“Consumer Guide to God”
Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.
Consumer Guide to God
In my hand I hold the first copy of book:
Consumer Guide to God
A Muslim Perspective
In Light of The Qur’an
By: M. Ikram Jahangiri, M.D.
To get an idea of what author has written, please read the back cover of book given below. I will put my two cents in. Author has given about one thousand references. He extensively took help from Lahore Ahmadiyya Movment Literature. All the way from works of Maulana Noor ud Din to Dr. Zahid Aziz. The author has made it very easy for me to judge any claimant of Divine Appointment i.e. Mujadid. As I don’t expect to live by any stretch of imagination and wishes into 16th Islamic century; so in this century I will judge claimant of Divine Appointment or Mujadid of 15th Islamic century. Any Mujadid to prove his credentials has to write book better than this one. (Unless Ikram Jahangiri, himself decides to make claim of new Mujadid… Just kidding).
From the back cover:
Whether you live in East or West, this book will forever change how you think about Islam. Some may be shocked to realize that the core progressive values of the West are reflections of Qur’ânic edicts of justice, human rights, environmentalism, gender and racial equality, edicts now derogatorily known in the West as Shariah – the Islamic Law. Unfortunately, the rigid interpretation of Qur’ân has inadvertently turned its advocates into their own worst enemies as well as the enemies of others.
Some may be offended to know that Qur’ân supports Darwin’s theory of evolution and not that Adam was the first human. There is no incongruity between Qur’ân and science. The Devil is no more than the human himself; the devilish thoughts and satanic acts. Others may object that the Jews, Christians, Hin-dus, Buddhists, atheists all have equal rights with Muslims to qualify for the Qur’ânic heaven. Fatwas, as popularly known, have no basis in Qur’ân. Fatwa mongers and Fatwa followers are equally ridiculed. In Qur’ân there is no physical hell or heaven, much less seventy virgins. Jihad by sword is a corrupted concept. There is no validation of Veil. Deprivation of women’s freedom is a product of depraved and extremist culture, not Qur’ân. In Qur’ân there is no “Muslim God,” only the “God of Mankind.” If Muslims and non-Muslims view each other through the lens of Qur’ân, they might be surprised to see none but children of a ‘no lesser god’ on the other end. This book does not tweak the Qur’ân to make it palatable to a modernist, because Qur’ân itself is more modern than many of us think. There are no apologies in this book for Qur’ân. – Excerpt from the Preface.
The God that an author is writing about, a speaker is debating for, a preacher is proselytizing, that God in all such discourses must appear more intelligent than the advocates themselves; otherwise one cannot exclude the possibility that the God being discussed is an outcome of one’s own fancies, wishes, and formulations. The key to discussing God is to let God speak for Himself, as seen through His own words in His Books or through a living experience of Him by someone amongst us. This approach shifts the burden from man to God Himself. – M. Ikram Jahangiri.
From Mohammed Iqbal:
Can you please arrange to get a copy of it, please? I can pay only in Indian Rupees.
From Rashid:
Dear Mohammad Iqbal,
AA
Please email me your address. I can mail you copy of book as gift. If you don’t have my email address, you may email me your address via Dr. Zahid Aziz bhai.
Rashid.
Note by Admin: I have sent Rashid Jahangiri’s e-mail contact to Iqbal sahib. I am sure Iqbal sahib will be pleased, as I was, to see this excellent publication with its new approach towards presenting the real and true Islamic concepts.
From Bushra:
AA
From where can I get this book?
Regards
Bushra
From Rashid:
Dear sister Bushra
AA,
If you email your mailing address to forum moderator Dr. Zahid Aziz sahib, he can forward it to me and i can send book to you.
Take care
Rashid
Note from Zahid Aziz: Please e-mail: info@ahmadiyya.org
From ikram:
While rebutting the dogma of atonement, HMGA sahib quite succinctly outlines the utility of knowledge of God in prevention of sin and evil that man is at risk to fall into in one’s daily material pursuits. He brings out a fine argument when he states – “But the fact is that there is a world of difference between a belief in God and knowledge of God.”
The following is an excerpt from his essay “Towards the New Order — An Exhortation” [link] :
The True Knowledge of God, the only Remedy for Sins:
The question naturally arises now whether there is any means to freedom from the bondage of sin if atonement is not. I do not only assert it forcibly, but offer it as my own experience and as a well-tried remedy that there exists, and has existed from the creation of man down to this day, one and only one sure method of being released from the slavery of sin and the disobedience to God. Nothing can be proof against sin except a perfect knowledge of God attained through sure and conclusive arguments and brilliant signs of His existence. It is not to believe simply that there is a God but to know God and to see Him. It is through such a knowledge of God that a man sees clearly that the wrath of God is an all-consuming fire and that a manifestation of the beauties of God sets the soul at rest and makes it evident that true bliss and eternal felicity consist in a constant and reverent adoration of God. Every screen that hides the face of God from man is then raised and the Divine glory and beauty are revealed to him in their full lustre. This is the only way in which sensual passions can be restrained, and it is only such a knowledge of God that works a true transformation in man.
Some men would think that they also believe in God, love God, and fear God, yet they are not granted the purity of soul. Others, perhaps, might object that all the world, with the exception of a very few, is not a disbeliever in God and yet sin and evil rage in the world. But the fact is that there is a world of difference between a belief in God and knowledge of God. I do not mean to say that one who merely believes in God is granted the power to overcome sin, but that such power is granted only to the man who has a perfect knowledge of God, and who has tasted both the fear and love of God. The believer in God simply admits that a God exists, but one who has a perfect knowledge of Him actually sees what the other only refrains from rejecting on grounds of probability. If it were said that Satan has a clear knowledge of God and still he is disobedient to the Divine being, the reply is that such a view is not correct. Satan has not the perfect knowledge which is granted to the righteous ones of God.
It is in the nature of man that when perfect knowledge renders him certain of something, he is necessarily impressed with it. He avoids every dreadful path of destruction once he has seen it. It is therefore impossible that a true knowledge of God and disobedience to His commandments should dwell in the same heart, for if the one is darkness the other is light and must dispel it. We ordinarily see that a thing which experience has shown to be beneficial and conducive to any good is anxiously desired by everybody, while that which is proved to be harmful is hated and even viewed with horror. For instance, the man who has strychnine in his hand, but is not aware of its fatal property, may take it in any quantity under the impression of its being some innocuous drug; but the person who knows it to be a poison cannot take it in any such quantity as it is sure to kill him. Similarly, it is a solid and evident truth that when man knows it for certain that there is a God Who punishes every transgression, and that punishment is sure to follow every act of disobedience, he keeps at a safe distance from all sorts of wrong-doing, such as bloodshed, theft, prostitution, oppression, injustice, breach of trust, setting up others with God, telling a lie, giving false evidence, vanity, hypocrisy, peculation, cheating, abusing, fraud, faithlessness, remissness, lasciviousness, ungratefulness towards God, not fearing God, selfishness, having no sympathy for man, not praying to God with a fearful heart, indulging in luxury and worldly delights, forgetfulness of God, keeping aloof from prayer and want of humility, adulterating articles for sale or defrauding customers, giving short measure or weight, selling at a higher than the market price, not serving his parents, harshness to wives, disobedience to husbands, looking with lust at strange men and women, not caring for the orphans, thinking little of the old and the weak and the sick, disregarding the rights of neighbours and injuring them, insulting a fellowman to show one's own vanity, jeering at others in an offensive language, describing some by defect to affront another person, calling others bad names, charging others falsely, pretending to receive revelation from God, or falsely claiming apostleship, of receiving message or prophecy from Him, denying the existence of God, and revolting against a good ruler or mischievously creating a disturbance in the country.