Muhammad Rasheed's Blog, page 184
November 10, 2017
November 8, 2017
November 4, 2017
The Theory of Spirituality Devoid of Religion
Imani Lateef - Just so you know. Bashing Christianity does not make you Woke. Bashing Islam does not make you Holy.
Kendrick Mitchell - My personal philosophy: "I AM SPRITUAL NOT RELIGIOUS."
Imani Lateef - this is actually the majority of ppl consider themselves to be spiritual rather than religious.
Kendrick Mitchell - I think it leaves me free to think instead of accepting without question
Imani Lateef - Ironically. This is just as Jesus would want you to be.
Kendrick Mitchell - Fully aware bro
Muhammad Rasheed - Jesus would want you to deep study to show yourself approved, and develop the skills needed to discern between the corrupt versions of the religion touted by the institutionalist bureaucrats versus the pure religion of God.
The modern tossing the baby out with the bath water ideology of the 'spiritual not religious' new ager crowd hardly sounds like a philosophy the Christ would endorse.
Imani Lateef - Jesus' mission was to do away with "religion" itself. He constantly forced ppl, religious or no, to question and sometimes abandon their traditions. (Water/Wine) He encouraged ppl to step out of their comfort zones (Good Samaritan). Jesus was non traditional so if someone's approach to finding God seems in traditional I'd imagine he'd encourage that.
Muhammad Rasheed - Jesus was non-traditional only if said tradition had caused the people to stray from the Path of God he was anointed to instruct. He was never anti-tradition just for the sake of being anti-tradition. His job was to realign the believer back to the righteous path, which affirmed those traditions that continued to uphold it, and abolished those traditions that represented man-made corruption.
Imani Lateef - True. I believe he was definitely leading ppl to God. I don't believe that Way always pointed to a Religion. The vast majority of religious traditions caused ppl to stray from God and they still do. Yet many ppl still find their way to God unknowingly using principles Jesus introduced without the Church or Mosque, etc.
Muhammad Rasheed - The messengers of God were anointed to instruct humankind in scripture and wisdom, providing the practiced example of how God wanted the Word performed. Their practice was the pure religious system sanctified by God. The people subsequently added their traditions to the pure system -- some good, some neutral, some bad -- the latter of which required new prophets to come along and realign the people back to the pure religion they once knew. This has happened often enough that the pure thread of the message is clearly visible to those who bother to learn the material, standing out from the corrupted traditions the people allow to infest the system.
The Way of the One God is always wrapped in a religious system of the people who were called to preach it, which over the ages has taken many cultural traditional forms, but with the same simple core message at their hearts. Considering what's actually at stake, it is better to put in the work and actually study these systems to pinpoint and master the pure message at the heart of them, instead of leaving up to chance that we will simply stumble upon the truth by magical-thinking happenstance.
Muhammad Rasheed - The relentless counter-message of the enemy is too strong not to take a disciplined and active part in that study, as boring as we may have found the material in our youth. It's time to grow up and be serious about it.
Imani Lateef - However, Dialogue like this is exactly why ppl just aren't interested in Religion. I know I'm personally tired of the rhetoric. Yet I am studying and constantly seeking understanding. What tends to happen is religious leaders tend to do exactly what you are suggesting and make God this unattainable goal that is only accessed through their belief system. I firmly believe that way of life is simply out dated and ineffective.
Muhammad Rasheed - What part of my comment represents an 'unattainable goal' to you, Imani?
Muhammad Rasheed - FYI... My belief system is Al-Islam. In the Qur'an, the One God specifically said one does not have to be a formal Muslim to be saved. This is an example of why it is important to study this material, and allow facts and knowledge to lead instead of an abstract and wishy-washy "spirituality."
Muhammad Rasheed - If we don't know what the religion we are knee-jerk vilifying is ACTUALLY SAYING, then how can we make an informed decision about it?
Throwing the baby out with the bath water is a laziness trait, not one of wisdom.
Imani Lateef - But I've studied Islam. A Muslim is one who submits their will to G'd. Yes. You don't have to "study" do it. And the Quran states we all will do this "willingly or unwillingly". The idea is I'm not trying vilify any religion or lack of religion. The idea is Religion is just one tool available to find God. Not THE tool.
Muhammad Rasheed - Jesus said that the way to know the message of God was through the messengers. The message as filtered through their instruction is the Religion of God. Everything we all know about God came through the messengers who have been performing that job for the aeons humanity has been on earth.
What other tool is available that would enable you to perform in life how you need to perform in order to save yourself from hell and know the Bliss of your Maker for eternity?
Muhammad Rasheed - Because from here it looks like the only other 'tool' is to just wing it, and live a secular existence while claiming to believe.
I don't see a lot of being saved in that.
Imani Lateef - I get it. I don't see a whole lot being saved either. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of saving via Religion either. So it all cancels each other out.
Imani Lateef - As far as tools go, we have been innovating tools for eons. For some reason we refuse to innovate the "Religion" tool. That is fascinating and frightening.
Muhammad Rasheed - It's only frightening if you commit to a stance of vilification. lol I am not so hard-hearted regarding that item since it is obviously the tool preferred by the One that created mathematics from scratch.
You should relax. :)
Muhammad Rasheed - Education is the key, Imani. Encouraging a more well-rounded knowledge base in the varying components of religious systems, with a vital ability to discern between meat vs fat, is how they can be saved.
Of course whether they choose to USE that knowledge or not is a horse of a different color...
Imani Lateef - @Muhammad Rasheed... I'm so relaxed, bro.
Muhammad Rasheed - lol I believe you.
Broc Smith - self-serving comes in many forms
Muhammad Rasheed - I don't know what that means coming from you, Broc. You'll have to be less cryptic with your messaging.
Broc Smith - meaning; religion, regardless of its application, (or form it takes), is a man-made organized perception of the infinite. the hippy white man portrayed in your comic sees God as serving him, therefore justifying his behavior. This is true in many forms, hence my comment and not only drug addled white-trash hippies.
Muhammad Rasheed - Religion isn't a perception of the infinite, since God doesn't bother sharing the inconceivable secrets of the immaterial unseen with us. The job of religion is to embed the precepts of God's Word into our lifestyle, to aid in making it easier to walk the Straight Way.
Muhammad Rasheed - I doubt he's a "white-trash" hippie. I suspect he's the heir of a moneyed family, which gives him the soft leisure life style to make the decisions he's made comfortably.
Muhammad Rasheed - I agree with your "sees God as serving him" insight.
Broc Smith - There is too much evidence "religion" is according to the beholder, to agree with your assessment. However, I totally agree with the latter potion of your statement.
Muhammad Rasheed - Religion is what the One God designed it to be. The crackpots who think it's whatever they behold it to be is exactly the mindset the cartoon is critiquing.
November 2, 2017
Decoding the GOP
Muhammad Rasheed - I'm interested in exactly what kind of Civil War compromise the GOP keeps dancing around. Let's hear it.
"Compromise" in what way?
October 24, 2017
October 15, 2017
October 14, 2017
Black Silence is Black Death
Muhammad Rasheed - This Zora Neale Hurston quote is the concept behind why whites get mad when you protest the injustice inflicted upon you, and why they conspired to destroy Black-owned media. They hate the competing voice that contradicts how they want to spin the tale of what "really" happened. You NEED to tell your side of what happened, you NEED to filter the data through your lens of experiences, and you NEED to push back when their version of events is in violent opposition to what you know happened. They don't want you to fight back ("uppity"), and they get angry when you do.
You're not supposed to do anything about it, you have been subjugated into a vulnerable state ripe for continued exploitation. The West's obscene wealth amassed from free and exploited labor isn't going to maintain and grow by itself, and YOU, O Black people, are white people's number one cash cow. Do not sit back and allow the bipartisan voice to monopolize the flow of information, especially when Blacks are involved in anyway. Make yourself heard, because your silence is the death of your legacy.
The End of the Illusion
“The 'end of a world' never is and never can be anything but the end of an illusion.” ~René Guénon
“Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; But the heavens and the earth, which are new, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” ~2Peter 3:6,7
Killing Blacks For Fun & Profit
Muhammad Rasheed - Please stop pretending abortions and police brutality are ideologically opposed, when the murder of Black people is the one thing universally agreed upon on both sides of the aisle.
Lisa Allen - Is this equating a woman's choice and police brutality or mass incarceration?
Muhammad Rasheed - No, this one is just focused on the terror-lynchings of cop killings compared to the medical industry's ongoing reaping of (FREE!) foetal tissue from the Black community. Both represent the support of the murder of Black bodies, and it is definitely a bipartisan support despite the song & dance of the liberal vs conservative teleplay.
The "woman's right to choose" talking point is separate from this particular argument.
October 12, 2017
Racism's Dark Deal
Muhammad Rasheed - Blacks aren't supposed to protest injustice because the architects and beneficiaries of systemic racism agreed among themselves that Black people would bear the brunt of injustice so that poor whites would be spared it.
Interestingly, note that the white's knee-jerk reaction to the Black protester is always an assault upon their intelligence ("idiot", "moron"). Did Blacks agree to be the butt of all societal wrongs as sacrificial lambs to help uphold 'whiteness'? If not, then why are we considered mentally inferior simply for demanding our God-given freedom rights?
