Philosophy of Religion

Late post, but here it is.

I came across a delightful logical argument for the existence of God in a website called Philosophy of Religion (www.philosophyofreligion.info). The website, it seems is neither here nor there, but they simply wish to provide arguments for and against the existence of God. Most arguments for use the Bible for examples, etc. but they (from what I have seen) refer to God simply as God, which is excellent because now we can extend all their arguments to our favor. :P

Anyway, among other interesting topics, I found one called The Modal Ontological Argument, which is a logic based argument for the existence of God and it goes, as I understand it, as follows.

If God exists, He is a necessary Being. That is, he exists in all possible worlds. (Hold on to your hats folks, were entering parallel universe territory.) Next, it says IF God exists, then it is possible that there is some possible world in which He exists. Therefore, according to the first argument, He must exist in ALL worlds; in other words, God exists.

The full argument is delightfully wordy and uses the typical philosophical argument format involving exclusives and inclusives, and can be found here:

http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/the-ontological-argument/the-modal-ontological-argument/

Be careful though, there are links on that website to places where they argue against the existence of God, and I don't recommend you read them. 

I do like this one argument I read though in which they invoke something called Ockham's razor (yes, razor) which is the rule that between two arguments, the simpler is to be taken as superior. The author then states that the argument between a finite force, and an infinite force is won by the infinite force because an argument for a finite force assumes 2 things: the force, and that which causes it, whereas the argument for an infinite force needs only the infinite force because an infinite force cannot be constrained. 

Anyway, have a look, but hold fast to your deen; it's in places like these that it is quickly snatched away!

Comic: Trolling Big Toe

Gonna be a bit late....

Hey, sorry for the delay, but today's post is going to be a bit late (isA) (I've been moving in and out of internet-available areas). 

How to Give a Khutba

Last friday, it happened that all of the guys who usually give the khutba were unable to attend Jumaa. The result was everybody sitting around waiting for 45 minutes because no one knew if they were coming or where they were. Finally, one of the older men got someone to give the sermon. A thought then occurred to me: what if they had asked me to do it? 


Okay, it's a little bit more complicated than that. It starts with deciding who is best to be Imam:


Selecting an Imam


Imam selection is done in the following order:


a) The person who knows the most Quran
b) The person who knows the most sunnah
c) The person who performed the migration (hajj?) first
d) The person who is the eldest


Who can be imam? (I was going to list them as they were given in Fiqh us Sunnah, but I changed my mind) Instead, I'll tell you whose imamate is NOT acceptable:


Someone who has a health problem which does not allow him to remain in a state of purity should not be an Imam for people who don't have this problem. 


Okay, so it turns out you're the most qualified to be the Imam, now what?


1) Greet the people when you come to the pulpit, and take a seat. A simple "Salam-alaykom" should do. Then ask someone to give the adhan. 
2) Stand up, and start the khutba off by praising Allah (SWT). The Prophet (SAW) used to say:


"All praise be to Allah, we seek His aid and we seek His forgiveness and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls. Whomever Allah guides, no one will be able to mislead him. Whoever He leaves astray will have no guidance. And I testify that there is no God except Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger whom He sent with the truth and as a warner before the Hour. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger will be guided aright, and whoever disobeys them will only harm his own self and he will not harm Allah, the Exalted, at all."


3) Give the first khutba. The khutba should be a bit short, or as long as it usually is in your place of prayer. Remember, the purpose of the khutba is to encourage people to do good, and warn them about the consequences of wrongdoing. Fiqh us-Sunnah says to admonish (warn) the congregation, but I feel too much warning, doom and gloom will make them resent the religion. I think the ideal khutba, from my own experience, has a healthy mix of Quran, hadith, arabic wording, talk of reward, and talk of punishment, while providing the congregation with information they can use instantly. Of course, I always enjoy a good story too. ;)


4) According to islamicity.com, conclude the first khutba by inviting everyone to make a supplication (dua) to Allah (SWT), and sitting down. 


5) *brief pause for supplications* in my local masjid, we use a bit of time after duas to give some announcements.


6) The second Khutba. Start off again by praising Allah (SWT) and sending peace and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad (SAW), then reiterate what was discussed in the first khutba, summarizing and generally ensuring that the audience really understands the message.


7) The supplication before the prayer, say the following, pausing after each to allow the congregation to say "Ameen" (translations in blue)


"Allahuma’ Eghfir Lil’ Muslimeena wal Muslimat"
"Almighty God, forgive the Muslim men and women"


"Wal Moumineena wal Mouminaat"
"And the believing men and women"


"Al-Ahya’ee minhum wal amwat"
"Those who area live and those who died"


"Innaka samee’un mujibul dawat"
"You are indeed the One who listens and accepts all supplications"


Now you can add any additional supplications you like, such as praying for muslims in another part of the world. 


8) Conclude the khutba by saying:

"Ibada Allah: inna Allah Ya’amuru Bil Aadli wal Ihsan, wa Ita’ee Zil Qurbaa, wa yanhaa anil fahshaa’ee wal munkaree wal bagh’yi. Ya’Izukum La’allakum tazakkaroon"

"Servants of Allah: indeed Allah orders us to be just and to excel in what we do, be generous and to take care of our kin and relatives, never do what is forbidden of all sins and not to transgress. He almighty advises you so you can remember."

9) Ask the muezzin to call the iqamah to start the prayer:

"Aqimi Salah, innaa asalata tanha anil fahshaa’ee wal munker" 

(no translation, sorry :( ) 

10) Begin the salat.

Congratulations! You survived giving a khutba! 
For more information, check out:


http://www.islamicity.com/library/Articles/Khutba_GuideLine.htm

Thoughts: God and Physics

*WHAT FOLLOWS ARE MY OWN THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES AND HAVE NO REAL WEIGHT IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. THEY ARE MY OWN ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND MY RELIGION AND COULD BE ENTIRELY WRONG*


I was talking with a friend of mine a while ago. Since I'm muslim and he's a science-tist (essentially an atheist who believes only in the laws of science) we frequently get on the topic of God and religion. What all of our arguments boil down to is the "leap of faith": that I believe God is the cause of all physical phenomena, the Creator of all, and he believes that everything is a result of physics. 


And then he said something I, at the time, didn't have a full answer for. I said that we can't "prove" God exists in a physical way because we don't have the equipment to do it, and he said that science dictates that we should be able to prove all things, therefore, there must be something we could test that would indicate God exists. A result of this is that God must have physical properties and therefore follows laws of physics. If this is the case, God is not omnipotent since He must follow the laws of something that bind him. 


Which is a (somewhat) fair assumption. God can manipulate matter and energy, so he must follow some laws of physics. Everything follows laws, the difference, however, the key difference between our physics and God's physics, is that God defined and defines his own physics. That is what keeps Him, logically, omnipotent.  It's like when God says:


"He has prescribed mercy for Himself" (Quran 6:12)


Mercy wasn't prescribed for Him by someone else, HE prescribed it for Himself. 


So the way I see it, there's our physics, with our laws of motion, electricity, etc. which God created, and then there's God's physics which He created for Himself. Of course then we get into the whole issue of "well, if everything came from something, where did God come from?" and to that I refer you to this hadith:


It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Men will continue to question one another till this is propounded: Allah created all things but who created Allah? He who found himself confronted with such a situation should say: I affirm my faith in Allah.  (Sahih Muslim, Book#001, Hadith #0242)


and I add the idea that creationism is part of our physics, but is not part of God's physics. The way of OUR world is that stuff is made from other stuff, but the way of God isn't. I bet though, if we make it to heaven (inshaAllah), God'll explain this discrepancy. I'm sure there's a simple explanation that won't at all involve time moving in a circular pattern and other stuff that would make the mind of the most brilliant physicist melt into a puddle of confused goo. 


So, summary:


a) THE ABOVE WAS FROM MY OWN THOUGHTS AND OPINION
b) God defines His own physics and can change it whenever He likes. 
c) There's OUR physics and then there's God's physics. Just because we can detect ours doesn't mean we can detect God's.
d) God is the Creator who wasn't created.