From Islam to Humanism - A new birth for me

Friday, March 16, 2007
From Islam to Humanism - A New Birth for Me

From Islam to Humanism - A New Birth for Me
by Raza Pehlavi
16 Mar, 2007
Dear Sir, I am writing my testimony of leaving Islam as follows:Introduction:I am a born Muslim belonging to Shia faith of Islam . My age is XX years. I am an educated person doing a job in a multinational company in XXX, XXX. I am from a middle class back ground. My father did job throughout his life and my mother is a house wife. We are X brothers and X sisters. We all have got good education thanks to my fathers burning ambition for us to be highly qualified. I am a XXX by profession. Raza is not my real name for obvious reasons.Leaving Islam/any religion:Since my child hood, I have been an accommodative and compassionate person towards all the human beings irrespective of their religion, cast and color. I never liked compartmentalizing humanity. For last eleven months, I have been avid visitor of faithfreedom.org which has given an independent platform for forming my own opinions about religions/faith etc. I have not been particularly religious all through my life; however, there were spurts in last 10-12 years when I tried to be a reasonably religious person. However, as far as I remember, there were few questions which were always in my mind since my teens which never allowed me to reconcile the theology with rationality. For example:1) Why all the big inventions have been made in last 50-60 years and not in the era of magnificent Mohammed?2) Why God rescinded His own scriptures and came up with new revelations as if He acquired some new knowledge about humanity afterwards!3) When Allah is indifferent, why would He punish us for not offering prayers?4) Why Quran (word of God) does not have any specific remedy for fatal diseases? Why we have to rush to science in finding cure?5) Why life on Heaven is so bloody earthly?6) Why might is right only? No miracles from God for poor and wretched.7) Why Mohammed is convinced that apostate should be put to death? WHY?8) Why God curse we petty humans in Quran?Similar questions never allowed me to be a perfect zombie all through my life despite my attempts. A very shocking thing for me is marital profile of Mohammed with Aisha. I read the debate of Sina with Muntazari. The weak arguments of Muntazari convinced me of pedophilic behavior of Mohammed. Secondly, the issue of bounty and slaves seem also very strange and indecent! This is all power game after all. Some body rightly said that ‘ life is short , nasty and brutish’.Then I decided to discuss it with my father who had at least a heart big enough to give it a patient audience. He understood what I was telling him but did not leave Islam. I think he is right in his own way as he has his own filtered version of religion which comprise of all upright traits and few healthy rituals. We concluded our debate with a resolution that Islam is a mix bag, choose only the right things from this bag. Moreover, I don’t have any right to shatter the life of any one if he is leading a righteous life even with crutches of religion. However, I have probably seen too much light and am in the process to of absorbing this light.After leaving this cultish mentality, I feel myself as newborn from intellectual point of view. I am clearer in thinking and approach. I am not biased against women and I really like women to smile , work and enjoy their lives. I don’t want to treat non-Muslims as my enemies. I think we all are one large family. Religious divide is one big time perception fraud created in every era of human history. What matters is spirituality which has got nothing to do with religiosity. Sprituality is purity of heart. I hope to attain this goal of spirituality without making any shadow from the past as my alibi.Regarding after death , my view is ( hopefully) that we will sleep forever but our good deeds will blossom after us and will create a legacy of happiness and prosperity.I hope we humans would start using our brains as soon as possible. The most important virtue / attribute in my view is to do good without expectation of any reward ( Heaven etc) and desist from evil without fear of Hell. Thanks and Regards,Source: faithfreedom.org
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This article originally belongs to:
http://www.islam-watch.org/LeavingIslam/raza-pehlavi-islam-to-humanist.htm
6:19:28 PM
Posted By Infidel M Comments (3) Musings
Comments
Infidel Friday, March 16, 2007 6:28:36 PM
Dear Brother Venu,I hope you would like this article. What a clearity of thoughts. We can see the freedom of humanism in the views expressed.
Infidel Friday, March 16, 2007 7:27:10 PM
I think Venu is the best person to answer your querries. I would request him to comment here.
Some1 Friday, March 16, 2007 7:31:52 PM
Well, does it matter, really.. I mean the "GOD"-stuff and "his" agents?Nobody knows of "God", yet, there are believers and faithfulls! One BELIEVES and shows FAITH for lack of knowledge.No religion has ever done what the pursuit of knowledge has done to mankind!Well done, brother!