Mithrandir

This I want to know!

Alhamdulillah, that's a relief. I look forward to learning from this post, Insha Allah.

Salam, uncle Sami. Are you planning on leaving shiachat after this? Please dont!

My mom.

To the OP, Gandhi said, "someone who believes religion has nothing to do with politics does not know what religion is." Religion is the source of our ethics and morality. A nation that subscribes to a religion's ethical system would want those values reflected in its political system. Stop making your own opinions up--it is a bit like creating your own religion. An example of what I mean. The third Caliph's government wrongfully hoarded other people's gold and silver, a clear violation of Qur'anic conduct. The rightly guided companions made it their religious duty to campaign against this horrendous act--in the past, in all cultures, politics was a part of religion--the separation of Church and State is a modern abomination. There's plenty of readily available material on this topic. If you need resources, shoot me a pm. I'll give you a few book recommendations.

Since you read some random book in Barnes and Nobles whose name you don't even remember, maybe you should read a good book written by a sincere individual. Read Then I Was Guided. Oh, then get yourself a copy of After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton.

(bismillah) When I was reading The sourcefield investigations by David Wilcock, he recounted a very fascinating experiment conducted by a famous Russian doctor--I'm sorry I forgot the name. Basically, the doctor wanted to see if there was any measurable physical change in the bodies of individuals who claimed to have had near death experiences when they were proclaimed "clinically dead." He conducted a massive experiment. Over 300 people in a huge Russian hospital were proclaimed clinically dead. Prior to this he had measured the mass of all these patients. However, over 64-67 people were revived and claimed to have NDEs--near death experiences. Of this number, he saw that over 60% experienced a dramatic decrease in their mass while being clinically dead. They later regained this mass once their heart started working again. As per the principles of science, since it was more than 50% of the patients who experienced this fall in mass, something real had happened. All factors were ruled out. The only other explanation was that the "consciousness" or "soul" of the people had temporarily left the body while having a NDE. According to him, this is why the relatives of people who have had NDEs often claim to see ghost like apparitions of the deceased. We can perhaps explain the drop in mass if we assume the soul or consciousness to be a subtle form of energy. According to Einstein, all mass is merely compressed energy so when a person is having a NDE they might give some of their mass as energy. Eastern religions often talk about Chakras or energy centres in the body. Nashbandi Sufis talk about the 7 lataif also called the subtle energy centres. I find all of this very interesting. According to the doctor who conducted this experiment, this could be our proof for the existence of the soul. In fact, there have been many many many experiments conducted by highly respected Russian scientists that have revealed similar results. They were published as early as the 90s in highly respected science journals. Western science is trying very hard to ignore this research. Those who had read it call it "a waste of time" or "knowledge without any practical benefit." Subhanallah!

Life's been well, alhamdulillah. Been studying about everything you've shared with us. With each passing day I wake up just a bit more about the reality of our world.

Love in the modern sense is a biochemical phenomenon. Love in the past was associated with action--working for your family, looking after your kids, treating your spouse with respect. Today it is an emotion, a completely novel way of looking at this. Emotions don't last--how can they? Ground your social relations on action, and emotion may come into the equation later.

I'm surprised you guys know him. I was/still am one of his mureeds, from back when I was a sunni....don't know if I'm still part of the Order anymore.

Uncle, Sami! Haven't seen you here in a long time. How have you been?

Move on. Just a guy, y'know. Of course, he's not just a guy to you. Why don't take the time to think about whether the boy has any intrinsic value or not, with respect to you that is. He totally gave up on you the first sign that difficulty popped up, so how do you think he'll fare in marriage? Perhaps you've grown attached to him because of all the time you've spent together, but that's more of a chemical reaction than 'love'. But then again, the emotions associated with 'love' are also a product of chemical reactions in the brain, so perhaps you should think about that. Take the time and involve yourself in some motivational activities, that'll help in directing your mind and attention towards some helpful and enjoyable pursuits. Take care, Mithrandir.

(bismillah) I wish he had said more. Just goes to show that even Sunnis aren't unified on the issue of Imam Mahdi(as). A large number of Sufis in the Indo-Pak region actually do believe that the Mahdi has already arrived, so that should serve as a reminder to us that we're on the right track.

I think they're saying is that in this case, the act of "pedophilia" can simply be called a lawful marital relationship even if the female child has not reached puberty. But girls mature faster than boys and most boys hit puberty at around age 12-13 so the claim of pedophilia is invalid. Whatever the reasons for passing this bill may be, I don't think a lot of people are crying to get married to little girls they've raised as their own. But there's always that rare case where such things are actually necessary. In any case, what I'm interested in is not the Islamic legal validity of the issue but whether this bill ever got approved or not.

Bismillah. Salam, friends. I came across this, I know its old but could anyone tell me if this actually got approved? "Iran lawmakers pass bill allowing men to marry adopted daughters" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/iran-lawmakers-men-wed-adopted-daughters