Thanks for your comment. If you find that you and your Saudi are getting serious my suggestion is to learn as much as you can about the culture and customs to try and head off any unpleasant surprises and have understandings.

I am respectful of religious practices but this one is tooooooooo much for me. How can ANY woman happliy share their husband? I understand that the writer is in a situation where she probably just wants the rights to her children and she will loose this is she leaves her husband, both becuase she is a woman and because she is from the West origonally.

I am dating a Saudi man right now and he seems to be sooooo perfect in so many respects but NEVER in MY LIFE have I felt so ANGRY about being a woman. SO ANGRY about what it is that some men believe is the “right” way that women, IF THEY BELIEVE IN GOD AND ARE GOOD PEOPLE SHOULD BELIEVE?????!!!! WHAT??!!!! I am supposed to let my HUSBAND HAVE SEXXXXXXXXXXXXXX WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, LET HIM HAVE CHILDREN WITH HER AND STILL LOVE HIM AND CARE FOR HIM AND PLEASE HIM SEXUALLY…

YOUR KIDDING RIGHT??!!!

THis article makes me want to cry. God bless this woman and her childern and shame on her lying cheating husband

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=CzCso0daZ4bnXBEZgr4vZTMqJCzEQn0SICjVwECzB1jU3ghAbe8

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/domestic?bbPostId=CzCso0daZ4bnXBEZgr4vZTMqJCzEQn0SICjVwECzB1jU3ghAbe8

Mohammed was the last Prophet that God sent to us on Earth that we will ever see until the Last Day. His message was a simple one….to follow the previous messages from the Prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus and all the others and that the ‘People of the Book’ are also true believers. If you look at the Ten Commandments, which are also in the Qur’an, that’s basically the message you (and all of us) should believe and live by.

And what is the First Commandment…do you know? From what I remember from what I was taught as a Catholic (I’m Muslim now), it was…
‘There is only One God, I shalt not have false gods before me.’

The First Commandment is what makes a person a muslim…the belief in the Oneness of God (Allah).

If people looked at the similarities, instead of the differences, most would understand how similar the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions really are.

I do not recall where you are located but the Saudi embassy has a pamphlet entitled “Understanding Muslims & Islam.” It makes no attempt to convert one to Islam but try to answer questions in a direct straight-forward manner. This pamphlet was distributed to many outgoing military personnel to Iraq and Afghanistan at the behest of the Pentagon to the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC. It is a short and good read.

sorry I did not see your first post. I think I was writing my answer then.

I found the truth in following Christ and I do not consider embracing Islam myself.

However, I am truly very interested in understanding it. I can’t comprehend how people can follow Mohhamed because of some of the things which are described about him in Quran or hadiths. I consider those as the primary sources of Islam. I understand that in Islam you have different interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, schools, scholars ? But for sure there are some core believes that everybody follows, no matter what. What are these? Who decided/decides which ones are they?

In my mind the biggest obstacle to the believes of Islam is Muhammed himself. His life and His example. I have no clue how people can rationally explain some of His behaviors. You can’t find nothing like this about Jesus in the Bible. I will no mention what, because I don’t want you to get upset with me again.

Could you follow for a while my path of thoughts: IF I want to know something about a religion, I look for the founder, original thought etc. If I look into Islam I look into the life of Mohammed. For me, His example is unacceptable. If I ask the questions straight forward, you say I offend you, I have wrong impressions about Islam, I am ignorant etc. But you don’t give me the answers for my questions, no matter how dumb they are. Why is not what I read about Him understood as He said it or as He did it. The more digging I do into the theme, the more controversy His person creates in my mind.

I don’t know where to look (don’t have that much time) for info that would be written to the “ignorant” person as myself. Not generalized and so vague that does not bring any depth, but also not full of Arabic terminology, which I can’t understand and not full of proving that “this way” of Islam is better than “this way”.

If you can show me where to look, especially in the subject of interpreting Mohammed’s life and sayings, I would be thankful.

If you think, this is a waste of time, or you have more exciting things in Iife to consider, I understand.

Thank You.

Have you thought about my question posed to you?

What is your point of arguing this with us? What do you benefit from that?

Again I am telling you, you do not know Islam simply because you read a few ahadeeth. Do you know what has been abrogated and what has not been abrogated? And that is just one tiny aspect of it. We take this religion as a whole, we do not single out one or two ayat and make them outweigh the rest, the same goes for ahadeeth.

What you are doing here right now, I could do the same and ten times over with the biblical verses, and I guarantee you Iwka, I guarantee you, you would be left without an answer to my questions. Because it does not work this way. If I singled out many many verses of the Bible, you would not be worshipping Jesus alayhi salam. But I won’t even go into that.

This exactly is the point. You do not even accept the basic Muslim belief, yet you reject all else that is from Islam. I suggest to you, start seriously considering what you worship and why. I do not accept Jesus alayhi salam to be anything more but a Messenger of God, so how would it make sence to delve into other aspects of Christianity when I can’t even accept this basic christian belief? I have a lot more questions on the concept of trinity than you can provide answers for, I guarantee you this as well.

So let’s cut this short, do you consider the possibility of Islam being the one and only way to God and do you consider the possibility that Muhammad saws was His Messenger sent to mankind? And are you “asking” your questions for this reason?

Thank you

In a plain language, for Christians marriage is a covenant. One time and forever. With one person. Theoretically that brings stability and assurance, doesn’t it? Does it do the same for a muslim woman? I would be terrified not knowing if I can trust my husband, bc he has another option down the road.

And living in the Middle East and hearing stories over and over form the men, I must say, they are not different from any other part of the world. Just married women are in worse position, especially considering the law about the kids after divorce, so…. is there a way out for them? In reality no, because a woman will not willingly leave her kids behind. How many women do you know who did that?

Celibacy is not ideal for Christians. Read the Epistles. It is a choice in order to be given completely to God’s works (practically: more time, possibilities etc). It is for men and women who want to sacrifice their whole life in the service for God.

Sex is not a punishment for Christians. It is an expression of love and commitment. It should be enjoyed within the marriage.

Why do you consider “marriages for pleasure” haram?

Narrated Abdullah: We used to participate in the holy wars carried on by the Prophet and we had no women (wives) with us. So we said (to the Prophet ). “Shall we castrate ourselves?” But the Prophet forbade us to do that and thenceforth he allowed us to marry a woman (temporarily) by giving her even a garment, and then he recited: “O you who believe! Do not make unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you.” Bukhari: Volume 6, Book 60, Number 139.

And a known one:
“You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.”

No wonder they have to try hard. Seems, that even harder than the men, doesn’t?

What about the sex slaves? What about permissible rapes of the enemy prisoners? (Surah 4:24)
What will women do in Muslim heaven?

I find it fascinating that millions of Muslim women are happy about these everlasting virgins surrounding their husbands in the future life forever. Plus, if this is SO important, it somehow makes me think that sexual pleasure plays an leading role in Islam, if THIS is what you will get there and THIS is what the men are talking about and hoping for.
— Houris do not want wives to annoy their husbands, since the houris will also be the spouses [i.e. wives] of the husbands in the afterlife. —”Mu’adh b. Jobal (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘A woman does not annoy her husband but his spouse from amongst the maidens with wide eyes intensely white and deeply black will say: Do not annoy him, may Allah ruin you.” He is with you as a passing guest. Very soon, he will part with you and come to us.’” Ibn-i-Majah vol.3:2014 p.212

Does that mean that even in heaven married women have to make place for tens of other women and live in submission to ….who? What is Muslim woman’s hope in the afterlife? Again to be a wife among about 70+ others? What a hope to live for.

I think that all of these sayings and exemples of The Prophet (there is more, many more) create the world in which a man has a better “start of” position than a woman. But one can’t argue that, right?

Rumblings again, but it’s getting late here too.

My response to you will depend on your answer to the following questions:

Do you consider the possiblity that Islam IS the truth and the only religion acceptable to God? If yes, would you submit to God/become Muslim, someone who accepts the truth that, the knowledge we are given is limited and nothing is judged according to our wants, but according to Gods’ Law?

If you are “asking” all these “questions” because you sincerely want to know and hope to benefit from this knowledge, than I am ready to help you with that according to my ability, God willing.

Outside of that, this remains a bashing of Islam, which is exactly what it is now, and there is no benefit in it for any one of us, as such, it is called a waste of time.

So yes I am willing to help you as much as I can, but not by way of debating and not by way of having to bear your repetitive blasphemous insults which you disguise under the cloak of “explain my confusing thoughts”, only because your weak human mind cannot process the truth and wisdoms behind it.

NOTE: By your “weak human mind” I am not singling you out, every human being is weak in that respect since our knowledge is limited. So I am right there with you, therefore not insulting you.