Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!171.64.64.130.MISMATCH!usenet.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:50:01 -0600 Return-Path: X-SRI-Policy: http://stump.algebra.com/~sri X-SRI-Info-1: Send submissions to sri@stump.algebra.com X-SRI-Info-2: Send complaints to sri-admin@stump.algebra.com X-Comment: moderators do not necessarily agree or disagree with this article. X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov), C++/Perl/Unix Consulting X-Moderation-1: Hassle-Free commercial hosting of moderation sites available X-Moderation-2: See http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump X-Original-To: sri@hrweb.org Delivered-To: sri@ergosphere.net DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=BzPrCh4QIitzylpZhvltJZoPwwvB6dm5NAUUtg0LLIU=; b=SPa9l5mjf4N+hySc/f5PfyY1GRkW/HMWRG0+/fbzRTquxjCzWwtQykWdYD7Z8jyrM8 cLk0ig1RZQYQ1modWlZCrQqjacWNTxV8DF1ltocUsrrkb/cXwkPrnrUjW4TKM527fnpS HoxN+Zl6M2qqUrKcwqwrIVdcE37BU84voarXY6FzI4PGgK3mepd8l2fgaVFv6jtKvPQO dOH4Ll8boIm2g49PBHUtwKi+Wp7fIF2DB0vMOV/2yNCEWBLvaszJCz6wyBIPsNQj6ySi WIh2Xgcx57Q/hAKQP1UdXVHEvbCENTZoYUX8LC/W73hP81pncrr5wEgWB26MEwJ/q8v7 4GlQ== Message-ID: From: Fariduddien R Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam Subject: Intro to Soc.Religion.Islam FAQ X-Original-Message-ID: X-No-Markup: Yes Approved: sri-admin@hrweb.org Moderator: sri-admin@hrweb.org (SRI Moderator) X-Preprocessed: yes X-Folder: SRI FromStump: yes To: undisclosed-recipients:; Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2012 19:41:35 CST Lines: 468 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-lOTzKHogKEDAfWUUkkgzOTOxtvwLuQ2q0cVf0r3T/y3008j7421yVswFd56tsmIaW1WSfcePeeuv/DG!4ha+HkkGes/BBfVX59diyh5hh0K/yqELFYUJYXPmKMD7gQhfYzJ6ks4AsnkzDn7ITFbC4/ooXIVt!jzWDQ1iPWt2sdWf73eF0WnwRaLWc X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 24681 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu soc.religion.islam:131406 In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful Soc.Religion.Islam Frequently Asked Questions 1) What is SRI? 2) What is Islam? 3) SRI Administration and Guidelines 4) How to contribute articles to SRI 5) Frequently Asked Questions Concerning News Articles 6) FUT's (Frequently Used Terms) 7) Other Sources of Information on Islam ------- Subject: 1) What is SRI? Soc.Religion.Islam (SRI) is a forum for discussions related to Islam. People from all backgrounds and of all religious beliefs may contribute to SRI, by asking questions or providing answers, comments, or arguments. SRI is moderated to filter out irrelevant discussions and abusive language. ------- Subject: 2) What is Islam? "Islam" is the Arabic word for "submission." It is derived from the root S-L-M, from which the word "salaam" or "peace" is derived. The essence of Islam is the complete submission of one's self and life to the Will of Allah -- the One and Eternal God and the Lord and Creator of the Universe. One who submits to Allah is thus called a Muslim. Muslims number about 1.6 billion, over a fifth of the world's population. Islam is thus one of the world's largest religions, and its present rate of growth and vitality is probably unrivaled. Muslims believe that the religion of Islam was revealed by Allah through a long line of human messengers, starting with the Prophet Adam and culminating in the revelation of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad. Some of these Prophets are well-known to readers of the Bible, such as Prophets Abraham, Jesus, and Moses (peace be upon them). They carried the same essential message of submission to Allah, though some details of religious laws varied with time and place. With the passage of time, however, much of the revelation sent to these earlier Prophets was lost or changed. The Prophet Muhammad was thus sent down by Allah to renew and complete the message of Islam. Allah sent Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him [pbuh]) (570 - 622 CE) to humanity to teach the message of Islam. The first main source of Islamic knowledge is the Qur'an, the Words of Allah revealed to the Prophet, and the Holy Book of Muslims. The Qur'an was revealed piecemeal by God to the Prophet Muhammad during the last twenty three years of his life. The Qur'an has been preserved in its original form to this day, and supersedes all other sources of Islamic knowledge. Secondary to the Qur'an, but also an important source of Islamic knowledge and law, is the example of the Prophet (pbuh) himself. Reports purporting to describe the sayings and deeds of the Prophet (pbuh) are extant and are called "Hadith." The hadith is to be distinguished from the Qur'an. The latter was specified by Muhammad to be the literal Word of God and was preserved from the outset with great care. The Hadith, on the other hand, is not the Word of God and vary in their degree of authenticity. The six basic Beliefs in Islam are the beliefs in: 1) Allah (the one God). 2) Angels of Allah. 3) Books revealed by Allah (including the final, uncorrupted revelation: The Qur'an). 4) Messengers of Allah, from Adam to Muhammad (peace be upon them.) 5) Day of Judgement -- the Day when all our actions in this life will be judged by Allah, and we will be rewarded or punished. 6) Al-Qadar or the Supremacy of the Divine Will and Knowledge. A Muslim is to mold his or her entire life based on "submission to God", Islam. The most essential practices are known as the Five Pillars of Islam. They consist of the folllowing: 1) Shahadah ("bearing witness") - The sincere belief in: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger". 2) Prayer - Performing the five daily prayers. 3) Fasting - abstention from food and drink from dawn to sunset of every day of the month of Ramadan (a holy month in the Islamic calendar.) 4) Charity - Giving a certain portion of one's wealth yearly to the poor. 5) Pilgrimage - Performing the pilgrimage to Makkah at least once in one's lifetime as long as one is physically and financially able. Though the above constitute the basics of Islam, the "building" of Islam consists of more than just the "pillars." Being a Muslim entails constant God-consciousness and submission to God in all spheres on life, spiritual and material. ------- Subject: 3) SRI Administration and Guidelines SRI is a moderated newsgroup. There are currently two moderators: Catherine Jefferson Fariduddien Rice You can reach all current moderators by sending e-mail to the administration address: sri-admin@hrweb.org Articles submitted to SRI are forwarded by a "forwarding address" to the moderation site for review. If an article meets the SRI Guidelines (described below), the moderator approves and posts it. The sole criteria for approving articles are the SRI Guidelines. The Guidelines were established by the public vote that created the newsgroup in November 1989. ----------------------------------------- 3.1 The Guidelines of Soc.Religion.Islam Any individual submission is to be accepted for posting in soc.religion.islam provided it satisfies the following two Guidelines. The submission must be: 1) relevant to Islam 2) free from verbal abuse, name calling, and insults In addition to these guidelines, please be aware of the following practical issues. * The incoming soc.religion.islam feed is filtered for spam. Posts that are sent from IPs on major blocklists, or that match the spam filters, are filtered out. These posts receive no reply from the moderators because the moderators do not see them. Since the soc.religion.islam posting feed receives about 99 spams for each legitimate post, spam filtering is an unfortunate necessity. * Only plain text posts are accepted on soc.religion.islam. Multipart MIME posts, HTML posts, and posts that contain attached binary files are blocked. These posts also receive no reply from the moderators because the moderators do not see them. If you use a free service such as Google Groups to access soc.religion.islam, ensure if possible that you configure that service to format any posts to soc.religion.islam as plain text, otherwise, send your post as plain text email to sri@hrweb.org. * Moderators reserve the right to return copyrighted posts submitted without the copyright holder's approval, since posting such material may expose the moderator to legal action. ------------------------------------ 3.2 When the Guidelines are not Met An article that does not meet the two SRI Guidelines is returned to its author with a detailed explanation outlining exactly how either of the two guidelines was violated in the submitted article. Any article satisfying these two conditions will be posted without regard to the moderator's opinion on its contents. Therefore, the views expressed in SRI do not necessarily represent the moderators' opinions. ------------------------------ 3.3 Note on Asim Mughal's FAQ There is an old FAQ which was maintained by a person named Asim Mughal. You may have seen it floating around on the net. Asim Mughal was a moderator prior to March 6, 1994. The contents of this FAQ are outdated and do not represent the current policies and practices of SRI and its moderators. ------ Subject: 4) How to contribute articles to SRI You may submit articles to SRI through USENET (like posting to any other newsgroup), or by emailing them to: sri@hrweb.org Articles are usually reviewed within 2 business days of submission. You will hear from a moderator within this time if the posting address in the From: line of your email receives email. If you do not, resubmit your article with the words SECOND ATTEMPT in the Subject line. However, do not post the same article repetitively without giving the moderator enough time to review it. If even your SECOND ATTEMPT article is unanswered after two business days, email the article to moderators with a note on when and how earlier attempts were submitted. Always keep a copy of your article until after you know about its fate. Do ask about your article if you do not hear from moderators! If your article does not meet the SRI Guidelines, it will be returned to you with an explanation. If you wish, you may request a review from the moderator who returned your article. However, chances are you would be better off to edit your article so that it clearly meets the SRI Guidelines. --------------------------------------------- 4.1 Recommendations to Consider When Posting The following are suggestions on points to follow when submitting an article. It must be emphasized that articles which do not satisfy some of these points, but which are relevant to Islam and free of verbal abuse, will still be posted (as is obligatory under the fundamental guidelines of the newsgroup stated previously). A. Please make sure every line in your article contains less than 72 characters. This keeps your article and follow-ups on it within the the 80 characters-per-line limit. B. Please make sure your post is in "PLAIN TEXT" format. Some modern software automatically uses "Rich Text" format. Anything other than "Plain Text" format will be rejected by the servers. C. Please choose descriptive Subject: headings. Subject headings like "Question" or "Help" tell very little about your article. D. If responding to an earlier article, please limit the amount of quoted text that you include. The moderators' server does not allow them to post articles that have more quoted text than new. You may generally assume that readers have already seen the article to which you are responding. Further, instead of responding to a previous article point-by-point (including the greetings), please consider summarizing the earlier viewpoint or quoting a statement that does. E. Please do not include a lengthy .signature at the end of your post. But since the From: line in the header of your article does not always contain your correct email address, please consider providing your name and correct email address at the end of your post. F. Please try to limit your articles to 40 KiloBytes in length at most. For lengthy articles, please consider posting a short announcement instead, informing people about the long article and how they can obtain it (by email or ftp). Also, it is good practice to add the word "LONG" to the Subject: line of long articles. G. Please remember, vigorous discussion and criticism are permissible, flames are not. ------ Subject: 5) Frequently Asked Questions Concerning News Articles The moderators are constantly getting the following questions from posters looking for their articles. If you have one of the following problems, please read on before complaining to the moderators. 1. I posted an article several days ago and received an acknowledgement but my article never appeared. What happened? Each site stores news articles on its own local machine. It takes time for approved articles to propagate through the net and arrive at your site. Be patient and your article should arrive eventually. Note also that some news reader programs are configured to not show articles that the user submits. 2. I saw my article on the newsgroup but it disappeared after a few hours. Did you delete it? Due to the increasing volume of Usenet news, many internet service providers have reduced the "expiration" time for articles considerably. On many systems, articles may last three days or less from the time that they are posted. You may even miss articles entirely if you don't check newgroups regularly. If this is a problem on your system, talk to your system administrator. 3. I discovered a mistake in my article. Could you please delete it? Please consider submitting a follow-up to your original article instead of asking the moderators to delete it, as it a hassle for moderators to delete articles, and many news servers do not honor the deletion requests. 4. I submitted an article several days ago but never heard about its fate. What happened? This usually means that the moderators have not received your article, due to any number of possible problems. These include problems at your site, problems at the forwarding site (sri@hrweb.org) or problems at the moderation site. Moderators are not responsible for articles they have not received. If you have not heard from the moderators within forty-eight hours of submitting your article, submit it again by mailing it directly to sri@hrweb.org with "repost" in the subject heading. You may also not be receiving acknowledgements if the e-mail address in your From: header is bogus. You should list a known good e-mail address at the bottom of your article, in your signature. 5. Are anonymous articles accepted for posting? We review articles based on whether their contents meet SRI guidelines and not based on who wrote them. Anonymous articles are processed like any other articles. In general, moderators do not "anonymize" articles. A user who wishes to remain anonymous should submit the article anonymous, not ask the moderators to withhold the user's name. 6. I see a lot of material bashing Islam on soc.religion.*ISLAM*. You should fear Allah and not approve this material! Please note that approving an article does not imply approval or endorsement of its content by the moderator. The moderators' job is solely to ensure that the material is relevant to Islam (for or against, and regardless of accuracy), and that its language is appropriate. It is the job of readers like you to check the accuracy of articles and to speak up if you think they are wrong or misleading. ------ Subject: 6) FUT's (Frequently Used Terms) The following is a list of Islamic terms that are often used in SRI articles, along with their meaning (spellings may vary slightly from those given here): Alhamdu lillah Praise be to Allah Allah God Allahu Akbar Allah is Most Great Amanah Trust Assalamu Alaikum Peace be upon you--the "official" Islamic greeting. Assalamu Alaikum wa "Peace and the Mercy and Blessings of God be Rahmatullahi wa upon you" (An extended form of the above.) Barakatuh Astaghfir Allah I seek forgiveness from Allah (used when mentioning something that goes against the standards of Islam) Ayah/Ayat Qur'anic verse Bid`ah Innovation, addition to the religion's essentials Bukhari One of the most noted compilers of hadith. His collection is known as Sahih Bukhari Bismillah ar-Rahman In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, ar-Rahim Most Merciful Da'wa Invitation (for humankind to Islam) Du`aa Supplication Eid Islamic holiday Fatwa Islamic legal ruling Fiqh Islamic law as interpreted by scholars Fitnah Corruption and disorder, also temptation Hadith A report of a saying or deed of the Prophet Haj Pilgrimage Halal Allowed (per Islamic law) Haram Forbidden (per Islamic law) Hazrat/Hadrat Honorable Hijab Modest way of behavior and dress (including head scarf for women) Imam Leader Iman Faith In Shaa Allah If God wills. (Used when talking about a future event) Injeel The scripture sent down to Prophet Issa (Jesus) Isnad Chain of transmitters, the list of people who successively narrated a given hadith Jannah Paradise Jazakallah Khair May God grant you what is good. (Often used instead of "Thank you") Jihad Striving for Islam, whether by peaceful or violent means (NOT holy war!) Jinn Unseen beings, who, like humans, are given the power to choose between right and wrong Kafir One who denies the truth. Literally, one who "covers" the truth (sometimes applied to non-Muslims). Khalifah Caliph. Leader of Muslim nation. Khilafah Caliphate. Khutba Sermon Kufr Denial of the Truth, rebellion against God La Ilaha Illa Allah There is no deity but God Ma Shaa Allah What God has willed! (Usually used to express wonder at Allah's creation) Madhhab School of jurisprudential thought Makruh Detested, but not forbidden (per Islamic law) Mandoub Recommended, but not required (per Islamic law) Mubah Neither forbidden nor commended. Neutral (per Islamic law) Mushrik One who commits Shirk Muslim One who submits to Allah and is a follower of Islam; also, name of one of the most notable hadith scholars. His collection is known as Sahih Muslim Nabi Prophet Qur'an The Words of Allah conveyed to us by the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) PBUH Peace Be Upon Him. Same as SAW RAA (Radia Allahu Anhu/Anha.) May Allah be pleased with him/her Rasool Messenger (Prophet to whom a scripture is revealed) Rasool Allah Messenger of God (used to refer to Prophet Muhammad) Sahaba Companions of Prophet. Singular is "Sahabi" Sahih "Sound in isnad." A technical attribute applied to the "isnad" of a hadith Salaam Peace. An abbreviated version of the Islamic greeting Salaat Prayer SAW (Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam.) Peace Be Upon Him Sawm/Siyam Fasting Seerah/Sirah History of the Prophet's life Shahadah Bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger. Shari'ah Divine Law Sheikh Scholar (or any elder and/or respected man) Shirk Associating partners (e.g. helpers, other gods) with Allah Shura Consultation among Muslims Subhan Allah "Glory be to God" Sunna/Sunnah Tradition of the Prophet Surah/Sura A Chapter in the Qur'an SWT (SubHanahu Wa Ta`ala.) Glory be to Him. Used only in reference to Allah Tafsir Interpretation Tawraat The scripture sent down to Prophet Musa (Moses). Ulama Religious scholars Umma Nation, community. Ustadh Teacher Wassalaam And peace. It means "goodbye." Zakat Required charity ------ Subject: 7) Other Sources of Information on Islam 7.1 Introductory Books ======================== - "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims", by Suzanne Haneef. Kazi Publications, 1979. - "Islam", Fazlur Rahman. Univ of Chicago Press, 1979. - "Islam and the Destiny of Man", by Gai Eaton. Allen & Unwin, 1985. - "Islam", by Ismail al-Faruqi. Arugus Communications, 1979. - "Towards Understanding Islam", by Abul Ala Maududi. The Islamic Foundation, 1980. - "Islamic History: A New Intepretation", M.A. Shaban. Cambridge Univ Press, 1971, 1976. - "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources", Martin Lings. A.S. Noordeen, 1983 - "Qur'an and Woman", Amina Wadud-Muhsin. Fajar Bakti Malaysia, available through Oxford Univ Press, 1992. - "Struggling to Surrender", by Jeffrey Lang. Amana Publications, 1994. 7.2 Bookstores for Islamic Books and Audio/Video/Diskette/CD ============================================================== Sound Vision. http://www.soundvision.com (800) 432-4262(312) 226-0205 (Chicago) Islamic Bookstore http://www.islamicbookstore.com /(888) 284-7526(410) 744-7393 (Maryland) Islamic Publications International. http://www.islampub.com (800) 568-9814 Council on Islamic Education. Seller of Islamic education materials. http://www.cie.org (714) 839-2929 (California) 7.3 Quran translations ======================== - "The Qur'an" translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem - "The Message of the Qur'an" translated by Muhammad Asad - "The Holy Qur'an: Translation and Commentary" translated by A. Yusuf Ali - "Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an" translated by Marmaduke Pickthall 7.4 World-Wide Web Sites ========================== The following web sites have comprehensive hotlists and will lead you to scores of more pages on Islam and Muslims. They also store articles and a lot of information. http://www.islamicity.org Comprehensive site on Islam, including Quran and Hadith search. http://islam.about.com Many links to other resources. http://seekersguidance.org Answers to questions and free courses ---End of Frequently Asked Questions for Soc.Religion.Islam