Sgt Tom what's the attraction of Islam?

[Metacrock]

I don't mean to offend you. I do have great respect for you and for Islam. I know they had a great civilization in the middle ages and it many ways it out shown the West. they preserved the Greek writings.

but I don't see the allure. I don't mean to offend you on it. why would it be so much better for you than Christianity? I'm interested the first things that made you willing to consider it?

I don't know if I've asked you this in such a direct fashion before. I didn't want to offend you. I still don't. but hope you dont' see this as offensive.

[sgttomas]

I don't mean to offend you. I do have great respect for you and for Islam. I know they had a great civilization in the middle ages and it many ways it out shown the West. they preserved the Greek writings.

Thanks Meta, no offense taken. Sorry for the delay.

I spent some time reading back through my old posts here, from around the time of my conversion. I thought maybe I would have said something previously that would sum it all up better than where my heart and mind are at right now.

My God, forgive me. I was an asshole. I'm very grateful that y'all kept up dialogue with me.

...and I miss tinythinker. ....and I really owe him an apology.

why would it be so much better for you than Christianity?

I don't even know what it means to be a "Christian" any longer. We've been chatting about this recently here, so I won't belabor the point.

I love Jesus more now than I ever did in my life. I have a profoundly solid intellectual basis for referring to God, and a clear line of what is inappropriate to attribute to God. That's literally what I wanted my life to be about. That's what "sgttomas" is all about. And when one has love for Jesus and knowledge of God, then one is in a very good place in one's life.

If being a Christian means accepting that Jesus died for my sins and that he was the Son of God, I don't know what I would gain from it. I know that my salvation is only by God's grace, through faith, and that I have no effort and no share in this reward, but that it is entirely by God's choosing. And I would not gain in my knowledge of God, or what God's will is for my life. I have Jesus in my life. Jesus is the perfect revelation of God, because God chose him to be that. And all of God's Messengers share in this distinction.

The only thing I can gain by deviating from my religion is to appease my appetites and selfish desires. I don't want to be a pathway. I want to be on The Path.

I'm interested the first things that made you willing to consider it?

The expressions that refer to God, in the Quran, are the most concise and explicit statements that have ever been uttered about God, and absolutely nothing can contradict them. The only options are to accept them (this doesn't mean accepting the whole religion of Islam), or else it is to ignore them, or dismiss them. I chose the first option, and then my task was clear: to forge ahead into this book and into this religion, to see what standing it has.

There is an authentic saying attributed to Muhammad, God's Messenger, that says a person has not truly loved God until they love Muhammad more than they love their own selves. This bothered me in a way, but I didn't dismiss it. Then I understood it, because I understood why I was lacking in it, and now this love for Muhammad is the only thing I want, for the same reason that you want to love Jesus so much....and for the same reason why I want to love Jesus so much.

Those were the ways that God chose to bring me into this religion.

Thank you very much for asking me in such a gracious way.

I pray that God has not allowed me to say anything in error, but if I have, then this is only by my own shortcomings and the whispering of Satan. I pray that God protects us from the misguidance of Satan and that God unites us in our love for Him.

Peace,
-sgttomas