rusmeister
A Russified American Orthodox Chestertonian
- Dec 9, 2005
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[QUOTE="rusmeister, post: 75970937, member: 133419" Also, in Islam, it's a lot easier to live by their standard of what makes a good Muslim (though in the West, converts at least eschew the idea of jihad and pretend it's not core in Islamic teaching).
Making our own Fallen desires and passions OK is seriously not OK when it comes to others looking at us and wondering whether there is anything really different about us. Somebody pays a price, even if we are clueless about it.
This is very interesting. Why do you think that personal holiness is easier as a Muslim?[/QUOTE]
Hi there!
I did say “make a good Muslim”, though of course, they have a conception of holiness as well.
One has to speak in generalities, and bear in mind that there a spectrum of beliefs, as in Christianity, but that there is also an identifiable core which is non-negotiable, whatever individuals or even while divisions such as Sunni, Shiite, or Sufi might claim. In Christianity, it would be, for instance, that Jesus Christ is in fact God, the Holy Trinity in the Second Person, or that we must repent and be baptized, and go on repenting.
So I am speaking about that core.
Islam is a dualistic religion. That means that they have teachings that openly contradict each other, not paradoxes, but flat-out contradictions. Thus a given division will claim that such-and-such a text in the Koran is superseded by a later text. And so the Muslim can find texts that tell him to love his neighbor, and even the Christian and Jew as “people of the book” at least, and also texts that tell him to persecute and destroy the Kafir, which includes Christians and Jews that reject and oppose, do not submit to, Islam. And nowhere does Islam teach that one is to love one’s enemies. It is a concept that has never been accepted by that historical core of Islam, and is not supported in their sacred texts. Thus, personal holiness is easier from the get-go. A Muslim might have to bear a cross for a fellow Muslim, and even, perhaps, feel compelled to bear one for “people of the book”, but not for enemies who do not submit to Allah.
The Christian is commanded to love one’s enemies. We frequently disobey, but that is our mandate. That makes it harder for us; we have a higher and harder standard of holiness.
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