I talked with my girlfriend this weekend, and she told me that she would still marry me even if I was Muslim. That has been the main thing stopping me converting to Islam - I don't want to lose her. She is a catechumen in the Orthodox Church, and I told her that she could still be Christian, as Islam allows Muslims to marry "People of the Book". Furthermore, I think we could get married as soon as I accept Islam, because marriage in Islam is simple, the writing of a contract between the husband and wife. We could then have the wedding party (walimah) back in Malaysia, where she is from.
I can’t say that I am the least bit surprised by this. When you mentioned the Jehovah’s Witnesses at your school, it was obvious to me that you would never follow through on becoming Orthodox, and that you would continue looking for more and more severe fundamentalist religions. I do wonder why you would want to marry a Christian woman if you are planning on being a Muslim. Will you insist on her covering herself at all times? Will you insist on her converting to Islam with you? It seems inconceivable that you would be able to be a muslim without insisting on everyone around you being muslim, and just as fundamentalist as you. If she had any sense, she would leave you rather than unite herself to someone who rejects Christ.
I think that I am going to become a Muslim, but I'm going to do quite a bit more reading before I do.
Yeah, why be rash about it? A week from now something more authoritative might show up on your radar that you can hopelessly cling to rather than ever really finding truth and peace for yourself.
The mosque here is just 5 mins away from the university, and I have no classes in the afternoons, so I'll go to the mosque library to read the Qur'an and to read more about Islam. The mosque is pretty much open during the day in Ramadan.
What would be the point of spending all your free time filling your head with Muslim teachings and not converting right now? I mean you made up your mind the day that you first talked to a group of muslims, and any reading you do is only going to further convince you. The only thing that will convince you that Islam is not true is another, more authoritative religion. And the cycle will begin again.
I know I could convert right now, though, which is far better than the Orthodox system, where a priest tells you when you can convert and be baptized. Apparently your prayers aren't as strong until you're baptized, so it seems that the priest is withholding the full power of the grace of God (glorious and exalted is He).
You know why the “Orthodox system” is better? Because it prevents someone like you from stumbling upon the truth, deciding to give it a shot because they haven’t found anything better yet, then receiving the Holy Spirit, and partaking of the Holy, precious Body and Blood of the only Begotten Son of God and then turning around and rejecting it and spitting upon it. If Islam had anything Holy, they might keep people from flippantly joining. Instead, they just make sure that you can’t leave once you’re in it. It turns out that your sinful, ecumenist priest is a wonderful, intelligent man because he prevented you from desecrating yourself and the Body and Blood of Christ.
My girlfriend has also talked about being baptized in the Coptic Church, because 1) the priest might baptize her quicker than the Antiochian Orthodox priest and 2) she likes the falafels there.
I’m so relieved to see how dedicated she is to Orthodoxy that she would make impulsive decisions based on fried chickpeas, and would marry a man who has rejected Christ.
Because it seems to be the truth. To worship God (glorious and exalted is He) alone and not to associate partners with Him in worship. No one has the right to be invoked, supplicated, prayed to or shown any act of worship but God alone.
That has to be the worst reasoning I’ve ever heard. I could make up a religion today that would seem to be the truth. All you have to do is figure out what people want to hear. You make the religion match what people want to believe anyway, and they will believe it. And you know that we worship God alone, but because you have decided that we don’t fit the bill for you, you can slander us with abandon.
But I am excited that my girlfriend and I can get married as soon as I convert.
Neither of you is Orthodox, you could go to any civil authority and get married. That would be better than converting to Islam so you can satisfy your lusts.
As I said, I am not the least bit surprised by any of this. What is frustrating, however, is that you seem unwilling to even hear what others are trying to tell you. You have moved on, just as you will move on from this to something else (assuming that you are able to), and you have no more use for what any of us say. You have turned away your heart from Christ, and nothing we can say will convince you. That being said, I would appreciate it if you would change your faith icon and remove the icon from your avatar. If you should ever get your head on straight, we are more than willing to accept you back, but for now, I think we’ve admonished you repeatedly, and now we need to have nothing more to do with you.
I was using the Arabic word for "infidel", though it left the r on the end. Go figure.
