Okay, you've got my attention.
On a more serious note, you're not allowed to have an ego here. Thread rules apparently.
Maybe you need a bit more Cross in your life.
Notwithstanding your assinine generalization, this is actually something I'm somewhat on board with. However, a law, even an alleged divinely revealed law, is arbitrary and the submission to a law that one has selected (excluding other laws) or has been imposed upon (by fate) doesn't inherently equate to 'submitting one's ego'. It, in fact, often has the opposite effect.
Ok ... Why are you telling me? That's the common non-muslim position.
Same goes for:
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I'd actually find this a plausible explanation (even though I've never heard of it) if it weren't for all the Islamic sources that say Aisha was 6-7 years old at marriage, 9 at consummation, 18 years old when Muhammad died; that the Quran unambiguously suggests the legality of child marriage (65:4); and that child marriage according to Muslims also happened with Muhammad's companions, including Umar and the daughter of Ali, who by all accounts is Muhammad's rightful successor according to Shia.
But let's assume for argument's sake that official Islamic history regarding Aisha is the consequence of political propaganda, that Aisha was of mature age and that child marriage was never condoned by Allah, or even that Aisha, even though she married Muhammad when she was 6, never consummated it ..., I could ask a different question:
Which is better: polygyny or monogyny? If monogyny is not better, why shouldn't we legalize polygyny? If the Almighty allowed for polygyny, then who are we to disagree? Surely humans don't know better than the Almighty.
We both know the point is that these laws are obviously not divinely ordained by the god Jesus Christ revealed, but justifications used by a powerful, influential man to take what he wanted.
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What's up with this nonsense? The inverted cross refers to Peter.
If it's about Romans bragging about having killed the Messiah, which was the responsibility of the Sanhedrin (they were the judge and jury, Rome was merely the executioner), then why did they wait for more than 3 centuries before adopting Christ as a symbol of Roman superiority?
Explain what a "real Christian" is, please.
1)
Maybe you need a bit more Cross in your life.
if only the cross was a living symbol. ive arguedthat it's a dead symbolb y Paul's own logic.
if the symbol no longer has power over the flesh, it is dead.
2)
Notwithstanding your assinine generalization, this is actually something I'm somewhat on board with. However, a law, even an alleged divinely revealed law, is arbitrary and the submission to a law that one has selected (excluding other laws) or has been imposed upon (by fate) doesn't inherently equate to 'submitting one's ego'. It, in fact, often has the opposite effect.
i do agree with Paul's argument that the law was not given to conceal sin but to make it's depths known.
it is deeper than that.
you have 3 levels of mind
islam, hawa/passion and jahilliya/ignorance. likewise in hinduism you have sattva, rajas and tamas.
my own point was that the law of shariah was given to muslims only after the prophet had elevated people to the state of islam. that the law was given to prevent people falling back into hawa and jahilliya. However that ship has sailed. So here we have shariah used on a people already deep in passion and ignorance. even if we have islamic belief, the condition of jahilliya is deeper than that and ever evolving just like matters of the law and nature of sin.
so for example we have hardcore pawn now...it didnt exist in the time of prophet Mohammad. shariah would impose a ban on lewd images. nice story..but people would not be ignorant of what is out there and those conditions lead to unhealthy perversions.
im a big believer in this GRACE..in this idea of a reset whereby we attain a new understanding of right and wrong via Jesus. muslims willn ot accept any one elses authority on this topic. much like OT jews...even if we argue towards reason and logic on some matters, the people who push shariah will do it anyway.
shariah almost destroyed pakistan. it made them far worse.
lastly i should add that the highest level of faith in islam, is IHSAN. few people understand how this level relates metaphysica and cosmology.
it means 'to worship Allah as if you see Him and if you cant see Him then know that He sees you'
on the surface level, this is nothing..but on a deeper level it is about that 'single eye' which, when you think about it, is the total annahilation of ego. how can 'self' exist in the consciousness and experience of God?
even if this is a temporary personal experience of God's Immanence...there arelevels.
for example in hadith it says that 'when you sleep, your spirit returns to Allah' eg it is like the drop merging with the ocean. now if you read up on Turiya consciousness and the state beyond Delta brainwave state. they say that in that state there is no experience of 'i' and that beta, alpha, theta and even delta (which is dreamless sleep) are only illusory non-real states. So basically right now the highest part of our consciousness is the only true state and we're not even aware of it. if we were to experience it, we would realise these other states were like dreams, not real.
How this relates to 'GRACE/faith vs works' ie ihsan vs islam...is that the entire game of dualism and our personal story, born of the ego...becomes irrelevant on that level.
this is where the taoist concept of the Tao comes into it aswell.
this level already exists in islam, but the only issue is that we're also distracted by life and unable to experience it.
basically in hinduism, it takes decades and decares of renunciation to attain turiya consciousness.
no one has time or patience for that. the short cut was always faith. faith was like planting a seed and then all it's growth depends on the light, the light within does it's work without us thinking about it.
nice idea..but then Jesus also reminded us of the parable of weeds and other parables which suggest a deeper sabotage at play. so even when we try to plant the right seeds, there's a demonic influence going on causing immense internal damage.
this is where Jesus and the cross matter...it's to say 'you dont need to do any of that work, ive done it for you, but you do have to LOVE ME'
this is problematic for me. how can i claim to love Jesus? it is imaginary. i dont know the guy. never seen him. dont know anyone who knew him.
the epistles of the 1st century have no bearing onmy own condioning in the modern world. the cross is a dead symbol now and has no power etc.
so basically that puts me and the rest of us, in the same position as 1st century jews. conscious of our own sin. in need of help..
in the end all we have is our wits and humour to help us. we need our distractions..
also, the demonic struggle is real. respect to christianity for being one of the only other religions that focuses on the topic of demonic posession.
ive conversed with over 1000 spirits of the demonic kind via posessions. that was over 15 yrs ago. it was a phase of around 3-4 yrs where i was knee deep in that world.
now if i SEE a demon, im like 'u good mate?' im unphased and just...bored of it all tbh.
christianity was something i studied for a period of time after that to see if there was another take/angle on these topics, but yeh...
one big one, was this idea that if you ASK FOR ANYTHING in the name of Jesus, it'll be given.
it's anice idea, it pertains to faith and thepower of creative imagination. essentially it is no different to me consciously planting a seed/intent in my heart, with the firm believe it's growth will come so long as the light of faith remains strong in me.
ive seen sinful christians say that 'without fail, the demon leaves when we mention jesus' yet ive seen christians get exorcised by muslims aswell in the uk and they've said 'we went to lots of christians, it never worked'.
truth is, it's all about personal conviction, all of it. it's about the power of creative imagination. the muslim exorcists on the highest level have all this knowledge of taweez/constructs. i saw one guy bring out a very very basic book. it contained images like stick images/drawings depicting demonic entities but for example he had one image depictic a demon with it's head severed and connecting to the body with a single line. he told the demon posessing this sikh man 'see this image? his is what will happen if i burn this image'. the entity refused to leave him, he burnt the image and the entity screamed out in agnoy. it was a scary AF experience to witness it...but in the end that entty cried, begged to be kept alive and then left him.
basically like jesus said 'if you HAVE FAITH', it's about faith in the creative process. the human imagination is the key power to conquer the astral plane and our sinful nature via our astral body and it's attachments.
the key reason we fail is because of deep programming akin to the soil itself being tainted with rocks buried deep in it.
then the process of faith, akin to planting seeds, fails because the soil is in in a bad state. the process of tilling brings those 'rocks' if you will...to the surface. we see all the horrid sh** we'd buried deep in our heart, brough to the surface..and it can kill a person.
so basically, like i said...a bit of humour/wit and fuck off attitude goes a long way when we're dealing with so much. even what is buried in us, is not limited to our own selves, we carry deep ancestral wounds we cant even understand.
but yeh, power of the cross...if only. the power of creative imagination in me, wishes that was true. if only i could just use the cross and heal all my personal/internal turmoil
when you see a b*tch with the crucifix tatooed on her arse, your creative imagination takes a kicking.
but that's a diff story.