Muslim Faith and praying facing East .

Facing East so that they may face the direction of Meca is quite normal as far as I am concerned. Each religion has it's own set of rules and boundaries. But yesterday at Taekwondo class, this young mother of three came to me and asked me if I knew where East was!

Don't get me wrong here, most people I know, no matter the religion they choose have no knowledge of how to point out North from their own a$$ when they enter a building , it's like they loose any ability to find themselves on a map or something. Well anyway, I tell the young woman that East is ---------> that way, she thanks be and finds a secluded spot and begins to pray. All is good and Allah is happy.

But..That being said, if you are of Muslim faith and you know that you must pray facing East......How come she could not point out East ??? Wouldn't this be a real basic skill seeing that it is important to face Meca when praying?

I do not want to put this woman down by no means, she was very well spoken, had a beautiful smile, her three kids were so cool and friendly, truly nice genuine people but I am puzzled as to why she did not know how to find East????? Just baffled !!!

she probably only prays at home or work, where she knows the direction out of habit.

I've often wondered which direction a Muslim astronaut would pray.....I have way too much time on my hands.

you could tell her to go live on Tematangi
en.wikipedia.org...

Tematangi is the closest land area to the antipodes of Mecca – basically any direction she prays in would be correct (this assume prayer bounces off the ionosphere like radio waves)

A Muslim astronaut would pray facing earth. It doesn't really matter you know. If they eat pork by accident because they didn't know it was in there or if they accidently pray facing the wrong way God doesn't work that way. It's about your heart and intentions you know.

Originally posted by Fox Molder
Facing East so that they may face the direction of Meca is quite normal as far as I am concerned. Each religion has it's own set of rules and boundaries. But yesterday at Taekwondo class, this young mother of three came to me and asked me if I knew where East was!

Don't get me wrong here, most people I know, no matter the religion they choose have no knowledge of how to point out North from their own a$$ when they enter a building , it's like they loose any ability to find themselves on a map or something. Well anyway, I tell the young woman that East is ---------> that way, she thanks be and finds a secluded spot and begins to pray. All is good and Allah is happy.

But..That being said, if you are of Muslim faith and you know that you must pray facing East......How come she could not point out East ??? Wouldn't this be a real basic skill seeing that it is important to face Meca when praying?

I do not want to put this woman down by no means, she was very well spoken, had a beautiful smile, her three kids were so cool and friendly, truly nice genuine people but I am puzzled as to why she did not know how to find East????? Just baffled !!!

My wife couldnt find her own ass if she had a map, she is that bad with directions, alot of women are if they are unfamiliar with traveling alot.

Originally posted by damwel
A Muslim astronaut would pray facing earth. It doesn't really matter you know. If they eat pork by accident because they didn't know it was in there or if they accidently pray facing the wrong way God doesn't work that way. It's about your heart and intentions you know.

They pray to Allah. Yahweh is not Allah. Allah is the moon-god of the sumerians, he is a pagan god. see the link it explains it all.

www.biblebelievers.org.au...

reply to post by damwel

A Muslim astronaut would pray facing earth.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but wouldn't they pray towards the heavens where Allah (for want of better word) lives....or am I missing something.

Genuine question..I know very little about the Muslim faith....and I don't really buy into the media version either.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

Yahweh is not Allah.

Yahweh is also a "pagan" god, where pagan means, local.
Yahweh is a local god of the Sinai. Not to be confused with the "Christian" God, who is the Father of Jesus.

Almost correct:

Yahweh (play /ˈjɑːweɪ/ or /ˈjɑːhweɪ/; Hebrew: יהוה‎) is the name of God in the Bible. Aside from the mention in Moabite on King Mesha's stele referring to Israel's God, "Yahweh" occurs once either as a place name or a deity in a 15th century BCE Egyptian record of the land of the Shasu. Friedrich Delitzsch (1903) proposed that the name was related to the name ending -yahu found in some Ugaritic personal names, though no further evidence has been found.

The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew יהוה, transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the actual pronunciation is disputed.[citation needed] The most likely meaning of the name may be “He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists", but there are many theories and none is regarded as conclusive.

The Bible describes Yahweh as the god who delivered Israel from Egypt and gave the Ten Commandments and says that Yahweh revealed himself to Israel as a god who would not permit his people to make idols or worship other gods "I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, or My praise to idols."

The history of the emergence of Israelite monotheism and Yahweh worship has been the subject of scholarly study since at least the 19th century and Julius Wellhausen'’s Prolegomena to the History of Israel; in the 20th century a formative work was William F. Albright's Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan – An Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths (1968), which insisted on the essential otherness of Yahweh from the Canaanite gods from the very beginning of Israel's history. However, scholars of the Ancient Near East have since seen Yahweh worship as emerging from a West Semitic and Canaanite background. Theophoric names, names of local gods similar to Yahweh, and archaeological evidence are used along with the Biblical source texts to describe pre-Israel origins of Yahweh worship, the relationship of Yahweh with local gods, and the manner in which Yahweh worship evolved into Jewish monotheism.

Worship of Yahweh alone is a central idea of historical Judaism. Much of Christianity views Jesus as the human incarnation of Yahweh. The importance of the divine name and the character of the “one true god” revealed as Yahweh are often contrasted with the significantly different character of rival deities known by different names in the traditional polytheistic religions. Some scholars, including William G. Dever, have asserted that the Asherah was worshipped as a consort of Yahweh, until the 6th century BCE, when strict monolatry of Yahweh became prevalent in the wake of the destruction of the temple. However, the consort hypothesis has been subject to debate with numerous scholars publishing disagreement.

reply to post by infinitecuriosity
Do you know the meaning of the word, plagiarism? Just wondering because this looks like something straight out of an encyclopedia or something.
Is there anything original here, by you?(other than, "almost correct") because I can not detect it. I am not going to red this and am only interested in conversation, not spam.

Originally posted by jmdewey60
reply to post by lonewolf19792000

 

Yahweh is not Allah.

Yahweh is also a "pagan" god, where pagan means, local.
Yahweh is a local god of the Sinai. Not to be confused with the "Christian" God, who is the Father of Jesus.

Yahweh is Abraham's God, The Almighty. Yahweh means "the Lord" in hebrew, and there is only one Lord and Yahweh was Jesus Christ in the flesh. Who do you think "the Lord" was being referred to in the OT and NT? El Sheddai is Yahweh, for there is none greater.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


I wish people would stop repeating that, it's only half true. Allah is the Arabic form of the Semitic El. Arabic Christians and Jews have used the word Allah for God long before Muhammad. Muhammad took the moon-god of his tribe and associated it with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I take offense at this, because a number of the Arabic Christians at my Church refer to God as Allah, and you seem to be implying that they are accidentally committing idolatry, which is nonsense. Anyways, the word "God" likely comes from the word for a minor Babylonian luck god, so by your logic most Christians are accidentaly worshiping a false god. Oh, and "Yahweh" is an educated guess on how the tetragrammaton is pronounced. No one actually knows the original pronunciation.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

The Almighty.

You are probably thinking of El Shaddai, another pagan god, lord of the Shaddaim, who are man-killer demons corresponding to the pre-Islamic concept of the Jinn.

Originally posted by kallisti36
reply to post by lonewolf19792000

 

I wish people would stop repeating that, it's only half true. Allah is the Arabic form of the Semitic El. Arabic Christians and Jews have used the word Allah for God long before Muhammad. Muhammad took the moon-god of his tribe and associated it with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I take offense at this, because a number of the Arabic Christians at my Church refer to God as Allah, and you seem to be implying that they are accidentally committing idolatry, which is nonsense. Anyways, the word "God" likely comes from the word for a minor Babylonian luck god, so by your logic most Christians are accidentaly worshiping a false god. Oh, and "Yahweh" is an educated guess on how the tetragrammaton is pronounced. No one actually knows the original pronunciation.

Here too in indonesia most christian called The Father as Allah. Just a matter of terminology i think.

So should she carry a compass with her ?? It's not that hard to know where East is !!!