God: One in His Lordship and His Right to be Worshiped; One in His Names and His Attributes; He who sent to us prophets to teach us about Him and how to worship Him appropriately, to remind us of Him, to serve as examples for how to move through the world. Out of His infinite wisdom and mercy, He also gave revelation to some of these prophets. He passed His Revelations through the angel Gabriel,* to Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad (likely among many others, though their texts and records of them disappeared or were changed beyond recognition long ago), and this gift of Revelation forms the third pillar of Iman, the belief in His Books: the (lost) books given to Abraham and Moses, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Quran. Continue reading “Six Pillars: 3”
Into the Woods…
…with the Hanabibti (and Tania, not pictured,) at the Trinity River Audubon Center. Continue reading “Into the Woods…”
Six Pillars: 2
The first pillar of Iman establishes the baseline belief in Islam: the belief in God.
This belief in God is made up of four parts. First, we believe He exists. Once we have that established, we believe He is One in His Lordship, One His Right to be worshiped alone, without any partners, and One in His Names and His Attributes. It’s very simple, really, but given all the idol worship in our collective human history, it seems like we sometimes get the wrong idea about God, decide on strange methods of worship and all.
As the Creator, God knows this about us, knows that we’ll get it wrong, or not get it at all, and so out of His Mercy—and One of His Blessed Names in Arabic is “Ar Rahman,” the Most Merciful One—we believe He gifted us prophets and messengers to remind us of Him, teach us how to worship Him, and receive and relay messages from Him.
This is the second pillar of Iman: the belief in the prophets and messengers, may the peace of God be upon them all.
Who are these prophets and messengers, and what does this belief entail? Read on: you might be surprised… Continue reading “Six Pillars: 2”
but I still like it
The color’s off. The framing is a bit meh. The subject is hackneyed, a bit. But still.
I like it.
What happened here?
I was a bit hopeful for this picture, but something went haywire with the LC-A. I think it might be something to do with the modifications the LC-A underwent before it could accept the Instant Back, but I don’t know. It only happened this one time, on this one frame. Maybe something slipped?
Six Pillars: 1 (c)
The belief in God is of the highest importance in Islam. God exists, and He is One in His Lordship and His right to be worshipped alone, without any partners: Tawheed ar-Rubbubiyyah and Tawheed al-Uloohiyyah. It took me a bit, as I expected, but if God wills, today I’ll get through the last aspect of God’s Oneness quickly… At last we come to Tawheed al-Asma was-Sifaat, the Oneness of God’s Names and Attributes. Continue reading “Six Pillars: 1 (c)”
driving in the dark
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I go into work early. Even in the longest days of summer, my commute to work takes place essentially at night. Not so good for holding the camera steady, but fun, for sure. Continue reading “driving in the dark”
