View this page "My response to the 3rd lecture"

[Ebtehal AlHemayani]

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[Mona Al-khidaidy]

Dear Artist

You are absolutely right and I agree with you that some Arabs and
sometimes Muslims do not read Qura'an with the full attention it needs
and their readings does not go beyond their throats. But my wondering
is not about those, I was wondering about the Western scholars and
orientalists who learn accurate Arabic to read the original text of
the Holy Qura'an and not its translation. They study and analyze every
aspect about the Holy Qura'an, and yet they are not moved by its
miraculous powers and thus they don’t convert to Islam. What does stop
them from converting to Islam? Is it their pride and arrogance? Or is
it their devotion to Christianity?

[Ms. Sumaiyah Turkistani]

Hello Mona,
I think you are getting into a really deep subject that is so
intermingled with other issues and you might be at an open end.
Hopefully, my assumptions would help you to ease your curiosity. The
reason behind those orientalists and Westerners who speak Arabic very
well and read the Qura'n but yet they don't get influnced or convert
to Islam can be due to their social status. Yes, they are considered
as important figures among their own society and they don't want to
lose what they acheived through all the years to reach this level of
fame and prosperity. They would never give up their prejudices and
prove themselves wrong. They are cowards by nature, we already know
that. Look at the Isrealists for instance, they are fully equipped
with modern weapons and still they fear the young Palestinian lads who
attack them with stones! They would hide the truth for the sake of not
getting expeled by their own people. Exactly just like what happened
with Sale who was accused of putting Islam on the same level with
Christianity, therefore he was called "half a Musulman" by Gibbon.
Poor guy he got stuck between two parties. He is not a christian
because his people sacked him and he is not a Muslim because he did
not announced his Islam. This is the first case.
The second case, we can't read people's minds hence we are not at
liberaty to judge their intentions. Maybe some of these orientalists
and Western authors who are at close level and dealing most of the
time with Islamic topics and researches converted to Islam SECERETLY.
But you will not know about their conversion unless they are killed in
some horrible accident, then the rumors of their Islam might pop up,
like Lady Diana Spencer.
I hope I did not pop up new questions in your mind Mona.
All the very best. And please keep me updated if you came up with a
satisfying solution.

[layla asrar]

Dear Ebtehal
You raised an important question: why the West travel to the East?
What was the West searching for in the Islamic and Eastern countries?
We should think about their aim and goal in the East.
If we remember in chapter 2, there are three travelers who present the
Islamic customs and laws to the Western audience. Two of them learned
the jewelers art and they traveled as a traders of the precious
stones.
What I want to say here is that the economical factors played a major
role in these travels.
The travels were as an Expedition to explore the possible source of
wealth.
The East was enriched with various sources of wealth.
You can remember the wealth of India and South Africa with all the
diamond's mines and golds in their land,
and compare it to the present situation of the both country,
how the colonalization destroyed the two countries and left them in
desperate poverty.
We cannot ignore the fact the the Queen of England is among the top
ten of the world most rich people!!!
The English crown owns the most precious stones of diamonds in the
world,
we all know that these stones are not from an English mines of course.
The expansion of power and the search of wealth motivates the Western
travelers since the beginning.
Of course the same reason can be deducted in the current situation of
the Middle East.
As regard the question of reading the Quran and not be affected by its
verses, I want to say that Quraish who heard the Quran and they were
in their peak of mastery of the Arabic language, yet unfortunately
they were not affected by the Quran. Another example is Abu Talib, the
prophets uncle. how dear the prophet was to him, how close hew was to
the prophet, how he had struggle to protect the prophet. Yet, he did
not embraced Islam, and died as kafer!
We have to remember that it is not only reading the Quran brings
people to Islam,
It is Allah well that dominate everything
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ
يَشَاءُء


On Nov 7, 7:23 pm, Ebtehal AlHemayani <ebt....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Click onhttp://groups.google.com/group/643-islam-in-western-literature/web/my...

[Ebtehal AlHemayani]

Dear Mona,

I think Layla did answer your question in a very smart way. I do not know how the idea of الهداية did not come on my mind. It is the grace of Allah that controls everything, Anyway, thank you all for contributing and I wish you a happy weekend. See you on Saturday.