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Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

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Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#271

Post by pazimzadeh »

nullchan wrote: post #51
amriksohata wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not particularly healthy, though many ancient cultures prior to Islam have used fasting as part of a way to cleansing of the gut. The relevance to the moon is also from Pagan cultures

Have you ever occurred to you that it might be the other way around? There was always one monotheistic religion and God, but then things got sidetracked and people started making stuff up. Also, Moon is relevant in Islam, as a calendar and timekeeping, nothing to be worshipped. Also, All Monotheistic Religions have had fasting (the 3 big ones that survived so far) but again, the worst enemy of the people is their own…

Look into Zoroastrianism, the grand-daddy of monotheistic religions. About 1800 years before Islam. They didn't fast more than one day a year, if that.

"In Zoroastrianism or Mazdaism, however, fasting has been implicitly rejected throughout the faith’s history. Zoroastrian doctrine perceives no disjunction between spirit and matter along lines of good and evil; rather, it regards both as essential for achieving piety and both as susceptible to unrighteousness. Hence, Zoroastrians believe that the body should function as a means by which the soul can fight evil and regard any action that physically weakens the body as sinful. Moreover, sex is viewed as essential for procreation which brings more believers into the world. Standard or Young Avestan texts such as the Vidēvdād (Avesta, ed. Geldner, 3.33, 4.48, 7.70) emphasized that eating was essential for life, claimed consumption of meat enhanced spiritual perception, and suggested hunger and thirst caused much suffering. Pahlavi commentaries continued this anti-ascetic theme, stressing the notion of moderation or paymān between gluttony and privation in partaking of food, drink, and sex. Piety was said to result from not fretting about moderate consumption, and deviation from this mean was equated with concupiscence (Dēnkard, ed. Madan, pp. 267, 295)." https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fasting

Then Mani came along, introduced fasting. It was the main rival to Christianity before Islam came along. Both Islam and Christianity are heavily influenced by Mani and vice versa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#272

Post by throwntoday »

uthinter wrote: post #268
throwntoday wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Islam gave rights to woman at a time when they were treated as property everywhere else in the world. In modern time, I have never heard of someone disqualifying menstruating women from celebrating. Though they are not expected to fast or pray during that time. My wife missed the first and last week this month -__-

>Islam gave rights to woman at a time when they were treated as property everywhere else in the world. false on all accounts.

[flagged]

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#273

Post by hqudsi »

eimrine wrote: post #251
hqudsi wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Islamic tradition values reason and rationality. It doesn’t say to blindly follow stuff. You still have to reason through new situations. The Quran is more for spiritual guidance even though it has some prescriptions. But most of the "rules" come from hadiths or the prophetic tradition which has been passed down orally before it was compiled into books by famous scholars. For example, the Quran says to pray but doesn…

> But the choice of dates is pretty arbitrary. Of course it's not! It must be comfortable for farmers, and the farming season starts just now. I'm not a religious but I respect Islam as the most wise of religions, like an iPhone among other cell phones. I want to try fastening because I see some wisdom in having a month with feeding like that and I consider these days of year as totally not arbitrary.

I meant breaking your fast with dates is kinda arbitrary not the fasting itself. Fasting is very much not arbitrary and has a very special meaning since it's one of the few things we do solely for God and God alone. Also you can fast outside of Ramadan as well and get additional blessings from it. The prophet would routinely fast on Mondays for example. I think the only days you are not allowed to fast on is Eid because it's a time for celebration.

There's no rule that says you _have_ to break your fast with dates. We just do because that's how the prophet usually did it. Dates have no inherit religious significance. I eat them throughout the year because they are delicious and have nutritional benefits and there's some baraqah (wisdom) in things turning out this way. Also when it comes to farming dates are often harvested in late fall/early winter that's when they are juiciest so we just missed the window but also Ramadan rotates around the seasons due to being on the Lunar calendar. But there are different kinds of dates and you can dry them and they last on long time without spoiling. A very useful property when you live in a desert hence why it's such a common fruit there.

Even when the prophet didn't have access to dates, he would break it with water or yogurt, or even just salt instead. Whatever he has access to at the time.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#275

Post by SftwrSvior81 »

flangola7 wrote: post #200
SftwrSvior81 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, no fap.

Deal breaker. What if a friend or a robot does the fapping for you

Same thing. The idea is go without a lot of the comforts we are accustomed to in order to experience life as those less fortunate do so that we may be more empathetic towards our fellow humans.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#276

Post by zdragnar »

tokyolights2 wrote: post #120
yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

> 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…

You've completely missed the mark. Life is full of contradictory desires. I would love to have a lean, muscular body. I also love pizza.

Fasting is a practice of discipline; consciously choosing to forgo one thing to focus on another. You don't not eat because God or Allah or Buddha or whomever actually care that you didn't eat. You don't eat to focus on mastering your own desires such that you can better your own mindfulness of adherence to the other strictures of your faith during your daily life, even when you are not fasting.

The reason many religions focus on fasting is that it is a common and simple way to be aware of a temptation and choose to not give into it.

Edit: I should add, in case my point wasn't obvious, that none of the above has to do with you or anyone else. It is purely a personal thing.

Anyone who brags about how much religious fasting they are doing are just showing that they have been wasting their time and have gotten nothing from it.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#277

Post by uthinter »

throwntoday wrote: post #272
uthinter wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Islam gave rights to woman at a time when they were treated as property everywhere else in the world. false on all accounts.

[flagged]

>Or maybe just another assblasted indian barely suppressing their hatred by eternally seething about muslims.

I am not an Indian but merely an expat. But this comment is rather interesting

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#278

Post by hqudsi »

names_are_hard wrote: post #225
mkoubaa wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no Muslim authority or institutions, it's decentralized

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that GP is partially correct, in that the lunar sighting is not an individual thing, but done at the communal level by the central authority. It's just that like most religions, Islam has multiple streams, and this there are multiple central authorities. Is this not how it works? I'm not Muslim, this is what I understood from a Muslim coworker. He also implied…

There's no central authority in Islam like the clergy in Catholism.

However there are legal schools and councils that people trust. Legal schools (or fiqh) were established by famous scholars that nearly everyone recognizes as an expert and were carried on by their students.

From a political standpoint, a lot of Muslims defer to Saudi Arabia because they are the current caretakers of Mecca and Medina.

But generally speaking for everyday normal Muslims they go with whatever their local imam says and go with whatever method the imam used because they are usually the most knowledgeable person around on such matters.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#279

Post by robocat »

Jorengarenar wrote: post #247
robocat wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. 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…

> > I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. > Murder? Mayhem? Destruction? Greed? The bar is so low you consider not being a dangerous sociopath a virtue?

You think a dangerous sociopath is not virtuous if, for moral reasons, they hold back from acting upon their antisocial base desires?

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#280

Post by ESTheComposer »

throwntoday wrote: post #272
uthinter wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Islam gave rights to woman at a time when they were treated as property everywhere else in the world. false on all accounts.

[flagged]

I was with you until your second sentence. The out of nowhere racism makes your original point (which I agree with) moot
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