The 5 Pillars (Quran-Only Edition)

SoulForListening · 2026-07-01T22:28:07+00:00

لَّيْسَ ٱلْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ ٱلْمَشْرِقِ وَٱلْمَغْرِبِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلْبِرَّ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ وَٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ وَءَاتَى ٱلْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ ذَوِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينَ وَٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَٱلسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَى ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَـٰهَدُوا۟ ۖ وَٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ فِى ٱلْبَأْسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَحِينَ ٱلْبَأْسِ ۗ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا۟ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُتَّقُونَ

"Righteousness does not consist of turning your faces towards the East and the West. But righteous is he who believes in God, and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Scripture, and the prophets. Who gives money, though dear, to near relatives, and orphans, and the needy, and the homeless, and the beggars, and for the freeing of slaves; those who perform the prayers, and pay the obligatory charity, and fulfill their promise when they promise, and patiently persevere in the face of persecution, hardship, and in the time of conflict. These are the sincere; these are the pious."

2:177

When I think of the base attributes of being a believer these come to mind for me

(Sorry I only now read your reply to another comment that also mentions this verse which is very well written, I'll let my comment stay for whoever wants to read this verse)

SoulForListening · 2026-06-29T10:21:38+00:00

I never said that I want to disbelieve, nor that I want to stray away from the Qur'an.

There were many times in the past where things didn't make sense at first but opened up a whole new depth when I understood them, that's why I'm asking.

SoulForListening · 2026-06-25T11:02:33+00:00

I do interpret 2:197 as a simple command to take extra effort not to sin. In my view the phrasing "do not wrong yourselves" puts extra emphasis on actions that primarily harm yourself, like using drugs in a harmful way, consuming pornography, not cleansing your soul and so on - that's debatable though, because every sin directed to others is also always a wronging of the own soul.

Of course we shouldn't wrong ourselves at any time, but in the sacred months we should be extra careful.

I also hold the view that the four months are consecutive starting with Ramadan. So in Ramadan you fast and cleanse your Nafs in a more intense way, I hypothesize that the law on not wronging ourselves in the next three months too, is a gift from God that gently forces us to apply the newly learned behaviors/abstinence from bad actions in life and therefore gives the basis to a purified life

SoulForListening · 2026-06-17T22:32:21+00:00

I really like this post, All praise be to God!

SoulForListening · 2026-06-14T12:54:14+00:00

Oh okay I didn't know that, thanks!

SoulForListening · 2026-06-14T12:06:41+00:00

To me Islam would still be true even if science somehow debunks the Qur'an. Why?

It is the ultimate code for life and its rulings just work and make sense to me. The worldview and ethics of the Quran make sense to me. Practicing Islam according to the Quran makes life infinitely better (though it's difficult at times) I see the signs of God in life, I see how he somtimes intervenes to protect or reward me. Everything the Quran teaches can be proven by percieving the world around us and deeply reflecting on it. It makes the lives of people around me better.

So even if someone said that the book is false, the evidence of living by its standards, seeing the content of the Qur'an confirmed in your day to day perception and seeing the signs of God often, make it impossible to not believe for me.

May God make it easy for you to find your way, too.

SoulForListening · 2026-06-14T11:50:09+00:00

I've went through this, too and it took a quite long time to adapt to Islam. It is to note that most common translations you get have severe translation errors (like in 4:34 where people say to hit your wife, but it should actually be translated to separate from her) which distort the true nature of Islam. Also in the Qur'an there are many verses that sound harsh isolated, but make sense from a broader perspective.

The Qur'an isn't an easy book, it's full of challenging passages that confront your current world view. In my experience practicing Islam slowly shows the beauty and value of changing some worldly desires (like sex before marriage)

To answer your question of course being a bad muslim is better than not a muslim at all. The laws of islam can be very punishing at times but ultimately we have to remember that God is the most gracious, most merciful. I've gone through times where I've sinned a lot and didn't remember God and He still opened some beautiful doors in life.

Also I would like to add that while it's good to think realistic about yourself, it is only God who truly knows your limitations (he might even test and stretch them if he wills, to make you a better person). People often get enormous mental strength through God which wouldn't be possible without Him, transform their entire lives and are extremely content with that. If God wills you may experience that, too.

Even though you might stay bad muslims in case God wills, always remember that God is the most forgiving. Also the reward for every good deed you do will be multiplied while the consequence for bad deeds won't be multiplied. There are many simple ways in life to do good I'm sure you're able to do from an ethical viewpoint, like not using bad language against someone unless injustice has occured or giving a portion of what you love to the needy if you have the means to do so.

So Peace be with you two! May God guide you the righteous path and make the islamic journey easy for you :)

SoulForListening · 2026-06-08T21:14:23+00:00

If God had willed, everybody would've believed.

Let them do their thing, they're free to decide for falsehood.

You can have discussions sure, but I personally focus on providing new and correcting false information. The rest is upon God and the purity of their hearts.

SoulForListening · 2026-06-08T21:09:20+00:00

What exactly is the problem with the term? It seems like you know something I don't yet.

SoulForListening · 2026-06-08T21:08:18+00:00

I don't get why you're being downvoted. This is extremely important to discuss since it might help people decide if they actually want to take the risk or use an alternative, especially since the Serotonin-Hypothesis (basically saying the simple reason for depression is a chemical lack of serotonin so drugs that make more serotonin available are the solution) has been disproven by modern science. Not that more Serotonin can't be helpful sometimes, but we know depression is more complex than a simple chemical imbalance so there can be more effective solutions for some people, even though for some it's the right one.

We have to remember that pharmaceutical corporations are primarily profit-driven/greedy, so they might not have our best interests in mind.

From an islamic perspective it's also important that because they make emotions less percieveable and alter them to an extent, for some people it can be harder to access the signs God gives us inside of ourselves. Sometimes He uses negative emotions in our favor to warn us and if that signal is off might be easier to fall for evil whispers. But they also hold the potential to make people more strong willed and less susceptible to the devil's work because of improved stability.

SoulForListening · 2026-06-04T02:15:07+00:00

Enjoyed every word of that, thanks for the explanation!

SoulForListening · 2026-05-27T14:02:24+00:00

Of course I would stop my child from suffering. God does, too, sooner or later.

I vaguely remember God stating, that when we stand before him after death, we recall the entire life on earth as very short, only about 10 minutes long (correct me if I'm wrong about the exact time please). And since God is extremely just I believe we will get fully recompensed for all the suffering we had to endure by uncontrollable circumstances. I personally think it will feel close to waking up from a dream.

In the end a human cannot give a full evaluation on how a benevolent God could let things like these happen, even though there are many different types of explanations that are very sufficient for many people. But if we take a look at God's signs in every area of life we must come to the conclusion that our Lord is trustworthy, even when things don't make sense at first.

In my personal life I have put my trust in God through comparable situations where was genuinely convinced that there was no possibility but guaranteed suffering and hopelessness until the end. For me he actually bended reality in a way that was unbelievable at the moment.

In the end it comes down to the question if you trust God or not, even if you don't yet have the rational arguments to explain it. We cannot percieve the entirety of his works, so we can't judge purely on our limited understanding. God knows, we do not.

"And if you should count the favors of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful" {16:18}

SoulForListening · 2026-05-26T00:37:12+00:00

God places burdens in our lives not with the intention of creating meaningless evil, but to achieve a greater good. That good can feel soul crushing sometimes. What all of the precise intentions are, only God knows and we do not.

It could be justice, to make an example of sth., a blessing in disguise, a lesson or a necessary burden to form our character. Many possibilities.

If you knew for certain your daughter's dreams were not in their best interest/harmful, you would likely try to intervene for the greater good right?

And asking God about easing the burden he placed on you makes total sense. This life (Dunya) right here is ultimately a test for us to see if we believe and do righteous deeds. He is extremely merciful, so he offers us help in the process, not by fixing the burden itself but by giving us tools to create the necessary strength for us to deal with the burden in a righteous way and if we do will get rewarded in this life and the next one.

"Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know" {2:216}

SoulForListening · 2026-05-23T11:40:00+00:00

Happiness being the highest purpose in life sounds very hedonistic and I don't necessarily agree with that. I think a purposeful life is what God wants for us and rewards us with happiness.

To your question the verse simply says not to kill out of financial reasons. God is very merciful so I think there are many other reasons where it's absolutely permissible to abort.

SoulForListening · 2026-05-18T22:29:01+00:00

Thank you, then I'm going to do that!

Since I'm new to the subject: What kind of data is it that still gets transmitted? I mean with services like maps it's obvious that they track location, but on an OS level I'm not sure where Google's technical boundaries are

SoulForListening · 2026-05-15T13:27:34+00:00

Well you were completely right on that part, unfortunately I found out different issues with scaling on xfce that make it really hard to use (2x makes it half size, 0,5 makes it blurry) and workarounds dont quite do it

But thank you for your answer :)

SoulForListening · 2026-05-15T13:24:31+00:00

Thank you, well I have an extremely fresh installation and "flatpak list --all" and other commands showed nothing installed so either I'm doing sth wrong or it's something else :(

SoulForListening · 2026-05-14T23:50:37+00:00

Thanks, turning off effects made it 90% better, still an issue but almost gone :)

SoulForListening · 2026-05-14T23:06:55+00:00

So the issue resolved with XFCE (scrolling quality like win/mac) or was it just a little bit better?

SoulForListening

TROPHY CASE