Thanks for the kind words and yeah, it is very upsetting and terrible how many people are ignorant about what is happening. It is true that sometimes Palestinians do commit violent acts against Israeli civilians that I think can and should be called acts of terrorism... although the Israeli army and settlers do this on a much larger scale. Unlike Palestinian violence against Israelis, Israeli violence against Palestinians is almost never punished. I don't support violence from either side, particularly when civilians are killed, but one side is living under occupation and suffers a majority of the violence, while the other side is doing the occupying and suffers the minority of it. It is definitely not an "even conflict". Even a week in Tel Rumeida or a village like Kafr Kaddum should hopefully open a person's eyes as to the realities of the situation.wa alaikum...lol, I'm not planning on any long debates. I'm glad you're safe. Hearing about those types of stories gets me so upset especially because I know so many support our foreign policy and dismiss what happens to Palestinians as something they deserve because they're terrorists (and/or Israel is "defending" itself from them).
Being back home is in some ways a lot harder than being there, at least in the West Bank we were able to confront the soldiers and settlers and (sometimes, very rarely but sometimes) be able to appeal to the soldiers to let people go or assist in putting enough pressure on them to not destroy a village like Susya. Being back here and hearing the reports is very hard, yes I speak out and my wife who was with me this time and I will give some presentations but it's not the same. Your mind also does strange things to you after some time there. When we were there so many horrible things were happening that we had little time to really think and process it... we would run out and try to help, then spend a lot of time writing reports (and me my working on the blog which thanks be to God was I see read by quite a few people), getting not a lot of sleep in some ways was good because we were always busy. Now being back, I see kids playing from the bus and it brings back memories from the villages and Hebron and I want to start crying for no reason and feel like an idiot, or hear a loud noise and it freaks me out or see water mist (I went to the Niagara Falls to see it with my godfather) and it reminds me of teargas.
A few days ago I heard that in "revenge" for the demonstrations at Kafr Kaddum, whose road was cut off to them by the Israeli Army (it's all on the blog if you want more detail about the situation there), the soldiers drove a bulldozer into the village and destroyed their main water pipe. A week later, they invaded it in the early morning and shot at kids with rubber coated steel bullets. Then yesterday, a fellow activist was arrested on the ludicrous and trumped up charge of "throwing rocks" at the military. That is the stupidest accusation ever, our group is super strict about that kind of thing... yes, many Palestinians do it- although I don't support it, I understand why they'd throw rocks at soldiers who are enforcing the theft of their resources and unlike attacks on civilians, these are not acts of "terrorism"... but he was thrown to the ground and will possibly be deported.
Gets me so angry and sad I am not there right now. The situation is surreal to anyone who hasn't been there, even if you keep up with the events there from North America... there is no way to prepare you for what you see happening when you go there.
OK, back to the discussion (if you don't want to use the word debate lol).
Correct, but according to both apparent meaning or even a very scientific one, there is an error. Even if we assume that the 500 year distance is just a random space in the first heaven (although why that would be makes little sense to me) - or our cosmos- if one dropped a ball or rock from such a distance, it would not hit the earth in less than a day.Yes, I think it's called taking the most apparent meaning. But they also say, "If scientific facts certainly demonstrated, for instance, that the distance is 500 light years, this would be a justification to change the meaning of the text from what was perceivable at the time of Revelation into the current facts."
So that means there is room for interpretation but the default is to understand it by the apparent meaning.
Thanks for sharing that, it is interesting!Angels are indeed made of light though we don't know the nature of it. We have angels present with us but we don't see their light. As for the jinn traveling faster than the speed of light, this is based on the verses of Sulayman (Solomon), peace be upon him, asking the assembly of jinns which of them would fetch the throne of the Queen of Sheba for him.
A powerful one from among the jinn said, "I will bring it to you before you rise from your place, and indeed, I am for this [task] strong and trustworthy." Said one who had knowledge from the Scripture, "I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you." And when [Solomon] saw it placed before him, he said, "This is from the favor of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful. And whoever is grateful - his gratitude is only for [the benefit of] himself. And whoever is ungrateful - then indeed, my Lord is Free of need and Generous." (Surah an-Naml 27:39-40)
Whoever it was carried a throne across 1000+ miles in the twinkling of an eye.
If we are going either by human or light years, it would have to be in the lowest heaven. Unless the second heaven can be seen by human beings from earth.I don't know if the boundary of the lowest heaven is 500 years away or if the object was dropped from a seemingly random spot in the lowest heaven from 500 years away. Allaah knows best.
Was this said by Ibn Masood or Muhammad? If not Muhammad, it's not authoritative, correct?The distance/space/gap between each heaven and the one above it is the distance of 500 years of traveling (and again, the universe as we know it is included in the lowest heaven):
At-Tabaraani narrated in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabeer (8987) with a hasan isnaad from Ibn Mas‘ood that he said: The distance between the lowest heaven and the next one is the distance of five hundred years’ travel, and the distance between each heaven and the next is the distance of five hundred years’ travel.
Fair enough. I may try to get in touch with Islamweb again or other scholarly sources. I really appreciate the time and effort and research you put into your answers however!I don't know how to answer your question about what heavens refers to in other Islaamic literature.
We don't, but we do know that the object is "dropped". We also know that pieces of space debris which are far larger and more heavy than a ball or rock don't fall down from such a distance within a day, it often takes years.1.) We don't know the speed with which the object would be traveling nor do we don't know if the 500 years are 500 of our years.
Correct, but here we are talking about two extraordinary and miraculous events that God did according to Islam.2.) Even if it is referring to 500 human years & speed, that doesn't really prove the hadeeth wrong. This is not directly related to what you're saying, but the same principle applies:
"As for the question as to how a royal throne was fetched over a distance of 1,500 miles in the twinkling of an eye, it can be briefly answered thus: "The concepts of time and space, and matter and movement, that we have formed on the basis of our experiments and observations, are only applicable to us. These concepts are not correct in respect to God, nor is He bound by these. Not to speak of an ordinary throne, His power can make the sun; and even much larger stars, travel millions of millions of miles in the matter of moments. The God Who by His one Command brought this huge universe into being, had the power to have moved the throne of the queen of Sheba at a speed greater than the speed of light. In this very Qur'an it has been stated that Allah, by His powers, took his servant Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) from Makkah to Jerusalem and also brought him back in the same night. " (Tahfeem al Qur'aan)
In describing the heavens, Muhammad stated how far it is from the earth and described how long it would take a small object that would have been dropped from there to reach us. It is a general and informative statement, not a description of a one time miraculous event.
Knowing everything we do about space, we can say that an object dropped from such a distance (whether we are going by human or light years) would take decades, not hours, to reach the earth.
LOL I've stopped even trying to restrain myself.I posted 3 more after that one. Fail.
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