From: minhaszt@ucbeh.san.uc.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: Some more info on the Baha'is
Date: 26 Jul 92 00:33:58 EST
Distribution: world
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati

In article <1682E8B81.CCMAHTAJ@mizzou1.missouri.edu>, CCMAHTAJ@mizzou1.missouri.edu writes:
> In article <1992Jul23.173605.1974@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
> minhaszt@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Zafar T Minhas) writes:
>  
>>
>>  Some stuff deleted
>>
>>Another aspect of the telling of whether a person is a true prophet or not
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>is by the action of his followers. It seems that among the 4 groups that I am
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>talking about, Bahais are no better and no worse than anyone else. I have not
>>seen anything special about Bahais, if I wanted to be strict, I think the
>>nation of Islam are the best followers of their religion. They pray 5 times a
>>day. They fast more consistently than people of other religions do (even
>>regular Muslims) they are more strict in abstaining from alcohol than regular
>>Muslims and even eating pork. They are healthier because their youth are forced
>>to exercise and abstain from smoking and their standards of morality are
>>higher. They are actively involved in fighting the problem of drugs in this
>>country. Their are bad apples in every group but I have never seen a group with
>>fresher apples. "By their fruits ye shall know them..."
>                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>
>>In essence I have not seen anything in Bahai that would distinguish itself as a
>>true religion, the more I read the more I am ambivalent about it.
>>
>>sincerely
>>
>>zafar minhas
>  
> Dear Mr. Minhas,
>  
> Would I be correct to conclude, from the two underlined sentences in the
> above paragraph, that "ye shall know the religion of islam from the
> actions of its followers" ? If so, then I would like to know, on a large
> scale, who you consider the followers of islam in today's world.
>  
> Sincerely,
> Mahtaj Khamneian

dear mr. khamneian,

you would not be correct in that conclusion. one can not and should not judge
any ideology from the action of the ones who follow it or try to follow it
because people are not perfect and will always have faults. even the best
efforts at trying to follow a religion or a philosophy of life will end up
imperfect because of the complexities of life. one has to look at the religion
of islam or any other religion in an unbiased manner. this will not necessarily
lead to everyone becoming muslim because only god will guide people to the
truth however this should not stop anyone from seeing things in an objective
manner, even if looking at it in that manner will eventually result in the
rejection of the ideas being examined in the first place. this view is an
islamic world view directly from the quran. so know you can not judge religion
today by the action of the followers, it might have been possible to do that
in ancient history, but not any more.
as far as who i think are the true follower's of islam in today's world, i
can't give you a definite answer, to put it short, i don't know. there is a 
definite criteria for who god will consider as muslim,
 
1)the person who believes in only one god (not two not three)

2)the person who believes in the truth of all of the prophets from adam to
muhammad (sorry dude, no prophet after muhammad ben abdullah ben abdul-mutalib)

3)the person who believes in the holy books sent by god (the quran, the injil;
not to be confused with the new testament, the torat; not to be confused with
what is considered the writings of moses in the old testament, what modern jews
and christians call torah, the zabur; not to be confused with psalms of david
in the old testament)

4)the day of judgement

5)the idea that good and bad things come from god


the minimum practice to be consider a muslim in practical terms is the five
pilllars (arkan). and to be a good muslim is to believe and practice the above 
plus try to be a better person (very general and meant to stay that way)

this is something all muslims would agree on. as far as any group of people,
you would find good muslims and bad muslims all over the world no single group
of people is one way or another.

tried to answer your question as best as i could.

sincerely
your friendly neighborhood zafar
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian