Category: Uncategorized

Additional reading: Surah Mumtahinah – She Who is Examined: Overcoming Sectarianism and Religious Divide

The Muslim Times’ Chief Editor’s comment

On a side note, during this commentary of some of the verses of Sura Hujjarat, Mirza Tahir Ahmad also says that the reason for the downfall of the Muslim civilization was that they followed conjecture, rather than the fundamental truths of society or science.

I agree and echo his sentiment that this is still true. Laws of nature have not changed. If the Muslims, regardless of sect or their beliefs of theology, if follow conjecture rather than than the fundamental truths of society or science, history will repeat itself. You have been warned.

The holy Quran says:

“And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Surely, conjecture avails nothing against truth. Indeed, Allah is well aware of what they do.” (Al Quran 10:36)

And:

“But they have no knowledge thereof. They follow nothing but conjecture; and conjecture avails naught against truth.” (Al Quran 53:28)

We have the best collection of articles about the Holy Quran

The Quranic Verses About Successful Households And Generational Blessings

What do Morgan Freeman, Robin Williams, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain teach us about purpose of life?

A Ted Talk As Commentary of A Verse of the Quran

Video: How Science Changed Reading of the Bible and What are We Proposing for the Quran

Epigraph

We certainly did not create men or women, powerful and weak, but to worship Me. (Al Quran 51:56)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

Whatever goals we achieve in life, those become relatively less important and sometimes meaningless and our horizons of desire expand further and we seek more. Be it money, power, reputation, skills, accolades, beauty, whatever may be your obsession at a given time.

This is the nature of human desire and psychology.

Can we be happy without an Infinite God and an eternal and infinite paradise? In the short and in the long run?

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy,” CS Lewis a famous Christian theologian said, “the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Morgan Freeman^[2] (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman was raised in Mississippi where he began acting in school plays. He studied theatre arts in Los Angeles and appeared in stage productions in his early career. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children’s television series The Electric Company. Freeman then appeared in the Shakespearean plays Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, the former of which earned him an Obie Award. His breakout role was in Street Smart (1987), playing a hustler, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He achieved further stardom in Glory (1989), the biographical drama Lean on Me (1989), and comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy (1989), the latter of which garnered him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

He had the following to say about the purpose of life in a few minutes after achieving that which 8 billion of us desire:

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills^[1][2] and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike,^[3][4] he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time.^[5][6][7]

Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s,^[8] and rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–1982).^[9] After his first leading film role in Popeye (1980), he starred in several critically and commercially successful films, including The World According to Garp (1982), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Patch Adams (1998), One Hour Photo (2002), and World’s Greatest Dad (2009). He also starred in box office successes such as Hook (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Good Will Hunting (1997), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006–2014). He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.

On August 11, 2014, at age 63, Williams died by suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California. His autopsy revealed undiagnosed Lewy body disease.^[10][11]

In 2020, 45,979 Americans died by suicide. Suicide is the 12^th leading cause of death in the U.S. Every day, approximately 125 Americans die by suicide.

Katherine Noel Valentine Brosnahan Spade (born Katherine Noel Brosnahan; December 24, 1962 – June 5, 2018)^[1][2] was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. She was the founder and co-owner of the designer brand Kate Spade New York.

After graduating from St. Teresa’s Academy, an all-female Catholic high school, Spade attended the University of Kansas. She later transferred to Arizona State University. She joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and graduated with a journalism degree in 1985, thinking she would go into television production. While in college, she worked in sales at Carter’s Men Shop, a men’s clothing store in Phoenix; her co-worker was Andy Spade, who later became her husband and business partner.^[5][4][6]

Spade married Andy Spade, the brother of actor/comedian David Spade, in 1994. While not legally separated, the couple had begun living apart a few months before her death.^[23]

The couple’s only child, a daughter, was born in 2005.^[24]

A housekeeper found Spade dead in her Manhattan apartment on June 5, 2018. Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging.^[26] Police reported that she had left a note which was addressed to her daughter.^[27] The day after his wife’s death, Andy Spade released a statement:

Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. She was actively seeking help and working closely with doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives. We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy. There was no indication and no warning that she would do this. It was a complete shock. And it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling.^[23]

Within a week of her death, the flagship Kate Spade New York store in Manhattan (and soon other stores nationwide) displayed a sign in its front window reading:

Kate Spade, the visionary founder of our brand, has passed. Our thoughts are with her family at this incredibly heartbreaking time. We honor all the beauty she brought into this world.^[28][29]

Anthony Michael Bourdain (/bɔːrˈdeɪn/; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian^[1][2][3] who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition.^[4] Bourdain was a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of many professional kitchens during his career, which included several years spent as an executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan. He first became known for his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000).

Bourdain’s first food and world-travel television show A Cook’s Tour ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, he began hosting the Travel Channel‘s culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover (2011–2013). In 2013, he began a three-season run as a judge on The Taste and consequently switched his travelogue programming to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Although best known for his culinary writings and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical nonfiction. On June 8, 2018, Bourdain died by suicide while on location in France, filming for Parts Unknown.^[5]

Morgan Freeman is in search of meaning of life. He has made a National Geographic series about God. You may be able to watch his 18 hours of program online in National Geographic website.

It seems that his answer to the question of purpose of life is that we need God. We cannot be always happy without an Infinite God and an eternal and infinite paradise.

CNN’s Anthony Bourdain dead at 61 | CNN. How can we get to a happy ending to our life?

Suggested reading: Understanding the Nature of Jesus is Always a Heresy and

Video: How Jesus Became God, by Prof. Bart Ehrman?

Refuting William Lane Craig’s: ‘The Birth of God’

Video: The most famous Christian apologist, William Lane Craig, accepts there is no Trinity in the Old Testament

Can the Dogma of 2 Billion Refuted in a 5 Minute Video?

Epigraph:

وَلِلّٰہِ الۡمَشۡرِقُ وَالۡمَغۡرِبُ فَاَیۡنَمَا تُوَلُّوۡا فَثَمَّ وَجۡہُ اللّٰہِ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِیۡمٌ

The East and the West belong to Allah. Whichever way you turn, there is His Face. God is All Encompassing and All Knowing. (Al Quran 2:115)

Demystifying Quantum Physics: You Need it for Your Faith

Epigraph Eyes cannot reach Him but He reaches the eyes. And He is the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware. (Al Quran 6:103) Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the […]

Whatever is in the Heavens or the Earth Glorifies Allah

King penguins at Royal Bay on South Georgia island While there are plenty of other birds crowding the beaches and cliffs of South Georgia island, the king penguins—excuse us—rule the roost. […]

Reading the Quran with Sir David Attenborough

Epigraph: Have they not looked at the earth, how many of every noble species have We caused to grow therein, in pairs? (Al Quran 26:7) Allah the Creator, the Maker […]

Jane Goodall and David Attenborough: A Constant Reminder that We Came from Chimpanzee Like Animals

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Forty percent of U.S. adults ascribe to a strictly creationist view of human origins, believing that God created […]

A Slight Twist Makes David Attenborough a Great Teacher for God of the Abrahamic Faiths

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an agnostic, for he focuses on the question of suffering.  If that question […]

The anesthesia of familiarity: There should be a Creator of Our Universe

Below are all our tweets about this article, applauding different aspects of our nature pictorially, click on any of them to read the article: The anesthesia of familiarity: There should […]

A New Commentary of the Holy Quran Emphasizing Compassion, Justice and Human Rights Launched

Source: TheQuran.Love Here are some details from the Homepage and About Us page of the website: The very first verse of the Holy Quran is, “I begin in the name […]

How science polishes our understanding of the Quran

By Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The second last verse of Surah Ha Mim Sajdah reads, “We will show them Our Signs in the universe and also […]

Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The National Museum of Natural History, located on the National Mall just across from the Smithsonian castle, is America’s […]

If the Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins!

Epigraph: And you (Muhammad) shall assuredly find those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ to be the nearest of them in love to the believers. That is because amongst them are […]

The Truth is Out: The Book of Genesis is Mythohistory According to William Lane Craig

In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration By William Lane Craig  (Author) Was Adam a real historical person? And if so, who was he and when did he […]

Are the Scientists the Better Teachers for Several of the Attributes of God?

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Charles Darwin did not make my list of heroes until after I was forty years old. Part […]

Surah Al Baqara (The Cow): Section 4: Adam and Eve

By Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times 2:30. Call to mind, when your Lord announced to the angels: I am about to place a vicegerent in […]

The Five Authors to read in Order to Comprehend the Bible and the Quran in Light of the Scientific Revolution

Epigraph: We will show them Our Signs in the universe and also among their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that the Quran is the Truth. (Al Quran […]

Twitter: Why do some young Muslims leave Islam in the West: Let us find real reasons

To Know more how you can benefit from the Muslim Times, go to our Homepage or About Us page Here is a remarkable thread on why some Muslims lose faith and become #ExMuslim. It […]

Did Eve Come from Adam’s Rib — That is the Question?

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The very first or the second verse of Surah Nisa, which would be translated as the chapter about […]

Epigraph:

We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this Quran is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a Witness over all things? (Al Quran 41:53)

Additional reading and viewing

The only thing standing between you and your Quran is your own teacher

The Muslim Times wants to share the key to the Quran from a Ghamidi versus Ahmadiyya Urdu debate

After Monotheism, the Two Most Seminal Verses of the Quran

We are all living in the Womb of God-the-Mother, 13.8 billion Years Pregnancy

Why Secularism Is Compatible with the Quran and Sunnah — And an ‘Islamic State’ Is Not

God Is Living, So Why Does Religion Treat God As Dead?

One of the Best English Translations of the Quran Now Available Online

More than Fifty different simultaneous translations of the Holy Quran in English

Rumi: The Quran is Like a Shy Bride!

Epigraph:

We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this Quran is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a Witness over all things? (Al Quran 41:53)

Additional reading and viewing

The only thing standing between you and your Quran is your own teacher

The Muslim Times wants to share the key to the Quran from a Ghamidi versus Ahmadiyya Urdu debate

After Monotheism, the Two Most Seminal Verses of the Quran

We are all living in the Womb of God-the-Mother, 13.8 billion Years Pregnancy

Epigraph:

Allah it is Who has sent His Messenger, Muhammad, with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religions, even if those who associate partners with God do not appreciate. (Al Quran 61:9)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

There are several verses in the Quran talking of victory of Islam. But the Muslims have never understood or conceptualized these properly, merely in self-serving parochial ways.

There are more than 300,000 churches in USA. When Muslims build a mosque any where in USA, and a dozen people start praying there, many of them think this is victory of Islam or spread of the Islamic message in the West.

I am afraid it is not so.

Most of the mosques like the churches are empty and devoid of attendees especially the youth.

To me the victory of Islam, promised in the Quran, is not political but merely of its principles. There are so many Muslim majority countries with Muslims governing them, yet a large majority there is dying to migrate to the West.

Demonstration of family values and living a happy family life is victory of Islam.

People realizing that they do not need priesthood and everyone has a direct connection with God, is victory of Islam.

People living a chaste life is victory of Islam.

People of all faiths realizing the risks of alcohol and gambling is victory of Islam

Good governance anywhere is victory of Islam.

People thinking and living by reason rather than dogma and preconceived ideas is victory of Islam.

People of all faiths giving up racism is victory of Islam. Theocracy of Iran is not a victory of Islam. Theocracy of Saudi Arabia and now their moving away from it since the new Crown Prince is not victory of Islam. Please find an Urdu speaker to translate this short video for you:

Last month, Pew Research Center released a study exploring how the religious composition of the United States might change by 2070. One of the conclusions that drew widespread attention is that Christians – who constituted 64% of the nation’s population in 2020 – may no longer be the majority five decades from now. But the future course of Christianity in the U.S. is not set in stone and the point of the projections is not to predict the demise of religion in general or Christianity in particular.

Looking at the experience of 80 countries, we find that the share of people who were raised as Christians and switch away from Christianity has not risen much above 50% anywhere, even in highly secular Western European countries. For American Christians concerned about the future of U.S. religious composition, the experience of other countries may offer some helpful context. A new blog post takes a closer look.

We can outsource teachings of Islam to agnostics, Christians and atheists: If the Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins!

Half-baked Muslim preachers are not victory of Islam. They only impress those already convinced and converted.

We need the message to be conveyed by those who can connect with the local Western audience better:

I conclude with a short, suggested reading:

A Nobel for Karen Armstrong will bring the Christians and the Muslims closer

Reading the Quran with Sir David Attenborough

A Slight Twist Makes David Attenborough a Great Teacher for God of the Abrahamic Faiths

Video: Is Jesus God? – Dr. Jerald F. Dirks

Refuting William Lane Craig’s: ‘The Birth of God’