Islam is a necessity in the modern world.

I could only takeit as the economy of your resources that you had to invest so many of yourwords on the hadith of the farting devil, while there were so many other morerelevant things you could have picked on for your rebuttal. That was a bigdisappointment. But I got your overall drift. You are basically trying to saythat a religion that has such balderdash cannot provide any solution formankind. Before I answer thecriticisms you have raised in your post, let me present more clearly as to whatI mean by Islam being a reliable guide to mankind. What I obviously mean is notthat Islam provides scientific answers as you seemed to have understood,because much of your tirade dwelled on “converting fart to fuel” and suchnonsense. Islam’s ethical/moral guidance Here is what Imean: Islam provides ethical and moral guidance in every walk of human life, beit economics, politics, family, inheritance, dietary, penal code, civil codeand what have you. Take for example Islamic economics: It provides a very clearconcept of what economics should be based on. Look at some of the foundational principlesof it: interest-free system, a currency standard based on real asset (and notfiat currency), prohibiting any transaction based on pure speculation and soon. Little wonder that economists are now taking a hard look at the Islamiceconomic model following the many crises that rocked the world recently. The Westerneconomic system has provided the world nothing but boom and bust cycles. The power of Islam to make you act on itsteachings But then you mightask that there are other religions too that has good moral teachings in themsuch as “don’t steal, don’t kill” etc. While I agree on that point, there aretwo problems in them. I am yet to see a religion other than Islam wheremorality is absolute and not relativistic. A relativistic morality, whichchanges with time and place, is as good as no morality. Secondly, the strong,clear and simple teachings of Islam regarding the hereafter and the day thejudgement when every soul will have to account for its deeds to the Lord and accordinglyrewarded or punished, is a very strong motivation for believers to act on thesevirtues. This too I feel is missing in other faiths. What Con has to present Therefore, in yourrebuttal I would like to see what you have to say about the laws of Islam thatcovers everything from the individual to the state. I would also liketo know if there is any other system of ethics which you think is superior tothe Islamic model. Also give your reasons. Answers to criticisms Now, coming to theissues you raised. Firstly, your problem was with the farting devil. Is yourproblem with the concept of satan, or with the concept of a farting satan? As adefence, you also named other religions saying none of them shared this viewabout satan. From this I infer that you are okay with the idea of the devil.It’s only the concept of a farting devil that seems too much for you tostomach. But if you have accepted the concept of a devil (which is a leap offaith in itself, and not based on any scientific investigation), and then tocriticise another faith which takes a slightly different view of the samesubject ... this is nothing but blind prejudice. In Islam, devil isnot a fallen angel. He is a creation like man, in that he has been given thepower of volition, to choose between right and wrong. This creature (devil)mates and has children. They eat and excrete. However, they do all this intheir own distinct ways, different from ours. How exactly, we can never know,because they belong to a different dimension outside our investigative capacity.The prophet (PBUH) was only making a reference to this simple fact aboutdevils. Allah Hateth the Farty Your next problemis that Allah hates those who fart. This is WRONG also. Nowhere, not even inthe hadith you quoted, is it said that Allah hates the farter. All that it saysis that passing wind annuls the prayer. In Islam we have the 5-time ritualprayer for which you need to fulfil certain conditions: you have to be clean,you have to wash yourself before the prayer, make sure that filth such as urine,spit etc. are NOT there on any part of your body, and moreover, as prayer isdone in a congregation, Islam emphasizes that we should not cause offence topeople next to us by, say for example, coming to the prayer with our mouthssmelling of garlic and things like that. If one adheres to these conditions, itwill help us and others conduct prayers with utmost concentration. Prohibitionon farting is one among these conditions. Therefore, we have to make sure ourbowels are well emptied before we go for prayer, so that we don’t causeinconvenience to others. What if you passwind in prayer? Will we be punished by Allah? NO. This is not a sin. We don’thave to repent for it. We will just have to repeat our ablution and pray again.That’s all. Sun rises between the horns of the devil Your next problemis with the hadith about sun rising and setting between the horns of the satan.One thing that is very clear from Islamic teachings is that the devil is of asize comparable to that of ours. This is obvious from many other hadith.Therefore, this hadith about the devil’s horn being so huge as to extendbetween the East and West cannot be taken literally. The prophetprohibited praying at the exact sunrise or sunset timings – because this wasthe custom of the sun worshippers. He forbade us from doing anything that couldlead us towards polytheism. By saying that sun rises and sun sets between thehorns of the devil, the prophet was speaking allegorically referring to thefalse beliefs of sun worshippers, which is from satanic inspiration. Yawning Your last point was about Satan laughing at aperson yawning and saying “Ha”. Well, as I had explained above, Satan has hisown peculiar nature, which lies outside our investigative scope. So, it doesn’tmake sense to probe into that. However, in this hadith you quoted, the prophet(PBUH) was teaching his companions some basic etiquette. I am sure you wouldn’tapprove of someone yawning into your face with mouth wide open and making funnysounds. The prophet taught that one has to cover ones mouth and try and bediscreet while yawning. This is basic decency. We believe that Godsent the prophet (PBUH) to teach us everything – from the smallest of the smalldecency to matters pertaining to international affairs. That’s what I meantwhen I said that Islam is a complete system of life, leaving out nothing thatis of importance to human life. What I expect to hear from you Now, that I havemade my presentation clear, I would appreciate it if you would stick to thetopic of Islamic laws, instead of trying to be funny with irrelevancies. I am looking to seeyou prove that Islamic laws are bad or useless in the current world. Also, I want toknow what is the alternative ethical/moral system you support if not Islam, andwhy you think it’s superior to Islam?