We Take Pride in Being an American Citizen

Published in April 18, 2016

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … You are biased for American policies in the Middle East and you are an American agent against Egypt, helping the USA with all its plots and conspiracies against Egypt … Where is your belonging to Egypt and your religion?!

Answer:

Firstly:

1- We are not an American agent; we are simply an American citizen now, and getting citizenship means to swear or be faithful and loyal to the USA. Being and American citizen does not stop us from criticizing the Mercian policies and exposing its negative policies in the Middle East; we still do this since 2002 as a political asylee before getting the citizenship in 2014 and we continue to do so now. Being an American citizen does not contradict the fact that we bear our beloved homeland Egypt inside our heart, as a source of pain, nor does it contradict our defense of Islam (i.e., Quranism) against those who have tarnished its great name. The USA opened its arms to embrace us and many other persecuted ones. The only difference is that there are corrupt ad people who conspire against the USA, like Wahabis, the terrorist MB, etc. and there are those who repaid the USA for its hospitality by defending it through intellectual endeavors, like ourselves. To side with the USA is to side with all higher values like religious freedom, freedom of expression, democracy, and justice for all. These are Quranic values as well of real Islam (i.e., Quranism) that we proselytize among the Muhammadans in the West and in the Middle East. These are the values we have preached and called for within the last 4 decades until now, and because of our reformist endeavors and peaceful intellectual jihad, the Muhammadans have persecuted us and we had to immigrate to the USA as a political asylee, to imitate early believers in the 7^th century who fled religious persecution by coming to the Christian nation of Ethiopia, during Muhammad's lifetime.

2- There is a difference between American foreign policies (that care for the interests and welfare of its nation) and the American people. Most American citizens are frank, kind-hearted, friendly, polite, and respect-worthy. Most American citizens despise politics, politicians, and their country's foreign policies of hegemony.

3- Even within the American foreign policies (of Obama) that we loathe, we say the following important point: if Egyptians and the rest of all Arabs were not weak, not powerful, strong nations would have dared to control them and interfere in their affairs. Let us as Arabs stop blaming the West for everything. Colonialist powers, the EU, and the USA are making use an taking advantage of Arabs' weakness and divisions, and all of these parties never created such weakness and divisions of Arab countries. such weakness and divisions are created by Arabs centuries ago within their earthly, man-made, fabricated religions of the Muhammadans (Sufis, Sunnites, and Shiites). Thus, weak Arab countries have granted a free invitation for others to control them by proxy; within tyrant rulers who rule Arabs by virtue of rigged elections or tyrant kings who have ascended their thrones without elections. When peaceful intellectual thinkers and reformers like ourselves have called for human rights, religious freedom, justice, and religious reform to return to real Islam (i.e., Quranism) and to reject falsehoods, we have been accused of apostasy and being an infidel. Preachers of the Truth have been driven out of Egypt and all Arab countries by tyrannical rulers supported by weak, oppressed citizens, who gleefully have watched extremist Sunnite Salafists and Wahabis persecute Quranists without any pangs of conscience.

4- The launch of any reformist endeavors is the right diagnosis of the malady or ailment. The ailment goes on with the wrong remedy and the false diagnosis. Among false narratives is the one about the West countries conspiring against Egypt and all Arabs. Indeed, the West might conspire against the powerful countries (e.g., Russia, China, Japan, etc.) and not the Arab countries of the Muhammadans, whose obsequious rulers receive orders of the West and are so eager to please the West. No superpower conspire against its servants!

Lastly:

  We take pride in being an American citizen; we have had enough disgrace, humiliation, and shame during our lifetime in Egypt, when the Mubarak regime used to persecute and incarcerate us upon receiving orders from the Saudi embassy in Cairo! Within the USA, we felt that our human dignity is restored as a political asylee, years before we have become an American citizen, and we have felt how much we have been deprived of our rights in Egypt and how enormous the injustices we have suffered in the 1980s and the 1990s because of the KSA and the Mubarak regime. God bless the USA. 

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We Do Not Hate Egypt

Published in August 29, 2016

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question:… I deduced from one article of yours that you hate the fact that Egypt and Russia are getting nearer within the international political scene as close allies… When will you stop hating Egypt?! Egypt has nothing to do with the persecution you have suffered by the Mubarak regime. I do think that your son, who used to work in Freedom House, has betrayed Egypt in Serbia in 2010 by training terrorists to topple the Mubarak regime in 2011! Would you be thing the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi even if he was not the Defense Minister before becoming the President of Egypt?! The answer is probably yes; you would be hating any president anyway to vent your anger on Mubarak, and I find your stance utterly disgraceful … Anyway, those persons with double nationalities like you hold views that no Egyptian will trust anyway … Your views will not prevent Al-Sisi from winning a second presidential term … we fell furious because you hate Egypt and wish for its ruin!     

Answer:

   Our dear son, allow us to assert to you that we do not hate our beloved country Egypt. Egypt is always inside our hearts, and we feel pained because it lacks democracy and human rights. No any other Egyptian writer has authored in terms of quality and quantity what we have written so far. We have suffered persecution by Mubarak because we love Egypt and want the best for it and want to save it from terrorist Wahabis and other criminals and thieves. We have to fled Egypt, but it will be always inside our mind, soul, and heart. We seek to introduce reform in Egypt within all levels, and we still have this glimmer of hope inside us. Egypt is never embodied by the enthroned pharaoh/traitor that enslaves its citizens; Egypt deserves a servant for it, not a ruler. We would like to advice you, our dear son, to differentiate between Egypt (the nation, the homeland, the country, the glorious civilization of seven millennia) and its pharaoh that oppress its people while being an obsequious servant or tool to Western powers. At first, we felt that Al-Sisi is a good person; we felt very happy when Morsi and Mubarak was deposed. But our hopes for Al-Sisi introducing any reform are dashed as he let us down; this is our personal opinion that might be proven wrong or true by the passage of years. We never meant to demonize Russia or to regret Putin's visit to Egypt; your accusations mean that you jump to conclusions because you have been looking for evidence to accuse us of anything negative. We advise you, our dear son, never to be fanatic in your political views and never to readily accuse others of being traitors because they have views that differed from your own, as long as those others do not impose their views on anyone and never persecute, torture, or murder anyone. Political views are bound to be different among people as they are relative opinions depending on the angle through which one is looking at a certain issue or topic. Our son, Sherif, was sentenced to two-year term of imprisonment in Cairo because of his jihad for the sake of Egypt. When he had discussed his M.A. thesis in Boston University and when he was honored in Tufts University, the flag of Egypt was behind him. When he or ourselves attend a conference, Americans utter words of praise of Egypt and Egyptians, and this is our endeavors for Egypt's sake during our stay in Washington and Virginia. What did Egypt's pharaohs offered to it but begging money from the Gulf monarchies as subservient to them? Please, our dear son, be gentle with your words directed to us, because you have deeply hurt our feelings. May God forgive you and forgive us.                      

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Not A Normal Person

Published in June 6, 2013

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question:… I think I am a very normal person; my problem is that I feel attracted to handsome men, leering at them with lust, though I m a man. I cannot help it; this feeling is beyond my control. Frankly, one of my male friends is ten years my junior; I think I love him very much, but he does not know anything about my hidden feelings nor about my sexual orientation. I have stood by him within all his problems and daily situations in which he needed help; I even urge him to become more religious and to have a strong, upright character and personality. He is looking up to me as role-model and a big brother to him; I cannot tell him I am gay so as not to shock him; I cannot help thinking of him and fancying him in bed, all day long. Shall I move away from him and break our friendship? I cannot understand the nature of gay love; is it pure lust of something romantic? Shall I be frank with my orientation to make him desert me in disgust?! I fear I might kiss him one day; he is 100% heterosexual, and I know it, he will never accept befriending me if he would know I am gay. I feel weak before him and fear losing him, and I love to be at his service to help him in anything; I wish I can still be there to make him happy. By the way, I am his teacher at high school. I am afraid of making God hating me! Sometimes, our close friendship makes him talk to me for hours on end within our phone calls by night; he seeks my advice in almost all aspects of his life, as he trusts me very much. please, Dr. Mansour, help me because my pangs of conscience are unbearable!

Answer:

   We beg your pardon; we must be allowed to insist here that you are not a normal person. You are in big trouble and no one can help you but yourself. Being gay/homosexual is an unnatural deviation and very unacceptable in Islam. We do not know if you are married (with or without kids) or not and if you have practiced the sin of sodomy of not. We deduce from your words that your problem is complicated, especially that you are a school teacher, who is supposed to be a role-model for his students who respect him. while your students look up to you with due respect, you look at them lustfully as sex objects. What a shame! You are deceiving this student who is your friend who trusts you; he sees you as a big brother and a dear friend and advisor, while you love him in a not very innocent or not exactly platonic way! Tour conflict is between his respect and brotherly love to you and you lusting over him, missed with your fear of being scandalized. Besides, you are afraid to lose your dignity and self-respect and fear losing him forever. Our advice to you is to at once break your friendship with this student/friend forever, while get yourself busy in charity acts and good deeds plus a good hobby like reading. If possible, move into another house and city, and change the school you work in. if you are not married yet, get married if you possibly can. At least, get engaged to a young woman in order to develop a normal relationship that will go on with getting married. Therefore, you must change your lifestyle completely so that you retrieve your self-respect and so as not to lose yourself. Think of yourself 30 years from now; how would you live while feeling ashamed of anything in your past? What about the possibility of being scandalized at work? How can you face people in that case? You are to take a serious stance right now; this very moment. You are the only one who can help yourself to save your soul from perdition and eternal damnation. You still have the chance to repent, to restore your faith, and to act righteously and piously. You should perform many good deeds and acts of charity. Begin reforming yourself today.

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Muslim in Terms of Behavior

Published in May 12, 2014

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … If a Muslim who declares the testimony of Islam is an infidel or a disbeliever because he never perform prayers … or is he or she remains a Muslim as per this verse: "But if they repent, and perform the prayers, and give zakat, then they are your brethren in faith…" (Quran 9:11) … What do you think?

Answer:

   Islam in terms of behavior means peaceful, non-violence demeanor regardless of faith/belief or lack of them; in a word: it is adherence to peace and rejection of all types of aggressions and injustices. As for the verse 9:11, zakat literally means to recommend oneself to God by all acts of worship and good deeds and acts of charity and kindness with our fellow human beings. Repentance in 9:11 means adherence to peace and stopping all forms of aggression as per overt, ostentatious behavior seen, judged, and agreed upon by all people anywhere. As for Islam in terms of faith or belief tenets, it means submitting one's heart, soul, and mind to Almighty God alone, along with piety and righteousness in all acts of worship and charity. This type of Islam is judged only by God in the Hereafter, and not by any mortals. Please read more details within our articles and books published here on our website.

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Aborting Deformed Fetuses

Published in May 20, 2014

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: I am a gynecologist and an obstetrician, and I am doing some research on deformed fetuses. I would like to ask you, Dr. Mansour, about you Quranist view of aborting deformed fetuses which cannot live? Does the Quran allows it as permissible or not? Other well-known Sunnite Saudi and non-Saudi clergymen assert that it is Ok if the fetus is less than five months old. Is this true? Or is this prohibited? What do you think?  

Answer:

   God in the Quran prohibits killing of offspring; this is repeated twice in the Quranic Chapter Six: "Lost are those who kill their children foolishly, with no basis in knowledge... They have gone astray. They are not guided." (6:140); "Say, "Come, let me tell you what your Lord has forbidden you: that you associate nothing with Him; that you honor your parents; that you do not kill your children because of poverty-We provide for you and for them…" (6:151). This repeated elsewhere in the Quranic text: "And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them, and for you. Killing them is a grave sin." (17:31). Accordingly, aborted fetuses are NOT killed souls, unless when souls entered the fetal bodies. Medicine here should tell us about this period: when fetuses are throbbing with life and when they are not. As for the above verses, they talk about born babies and children: male and female offspring in general which are human beings: bodies and souls. Hence, sonar and sonograms can tell us development phases of fetuses to decide when they are throbbing with life and when they are not (i.e., before or after the five-month period you mention). If the fetus is alive, it is a human being that should never be killed; this is a sin. We read the following in the Quran: "Then We made him a seed, in a secure repository. Then We developed the seed into a clot. Then We developed the clot into a lump. Then We developed the lump into bones. Then We clothed the bones with flesh. Then We produced it into another creature." (23:13-14). In our view,  the phrase ''another creature'' is the fetuses after souls enter it, upon a certain phase of the development within wombs, as part of later creation phases: "…He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, in successive formations, in a triple darkness…" (39:6). Apart from our personal view, we assert here that medical doctors can decide when the fetus is throbbing with life; i.e., before or after the five-month period you mention. If they ascertain that the fetus is alive, aborting it is a heinous crime, even if it is deformed or cannot live or thrive later on after being born. This is undesirable and irreligious prediction of the future; can anyone order the murder of someone because he or she is predicted to become another Hitler?! This is madness, as no one can predict the future. Before souls enter the fetuses (i.e., before they throb with life: having hearts and other organs), abortion is OK, because in that case, one is not killing a soul or a human being; rather, one here is getting rid of a group of dead cells, and this is not murder at all.

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Performing Prayers and the Veil

Published in May 16, 2014

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: I am pretty much convinced that wearing a veil or hijab covering the hair of a female believer is not part of Islam and that it is a social custom; but what about during performing prayers? Am I to cover my head or not when I pray? Thank you.

Answer:

   What is important during performing prayers is piety and preventing oneself from sinning and disobeying God between times of each prayers every day. As for clothes of a female during performing prayers, they are ordinary ones she usually wears; there is no such a thing as prayers-clothes at all. You do not cover your head or hair at all. All body parts that are washed during performing ablution can be uncovered during performing prayers, which include one's head, neck, hair, feet, hands, and arms until elbows, for both males and females. The body parts to cover are the unwashed ones during ablution, for both genders.

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Immigration to the USA

Published in December 8, 2011

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: I am a faithful and true Quranist who read your website regularly and admire very much your Quranism as a school of thought and a line of intellectual reformist endeavor. When I declared my faith to my relatives and acquaintances, they have debated very much with me, and most of them have declared me as an apostate and an infidel; they have mistreated me along with my wife, because she is a Christian. Both my wife and I are now suffering annoyances, troubles, discrimination, and persecution in the city we live in. After long time of thinking, we think seriously about immigrating to the USA… Can you sir help us or kindly tell me about contacts or American foundations that care about religious freedom and seeking asylum?

Answer:

    You must have tangible proofs and evidence that you are being actually persecuted: such as news in the press that you have been arrested or written documents from police stations or courts. There are thousands of persecuted Quranists worldwide who cannot prove instances of persecution and discrimination. Once proofs are obtained by you, you can obtain a visa to the USA or any West country. Once there, you must contact a lawyer specialized in immigration and asylum cases to prepare to seek asylum. If you do so, the process will be set into motion within interviews and so on until you might be granted asylum, or rejected and deported. All this is based on your proofs or evidence obtained by you and all the measures taken by the American Foreign Office, the American Embassy at your country, and other bodies to verify the authenticity of your evidence and proofs. No foundations or contacts inside the USA can help you while you remain in your country; if otherwise, the USA will be filled with millions of political asylees. Anyone who tells you something contradictory to what we have said to you here is indeed deceiving you.

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The Appellation of ''Quranists''

Published in May 8, 2014

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: Peace and greetings to you, Dr. Mansour … Peace of God upon the Best of All Prophets, Muhammad … Why have you choose to name yourself and your fellow believers who adhere to your trend or line of thought  as ''Quranists'' or Ahl Al-Quran (i.e., literally: People of the Quran)? Is this to oppose the appellation of Ahl Al-Sunna (i.e., the Sunnites) within cyberspace and their likes? By the way, I like immensely most of the content I have read so far on your Quranism website as it is logical and rational and because it rejects ancestral traditions which are mostly faulty and never fit our modern age. Sir, you have restored the freedom of the reasoning mind … Yet, we advise you, sir, to forsake the terms ''Quranism'' and ''Quranists'' and to call yourselves as ''Muslims''; please ponder this verse deeply: "…and do not be of the polytheists, of those who divided their religion, and became sects; each faction pleased with what they have." (30:31-32). Thank you    

Answer:

   Welcome to our website, and we cordially invite you to read all our books, fatwas, and articles carefully and to ponder them deeply; you will find that we object totally on such polytheistic Sunnite phrases like the one you mention here (Best of All Prophets, Muhammad) because such phrases deify Muhammad and contradict the Quranic command of never to differentiate among prophets and messengers of God or to make one distinct above the rest. Of course, you will be shocked at first when you find Quranist facts that contradict your previous Sunnite Wahabi background or knowledge. Read on our writings published here and you will know why we are called Quranists. Those first ones who have called us with this appellation are high-rank men working of the Egyptian State Security Apparatus during the Mubarak regime, and so have many journalists at the 1980s in Cairo. This formal naming was given to the records of interrogations and investigations when Quranists got arrested in the very first wave of arrest in 1987, when we ourselves were jailed, within the Case File No. 765. Later on, we have adopted the naming and we take pride in it, to differentiate us as "the People of the Quran" from "the People of the Book" (i.e., Jews and Christians). Our foes call us as well as Sunna deniers. Our dear son, do not care very much about appellations; all of us hope to die as true, devout Muslims accepted by God and rewarded by Him in the Last Day. 

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The Halloween

Published in October 7, 2014

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … We are American Muslims who immigrated to the USA … Our kids here celebrate the Halloween … Is OK as far as Islam is concerned? Or should stop them as this is a feast of a pagan origin? Does kids in Islamic countries celebrate similar feasts? Thank you.

Answer:

 Of course, the Halloween is an old celebration in many human cultures of pagan origin, as it is related to drive away evil spirits, within the Middle Ages and the Old Ages as well, but inside the USA, it is a feast merely to keep kids happy by the trick-or-treat game and wearing special clothes for fun, and so on. This quite harmless and is actually enjoyable for kids and adults. Therefore, it is not forbidden or haram at all. We should also remember children of the poor to give them their share of sweets and to act charitably toward them. We hope countries of the Muhammadans would adopt this feast into their own culture as a social habit to do charity. Thus, this celebration is not of a religious nature now at all and it should not be forbidden. Ironically, national holidays to celebrate Middle Eastern tyrants who are evil and wicked is real Halloween to celebrate evil, and the corrupt clergymen within countries of the Muhammadans will prohibit Halloween in their countries under the pretext that it is a feast imported from the 'infidels', because they love to kill joy and abort all charity acts in all possible means; may God curse them all.

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My Fiancé is a Christian

Published in May 28, 2012

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Having read a little on your website and watched some videos, I found out that you are the one to help me, Dr. Mansour … I am a Muslim young girl, who is in love with a Christian young man, and we want to get married. Is such marriage interdicted in Islam or not? We have been knowing each other for years now, and we are engaged; we are quite sure of our mutual feelings. We are serious about getting married to live happily, but why Sunnites assert that a Muslim man can marry a Christian or a Jewish woman while a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian or a Jewish man?! My fiancé accepts that if we ever have kids, they will be raised as Muslims like their mother (me). I cannot urge him to convert to Islam unwillingly; this thought never crossed my mind at all and I would not dare to ask him to do so. My fiancé is not a polytheist. If we got married, will God consider me a sinner? I am extremely worried. Why some might consider it wrong if  I marry the only person whom I love and who loves me and we agree on many things in life?! I am not sure if he might convert to Quranism/Islam one day or not? Is this a vital thing in marriage to marry a Muslim like myself?! He told me he is a monotheist; he believes in the Oneness of God, anyway. No sheikhs thought my question worthy of response, and some rebuked me severely. I feel guilty and indignant; no one wanna help me. Please tell me what to do, and may God reward you …   

Answer:

  We have written many times before on that topic. We assert here that a Muslim female can get married to any man, whether he is a Jew, a Christian, a Buddhist, an atheist, a deist, an agnostic, or of any other creeds, doctrines, and denominations, as long as he is a peaceful, non-violent man in terms of behavior who adheres to security and safety. The interdicted or forbidden marriage is when a woman gets married to a terrorist, because he is a disbeliever in God in terms of his violent and aggressive demeanor. Islam is sticking to peace within all one's stances and behavior, whereas differences in faith tenets, or lack of them for that matter, is an issue judged only by God in the Hereafter within the Day of Resurrection. Disbelief in terms of behavior is aggressive, violent behavior and religious persecution, and of course or kill and massacre indiscriminately based on the name of any religion. Therefore, you can marry your Christian fiancé provided that he is a civilized, peaceful person. We, Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, perform such mixed marriages contracts at our International Quranic Center (IQC), and we have married many Muslims young women to Jewish, Christian, and atheist men.  

 Smoking Hash

Published in September 17, 2013

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Is smoking hash forbidden or haram in Islam? Or is it just a hateful habit that can be tolerated? 

Answer:

  The terms ''hated'' and ''hateful'' in the Quranic text means major gravest sins. As for smoking hash, it is not forbidden in the Quran, as its text never mentions it at all; forbidden things, items, or behavior within Islam (i.e., Quranism) are the ones mentioned and specified only in the Quranic text. Moreover, any Muslim society within a democracy can issue laws to ban hash or to specific locations as non-smoking areas etc., as per Quranic rules about advising people to avoid what is considered ''bad'' (socially speaking or health-wise). Please read our articles about smoking and how it has nothing to do with forbidden items within Quranism.

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Showing Women's Hair

Published in February 21, 2015

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Some people think that headwear and scarves and the like were being worn by women at the 7^th century A.D. Arabia as a social non-religious habit, and then the Quran has demanded covering of breasts, and thus, no covering for hair is necessary at all. Some people assert that this entails making headwear, scarves, etc. as obligatory for Muslim women … hence, I am confused, shall I cover my hair outside home or not?

Answer:

  Uncovering one's hair outdoors and indoors and even during performing prayers is OK for both men and women. God does NOT demand covering of hair at all in the Quranic text. Our evidence is that performing ablution (i.e. washing up before prayers) entails in the Quran that one wash one's head or hair (partially or wholly) within uncovered body parts that are washed with water within ablution. This applies to both genders of course, as most Quranic commands to believers. For instance, the Quranic Chapter 24 orders both men and women to avoid looking lustfully at one another. At the time in the 7^th century Arabia, women used not to cover their cleavages because of scorching heat in summers and some were flaunting their cleavages for the male attentive eyes, as an immoral behavior. That is why the Quran entails women to cover their chests always. Nothing is mentioned in the Quran about covering their heads or hair at all.    

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You Cannot Marry Her

Published in December 13, 2016

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Can I be permitted to get married to a Christian American woman who is separated from her husband years ago – but without being divorced for financial and legal reasons – and each of them live in a different State? If she converts to Islam, does this annul her previous marriage?! Thank you for your time ...

Answer:

  You cannot get married to her at all as long as she is not legally divorced from her husband; she must get her divorce formally before you can marry her.

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Dreams and Devils

Published in December 14, 2016

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Do all dreams and visions we see during sleep come from God to us as messages from Him? Or are they inspired by devils and Jinn sometimes? Thank you in advance, sir …

Answer:

 Generally speaking, no Jinn or devils interfere in dreams and visions. Both believers and disbelievers can see true visions and can see dreams, such as the King of Egypt within the Quranic story of Joseph and the two cell inmates when Joseph was unjustly imprisoned. Interpreting visions accurately, if they are deemed true by the dreamer, is not possible unless by a prophet who is inspired by God like Joseph. Thus, you should not believe any interpretations of anyone at all. Visions sometimes foretell future; no one can interpret their meanings except the dreamer. In sum, there might be something which is called ''true visions'', but no one can know real meanings of it except God. God is the Only One Who knows the future; no human being would dare to claim such thing.  

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God Loves the Repentant Ones

Published in April 7, 2007

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Peace be with you, sir … I feel guilty and mightily ashamed of myself … I feel I am a sinner and a shallow woman … I am a religious self-respecting person and I adore and worship God reverently and piously … At one time, I have learned to use the internet to enrich my knowledge and culture and to spend my long spare time within useful activities … yet, I committed the sin of sex chat with anonymous men! I was tempted to do it several times, out of curiosity at first … most men are bad, immoral, and heartless … I implore the Almighty to forgive me, and I no longer do such dreadful thing now … But I feel so guilty and pangs of conscience are unstoppable until now … Any advice? Thank you …

Answer:

  Our greetings and salutations to you. You are a very good repentant woman with real conscience, piety, and virtue. We ask you to remember this verse and to ponder upon it: "Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves: do not despair of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. He is indeed the Forgiver, the Clement." And turn to your Lord, and submit to Him, before the retribution comes upon you. Then you will not be helped. And follow the best of what was revealed to you from your Lord, before the punishment comes upon you suddenly, while you are unaware." (39:53-55). All human beings do err and commit mistakes, and no one is immune against errors and mishaps. The vital thing is to readily repent and return to the righteous path of God. We say the following to all Muslim youths of both genders: the internet is mixed blessing: a blessing to those who use it in good ways and a curse to those who use it for evildoing and sinning. Woe be to those who turn God's blessing into a source of evil and sinning: "Have you not seen those who exchanged the blessing of God with blasphemy, and landed their people into the house of perdition? Hell-they will roast in it. What a miserable settlement." (14:28-29). 

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Torment of the Grave and Barsakh

Published in February 15, 2007

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … What is your Quranist view of the so-called torment of the grave? What about the Quranist vision of Barsakh? Thank you …

Answer:

  We have published a research paper before on our website, apart from several articles, asserting that the so-called torment of the grave is a myth and so is entering Paradise within one's grave. The Quran mentions a type of Barsakh torment to the souls of Moses' Pharaoh and the drowned people of Noah. We cannot imagine its specific way of course. As for Barsakh Paradise, the Quran tell us about it clearly as reserved only for those who were killed for God's sake and cause. Apart from such Quranic evidence of exceptions, the rest of human beings experience Barsakh as a deep-sleep-like state, and they will wake up during the Day of Resurrection, feeling they have slept for a day or part of a day. Barsakh after one's death is a state of timelessness and lack of consciousness. Yet, such short answer should not make you refrain from reading our articles and our research on that topic for more details.   

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ISIS Terrorists Must be Fought

Published in March 23, 2015

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Peace an greetings to you Dr. Mansour … I am not a Quranist, but I would like to be permitted to pose this question to you. Some people claim that Syrians and Iraqis and Kurds fighting against ISIS are infidels who cooperate with the USA, the country that has destroyed Iraq beyond repair, as one is not to ally oneself to Christians and Jews as per these verses: "O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies…God does not guide the wrongdoing people…You will see those in whose hearts is sickness racing towards them… God will bring about victory, or some event of His making; thereupon they will regret what they concealed within themselves." (5:51-52). I think many people misinterpret these verses and I care for humane issues; fighting ISIS back is a good deed in my opinion, but what do you think of 5:51-52 and how we refute ISIS corrupt interpretation of these verses? Thank you …   

Answer:

    What is forbidden in the Quran in 5:51-52 is to ally oneself to the aggressive enemy against one's country by helping, supporting the enemy that commits aggressions against peaceful, innocent ones. This is high treason. What one should do in such cases is to help, support, and alleviate the suffering of peaceful, innocent people who defend their country and themselves against warring armed aggressors who attack them. As for 5:51-52, they talk about Jews and Christians who attacked the Yathreb city-state ruled by Muhammad, thus helping the Meccan Qorayish aggressors who aimed to kill Muhammad and early believers. Thus, 5:51-52 do not cover any or all Jewish and Christian people in all eras and locations as Sunnite, Wahabi misinterpretations specify in their erroneous thought adopted by ISIS terrorists. Hence, 5:51-52 talk about allying oneself to enemies who fight one's peaceful country. Therefore, ISIS terrorists are aggressors that out to be fought to save souls of innocent, peaceful citizens who are in grave danger and are brutally massacred. What makes crimes of ISIS terrorists more heinous is that they ascribe them to the name of Islam; they do not only disobey God and His Quranic sharia, but also attribute their crimes to the Quran, a gravest, enormous sin punishable in Hell, in case of not repenting and adhering to peace. Of course, Islam is innocent of such falsehoods and such horrendous crimes; the Wahabi Sunnite creed and its clergymen are to blame definitely. It is an Islamic behavior to help defend innocent, peaceful citizens, regardless of their nationalities and religions.     

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Sexual Friendship

Published in January 2, 2011

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … My American female friend is very respectable, polite, moralistic person, but she has a boyfriend and has sex regularly with him … I would like to advise her that this is fornication and a sin … Yet, some people claim that boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are akin to marriage within the USA and Europe. Can such a relationship be deemed as marriage within Islam?

Answer:

    Within the West countries, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are accepted by society and relatives, especially when both the man and the woman are living together in one house as if they were husband and wife, but without the marriage contract. Some American states establish on such relations some rights for women and children. In our view, this relationship is not marriage at all, even if ecoeity tolerates it while marriage is still an option with its rituals that differ among communities of a given society. Let us face the fact that even people of the West countries do not consider boyfriend/girlfriend relationships as real marriages at all of course, as some of such relationships develop into real marriage with a formal civil contract or religious-rituals contract. Within real Islam (i.e., Quranism), Islam has certain stipulations and conditions; chief among them is the three-month waiting period, before getting married, for divorced women, widows, and those who have repented from extramarital sex to make sure wombs are not carrying fetuses. Such a waiting period is never regarded or followed by people in the West and the USA as per their cultures before marriages or even taking up a new boyfriend. In our opinion, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are a type of fornication forbidden in Islam, regardless of their duration. There are two types of fornication in the Quranic text and they are forbidden of course: 1) casual sex between men and women with or without money (i.e., prostitution or causal sex for fun); this is called common indiscriminate sex/fornication, and 2) the other type is taking up long-term lovers, again with or without money (i.e., gigolos and kept women or romantic and/or sexual long-term relations). Western and American cultures tolerate causal sex with multiple partners for fun by consenting adults but do not tolerate prostitution or sex workers doing it for money and usually get caught by the police in many countries. These cultures tolerate gigolos and kept women or romantic and/or sexual long-term relations, and they consider them as similar to being engaged or a step toward marriage. Fiancées have sex with their fiancés in many relations within these cultures, and even marriages might be called off later on and it is OK by them. By the way many eastern cultures in Asia tolerate gigolos and kept women or romantic and/or sexual long-term relations. This was common also in the past and Arabs witnessed this when they conquered Persia and parts of Asia until borders of China. Within the Abbasid era, many thinkers and people sought to make women as common property for all men for sexual gratifications and sought to make all possessions and money as common property to all humanity, within many doctrines, especially under the Shiite banner, like the Qarmatians. The cursed Al-Bokhary in his books allows fornication of both types using corrupt Sunnite notions and hadtish he authored; we refer you to our book titled "The Quran Is Enough" for more details. Let us remember that Al-Bokhary was born in Asian cultures that celebrated orgies as part of fertility rituals of springtime, and thus, indiscriminate sex was and is found in all cultures. This is forbidden in Islam. We have talked about cultures of the West and East so as not to accuse the West of immorality while forgetting the immoral aspect of East and Arab culture and traditions, past and present.                 

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Internet Friendships

Published in December 24, 2006

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … Is it OK in your opinion that youths of both genders get to know one another in within cyberspace as long as they do not commit sins? What if they meet within actual life? … Thank you …  

Answer:

  It is OK and permissible of course.

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You Should Marry Her

Published in May 17, 2015

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Question: … I am a Muslim man and my Christian girlfriend has born a child … I am quite sure it is my child … we are not married … What shall I do? Shall we get married as it is the moral thing to do? What is your opinion …   

Answer:

  Our advice to you is to get married to her, and both of you should repent from the sin of fornication; getting married to her is a practical way of repentance for you and for her. Of course, legal marriage within Quranism entails her and your intention to repent from sinning. She can marry you after the days of her period pass to make sure she is not carrying any children. You should pay her a dowry as per the Quranic rules, while drawing the marriage contract witnessed by two persons at least, as they will sign the contract as witnesses, in order to declare and pronounce your marriage in public. We believe that your child deserves to live with both his parents, within a loving family that gives this child security, nourishment, love, and care.