Princewell2012:
@decatrons, you have asked a very good question. but unfortunately no body have been able to answer it. Hosea 4:6 says my people have been destroyed from lack of knowledge...........people have misenterpreted this knowledge as just been an ordinary dream or vission. If you understand this, you understand the whole bible. John:1:1. In the begining was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Prov.4vs7. says wisdom is the principal things therefore get wisdom, and in all thy getting get understsanding. psalm 119:103. says how sweet are thy word unto my taste, yea sweeter than honey to my mouth. Ezekiel 3:3. he said unto me, son of man take this scoll from me and feed your stomarch with it and when i ate it, it tasted like honey in my mouth. Rev:10:10 And i took the litle book from the engel's hand and ate it, and it tasted as honey in my mouth. Jesus is the word of God and the word of God is the law of God and law of God is sweet, truth, live. Abraham, Job, David, solomon, daniel ezekiel just name them all fear, love, and worship God without the fear of hellfire yet they all did exellently well. Joshua: 1:vs8. this book of the law shall not depart at of your mouth, but thou shall meditate their in day and night, so that thou might observed to do according to all that is writting therein then thou shall make thy ways prosperous and you shall have good health. Hear me it is only those that did not know God, that are worshiping God in bitterness and heaviness of mind. that is what hosea 4:6, is saying. read the complete of that verse. it said because you rejected knowledge i will reject you from being my priest, now note this he goes a head and said since you have forgetting my law i will also forget your children. prov. 9: 10. The fear of God is the beggining of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding. you can not have knowledge of God without knowing his word. man can never worship God in truth and spirit without having adequate knowledge of the word of God. Jesus said if you love me keep my commandment. when you keep his commandment you will recover the hidden bless in his word, without any manner of threath. psalm 119vs 98. says your word has made me wiser than my enemies, because they are ever with me. ps119:72, your law is better unto than thousands of gold and silver.ps 119:11 your words have i hidden in my heart that i might not sin against you. may the holy spirit gives you the understanding of this massage. pls take note of this words, law of God, word of God, the testimony of God, his ordinances, precept, and the commandment of God are just the same thing. though it may sounds differently but they mean the same thing. you can not know God without knowing his word and you can not know words without knowing God. similarly you can not know God without knowing his law and you can not know his law without knowing God. Then if you claimed to know God without knowing his word (law) then you must be a liar. mathew; 5:17-19. do not think i came to destroy the law or the prophet i do not come to destroy but to fulfil....18 heaven and earth shall pass but no single jot or title in the law shall go unfufil...19 whosoever therefore shall break one of this least command and shall teach men shall be called least but whosoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. you dont give what you have. my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Peace.

Perfect anxa..din't complete it though
Indeed knowing God is the key to true worship

RACISM is when a white BB Bold 6 cost more than a
black BB Bold 6.
NEMESIS is when you submit your answer sheet with
your expo inside.
LONG THROAT is when you take a girl out on a sunny
day and she orders for a hot plate of pepper soup.
A WITCH is that girl that eats nkwobi, fish pepper
soup, shawama, suya, chicken, smirnoff, fayrous and
when you take her home she says sorry I'm on my
period.
OVERSABI is when you are eating salad with a girl
and she says, "Honey, this food no done."
OLODO is when you are in a plane with a girl and she
says, "Honey I'm hot, can you please roll down the
glass."
A HUNGRY CHILD is that kid that sees you eating and
says, "My mummy said I shouldn't take food from
strangers."
A STUBBORN CHILD is that kid that wakes up in the
middle of the night when daddy and mummy are
having a good time and says, "Mummy, I want to
piss."
STINGINESS is when you finish reading this and you
refuse to comment.

Naam@ agentxxxx.beautiful hadith indeed
weda directly or indirectly the hadith is affirming to the worship of God due to love
It made mention of knowing...assuredly you can only love or hate some1 when you know his goods and bad attribute
As we know the attributes of Allah points to infinite perfection that is infinitely beautiful essence so the more we know him the more we love him,
So the hadith stipulates that we should worship him by knowing His attribute..indirectly saying that we should worship him out of love
Note;when you Love some1 you will fear to displease him too

@Ayinba....I have not said that we shouldn't fear Allah.what I have said is our fear to displease him should be a result of our love for him,cvause it is only natural that if you love some1 you will always want to do everything to please him and avoid doing anything that displeases him
What I ask is should our reason for worship God be de result of our fear of HELL .if the reply is affrimative I will like/love to ask, isn't hell a creation of Allah is worshiping Allah as a result of the fear of hell no a fear of a creation of Allah that is, is the fear of hell not a fear of Allah's creation
If so isn't it a kind of shirk to worship Allah due to our fear of His creation(Hell)

AgentXxx:
Salam aleikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
Picture this scenario of when we were kids and our fathers were harsh on us (as we thought) making us study than we would love to, disciplining us when we displease him and rewarding us when we please him, at our tender age we might not get the scope of the whole scene our fathers create promising us goodies if we get good grades and promising us punishment for getting bad grades, as we grow and our reasoning capacity develops we get to understand the idea behind the good time and bad time our father had promised us...At the end we get to know he had our best of interest and we get to love him and appreciate all the disciplinary methods used to shapen our future...

You just made use of logic in the above quoted
By the way we know that every child who sins deserves punishment that is justice but the question is should the childs reason for not committing a crime be the result of his fear of punishment a situation which is similar to submission of the body cause when the punishment is removed he definitely goes back to the crime
Or should his condition for not sinning be the result of pure and untainted love for his master in that his fear for sinning is the result of his love for his master a condition referred to as submission of the intellect and of the mind

Salaam alaykum
A lot of scholars have emphasized the importance of loving God but very few have explained to us how we can develop his love in our hearts
So I want my muslim brothers and sisters to helpp me with this one
HOW DO WE DEVELOp THE LOVE OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS?

Akposb:

I wonder what more to say other than that which was explicitly explained in the old testament Deut 14. God has given us the free will to choose what we want but he is a jealous one and will punish anyone who refuses to accept salvation especially after sending his son to die for us. Everything is about faith and hell is effectively a reward for those who refuse to align with God's plan. Hope this helps.

You haven't understood the question,try read it over again please

Salaam alaykum
Thanks brothers and sisters for ur very enlightening contribution
Still what to clarify this issue further thou
should we fear the displeasure of God due to our Love for Him or Love(worship) him due to our Fear of Hell?
Better still should we teach a child to worship Allah out of Fear of hell? Or worship Him due to Love for?
note I'm nt saying that we should fear the displeasure of God what I mean is should We fear
Wat I mean is fear of hell and love of God which should be our prerequisite for worship

I don't know what you mean by misquidance. We are just trying to clarify an issue here. And no one is compelling another to accept his or her view(s)

athari22:
Using logic here would only land us in a recycling error.

A tenacious attachment to divine traditions is the only measure of safety so that what happened to the Christians and the Jews will not happen to us with time...

Allaah says:

Surah Al-Ahzab, Verse 1:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ وَلَا تُطِعِ الْكَافِرِينَ وَالْمُنَافِقِينَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا

O Prophet (Muhammad)! Keep your duty to Allah, and obey not the disbelievers and the hypocrites (i.e., do not follow their advices). Verily! Allah is Ever AllKnower, All Wise. '

Surah Al-Ahzab, Verse 2:
وَاتَّبِعْ مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا

And follow that which is inspired in you from your Lord. Verily, Allah is WellAcquainted with what you do.'

May Allaah protect us from misguidance.

My brother if logic is not does not play a vital role in religion den why ask the christians to explain their concept of trinity logically? Why ask if it is logical for God to concieve? If logic had no role to play then their answer that man cannot understand the things of the spirit or other answers like this would be sufficient.or don't you think so?

tbaba1234:


We worship to fulfill our purpose. We do this with a balance of fear or hope/love. Not one or the other.

Nice.
What of the case of the prophet who had no sin nd still devoted must of his time worshiping God..should it b said that his fear for hell prompt him to worship God a lot .since we know that the sinless have no hell to fear
Fear of Hell signifies fear of a creation of Allah..isn't that a type of shirk?

I went to a cinema with Akpos, on getting to the cinema we saw
a bald guy, I showed the guy to Akpos and said "Look at fresh
head, this one is good to slap, but I'm afraid of the guy's face".
Akpos then said to me "Ofego, you fear a lot, I will slap that
head and nothing will happen".
I dared him to do it and he went to where the guy was sitting and
gave him a HOT SLAP on his head. The guy was surprised, and
wanted to react, then Akpos said "Bros Ofego, so you are here,
and we have been looking for you at home!"
The guy responded "I'm not Bros Ofego, maybe we look alike",
Akpos murmured "maybe."
After some minutes In the cinema, Akpos called me again and
said "Ofego, I will slap that guy again and nothing will happen."
I answered "ok"
He went to the guy, gave him a hot slap and said "Bros Ofego
stop lying, I say na u be dis..." The guy said to him angrily "I'm
not Bros Ofego, please, let me be". The guy then left that seat
and went to the front seat.
After some minutes Akpos called me and said "Ofego, I will slap
that guy again and nothing will happen." This time i told him
that "if anything happens, I will pretend I don't know him."
He stood up, went to the front seat, gave the guy a very hot slap
and said "Bros Ofego, so na here you dey, I come dey slap
another person for back!"
*Do you think Akpos will go scot-free again?*

tbaba1234:
The primary purpose of existence is worship. Jannah and Jahanaam are incentives to help of achieve that purpose by two sensations, we understand. Pain and pleasure.

Why the assumption that God needs your worship? Why can't worship be a way of helping a person connect with his maker? The intrinsic light within connecting with the light outside... It is your purpose.

Why is worship not a way of helping the created achieve is purpose?

what is the use of a car if it is not driven? What happens to a car that remains dormant for a long time? It goes bad....

What happens to the eyes if it is left closed or in darkness for extended periods? It loses its light... What happens to a heart that fails to connect with its maker for a long time?... It loses the connection and hence guidance.

but we all know that God doesn't need our worship. The question is should we worship Him out of fear of hell,or love for Him

tbaba1234:
The primary purpose of existence is worship. Jannah and Jahanaam are incentives to help of achieve that purpose by two sensations, we understand. Pain and pleasure.

Why the assumption that God needs your worship? Why can't worship be a way of helping a person connect with his maker? The intrinsic light within connecting with the light outside... It is your purpose.

Why is worship not a way of helping the created achieve is purpose?

what is the use of a car if it is not driven? What happens to a car that remains dormant for a long time? It goes bad....

What happens to the eyes if it is left closed or in darkness for extended periods? It loses its light... What happens to a heart that fails to connect with its maker for a long time?... It loses the connection and hence guidance.

Logical..nice one

athari22:


The similitude of the human intellect and the divine relations is like that of the eye and light.

We are required to use our senses to understand and comprehend divine revelations which is to be understood as Allaah revealed them with the tutoring of his messenger (sallalLaahu 'alyhi wasallam).

Allaah says, Surah Al-Anaam, Verse 106:

اتَّبِعْ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

Follow what has been inspired to you (O Muhammad SAW) from your Lord, La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He) and turn aside from Al-Mushrikun.'

The eye to light I nice one.but don't you think that the eye is needed to see the light? .as you know the koran has a literal as well as an ontological meaning which is a deeper and otherwordly meaning or a truer meaning this is the what lead to the tefsir of the koran. Men such as ibnul kathir did an extensive
Work or it.indeed if the have not pondered deeply on this great book they wouldn't have come out wit such works
Indeed it was stated that mohammad was sinless and again was to be forgiven for whatever sin he will commit so to speak.yet he spent the nights awake praying to his lord. Will it be said that such a person who had no sin and will be forgiven if he committed any was praying due to his fear for hell?
Note;I'm not saying dat we shouldn't fear hell,what I am saying is should the fear of hell be a condition for worshipping God. That is to say if hell was not to exist there will be no need whatsoever to worship

athari22:
A Muslim worships Allaah out of love for Him definitely. It is part of His love that one fears His chastisement too. The above verse describes a true Muslim.

There are numerous verses in the koran which made mention of knowledge,intellect,pondering as a human vital instrument for worship
I will ask you a simple question here..if the human sole goal is the worship of God and the brain one of mans most important organ,doesn't it have a vital role to play to enable man accomplish this sole aim? Indeed God does not create anytin in vain,he exppects us to use our brains in worship dat is why he has created us with one
Yes you are indeed very correct we should love and fear Allah but don't you think a better definition is "The FEAR TO DISOBEY HIM DUE TO YOUR LOVE HIM" it is only natural that when you love some1 so much you will always want to do what makes him happy and desist from that wich makes him unhappy.
What is your say brother?

athari22:
In the belief of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah which every Muslim is obliged to subscribe to, Allaah prescribed punishments for sins so that we may shun sins.

It follows therefore that a Muslim shuns sins because of the fear of Allah's punishment.

In the Sufi parlance and erroneous belief, they claim they worship Allaah because of the love for Allaah and not because of the hope for Jannah or the fear of Jahannam. This is against the belief that the Messenger has left us upon.

Aboo Hurayrah narrated, the messenger of Allaah said:

"The similitude of myself and people is like that of a man who prepares fire and when it lightens up, insects began to fall into it. The man began to prevent them from the fire while they overpower him and were falling into it.

So, I am holding back your loins while you are finding your ways of falling into it. "

Reported by Bukhaaree and Muslim.

So, this hadeeth proves that we shun sins for the fear of Allaah’s punishment.

Allaah know better.

If the above is true what is ur say about this there groups of worshipers
1-A group of people worshipped God out of desire
for reward;this is the worship of traders.
2-another group worshipppped God out of fear;this
is the worship of slaves
3-another group worshiped God out of gratitude;this
is the worship of freemen
Even if God had not warned those disobedient to
Him of chastisement,it was obligatory by way of
gratefulness for his favour that He should not be
disobeyed
Group1,2 or 3 which is better?

This questions has been re occurring in my mind for
sometime now since this is the attitude of most
Christians and muslims alike
1-Should the fear of hell b your prerequisite for
worshiping God? If yes what if there was no hell?
2-should your love for paradise be your condition
for worshiping God? If yes what if paradise did not
exist
3-should you pray to God cause we are in need?if
yes doesn't it make you like a trader who sells his
goods only to make profits and what if our needs
have been granted will there be any need to pray?
if our answers to these questions are otherwise then
why should worship GoD or pray to God?

There were two nuns, one of them was known as
Sister Mathematical (SM) and the other one was
known as Sister Logical (SL). It is getting dark and
they are still far away from the convent...
SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following
us for the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I
wonder what he wants.
SL: It's logical. He wants to rape us.
SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes
at the most! What can we do?
SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk
faster.
SM: It's not working.
SL: Of course it's not working. The man did the only
logical thing; he started to walk faster too.
SM: So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us
in one minute.
SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go
that way and I'll go this way. He cannot follow us
both.
So the man decided to follow Sister Logical. Sister
Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried
about what has happened to Sister Logical. Then
Sister Logical arrives...
SM: Sister Logical! Thank God you are here! Tell me
what happened!
SL: The only logical thing happened. The man couldn't
follow us both, so he followed me
SM: Yes, yes! But what happened then?
SL: The only logical thing happened. I started to run
as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he
could.
SM: And?
SL: The only logical thing happened. He reached me.
SM: Oh, dear! What did you do?
SL: The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.
SM: Oh, Sister! What did the man do?
SL: The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his
pants.
SM: Oh, no! What happened then?
SL: Isn't it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can
run faster than a man with his pants down.
And for those of you who thought it would be dirty,
I'll pray for you!

A brief look at the three type of worshipers in our modern age and even in ages immemorial
1-A group of people worshipped God out of desire for reward;this is the worship of traders.
2-another group worshipppped God out of fear;this is the worship of slaves
3-another group worshiped God out of gratitude;this is the worship of freemen
Even if God had not warned those disobedient to Him of chastisement,it was obligatory by way of gratefulness for his favour that He should not be disobeyed
Be sincere with thy self;to which of the aforementioned group do you belong??

DOES EVOLUTION INVOLVE SELF-ALIENATION Now returning to what we said earlier,does movement and evolution necessitate alienation from one's self? Should every being,in order to remain itself,abstain from change and evolution? Does it mean that either man should retain his human identity or if he choose an evolutionary course bcome something alien to his essence? The answer is that the true evolution of anything is a movement towards the perfect state which conforms to its nature.in other words,transformations during movement on the straight path of nature by no means necessitate any loss of specific identity. That which constitutes the real self of a being is its existence,not its essence. Accordingly,any change in essence does not impply mutation of the self into a non-self. Mulla sadra who is the champion of this philosophy,holds that man does not have any definite essence;rather every developing being passing through the stages of its evolution is not a single species but a plurality of species.the relation if an imperfect being with its ultimate stage of perfection is not a relation of otherness rather it is a relation of the thing to itself.it is the relation of an imperfect self to the pperfect self. A thing while evolving toward its perfect state is in movement from its self to its self.in a sense it can be said to be in movement from the non-self towards the true-self. A seed that breaks the ground & sprouts leaves and sends out branches & flowers does not move from the self to the non-self. If it were aware of itself and aware of its ultimate evolution it would not feel self-alienation That is why d love of true pperfection is the love of a higher self,On the basis of what has been said so far it can be surmised that there is a great difference btw desiring God the movement towards God the love of God and submission to Him, and love and servitude to God from Love,submission and servitude to other things. The servitude to God is freedom itself. It is the only relation and tie which does not stagnate the human personality or make it inert and immobile it is the only kind oh worship which does not imply self forgetfulness and self alienation. Why? Because HE is the absolute perfection and the ultimate goal and the DEStination of all existents "and unto thy Lord will be the end of all things"53:42

Secondly it may apply to a being deviod of every kind of actuality and merit. This is,it should be pure possibility and sheer potentiality, a neigbour of nothingness ,existing only on the remotest frontiers of existence. It should be devoid of any innate reality and essence though capable of assuming any form or essence.such a being which itself absolutely undefined is always associated with definite being,though shapeless and colorless in itself it exists in the protective shadow of a being possissing form shape and color such a being is what the philosophers call the primal matter.it occupies the lowest status in the the hierachy of existence and stands on the extremity of being, even as the Divine essence ,being absolute perfection stands on the other extremity of existence Man like all other creature is situated somewhere between these two extremes and cannot possibly lack any defined essence admittedly he is different from other creatures,but unlike them there is no limit to his movement towards perfection$whereas other creatures remain confined to certain definite limits which they cannot transcend,there is no end to the possibilties of human development Man possesses a special kind of being but contrary to the view of the philosophers who believes in the precedence of essence and reduce the being of every thing to its quiddity and who deny the ppossibility of transcendence and essential change as being self contradictory and considers all changes to occur at the level of accidents, the existential nature of human like that of any other material thing is fluid with the difference that its movement and fluidity knows no limit. Some commentators of the koran in their explanation of the verse "O people of yathrib there is no abiding here for you"33:13 have generalized it yo cover all humanity.they hold that man is a creature which does not move to a certain and definite stage or halt;the further he moves the greater are the possibilities open to it. Also in the hadith about the prophet's ascensin(al-mi'raj) Gabriel who accomppanies the prophet at a certain ppoint gives up his journey declaring "I will get burnt if I move an inch further" while the prophet leaves him behind and moves further.this is an allusion to the truth mentioned above Man does not have nayt ultimate limits but he has a path.the Quran lays a great empphasis on what it calls the straight path which is an unambiguous path before man.Man is not constrained by stages so as to be force to stopp at every stage in his journey . Instead there is an orbit in which he should move.this is the orbit of human pperfection which is different from those of the animals. This means the movement in a specific orbit a movement which is orderly not haphazard

This is a somewhat drawn out discussion on the
issue of worldliness.I will very quickly try to throw
little light based on my own level of exposure to a
topic which drawn my attention and has lead to a lot
of contradictions
The question goes;if attachment and bondage to
anything is a kind of unhealthy condition that leads
to abandonment of human values and cause
stagnation,inertness and inertia of the human
personality,what difference does it make if that thing
is something material or spiritual,thisworldly or
otherworldly or as the saying goes "the Lord or the
apple"?it may be said that if the aim of islam by
prohibiting and warning against bondage to
tempporal things is to safeguard the human beings
identity and rescue him from servitude and to
protect him him from stagnating and vegetating in
life,it should have encouraged man to acquire
absolute freedom and to consider everything that
compromise and confines it as kufr;for such is the
staandpoint of some modern schools of philosophy
which considers freedom to be the essence of mans
human identity.these school of thought equate mans
human identity with his cappacity to rebel and
disobey every form of servitude and assert his
absolute freedom.accordinly,every manner of
bondage,confinement and submission to them
inconsistent with mans real identity and leads to self
alienation
They say tha man realizes his true humanity only by
refusing to submit and surrender. It is characteristic
of attachment that the object of love absorbs man's
attention and compromises his self-awareness.this
results in his forgetting his own self and
subsequently this aware and free being called man
whose identity is summarized in his awareness and
freedom become a slavish creature devoid of
freedom & self-awareness . In forgetting his own
identity man also becomes oblivious of his human
values in this state of bondage and servitude he
ceases to progress and edify his self and becomes
stagnant and frozen at some point.If islams
philosopphy of struggle against worldliness aims at
the resurrection of human identity and personality,it
should oppose every form of servitued and liberate
man from every form of bondage this,however, is
not the case, for islam undeniably advocates
liberation from material for the sake of spiritual
servitude. Freedom from the world is acquired for
the sake of the fetters of the hereafter & the apple is
renounced for the sake of the Lord
From the viewpoint of irfan,one must be free of both
the worlds but should surrender totally to love.As
Hafis says,the tablet of the heart must be clean of
every name except that of the beloved.the heart
should be cleansed of every attachment except the
love of God whose love brings redemption from all
sorrows and woes
However from the view point of the so called
humanistic philosophy freedom of the arif beimg
only relative does not take us anywhere,because
freedom from everything for total surrender and
servitude to one being whatever that may be.
Servitude is after all sevitude and bondage is
bondage,regardless of the angent towards which it
is directed this is the objection raised by the
followers of the modern humanistic philosophies. In
order that the issues involved may be further
illuminated,we are compelled to refer to certain
philosophical issues
FIRST of all one may ppoint out that to assume that
there exists a kind of human selfhood and identity
and insist that this identity should be safeguarded in
itself amounts to the negation of
movement,progress and development of this
selfhood,because motion and change necessarily
result in alienation from this selfhood. This is
something one is not ;it implies continous
transcendence of selfhood and embracing of
otherness. Obviously if we acceppt this view,it is
only by means of immobility and stagnation that one
can preserve his identity for development
necessitates self alienation.for this reason som
ancient pphilosophers defined motion in terms of
otherness and self estrangement. Accordingly,to
assume that there exists a certain kind of human
self and to insist that this self should be safeguarded
and pprotected from becoming non-self and to
speak of movement progress and evolution in the
same breath involves an unresolvable contradiction
Some in order to free themselves from this
contriadiction have said that mans identity lies in
being deviod of a kind of self whatsoever. Man they
say is a creature absolutely undefined in his essence
and free from any kind of limit form or essence. His
essence and lies in his being without any defined
essence. Man is a creature devoid of a fixed nature
and essential necessity. Any attemppt to define limit
and confine him amounts to depriving him of his
real self and identity
Such a view may be aptly considered poetry and
flight of imagination rather than a philosophy. The
absolute absence of a fixed form and essence is
possible in any of the two cases.firstly such a being
should possess infinite perfection and pure and
unlimited actuality that is it should be a bieng
unlimited and unconfined, encompassing all times
and spaces and predominant over all existents,such
as the Being of the Creator. For such a being
movement and growth is impossible ;because
motion and growth involve overcoming of
imperfections and defects,whereas such a being
cannot possibly be supposed to posses any
imperfection.

Akposb:
Hell is one major prerequisite while Christians believed in God. It will be foolhardy for us to carry out all its practices without recognising that fact hence Paul's admonition that " we are most pitied of men if our faith in God consist of this world's gain".

God also wants us to recognise the fact that he had first loved us hence our acceptance of his invitation will see us reciprocating it. The word " the world is coming " is a timely advice that our time on Earth is basically a choice between good and evil and these determines our end.

Bro, hell is not a fun place and Christianity is a protection against it but it also ensures that we are able to navigate this perilous world with the idea that one who loves us is watching.

Permit me to use this simple illustration.if you want to prevent a cat from stealing fish you have to keep guarding the fish cause immediately you leave the fish with the cat the cat will definitely eat the fish up.we see from here that the cat wants to eat the fish but was hindered by the presence of the guard.now is it that without hell man won't worship God or without reward there will be no need to worship him?

I am a muslim woman
Feel free to ask my why
When I walk I walk with dignity
When I speak I do not lie
I am a muslim woman
Not all of me you'll see
But what you should appreciate
Is that the choice I make is free
I'm not plagued with depression
I'm neither cheated nor abused
I don't envy other women
And I'm certainly not confused
Note I speak perfect english
Et un petit peu de fancias aussie
I'm majoring in linguistics
So you need not speak slowly
I own my own small business
Every cent I earn is mine
I drive my chevy to school and work
And no,that's not a crime
You often stare as I walk by
You don't understand my veil
But peace and power I have found
For I am equal to any male
I am a muslim woman
So please don't pity me
For God has guided me to truth
And now I'm finally free!

Fairgodwin:
When writing/posting on a public forum as Nairaland please endeavor to write in full and not [use] abbreviations.
By the way, your question is good though. I have equally pondered on/about it a few times before. And I believe by Sunday it would make front page so we could have more opinions as well as input(s).
When I got 'born again' it was purely motivated by my fear of [going to] hell.

Noted godwin..thanks

DOES EVOLUTION INVOLVE SELF-ALIENATION
Now returning to what we said earlier,does movement and evolution necessitate alienation from one's self? Should every being,in order to remain itself,abstain from change and evolution? Does it mean that either man should retain his human identity or if he choose an evolutionary course bcome something alien to his essence?
The answer is that the true evolution of anything is a movement towards the perfect state which conforms to its nature.in other words,transformations during movement on the straight path of nature by no means necessitate any loss of specific identity. That which constitutes the real self of a being is its existence,not its essence. Accordingly,any change in essence does not impply mutation of the self into a non-self. Mulla sadra who is the champion of this philosophy,holds that man does not have any definite essence;rather every developing being passing through the stages of its evolution is not a single species but a plurality of species.the relation if an imperfect being with its ultimate stage of perfection is not a relation of otherness rather it is a relation of the thing to itself.it is the relation of an imperfect self to the pperfect self. A thing while evolving toward its perfect state is in movement from its self to its self.in a sense it can be said to be in movement from the non-self towards the true-self. A seed that breaks the ground & sprouts leaves and sends out branches & flowers does not move from the self to the non-self. If it were aware of itself and aware of its ultimate evolution it would not feel self-alienation
That is why d love of true pperfection is the love of a higher self,On the basis of what has been said so far it can be surmised that there is a great difference btw desiring God the movement towards God the love of God and submission to Him, and love and servitude to God from Love,submission and servitude to other things. The servitude to God is freedom itself. It is the only relation and tie which does not stagnate the human personality or make it inert and immobile it is the only kind oh worship which does not imply self forgetfulness and self alienation. Why? Because HE is the absolute perfection and the ultimate goal and the DEStination of all existents "and unto thy Lord will be the end of all things"53:42

Secondly it may apply to a being deviod of every kind of actuality and merit. This is,it should be pure possibility and sheer potentiality, a neigbour of nothingness ,existing only on the remotest frontiers of existence. It should be devoid of any innate reality and essence though capable of assuming any form or essence.such a being which itself absolutely undefined is always associated with definite being,though shapeless and colorless in itself it exists in the protective shadow of a being possissing form shape and color such a being is what the philosophers call the primal matter.it occupies the lowest status in the the hierachy of existence and stands on the extremity of being, even as the Divine essence ,being absolute perfection stands on the other extremity of existence
Man like all other creature is situated somewhere between these two extremes and cannot possibly lack any defined essence admittedly he is different from other creatures,but unlike them there is no limit to his movement towards perfection$whereas other creatures remain confined to certain definite limits which they cannot transcend,there is no end to the possibilties of human development
Man possesses a special kind of being but contrary to the view of the philosophers who believes in the precedence of essence and reduce the being of every thing to its quiddity and who deny the ppossibility of transcendence and essential change as being self contradictory and considers all changes to occur at the level of accidents, the existential nature of human like that of any other material thing is fluid with the difference that its movement and fluidity knows no limit.
Some commentators of the koran in their explanation of the verse "O people of yathrib there is no abiding here for you"33:13 have generalized it yo cover all humanity.they hold that man is a creature which does not move to a certain and definite stage or halt;the further he moves the greater are the possibilities open to it. Also in the hadith about the prophet's ascensin(al-mi'raj) Gabriel who accomppanies the prophet at a certain ppoint gives up his journey declaring "I will get burnt if I move an inch further" while the prophet leaves him behind and moves further.this is an allusion to the truth mentioned above
Man does not have nayt ultimate limits but he has a path.the Quran lays a great empphasis on what it calls the straight path which is an unambiguous path before man.Man is not constrained by stages so as to be force to stopp at every stage in his journey . Instead there is an orbit in which he should move.this is the orbit of human pperfection which is different from those of the animals. This means the movement in a specific orbit a movement which is orderly not haphazard

Salaam
This is a somewhat drawn out discussion on the issue of worldliness.I will very quickly try to throw little light based on my own level of exposure to a topic which drawn my attention and has lead to a lot of contradictions
The question goes;if attachment and bondage to anything is a kind of unhealthy condition that leads to abandonment of human values and cause stagnation,inertness and inertia of the human personality,what difference does it make if that thing is something material or spiritual,thisworldly or otherworldly or as the saying goes "the Lord or the apple"?it may be said that if the aim of islam by prohibiting and warning against bondage to tempporal things is to safeguard the human beings identity and rescue him from servitude and to protect him him from stagnating and vegetating in life,it should have encouraged man to acquire absolute freedom and to consider everything that compromise and confines it as kufr;for such is the staandpoint of some modern schools of philosophy which considers freedom to be the essence of mans human identity.these school of thought equate mans human identity with his cappacity to rebel and disobey every form of servitude and assert his absolute freedom.accordinly,every manner of bondage,confinement and submission to them inconsistent with mans real identity and leads to self alienation
They say tha man realizes his true humanity only by refusing to submit and surrender. It is characteristic of attachment that the object of love absorbs man's attention and compromises his self-awareness.this results in his forgetting his own self and subsequently this aware and free being called man whose identity is summarized in his awareness and freedom become a slavish creature devoid of freedom & self-awareness . In forgetting his own identity man also becomes oblivious of his human values in this state of bondage and servitude he ceases to progress and edify his self and becomes stagnant and frozen at some point.If islams philosopphy of struggle against worldliness aims at the resurrection of human identity and personality,it should oppose every form of servitued and liberate man from every form of bondage this,however, is not the case, for islam undeniably advocates liberation from material for the sake of spiritual servitude. Freedom from the world is acquired for the sake of the fetters of the hereafter & the apple is renounced for the sake of the Lord
From the viewpoint of irfan,one must be free of both the worlds but should surrender totally to love.As Hafis says,the tablet of the heart must be clean of every name except that of the beloved.the heart should be cleansed of every attachment except the love of God whose love brings redemption from all sorrows and woes
However from the view point of the so called humanistic philosophy freedom of the arif beimg only relative does not take us anywhere,because freedom from everything for total surrender and servitude to one being whatever that may be. Servitude is after all sevitude and bondage is bondage,regardless of the angent towards which it is directed this is the objection raised by the followers of the modern humanistic philosophies. In order that the issues involved may be further illuminated,we are compelled to refer to certain philosophical issues
FIRST of all one may ppoint out that to assume that there exists a kind of human selfhood and identity and insist that this identity should be safeguarded in itself amounts to the negation of movement,progress and development of this selfhood,because motion and change necessarily result in alienation from this selfhood. This is something one is not ;it implies continous transcendence of selfhood and embracing of otherness. Obviously if we acceppt this view,it is only by means of immobility and stagnation that one can preserve his identity for development necessitates self alienation.for this reason som ancient pphilosophers defined motion in terms of otherness and self estrangement. Accordingly,to assume that there exists a certain kind of human self and to insist that this self should be safeguarded and pprotected from becoming non-self and to speak of movement progress and evolution in the same breath involves an unresolvable contradiction
Some in order to free themselves from this contriadiction have said that mans identity lies in being deviod of a kind of self whatsoever. Man they say is a creature absolutely undefined in his essence and free from any kind of limit form or essence. His essence and lies in his being without any defined essence. Man is a creature devoid of a fixed nature and essential necessity. Any attemppt to define limit and confine him amounts to depriving him of his real self and identity
Such a view may be aptly considered poetry and flight of imagination rather than a philosophy. The absolute absence of a fixed form and essence is possible in any of the two cases.firstly such a being should possess infinite perfection and pure and unlimited actuality that is it should be a bieng unlimited and unconfined, encompassing all times and spaces and predominant over all existents,such as the Being of the Creator. For such a being movement and growth is impossible ;because motion and growth involve overcoming of imperfections and defects,whereas such a being cannot possibly be supposed to posses any imperfection.

Good morning friends
This questions has been re occurring in my mind for sometime now since this is the attitude of most Christians and muslims alike
1-Should the fear of hell b your prerequisite for worshiping God? If yes what if there was no hell?
2-should your love for paradise be your condition for worshiping God? If yes what if paradise did not exist
3-should you pray to God cause we are in need?if yes doesn't it make you like a trader who sells his goods only to make profits and what if our needs have been granted will there be any need to pray?
if our answers to these questions are otherwise then why should worship GoD or pray to God?

Salaam alaykum
Having noticed the rate and raise of atheistic revolution in our present world expecially in d west I deem it necessary dat we need to av a look at d types of questions deh put foward wich av attracted most youths towards them
ARE THESE QUEStION TRUELY LOGICAL OR ARE THEY JUST FOR THE INTELLECTUALLY UNSOUND?
I hope by ALLAH's assistence we will arrive at a conclusion to d above questions
QUESTIONS ATHEISTS ASK AND HOW THESE QUESTION APPEAR WEN GIVEN A SECOND THOUGH
Quest1:are religious laws which are old and ancient useful and satisfactory for d modern man doesn't he need new set of laws wich are compatible wit is time
Reply:mind you 2+2 as been equal to 4 for aeons or centuries nw why hasn't man thought dat he needed a new ansa to dis simple arithmetic while seeking a reform to religious arithmetic
QUEST2:why aint we created equal? Why is one man black nd d oda white one rich and d oda poor,one inteligent and d oda not intelligent?
Repply:why are d parts and component of a simple calculator not dsame? Definitely u will say d calculator needs dis different parts to enable it function well.dis is just d simple logic why man were not created equal
Quest3:what is ur proof that eternity exist
Reply:simple! Man thirst or longing for sometin is a proof dat such tin exist e.g man thirst for water is a proof dat water exist and man thirst for food is a proof dat food exist definitely mans thirst for eternity is a proof of its existence
Quest4;why can't we see or at least percieve GOD why don't we knw his nature
Reply:it is simple sientific finding dat if someting exist throughout in d universe such a tin will not b percieve take for example if u sit in a closed room where deodorant is sprayed after some time d scent of d deodorant will disappear simple bcause it as become present in d whole room,and if d same sound where to exist in d whole of earth dis sound will not b heard such is d logic GOD can't b seen cause he covers d whole of earth(infinity so to speak)
PRAISE BE TO HIM,ONE WHOSE IS INFINITELY PRESENT AT ALL PlACE SUCH DAT IT SEEMED TO D SHoRT SIGHTED AS IF HE WAS NOT PRESENT AT ALL.
I will draw d curtain here today nd hopefully present some oda questions such as the justice of GOD and it likes leta on
Salaam