Muhammed Ali

Near-death experiences seem to have the same core universal properties across cultures, ages and even beliefs. These include: heightened awareness, out-of-body experiences, meeting family and friends, a life review, seeing a being of light or beings of light, going through a tunnel, being told to go back etc. Do you believe that these experiences are coherent with Islamic accounts of death? If not, why not? And how do you deal with the differences? If they are hallucinations, then why are the elements universal? How would Darwinian evolution bring about such specific experiences at death? If you don't know much about the subject:

There are many degrees between agnosticism and certain interpretations of Islam. You don't need to go to either extreme.

The word ye means the. More here: https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2012/08/03/isaac-newton-mosaic-account-of-creation-burnet-theory-Earth/ The language is difficult, so I can't pretend to understand his view fully. But it seems to me that according to Newton, Moses' could not omit or add anything to the view of the common person, yet he still had to adapt the truth to fit into their worldview. Is Newton's justification convincing?

I am not of the opinion that these ahadith should actually be censored at an academic level. They should not. However there should be a lot more cogent material in defense of Islam, in light of these ahadith and other difficult issues (which may involve giving a variety of opinions that differ from the traditional ones). I also think that these ahadith should not be told to people who are not capable of handling them. E.g. I am not going to tell an old Shi'I man who is close to his death about them. You might not feel uncomfortable with the idea of a Shia 'slave' owner telling a woman to separate from her husband so he can sleep with her, and then telling her to go back to him after the 2 month period. But many people would be horrified with the idea that there are ahadith which say that. You must acknowledge that not everyone has the moral outlook that you have. And it's not simply a result of Western liberal values. Even people in many traditionally Eastern cultures would find that act outright immoral. Even free thinkers who are able to think beyond their cultural norms would find that act repulsive on objective grounds. There are some Muslims who are more compassionate than other Muslims. If you don't feel even a little uncomfortable with the idea of sexually forcing a married slave girl (who was captured outside of war), then there is something wrong with you. Since you mentioned censorship, here is a fatwa in an English book (on the most famous Shia website) about taking slaves: https://www.al-Islam.org/82-questions-ayatullah-Sayyid-abdul-husayn-dastghaib-shirazi/jurisprudence-fiqh#question-58 Later he justifies it by stating that the slave may become familiar with Islam. I am sure you teach Islam without capturing people.

I don't blame these teachers of religion for doing that. Most people including the scholars are not even able to prove the existence of God or the authenticity of Islam. Do you think the people are able to handle such difficult ahadith if their own teachers are lacking in authenticating their own religion? You would be bringing unnecessary hardship onto the people. You have to balance this hardship with huge amounts of support. Don't give people problems without solutions. The only people qualified to expose some difficult matters to the public are the ones that are able to increase the belief of the people with sound reasoning, and lots of it.

And the traditionalists are similarly being duped into thinking that their interpretation of God's religion has nothing to do with ancient cultural beliefs.

The difference between adultery and the issue with slaves is much more than consent. Consent is not the only factor involved.

Show people your error messages and then they will be able to help you.

How do you know if any of those ahadith are authentic? Your approach just assumes that they are authentic and then from there you use those same ahadith to authenticate other ahadith?

How are you supposed to know if the narrator is "thiqa" without ilm al-rijal? Then how will you ever fulfill point 2 in your list? So you are not supposed to check if the narrator is reliable, but if they are not reliable (which you are not allowed to check) you have to "investigate"? I know how other malangs deal with this verse and you may have understood it a bit different from them.

Ask him.

This is simply not true. You are misinformed. So in your opinion if it's from a fasiq but doesn't contradict the Qur'an, it should be accepted? If it is from a fasiq and does contradict the Qur'an, we should "investigate" it? But what constitutes investigation? Please explain how do go about investigating a hadith narrated by a wrong doer? You have missed the point. Ilm al-rijal is not a supposed to be religious ritual. It isn't like prayer or invocations. Thus it can never fall under the category of bidah. And more importantly you have assumed that the narrations in those famous books are authentic. You are not supposed to assume that anything is authentic. Tell me, why is al-Kafi considered authentic by you?

I mean objectively acceptable not socially acceptable. Is it objectively acceptable?

What about today? Would it be morally acceptable to marry a 9 year old (under normal circumstances)?

There is evidence that puberty is starting earlier in modern times than it did in the past. This could be due to many factors including nutrition and chemical exposures. Even in Roman times the average age was apparently greater than it is today: Link It's likely that the girls in 7th century Arabia became physically mature later than the girls do today. I have heard a lot of Muslims make the claim that puberty arrives earlier in hot climates, but where is the evidence? It's one of those myths in the Muslims community.