As time has gone on, along with the crisis of my own beliefs, I have become aware of how little I know about other religions. It can be reduced to very vague generalities. its strange but it is only when I started to think of a world without religion, that I realise how important it is to mankind as a whole and how I am still implicitly a product of cultural christianity. so finding some sense of "place" with my own beliefs means understanding others much more deeply than I do now. humanity is bigger, greater and more diverse than I have ever realised and admittedly, will probably ever know. thinking outside the box has got me this far, so its probably time to smash it and see where it takes me.
it seems that the best way to understand a religion is to live by them and practice them. that is how they are meant to be understoood, as living faiths. it is as much about how we feel as how we think and the inner experience is hard to replicate any other way. I've toyed with the idea of doing a "grand tour" of major religions by converting to them and getting to know them better. each is part of the story of our humanity, so they all have something to offer. I'm not sure how it would go but I thought I'd start with Islam.
Islam has obviously been in the news a great deal, and regrettably not in the sense I think people would want it to be. it therefore disproportionately comes up in debates on RF and often needs to be defended based on recognising muslims shared humanity with non-muslims in addition to the pecularities of the Islamic faith. it is also true that Islam, as the major religion of the middle east and africa represents a challange to eurocentric views by learning about it's history and traditions.
I hope that, if you are ok with it, that I may spend some time in the Islam DIR, get to know you all and your faith a bit better. I would still retain my own beliefs, but my intention is to respectfully spend sometime getting to know the "nuts and bolts" of a religion as a guest and not to impose upon you. maybe something along the lines of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." there will be bumps I'm sure, but I hope you'll forgive my ignorance and nieveity on many subjects dear to you.
So I'd like to ask for some general advice on what I would do in order to convert to Islam as if I were to become a practicing Muslim and whether this is ok with the members here. that might help me understand. if this goes well I would then look to "join" another religion later on (let's say after at least for a month) and see what I can learn from each of them.
it's a crazy scheme, but every journey begins with a first step. so here it goes.
Are you ok with this?
kind regards, Laika.
[p.s. yes, I would consider praying five times a day to understand it. if I do so with much swearing at the early hours that will stay between the kafir and allah.
]
it seems that the best way to understand a religion is to live by them and practice them. that is how they are meant to be understoood, as living faiths. it is as much about how we feel as how we think and the inner experience is hard to replicate any other way. I've toyed with the idea of doing a "grand tour" of major religions by converting to them and getting to know them better. each is part of the story of our humanity, so they all have something to offer. I'm not sure how it would go but I thought I'd start with Islam.
Islam has obviously been in the news a great deal, and regrettably not in the sense I think people would want it to be. it therefore disproportionately comes up in debates on RF and often needs to be defended based on recognising muslims shared humanity with non-muslims in addition to the pecularities of the Islamic faith. it is also true that Islam, as the major religion of the middle east and africa represents a challange to eurocentric views by learning about it's history and traditions.
I hope that, if you are ok with it, that I may spend some time in the Islam DIR, get to know you all and your faith a bit better. I would still retain my own beliefs, but my intention is to respectfully spend sometime getting to know the "nuts and bolts" of a religion as a guest and not to impose upon you. maybe something along the lines of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." there will be bumps I'm sure, but I hope you'll forgive my ignorance and nieveity on many subjects dear to you.
So I'd like to ask for some general advice on what I would do in order to convert to Islam as if I were to become a practicing Muslim and whether this is ok with the members here. that might help me understand. if this goes well I would then look to "join" another religion later on (let's say after at least for a month) and see what I can learn from each of them.
it's a crazy scheme, but every journey begins with a first step. so here it goes.
Are you ok with this?
kind regards, Laika.
[p.s. yes, I would consider praying five times a day to understand it. if I do so with much swearing at the early hours that will stay between the kafir and allah.
]
