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style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Dear recipients, peace and blessings. Today I would like
to talk to you briefly about something that is really affecting many people
today, it is faith. Whether you are faithful or faithless, believer or Agnostic
and perhaps even Atheist, you are somehow affected with faith. Generally
speaking, faith in western tradition is generically<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>defined as belief in supernatural force
that controls the universe or, an institution that expresses belief in divinity.
Well, according to Islamic discernment, that definition is insufficient. Islam
does not delineate faith that way. So, What is faith according to Islam then?
Faith in Islam is belief in heart, expression in words and implementing in acts.
What does that mean? Well, if you reflect a little, it consists of faith in all
human factors, spiritual, which is what the heart holds, verbal, what is spoken
and factual, which is your act. Islam disapproves the belief that someone paid
for your sins and that you are indeed free of guilt. If someone carried my sin
on my<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>behalf, well I suppose I am
not held accountable then. That is what causes broad confusion in the west
today. People consider faith as the mere belief in heart, without properly
transmitting that faith into significant act that genuinely impacts life. So for
instance, many people in the west today who consider themselves Christians, are
engaged in various forms of what is widely known as illicit relationships, as
boyfriends or girlfriends. They also may get inebriated on occasions and so on.
Some women may dare to dress provocatively for attention or as part of their
secular tradition. Faith does not have actual affect on day to day life in the
western world. This phenomenon has reasons. First of which, is the absence of
faith implementation. Regardless of numerous religious practices, they do not
substantially affect temporal life as of social customs, commerce and other
aspects. In the west, they do not reprobate unlawful transactions as of usury
and associated illegitimate business ventures. I do not intend to provoke your
offence with this. I seriously am concerned of how dispirited faith is in the
west. The west <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>successfully
operates secular life but in return, they approximately despise everything that
is associated with or has faith. I hold Christian misapprehension accountable
for what a deity is in the west, it massively impinged on how people view or
recognise the deity. The explicit personification of the divine made faith an
object of mockery, distraction, uncertainty, contention and disarray. I may
sound a bit philosophical but I guess what I attempt to scrutinize is plainly
discernible. Faith loss is a vastly common </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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face="Times New Roman">phenomenon i</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">n the west nowadays. Another reason for that is the<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>panoptic dispersion of dozens of
religious denominations. These various religious sects are not as devout as we
may like them to be. They mostly are dominated with western life-style. So for
instance, if you visit Church services in western countries, you will see that
part of the religious ceremony is <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>incorporation of musical instruments.
Well of course, these practices are not authentically attested in scriptural
authorities despite some apologetic attempts to prove otherwise. Thence Jesus,
(peace and blessings be upon him) neither him nor any of his honourable
disciples performed music as polemically, part of their worship. I may not be
right about everything but, religion in the west is certainly affected with
terrestrial influence. If you look at either Christmas or Easter, they almost
became secular celebrations. You hardly notice any religious practice unless
those who are committed to Church attending and they are really, insignificant
compared to the vast majority. I am not attempting to denounce faith in the
west. I am just reporting facts. Well here in the Muslim world, we almost are
getting there. Our religion is continuously threatened of being ultimately
secularised. From my previous post, you noticed that Ramadan is around the
corner. This month is meant to be a month of day fasting and night praying.
Well, people unfortunately, spend its day mostly sleeping and at night, well,
eating so much desserts and watching television series whole night long. This is
why in Ramadan, I do not sit with people that much, to save myself from falling
into this. As a certified theologian, it is my duty to warn myself and others
from the threat of faith extinction. It is quite on the edge in the west and we
are next, unless we do something quick in order to revive the significance of
spiritual life. We must look at how religion is presented to people. The tone
along with the tool must be really renewed. We must look at controversial
religious text as of Koran and Hadith and </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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face="Times New Roman">supplement our discernment with increasing our knowledge
of Arabic and affiliated disciplines. This is why, education in Islam is
indispensable. Well, that is enough for the time being. I wish you happy and
blessed time, wherever you might be settled on earth and please, kindly accept
my greetings from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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face="Times New Roman">Mostafa</FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>