Introduction to Way of Life

INTRODUCTION TO WAY OF LIFE

This is a short introduction to give you an idea of the perception of the World as seen from Islam’s point of view. The name God will be used to describe the superior force, or power, or intelligence behind everything. God is the reason we exist, and everything around us.
God has also given us guidance to the best way of life.

The latest, complete, description of this way of life, or code of life, compatible with the human being, can be found in the Qur’an.
The Qur’an also describes some of the functions of the Universe, which can help us to acquire a deeper understanding of the “system of God”.
Numerous verses in the Qur’an, as 2:185, 34:28, 2:107 etc., are telling us that the guide is for all mankind, not only Arabs, or Muslims, therefor the guide is not the property of, or limited to, one religion, belief or language.

Some descriptions, or codes, can be traced in the Jewish and Christian scriptures as well, but there are more doubtful to their original form.
Some traces can also be found in other scriptures adhered to by other groups like Hindu, Buddhist etc.

There is no larger community, on Earth today, leading the perfect way of life as described by God.
We are in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, doing our best to destroy ourselves and everything around us.

God is showing us the way to live that is most beneficial for ourselves and all other creations.

Instead of accepting and be grateful for this tremendous gift from God, we create numerous systems, and guides, for ourselves, some called religion, some called political systems and so on. All of these systems are incompatible with the human being, utterly confusing, and doomed to fail.

The human invented systems are creating the present day chaos and enmity amongst us.

This is mainly due to the fact that we have created, among other things:

  1. Various systems of worshipping, this or that, through various beliefs and rituals.
  2. Various political systems, systems of government and laws adding to our confusion and bewilder ness.
  3. Trading and financial systems built on imaginary values, or usury.
  4. The Earth divided up into segregated sections called countries
  5. Multitude of different cultures and languages

All these existing differences are difficult to overcome, bridge, or change, but it is a definite requirement if we want to maximize our lives on Earth, and in the hereafter.

1. Beliefs and rituals

Various types of systems known as religions are beliefs and rituals formed by human beings throughout history.
Some of these beliefs and rituals are so rigorous that they result in enmities leading to violent wars of war-like situations.
This happens, even though most, if not all, religions condemn this behaviour.

What are these enmities really all about?

The reasons for enmities are not the rituals, or beliefs themselves, it is the condemnation by fellow human beings of anything we are not a part of, or can control.

How completely ridiculous and stupid can we, human beings, get?

We quarrel, wage wars and create sufferings due to our self-created meaningless rituals and beliefs!

Hiding behind the name of Islam, we find numerous religious sects of which, at present, the Sunni and Shiah sects are the largest divisions.
These sects are further divided u into smaller groups, sometimes related to various “scholars” of “high priests” or self-declared messengers.

We find a similar pattern of division behind the shield of all other systems, or religions, like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and so forth.

In the case of Islam we take the perfect guidance from God, dissect into small pieces, most of which we do not understand. Then we put the parts together emphasizing what we like, and with our own understanding, thereby creating new religious sects with varying rituals according to our own selections and creative ideas.

Rituals are of great importance in order to make a stronger bondage between the followers, through uniformity, and are therefore created different for different sects.

If our thus created religious sects don’t quite suit our purpose, or details can not be justified through twisting the words of the Qur’an, we simply invent some new scriptures claiming they are from our creator.

Simple!

Then we get going; certifying each other as specialists and “priests” of our religion. Setting up schools and universities and start calling people to the “truth” that we have created. We use any, and all, kinds of threats and/or promises of personal benefits in our cunning work.

Of course, as time goes by, some adjustments of the ” truths” and rituals will be necessary, to keep control and to satisfy people’s varying demands.

Everybody who cannot be persuaded into believing in what we have created, are called unbelievers, we ridicule and condemn them, or kill them.

Fantasic!

This is, basically, true for many religions on Earth.

2. Politics and government

We have numerous variations of political governmental systems, one worse than the other.

One group with one system can often not tolerate another group with another system, leading to segregation in trade, communication, development and what not.
This is a good way to isolate each other and to build barriers between us that, very often, lead to poverty and sufferings, and ugly and violent struggles and enmities.
Again, it is the condemnation of fellow human beings, following various systems, that is the main cause of the enmities.

Politics, and political parties, has grown to corrupt most of the world’s governments and governmental bodies, and is just as detrimental to our existence as any religions.
We all struggle to live our lives the best possible way but should follow wild animals when they choose leaders, they normally choose the smartest and most fit among their crowd as leaders, unlike us, human beings, we choose the one who talk loudest and are richest, and that usually gives bad results.

The perfect system is described by God, why not give it a chance?

Let logic and common sense lead the way for once.

3. Financial systems

Another grave mistake we are making, by not adhering to the words of God, is our failure to handle trade and finance the way we are told.

Our economic world order is built on imaginary values and usury. Almost every single human being on Earth is stuck in this system.

A small group of human beings have been smart enough to set up systems where we end up paying high prices for imaginary values or get paid for our work with imaginary values. (The real value of our paper money is only the value of the paper itself).

The system of loans, interest and taxes are among the cleverest schemes ever invented by humans for the worldly benefit of a few

individuals.

There are some well written articles and analogies on the subject, as “I want the Earth plus 5%”

We see many, both individuals and countries, now struggling to repay even the interest on loans. These loans do not include real values at all, just monetary or imaginary values that are not benefitting any community.

Trading is also done through transactions of real values like food, clothes etc. paid for by imaginary values, our modern money, credit cards, bank drafts etc.
The losers in this scheme will always be the producers of the real values.

This is often resulting in poverty, leading to enmities and/or violent wars etc.

The word of God calls for all trades and exchanges of services to be without any interest or usury of any kind. Real value for real value.

But we don’t listen to that, we are so much smarter than God!

4. Division into countries

Everybody tend to enjoy their “own” place, or a place they are familiar with, and put it high on the list of priority

The various countries’ rulers will try to encourage their citizens to be “patriotic”. They are told to love and cherish their “homeland” more than anything else, even life.

This is another good way to create enmities between human beings. One country’s inhabitants get envious, or scared, of another country’s inhabitants. Or maybe the rulers just want something the other country has.

Anyway, the result is very often war or other forms of enmity that inevitably will lead to sufferings, poverty and so on.

The ones who suffer the most will not be the warmongers, and profiteers, who have created the enmities; it will be all the ordinary inhabitants.

According to God, we, the human beings have been given the Earth to live on, we have not been given boundaries to draw between us.

5. Different cultures and languages

Very often a problem leading to enmities can be due to simple misinterpretation between two languages and/or cultures.
One part can feel offended etc. by another part and we start “pounding” each other again.

Good communication based on understanding, and acceptance, of each other’s languages and cultures are some of the prerequisites to avoid enmity between people.
The strict observation of borders between countries, and sometimes closed borders, make it very difficult to acquire such knowledge.
Ordinary people are again fooled into believing the “others” are bad and our group is “good”. And the warmongers, and profiteers, get people fighting each other again.

The word of God, says that we should not divide ourselves up into various religious groups, and that we should come together, from various cultures, once in a while, to get to know one another. That is the reason for the installation of pilgrimage, to meet each other and get better acquainted, and understand our various cultures.

Basic outlines of “The ideal Way of Life”

Looking to the Qur’an for answers to all these problems, we can easily find them.
We just need to use the Qur’an the way it is meant to be used. To create a living, vibrant and satisfying community for all human beings.

According to Islam a leadership, for the people, should be chosen by the people.

So, the ideal place to live, that does not exist today, would be something like the description given below.

To create such a system takes a human race with much higher intelligence then what exists today and therefore is just something to work towards.
There is a movement for a united world today, but on wrong premises, which will destroy the livelihood and happiness for all people who are not part of the leadership, and therefore has to be stopped.

The ideal:

All leaders of the community are chosen by, and from, ALL inhabitants, not from political parties.

Scholars are only educated to guide people in their understanding of God’s will. They are doing continuous research on the verses of the Qur’an, going back to the original texts, and based on the presumption that the Qur’an is a guide to the best way of life.
Everything they teach must be proven by the correct understanding of the Qur’an.

The laws of the state are based on the Qur’an as well, and are continuously adjusted according to the development of the community and understanding of the messages from God.

The places of assembly, the Mosques, are used for education of people in accordance with the Qur’an. Also, studying, and discussing the Qur’an is a major part of the activities in the places of assembly.

God does not need us to pray for forgiveness, or anything else, through rituals, therefore there are no worshipping rituals. God knows what we have in our hearts. What God wants to see is what choices we make and how we practice our everyday life. In short, that we practice what God teaches.

For everybody to remain humble to the greatness of the Infinite Power of The Universe, and beyond, our Creator, we reconfirm, on our own or in an assembly, our commitment to the way of life described in the Qur’an.

The performance of these sessions of reconfirmation is up to each and every person, and there is no segregation between men and women.
The timing of these “prayers”, and/or study sessions, is as prescribed in the Qur’an, in the early morning, during day and at night fall.

There is no imaginary monetary system with money that does not have value in itself, like our existing paper money and credit cards. All transactions are done using real values, like direct barter trade, or precious metal etc., that can be traded for other real values at another time.

Interest on loans does not exist, and, therefore, also no banking systems based on interest. There is no trade with future values or shares.

Complete freedom in religion, and respect for all other forms of religion that does not directly or indirectly harm the global community.
There is no man-made religion under the flag of Islam, Islam is a guide for the best way of life for human beings inspired by God.

All inhabitants are treated the same, and have the same right under the law, regardless of race or religion.

No violence is allowed, unless the system or its people, are under direct physical attack and all other means have been tried and failed, and there is no other solution to be found.

People can move freely around, and trade freely, as there are no borders and no divisions into smaller, segregated, communities. Everybody has the same rights wherever they are, and also the same duty to keep up the lives and livelihood, in the community.

There is one common language that everybody knows, besides the language and/or dialect from the area they were brought up and lives. Language may be used as an art in itself with or without music, but mainly a tool used for communication.

Wealth is to be shared among the whole community, but every able person gets his/her part according to his/her effort and contribution.

There is complete social security to cater for anybody who is not, physically or mentally, able to make contributions large enough for him, or her, to survive.

The cost of education and health care is shared by the whole population.