Who's going to fast ramadan on here ?

[Majed]

As a cultural muslim, i think i might fast for ramadan, mainly for family reason and because i enjoy being part of the community doing the fast. What about y'all ? 

[Majed]

The most beautiful thing about allah is that it doesn't exist. Dedicating your whole life for an idea that doesn't exist is such a beautiful and wise thing. And i'm being serious not sarcastic. There's a poetic wisdom in dedicating your life for the unreal, the
false, the illusory.
With that said i might fast ramadan mainly for social and political reasons. Most of my surroundings are muslims i might fast just to fit in with the vibe.

[PurpleTree]

I mean fasting is generally healthy but the way i understand is that then many Muslims just eat a lot of trash during the night? 

[Majed]

 

[PurpleTree]

I know a guy named Ramadan

and i know a guy named Bajram.

 

[Majed]

The error that atheists make in regard to islam, is that they think that just because it isn't true, it isn't valuable. Truth is not the only value, there's also community, culture, sense of belonging, fulfillment, family bonds. Even if islam can not provide truth, it can provide community, culture, sense of belonging, fulfillment and family bonds.

[PurpleTree]

^ Sure the community is a good thing that is missed in many western countries. What kind of community though?  then also Muslim women can’t marry non Muslims. And there are „honour“ killings of women and so on.

[Basman]

5 hours ago, Majed said:

The error that atheists make in regard to islam, is that they think that just because it isn't true, it isn't valuable. Truth is not the only value, there's also community, culture, sense of belonging, fulfillment, family bonds. Even if islam can not provide truth, it can provide community, culture, sense of belonging, fulfillment and family bonds.

If there's going to be a resurgence of communal religion in the west it needs to be Christian. Religion and culture are inextricably enmeshed and many core western values are Christian in origin.

[Majed]

The wisdom in homosexuality being a sin in islam, is to not give sexuality an important role within the life of a muslim. The primary function of sexuality should be procreation, and most of our earthly life should be dedicated to Allah, to God.

[Nemra]

7 minutes ago, Majed said:

The wisdom in homosexuality being a sin in islam, is to not give sexuality an important role within the life of a muslim. The primary function of sexuality should be procreation, and most of our earthly life should be dedicated to Allah, to God.

There's no wisdom at all in homosexuals being blamed for the sexual activity of heterosexuals.

It's totally dumb to force a homosexual to be with the opposite sex.

[Majed]

@Nemra Bro what ?

[Majed]

2 hours ago, Majed said:

The wisdom in homosexuality being a sin in islam, is to not give sexuality an important role within the life of a muslim. The primary function of sexuality should be procreation, and most of our earthly life should be dedicated to Allah, to God.

With that said i don't think sexuality should be totally repressed either, it's a balance. I don't think having homosexual intercourse is bad or evil. I don't understand why religions treat sexuality (homosexuality, masturbation, sex outside of marriage...) to be inherently evil, when it is just something biological like eating, sleeping, breathing, defacating... Imagine if there were thousands of rules around sleeping, eating, breathing and defacating, it's clearly incoherent. I'm trying to understand islam but certain things are just unreasonable, unrealistic, unpractical and just wrong, which is why most muslims don't follow these rules around sexuality. I don't think it is actually possible for a homosexual to never have an intercourse or masturbate, or to change his sexual orientation, like it's just not possible. Likewise who doesn't masturbate? Even the most devout muslims practice masturbation, who doesn't have sex outside of marriage? No one. Like these rules need to be changed at some point.

[Moon]

Yes I’m fasting, as somewhat of a “cultural muslim” too

Not because I have to but just for the sense of community/family connectedness and spiritual growth 😄

[AION]

On 26/02/2025 at 4:06 PM, PurpleTree said:

I mean fasting is generally healthy but the way i understand is that then many Muslims just eat a lot of trash during the night? 

That is insane idd. They are so pious during the day and at night..

[Majed]

 

[Basman]

17 hours ago, Majed said:

The wisdom in homosexuality being a sin in islam, is to not give sexuality an important role within the life of a muslim. The primary function of sexuality should be procreation, and most of our earthly life should be dedicated to Allah, to God.

Banning homosexuality has nothing to do with god. It's an outdated decree of survival by humans for humans.

[Breakingthewall]

If you are a Christian, to feel part of the community you have to eat dinner on Christmas Eve to the limit of the human capacity to ingest food and drink at least a liter of wine and a half of champagne while your brothers-in-law yell at you that you don't know what you're talking about for having voted for that party, and the next day you have to do it again.

[soos_mite_ah]

I'm not Muslim but  I fasted for Ramadan last year. I was facinated by the tradition for a while and I wanted to try it out. I decided that it was going to be a month of me seeing what would happen and also prioritize my personal and spiritual health. I journaled about my experience for each day from page 13 to 14 in this journal below: 

I'm not going to fast this year despite having a good experience due to some health things that have come up. I'm planning on doing this next year though. 

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Mohammed was an absolutely illiterate man, and the Koran, in which his sayings are collected, is ninety-nine percent rubbish. You can just open the book anywhere and read it, and you will be convinced of what I am saying. I am not saying on a certain page — anywhere. You just open the book accidentally, read the page and you will be convinced of what I am saying.

Whatsoever one percent truth there is here and there in the Koran is not Mohammed's. It is just ordinary, ancient wisdom that uneducated people collect easily — more easily than the educated people, because educated people have far better sources of information — books, libraries, universities, scholars. The uneducated, simply by hearing the old people, collect a few words of wisdom here and there. And those words are significant, because for thousands of years they have been tested and found somehow true. So it is the wisdom of the ages that is scattered here and there; otherwise, it is the most ordinary book possible in the world.

Muslims have been asking me, "Why don't you speak on the Koran? You have spoken on The Bible, on the Gita, this and that." I could not say to them that it is all rubbish; I simply went on postponing. Even just before I went into silence, a Muslim scholar sent the latest English version of the Koran, praying me to speak on it. But now I have to say that it is all rubbish, that is why I have not spoken on it — because why unnecessarily waste time?

Edited March 2 by Husseinisdoingfine

[Husseinisdoingfine]

More of Osho’s book From Unconsciousness to Consciousness:

The Koran, the Mohammedan's holy book, is so childish, so primitive -- because Mohammed was illiterate. He could not write himself. He must have spoken, and somebody else must have written it. He himself was shocked when he heard a voice. He was in the mountains taking care of his sheep and goats. He heard, "Write!" He looked all around, there was nobody. Again he heard, "Write!" He said, "I am uneducated, I cannot write. And who are you?" There was nobody around. He must have been very much shaken, must have become afraid. And this is just a symptom of an unbalanced mind, who mistakes his unconscious voices for voices coming from outside. It is his own unconscious. But to the conscious, the unconscious is far away. It is inside. But if the mind is unbalanced... and there is ample proof that Mohammed's mind was unbalanced, because his whole life was the life of a fanatic -- killing people, and by killing, converting them: "Either you become a follower or be ready to die." Mohammedanism has converted one third of the world, not by argument but by the sword. He was not able to argue; he had no capacity to read or write, or to think. So when he heard this unconscious, he rushed home shivering, feverish, really afraid. He went to bed and told his wife, "I cannot say to anybody else that God has spoken to me. I don't believe it! I must have gone mad -- perhaps too much heat in the desert, the mountains, and continuously moving in that heat has driven me crazy or something. I have heard... and I would like to tell you so that I am unburdened." That woman convinced him. That's what I say to you again and again, that leaders need followers for them to be convinced that they are leaders. That woman convinced him that it was really God: "You are not mad, God has spoken to you." The woman must have loved Mohammed, because she was forty years of age and he was only twenty-six. And he was poor, uncultured, uneducated, yet that very rich woman had married him: she must have been in love with the man. So she convinced him: "Don't you be worried. More voices will be coming. This must be the beginning, that's why God said, 'Write!' If you cannot write, don't worry. You just say what is told to you, we will write it." This is how the Koran was written. And it was not written in one day or one month or one year, because Mohammed was not so articulate a man. It took his whole life. Once in a while something would come out and he would say, "Write it."
The Koran was written over many years, and what has come out is almost worthless. It cannot come even from an intelligent human being, what to say about God -- if there is any God. And if these books are the proof of that God, then that God is really unintelligent. Now, the Koran says strange things which Mohammedans go on following -- because it is holy. Mohammed himself married nine wives. He was poor. He could not afford even a single wife. But because the rich woman fell in love with him, and she was forty years old and he was only twenty-six, soon she died and he had all the money. So he started marrying any kind of beautiful women he could find. And he states in the Koran that every Mohammedan is entitled to have four wives -- that is a special favor for Mohammedans from God. No other religion allows four wives. Now, where are you going to get four wives? By nature, man and woman are always almost in an equal proportion, so one man, one wife, seems to be a very natural order of things because the proportion is the same. But if a man has to marry four wives, he is taking three other men's wives. Now those three other men, what are they going to do? It became a good strategy for Mohammedanism. These three other Mohammedans have to grab the wives of others -- not of Mohammedans, non-Mohammedans -- and convert them to Mohammedanism. In fact, the moment a woman gets married to a Mohammedan she is a Mohammedan; no special conversion is needed. And particularly from India they caught thousands of women. The Hindu society was in difficulty because Hindus don't believe in conversion, just like Jews. These are the two oldest religions, which don't believe in conversion. A Jew is a Jew by birth, a Hindu is a Hindu by birth. And once a Hindu woman has become Mohammedan she has fallen. She has become untouchable, she cannot be taken back. So they went on finding women from every place and that helped tremendously to increase their population. Do you see the point? One man can create many children if many women are available, but one woman can give birth to only one child once a year. She will take one year at least to give birth to one child. Mohammedans increased immediately because each Mohammedan is entitled to have four wives. And through the sword... and it is very surprising that people believe it. The Koran says, "If you cannot convert somebody to a Mohammedan, it is better to kill him, because at least you will relieve him of a wrong life that he was going to live." Just for his sake, relieve him! They have relieved millions of people, and they go on relieving them. Either way they relieve you. If you become Mohammedan you are also relieved, because God is compassionate. To be a Mohammedan is just to believe in three things: one God, one prophet Mohammed, one holy book, the Koran. That's all -- these three beliefs and you are saved. If you are not willing to be saved by these three beliefs, then the sword is going to save you immediately. But they won't allow you to live a wrong life. They know what a right life is; and other than their life, all lives are wrong. These are the holy books. All these holy books are a heavy burden on the human soul. So first I want to say, there are no holy books -- including mine. All books are human. Yes, there are well written books and there are not-so-well written books, but there are no categories of holy and unholy. You ask me, "Why did all the holy books have to create the concept of the devil?" The arithmetic is very simple. The arithmetic is that you cannot create God without creating the devil. It is absolutely necessary for God's existence, because where are you going to dump everything that is wrong in the world? If only God is there then he is responsible for everything -- for Buchenwald, or any other concentration camp of Adolf Hitler, where millions of Jews are just gassed; within seconds they evaporate.