Posted by zaphod on February 21, 1998 at 22:50:24:
In Reply to: Re: Why Muslims are wrong in their beliefs. posted by Mohamed Ghounem on February 20, 1998 at 23:53:33:
: If I am mistaken concerning the saints, feel free to correct. I respect Catholic Religion but am anti-statue worshiping, if you do not worship saints and bow to the statues in the Catholic church, then I apologize for the comment.
: Although like Abraham, our fore father, he hated statue worshipping so much that he left his father and his town to worship the Creator alone without partners.
Yet he was alleged to have built an altar to worship God, but he
hated statues? A statue of course is a symbolic reference only.
Prayer beads are another one used by both Catholics and Muslims,
the beads are not being worshipped, it is symbolic of
spirituality focus or a ‘reminder’ You also state you are against
statues, yet thousands of Muslims parade around a block of rock,
What is the difference?
Muhammad too is dead, yet he is given reverence in Islamic
prayers and salutations such as PBUH, SAW dare I say the
equivalent of a Saint? As I understand it, Saints are ordinary
people who achieved a higher state of holiness or grace than most
and therefore are considered to be able to INTERCEED on our
behalf which is not the same as worshipping.
I think you are confusing Abraham’s despisement of worshipping
‘false gods’ with symbolic references. I know several Muslim
families that have a picture of the Kabba in their room and face
it at prayer time, yet they are not worshipping the picture only
using it as a focus point.