious cultures.
If there is one aspect of society that has endured the ages and is an integral part of society today is religion. There are currently about 7 billion people on earth and of those 7 billion more than half adhere to some form of organized religion. The world’s top religion with about 33% of the population or 2.1 billion followers is Christianity, followed by Islam and Hinduism with 1.3 billion and 851 million adherents respectively. These are just a few of the most well-known religions in the world but; what of the religions obscured in mystery and left in the background? The religions you don’t hear much about in your classrooms or in the media. What is their history? What are their beliefs? I hope to shed some light on these questions and bring to light some of the less popular religions in the world. I will be covering several different religions in this paper, Sikhism, Jainism, Confucianism, and Shinto
Human experience is both revelatory and a representation of the wider social context which incorporates societal structure, values and behavioural patterns of individuals.
Renard, John. Islam and Christianity: theological themes in comparative perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Print.
As far back as I can remember I have been raised in a Christian setting. Upon coming to Williams I knew I would be entering another world in which I would have to learn to view and accept other individuals inputs and values regardless of our differences. It is interesting to see the diversity of the campus religiously despite the predominance of certain ethnicities. Like Hegel, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard I actually have my own ideologies behind the concept of religion.
In Luke 10:30-35, Jesus described how a good Samaritan helped a Jewish man who was robbed, beaten, and left half dead while on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem. Although the Samaritan did not have any responsibility to stop and help the Jewish man--as the Samaritans were the enemies of Jew--he stopped and risked his own life to help him. He even helped the Jew at a level beyond anything that might have been considered usual care. The Samaritan brought the Jewish man to an inn and asked the inn keeper to take care of the Jew. Furthermore, he promised the inn keeper to pay all of his treatment costs. The story shows the meaning of loving others as ourselves. The Samaritan man demonstrated agape love. He loved the Jewish man as if he would want to be treated in the same circumstance; he loved the Jewish man as if he was part of his own
Many sources define faith as a belief in something not based upon proof, an intangible trust that a person holds close to their heart despite inconclusive evidence. This notion of faith depicts both ones wishes that their favorite sports team will win a match tomorrow and a hope that they will return safely from distant travels. Many also use this same term – “Faith” – to describe an individual’s given religious beliefs. This notion of religious faith infers that faith in God is something exclusively spiritual and nonconcrete – a belief only supported by inexplicable ideas as opposed to facts and evidence. Yet, as one begins to examine faith further, they come to realize that faith reaches far beyond an individual’s spiritual experience. Although many classify faith as intangible and lacking in proof, religious faith is in fact a concrete reality of life that displays the emotional, physical, and experiential aspects of the human soul. In Proverbs 3: 1-12, the author exemplifies how the emotional, physical, and experiential aspects of faith should play out regularly in everyday life.
My definition of religion has mostly stayed the same, but my perception of it has changed. At the beginning of the class, I assumed religion was something you believed based on your moral principles. I now believe that those moral principles are based on the religion that you believe in. Your religion changes your perception of the world and how to go about in it. Your religion tells you what is right and wrong in the world and answers all of the big questions one asks. Religion according to our book is, “A pattern of beliefs and practices that expresses and enacts what a community regards as sacred and/or ultimate about life” (Van Voorst 6). That definition was one thing that really got me thinking about my own personal idea of what religion
Spirituality can have many different definitions, depending on who is asked. It can be something as simple as looking for a higher meaning to life, or something so complex that one can base their beliefs, religion and overall life around it. There are several different ways to express one's spirituality; rituals, songs, dances, stories, and writings are all common methods of expression.