Poisonous Arrow

Poisonous Arrow

Fourth Quarter: The ways to Salavation (Rub' al-'munjiyat)

www.fatihcami.org

Some time ago I was on an Islamic tour in Canada. My hosts took me to the Islamic center in one city. They proudly told me that the building had been a Christian church until bought by the Muslim community and transformed into a mosque/Islamic center. The architecture of the church revealed the history of the building. It was quite an emotional experience to hear the adhan and observe the Islamic prayers in this place. Then my hosts took me to another city. Their faces gleamed joyfully as they introduced me to a second surprise in one day: the mosque had also been a church and then bought by Muslims. Barely containing their jubilance, they asked me, "Describe your feelings, doctor." I answered, "I feel very scared!" It was a shocking response to them until I explained that the pertinent question to ask should be, "What made the Christians sell their churches to Muslims?" A generation of observing Christians was followed by another generation who could care less for religion or the church. The inevitable thought to follow was whether the same could not happen to Muslims. Unless the coming generation grows up to be active, genuine Muslims, the chain will be broken and God forbid our current masjids and centers might be on the market for sale in a decade or two.

SHAHID ATHAR

If we as parents do not teach our children about sex, they will probably gain information from the wrong source. Teaching sex education in mixed classes to hot-blooded teenagers without benefit of moral values is like pouring gasoline on emotional fires."

Tim LaHaye
Family Life Services
Author of several books on
sex and marriage

During a presentation at the Islamic Center in Toledo, Ohio, a survey of sex attitude was obtained. A total of 157 attendees out of 200 responded. 95 were parents and 62 were youth. Toledo's Muslim community is well established, educated and progressive and has a mixture of Arab and Indo-Pakistani immigrants. To each question, their (parent vs. youth) response is given.

Sex in the mind of some parents is a dirty word. They are uncomfortable in discussing it with their teenagers just as their own parents never discussed it with them. They leave it up to the Sunday school to teach Islam and up to the television and the secular school system to teach sex education.

Thanks to the "birds and the bees" who taught mankind that sex is natural and a gift from God. No one can deny the power of sex and the built-in desires. A powerful genie, if not brought into submission to the Will of God, is certainly capable of causing tremendous destruction of the lofty Islamic morals which Islam builds for its believers.

Samana Siddiqui

”On the dance floor, this Muslim brother came up to me and said ‘Whoa, [my name] I didn't know you danced!' And then he danced off.”

-an anonymous Muslim sister's Prom
Night experience, from the Salam
newsletter, Montreal, Canada, Summer 1995


“It's a night when you don't remember Allah,” says Amber Rehman, 20, about Prom night. “As a Muslim, that's very hurting and corrosive for the soul.”

The Prom is a yearly social event commemorating students' completion of high school.

While this in itself may seem like a good reason to celebrate, other activities at the Prom indicate it's not just about academic achievement.

www.alinaam.org.za

EL TIGANI ADAM HAMMAD

Today's sex eduction is " one of the most devastating things that can possibly happen to any society and it certainly has overwhelmed our society. For over one hundred years, established psychological precepts, which have repeatedly been substantiated by clinical observations, reveal two important facts concerning human sexuality. The first is that life-sustaining human sexual needs can only be fulfilled in an-affectionate, monogamous, heterosexual relationship. Sex educators do not stress this fact enough. The second salient psychoanalytic fact is that, in humans, unlike in any other creatures, three phases of sexual development occur before mature adult sexuality is reached. The public school courses given during each of these phases cause great harm to student and society in general."

Farhad Khan

How do the attitudes of Muslim youth toward sex differ from those of other Americans? How does Islam equip them to deal with the pressures of a promiscuous society, where nearly all their peers are sexually active?

If you are a parent, put aside for a short time your preconceptions of how you think your children feel about their sexual identity and responsibilities. If you are a teenager or college student, much of what will be said here will reflect the experiences of you and your friends because it reflects the reality of the situations that face us all.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a perfect society. There will always be those who indulge in social taboos. The reality is that casual, premarital sex happens, and to ignore it will only make the problem worse. This reality becomes:

www.muslimvoice.net

www.ihya.org

All Praise is due to Allah. May Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon His slave servant Messenger Mohammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and his rightly guided Companions, his family members and his progeny.

Islam assigns man value over and above the rest of the creations. Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) created a pair of male and female. He knows best. Human reproduction is impossible without the existence of such a complementary pair. This co-existence complements each other.

Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) created the male and the female in a perfect order that indicates His Greatness. Each one is granted a specific mission.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe, the Creator and the Sustainer. There is no deity worthy of worship except He. And may Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad, His Companions, His Family and followers all.

The issue of sex has occupied a prominent position in the human thinking and activity. There is so much preoccupation with sex, which has led to remarkable studies and research dealing with the nature of sexual behavior, its arousal, its use and abuse. Sex, as a human activity, has led to deviant behavior and abuse of its pure human need by the sex industry all over the world.

A young man asked Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) for permission to commit adultery.

SHAHID ATHAR

Question: My wife was taught that God says sex is something dirty and its only purpose is to bring children into the world. Is that what the Bible teaches? MH

Answer from Billy Graham: No. It is not. God gave sex to the human race and the Bible reminds us, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean" (Acts 10: 15). However, just like anything else God has given us, we can misuse this gift, twisting it and perverting it into something selfish and evil. But that only underlines our need to commit our sexual drive to God and ask Him to help us control it and recover His purposes for it in our own lives. God meant for the sexual relationship between husband and wife to be a physical sign of their commitment to one another, of their inner joy and oneness. That is one reason why God's purposes for sex can only be fulfilled within the commitment of marriage. (Tribune Media Services. Indianapolis Star August 5, 1995).