Knowledge of God and God's law 2

Islam teaches us to seek out understanding. We are instructed to reflect on God and God's creation. Islam not a religion of blind faith or mindless fanaticism. Islam is a religion for thinking conscious people.

The likeness of the life of the present is as the rain which We send down from the skies:
by its mingling arises the produce of the earth - which provides food for men and animals:
(it grows) till the earth is clad with its golden ornaments and is decked out in beauty):
the people to whom it belongs think they have all powers of disposal over it:
there reaches it Our command by night or by day, and We make it like a harvest clean-mown, as if it had not flourished only the day before!
Thus do We explain the Signs in detail for those who reflect.

The Holy Quran, Yunus - 10:24

It is Allah Who has subjected the sea to you, that ships may sail through it by His command, that ye may seek of His Bounty, and that ye may be grateful.
And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: behold in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect. 

The Holy Quran, Al-Jathiya - 45:12-13

Tat Tvam Asi 2

la ilaha il Allah

there is no being but being

there is no existence but existence

Tat Tvam Asi: That Thou Art

Scary response to Hurricane Sandy 2

Some anti-American Muslim clerics have cast the deadly Superstorm Sandy as divine punishment for 'Innocence of Muslims,' a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad or for other perceived ills of American society.

The remarks by some on the fringe brought a backlash from other Muslims who said it was wrong to relish the suff1ering of others.

In Egypt, one radical cleric described the hurricane as revenge from God for the crude, anti-Islam film made in the U.S. that sparked waves of protests in the Muslim world in September.

'Some people wonder about the hurricane in America and its causes,' Egyptian hardline cleric Wagdi Ghoneim tweeted twice this week in the aftermath of the storm.
'In my opinion, it is revenge from God for the beloved prophet,' he added, alluding to the film.

Some praised the post, but others condemned it.

'God, shake the earth under their feet,' read one comment, prompting the response: 'We have brothers and friends in America - I don't wish them any harm.'

Another Twitter response to Ghoneim compared Sandy to a divine wind sent to destroy a sinful nation and strike at the seat of the United Nations in New York.

'We ask God to destroy the U.N. building for its injustice, corruption, tyranny ... with Sandy.'...

Scary response to Hurricane Sandy 1

It is part of what makes us human that we respond to others in need.  Romney said in the approach of Hurricane Sandy:

Axe FEMA, Romney Says - as Hurricane Sandy Looms

The Romney campaign said early Monday morning that Romney stood behind a statement first made during a 2011 Republican debate, in which Romney said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be disbanded, and its powers either privatized or given to the states.
"Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better," said Romney in 2011. Asked by debate moderator John King if that included cutting disaster relief, Romney said, "We cannot -- we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off."
 

Tat Tvam Asi 1

From The Upanishads:

That Thou Art

Tat Tvam Asi!

 

[6.8.7] Now that which is the subtle essence, the root of all things, the Ground of Being — in it all that exists has its True Self. It is Pure Being. It is the True Self, and

That thou art, O Svetaketu!

Svetaketu:

Please, father, inform me still more.

Uddalaka:
Be it so, my son.

Rivers and the sea

[6.10.1] The rivers run, the eastern (like the Ganges) toward the east, the western (like the Sindhu) toward the west. They go from sea to sea (that is, the clouds lift up the water from the sea to the sky and send it back as rain to the sea). They become one with the sea. And as the rivers, when they are in the sea, do not know "I am this or that river," [6.10.2] in the same manner, my son, all creatures, when they have come back from the realm of True Being, do not know that they have come back from that realm. Whatever creatures we consider, whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar, or a worm, or a midge, or a gnat, or a mosquito — that they become again and again.

[6.10.3] That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its True Self. It is Pure Being. It is the True Self, and
That thou art, O Svetaketu . . . .

Knowledge of God and God's law 1

All religions teach some of the same things. Even though different religions each have a different emphasis and different ways of teaching moral lessons, all religions, with a few notable exceptions such as Satanism, teach the same basic concepts. 

We can find the same teachings of Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad(PBUH) in all the different relgions in the world.

This is called the perennial philosophy.

What does it say that there is a consensus among religions about what is right conduct and what is wrong or sinful?  It says that there is an innate sense of right and wrong in the human heart and mind.  Human beings all have in their hearts a clear sense of right and wrong.  We have a moral sense that we are born with that is the same for all people.

 

We are in the current time when the people of God can be seen not by their religious views but by their conduct that reflects what is in their hearts. If we want to be believers, if we want to be faithful to God, we have to look into our hearts and find truth and righteousness and live it in our lives.  This is what will make us "saved" or make us "believers".

 

The Bible verse that states this most clearly is Jeremiah 31:33: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the LORD: I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.'"

 

Also Hebrews 8:10: This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

 

Also read Hebrews 10:16: "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

 

So the law looks the same to us all in our hearts because God put it there for us to know.