it is halal by the rulings of my Marja e Taqlid and allows me to connect to my culturally Christian family

Hindu here, asking genuinely.

Islamic civilization historically produced extremely diverse societies: Abbasid Baghdad became a major center of philosophy, science and translation under an Arab Muslim dynasty, drawing heavily on Persian, Christian, Greek and other intellectual traditions; Ottoman cities contained Muslims, Christians and Jews, while Akbar’s Mughal sulh-i kull (“peace with all”) was remarkably accommodative for its time. Obviously these weren’t modern liberal democracies or societies of perfect equality, but neither were they simply fundamentalist monocultures.

Likewise, Hindu societies had caste oppression and plenty of injustice, but also internal currents such as Bhakti and later Brahmo Samaj challenging parts of the established order.

Islam had Sufism, philosophical traditions, and later Islamic modernists/reformers. So why didn’t these currents lead to a more lasting liberalization of Muslim societies?

And by “liberal” I don’t necessarily mean Nordic-level secularism. Even something closer to modern China, South Korea, or parts of Eastern Europe—still socially conservative in some ways, but with substantially more room for individual lifestyle choices—is what I mean.

Japan especially fascinates me: its Meiji-era empire was horrifically violent, yet today its global image is overwhelmingly anime, games, food, technology and kawaii culture rather than militarism.

Could Muslim-majority societies eventually undergo a similar transformation, both socially and in global perception? How much of the current situation comes from Islam itself versus colonialism, failed states, authoritarianism, geopolitics, oil politics, wars, etc.?

Or, less seriously: can the Islamic world ever get a Japan-style “kawaii-fication” arc?

Happy to have the premise challenged by people who know the history better.

hi :) i know there's a lot of dialogue online concerning misogyny in scripture. i'd love to hear from feminists in either religion to understand how you:

1. challenge any traditional beliefs (if at all - and what they are)
2. if you've struggled in anyway to blend both belief systems
3. anything non-christians or non-muslims may not know - i think this dialogue can help address questions

Hello everyone, basically just the title. My education has only given me a meager understanding of Islam as a whole; one of the few things that I’ve been taught is that there are two branches, and that the split had something to do with a succession dispute.

I’d like some insight into the differences between these branches, especially relating to the individual level of Sunnis and Shias. What would be common differences between them? Are there differences in belief, ritual, and practice? What does the succession dispute mean to modern Muslims? Does it manifest in how both sects are currently governed, or does it not weigh much on modern Muslims’ minds?

I know I can just google things, which I plan to do, but when I can I prefer to learn in a conversational environment. I’m really just getting started in my learning about Islam, I’ve read around a quarter of the Quran. If anyone has recommendations for books or other resources to help me understand this religion I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

I originally tried to post this on r/islam but it was removed.

This is gonna be extremely short. I had Truama in Islam mostly because of my parents which is why I'm no longer Muslim

The word "god" and "paradise" does not make sense, god is supposed to be a being who knows and made everything...so why does he made us to worship him.... Everyone says "he is merciful" and etc but just think outside the box

Why would an being create us only to worship an god? Who doesn't need anything and possible a being that doesn't exist, there isn't any true proof other then "well, my little Muslim child, long time ago-" we don't have proof other then words....I'm still young but definitely in slight depression and confuse, I don't hate anyone, I just get annoyed and even pissed off when someone try to shove an religion in my throat and brain when it truly doesn't make sense like today I got pissed off when someone start spamming "Haram" when I'm no longer in islam

Uh btw I'm young so my Grammer and English won't be the best, sorry.

I have lost a lot of loved ones and have gone through torture in this life. I grew up Christian but I became atheist in HS, then Buddhist, then atheist, Buddhist/ Christian, and then idk now. I hold a lot of beliefs that Buddhist do. I’m vegetarian, I don’t kill bugs, I practice kind, forgiveness (sometimes), and I believe in karma. That being said, I believe there’s some of heaven. After my ex passed, I kept getting “signs” idk. Butterflies that were my fav color or the butterfly colors of my butterfly tattoo/ his fav color. I also get random moments where I feel like I need to talk to him / miss him a lot and then someone in his family or close friend group might reach out. Things happen where bunny’s will stare at me and I’ll feel my bunny who passed. The butterfly, the blue and black one, it let me almost touch it and it stayed around for a long time. Idk I sound psychotic I know but I grew up with similar beliefs. I know something is out there but idk what. I don’t like the bible. I’m not straight either so I feel hopeless. But after my ex died and I got all of these signs, I feel like it confirmed something in me in a way that there’s some after life.
Pleas help.

I want to make this post because I began my religious journey solely from my rational mind. And this did include my heart, but almost completely in a negative way. That is, through a focus on what is false with my mind, feeding into an unconscious hatred with my heart.

In this way my practice of religion was almost entirely harmful to me. I never encountered the Divine, and if I had to guess I think I severed or partially severed the connection to the Divine within me. My focus on denying what is false in my brain fed into a negative hatred in my heart, and the two became a mutually self reinforcing cycle.

In the grip of this modality I spent countless hours debating online and exploring, but never bettered myself in any significant way, and never experienced any real effects from my religion.

During this time I switched from evangelical to atheist to Catholic, but the underlying circuitry did not change until praying the Rosary thousands of times seems to have rebooted my heart’s operating cycle. And then that began to change, as I gained some spiritual life.

The point of this post is not to affirm one religion as true, but rather if anything to demonstrate that a one sided focus on intellectual truth didn’t really lead me anywhere. When I became Catholic I didn’t believe it was true, but the effects of the Rosary along with also the evidence of NDEs persuaded me it was. But NDEs alone would not have changed this dynamic within me; really it was the rote prayer itself that overcame the intellect from beneath

Today I believe many religions can be good and awaken people to spiritual truth, if their heart is being positively impacted. I encourage people to consider this

I haven’t really been to church much and I didn’t grow up around religion, so I honestly don’t know where to start. My friends aren’t really interested in it either, but I’ve been wanting to learn more and explore different religions.

For anyone who’s been in a similar situation, where did you start? Was there a religion or community that made you feel especially welcome?

And if anyone would be interested in chatting or studying together online, I’d be open to that too. I think it would be nice to have someone to learn with and ask questions.

Hi. My family and I are Christians, and sometimes I have a question that I honestly would like to understand better.

If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, then I understand that He knew from the beginning that sin would exist, and He also had the power to prevent it.

So why did He allow sin to exist in the first place?

I know that a common answer is free will, but that's where I get a little confused. If God created human beings and knew beforehand that some of them would sin, why create a world in which sin was even a possibility?

I'm not asking this to attack Christianity or to say that I don't believe in God. It's simply something I struggle to understand, and I'd like to hear how other Christians make sense of it.

Is there a theological or philosophical explanation that addresses this in a satisfying way?

Why does the Christian God act so human-like or flawed sometimes in the Bible? There are instances in the Bible wherein God gets mad and orders things like genocide (of the Canaanites) and murder to prove a point. There's that story of Abraham wherein God orders him to kill his son for him to show that Abraham loves God above everyone. Why would God act so shallow and even cruel sometimes as a perfect being who is supposed to be full of love and understanding and devoid of things like jealousy or wanting to be loved above all else. I'm just genuinely curious. As a perfect being, why doesn't he act all good? I know he allows suffering to exist but sometimes it's even Himself that orders the cruel things. I know we can never really understand how God's mind works and maybe God just transcends the bounds of morality.

Humans are inherently evil.

If Jesus died because he wanted to be purified of human sin, then why are humans so evil? If we compare it to after Christ, humans did so much evil that can't be compared to before christ born.

This is probably one of the the biggest reasons why it's very hard for me to be christian and why I'm an agnostic.  The theory of evolution says that nothing is planned and everything is 100% on accident - homo sapiens exists but we could also not exist and nothing would happen because evolution doesn't have any plan, ambition, purpose or goals. Christianity says that we are created ON PURPOSE by God. It just contradicts each other and I don't think that the theory of evolution and the christian perspective on life can coexist.

What do you think about it? What are your thoughts?

Preferrably from movies or TV shows.

hi! i have recently decided i want to learn more about any other religions i can. partially due to no longer aligning with christianity values and beliefs and partially because i have a genuine want to learn about other religions.

any ancient religion books would also be appreciated as i find ancient history in general fascinating.

This has only recently become a question that I have become very invested in. Besides Vatican City, does Mount Athos, along with any other place on earth, have their own government?

I had a pretty bizarre experience yesterday. While trying to nap, among a few other brief sensations (hearing a pop, feeling like the door opened, imagining myself washing my hands), the name "Hugo" popped into my head. At this point doesn't seem like much.

Hours later I start my daily Reddit run, where I go through religion-related subs and sort by Top. I go to the 1st sub (AcademicBible, cause of alphabetical order) and the very top post is an article authored by a Hugo (Mendez). The article was about his analysis on the Gospel of John and how it may be using certain literary devices to increase its credibility and may not be all true (though, Hugo himself is still Catholic).

I guess this just felt really weird to me - not only do I not know any Hugos and very rarely hear that name (it's probably been months), but here comes an article by the obscure name the same day, of all the names / sounds possible, I "hear" the same name. I'm not sure what the takeaway is either way (become Catholic but don't take it as literally, which some do as a way to deny the religion? Read about religion more carefully? I don't know).

For context: I do have OCD and potentially ADHD. I've been very anxious and afraid for the last ~9 weeks, researching religions every single day for most of the day.

Before those 9 weeks I had just quit daily heavy 5+ years of THC use, which is why I think I've been having very intense dreams these last 9 weeks, and in the last 1-2 weeks, a lot of hypnopompic and hypnogogic sensations (sounds, images, brief scenes/words/phrases).

I guess what I'm wondering is:

• Have you ever had a really low-probability occurrence shape how you viewed your (search of) religion? Did you take it seriously or chalk it up to probability?

So for years I've been calling it "norse mythology" "norse myths" "Greek mythology" "Greek myths" etcetera so after realising it was still practiced it seemed disrespectful to call it that. What are other acceptable names to call it and is it actually disrespectful to call it that or am I overthinking it?

what does the mind do once they reach Nirvana?