Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like you're coming at this from a similar standpoint to one of the other major religions which I would rather not mention as I don't want to start a religious war here. In Islam you're not hated or judged for what you call your true feelings. You are however instructed to gain mastery over those feelings and make them subordinate to you rather than the other way around. Fasting is one of the things that c…
So you are saying they are invited as long as they are willing to endure people trying to change them?
Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
191–200 of 371 posts
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…
As a non-religious gay, I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. However, raiding the cabinet of historically religious practices and stripping god out of them can be helpful. A lot of things we do on impulse don't actually make us happy, and cutting them out for a bit can be a good way to examine whether they've become unhelpful/unskillful habits. I don't think d…
Murder? Mayhem? Destruction? Greed?
I agree homosexuality is a fine thing, but your comment is altogether far tooo broad.
Societal morals are often about denying ourselves things we want to do: often because our actions affect others or offend others, but also often for no strong reason at all. Virtue is almost defined by holding ourselves back from unvirtuous actions: can virtue exist in the world if we can all do whatever we will?
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#193I was unaware until this year that it was based on when the moon was _sighted_, not just on a conventional lunar calendar. This leads to very short notice public holidays in a couple of countries AIUI.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like you're coming at this from a similar standpoint to one of the other major religions which I would rather not mention as I don't want to start a religious war here. In Islam you're not hated or judged for what you call your true feelings. You are however instructed to gain mastery over those feelings and make them subordinate to you rather than the other way around. Fasting is one of the things that c…
So you are saying they are invited as long as they are willing to endure people trying to change them?
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#195I am a bit confused: are we going to get more similar posts (which is tangent to some proselytism, under the premise of well wishing?) for each and every religious faith major event around the globe? I am saying this as a former believer (and holding no grudge), definitely aware of the fine line between sharing and pushing cultural items, and balancing the two rather equally in a diverse team. EDIT: actually, it's a…
It's going too far to interpret this as "tangent to proselytism". People can wish each other well without coming close to that. The occasional celebratory post is fine on HN. If it were to become repetitive, it would get tedious quickly and we would downweight such posts in keeping with standard practice (see [1] and [2] about that). [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... [2] https://hn.a…
> A note on Ramadan. To those interested in intermittent fasting, longevity, and coming back to a more human experience not drowning in technology, food and consumerism I would say check it out! After over 20 years of doing it I'm still learning something new every year, or I should say, unlearning bad habits we've created for ourselves as a society through abundance.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
This leads to issues in e.g. Norilsk where it is polar summer during important Islam dates and you can often not see the moon at all.
Isn't the decision coming from the "muslim authority" (sorry I don't know the terms) located in the mecca anyway?
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#197I was unaware until this year that it was based on when the moon was _sighted_, not just on a conventional lunar calendar. This leads to very short notice public holidays in a couple of countries AIUI.
I'm muslim but I never understood why that is the case. Surely the lunar calendar/phases/characteristics must be easy to reliably predict?
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
People underappreciate how addictive nicotine is. I've been an addict for 15 years and I quit so many times, sometimes for longer than a year. The new smoking inventions only make it worse because they allow for much much higher dosages. I've seen teens smoking what amounts to 10 packs a day worth of nicotine. And they didn't have to chain smoke for 12 hours to achieve that.
What new smoking inventions? Genuinely interested.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…
As a non-religious gay, I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. However, raiding the cabinet of historically religious practices and stripping god out of them can be helpful. A lot of things we do on impulse don't actually make us happy, and cutting them out for a bit can be a good way to examine whether they've become unhelpful/unskillful habits. I don't think d…
Notice how imams are not celibate like Catholic priests. In fact celibacy isn't even a thing in Islam. You're actively encouraged to get into a relationship and get married so you can fulfill your sexual desires. There's even a prophetic quote that says getting married is half of your religion. It's that important. Of course some things like drinking is not allowed even if you desire it and that's just something you have to deal with. But even if you cave it's not the end of the world because the grading system is heavily curved in your favor.
Having desires is natural and human and it's even ok to indulge in them every once in a while in a healthy way.
The Islamic term for this is nafs which means "self" or sometimes "ego". So fulfilling human desires is filling your nafs. But just like overfilling your stomach can be bad, overfilling your nafs is also bad so you need to practice discipline in not getting carried away.