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Originally Posted by BORKAN";p="
Quote:
Originally Posted by nonsqtr";p="
Quote:
Originally Posted by BORKAN";p="
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Far out!  That's so cool - like, here we are rapping about politics and religion with a guy in Tunisia, in real time - what could be better?
This internet thing is wonderful.... 
Well Mr. Borkan, thank you sir, for reaching across the ocean to communicate with us, it's deeoly appreciated.
Can I ask you another question, then?
It's about the "authority" in Islam. I'm curious, how do you see the relationship between your religion and your government? And, if there were a conflict between the two, what would happen? (I mean, is there a "legal mechanism" to resolve such conflicts, or is there some kind of "religious debate" around political concepts, or how does it work in your country?)
In Islam, my best understanding is, that there is no "central authority" - there's no one like "the Pope" in the Catholic Church, who serves as a "unified leader".
Is that true? And if it is, how do you, as an individual, navigate through the competing "interpretations" that different scholars may have to offer, on a given topic? |
Dear nonsqtr,
the internet is really great, it makes the world a small village wher people from all sides of the globe can discuss like in one room!
You asked me about the religion and policy in my country!! this question is very dangerous! So answering you with the truth of what is happening here may put me in the Jail, like my brother! I'm sorry, but I can't speak about the relation between my Gov. and the Religion! the only thing taht I can tell you is that my Gov. is a secular Gov. that don't let women wear the Hijab! 
But I can speak about Islam without saying anything about my Gov.
If I understood your question! In Islam there is no central aurhority like the pope for the Catholic Church! I don't know any scholar in Islam that can be the only source of 'Ijtihad' or that the other scholars obey! Any scholar, the real scholars of Islam, can give Fatwas and then people can follow the Fatwa of the scholar they want, this don't mean that the scholars will give diffrent fatwas in the same issue! but this happen somtimes and rarly! and when this happens people can take the fatwa that they prefer and that makes their life easier! because the responsible is the scholar who gave this fatwa and not them, if this fatwa wasn't 100% correct it's this scholar who will be punished by God and not the people who followed his fatwa. that's why giving a Fatwa is a very important thing and it's forbidden to any one to give a Fatwa! God says: "who dares of you to give a fatwa, dares to go to the hell fire"! this mean that only the real scholars can give Fatwas! because if they give wrong Fatwas, like Ben laden and Alzawahir who are not scholars of Islam, at that time people will follow this wrong Fatwa and may cause disasters, in the name of Islam! and Islam is innocent from what they done!
to solve the problem of Fatwas, we have big Islamic centers where many great scholars give their fatwas after discussing it from all issues! those famous centers like the Azhar sharif in Egypt http://www.alazhar.gov.eg/english/Default.aspx
and we have some centers that people can ask for fatwas in their websites, if you want a fatwa just ask them like http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/MainPage/indexe.php
I hope I answered your question now, do not hesitate to ask any thing about Islam, it's my duty to answer you! |
Fascinating.
So, it sounds then, like it is "each individual's responsibility", to study and properly interpret the word of God.
That's a very unusual "mechanism" for such a thing, in terms of the various living religions. But yes, many have "councils", as you say, that is probably a similar model to the "Synods" in the Protestant Christian churches (they don't have a Pope either).
It seems to me, that this "council" mechanism is a good one. But one must really make an effort to gain a broad set of inputs, yes? Because if one's "council" is narrow, one's perception of one's "choices" will also likely be narrow. We have similar concepts here, the vernacular goes something like "bounce it off your brother", and "two heads are better than one").
I can draw a "political" analogy, for those on this side of the pond - if you've only got two friends, and one of them's a Democrat and the other's a Republican, then it's not likely they'll encourage you to vote Libertarian....
Hmm... okay, so I got the other part of your message too, so now I'm going to go do a little research on Tunisia.
But I do have another question, if you wouldn't mind - do Muslims consider that Mohammed was the "last" prophet, or will there ever be another one? How do concepts like the "hidden Imam" fit into this, or is that something completely different? I mean, that's not a "re-incarnation" concept, is it? It's more like "someday God will choose another messenger"?