Faithful Reflections

Sunset, a date, a glass of water — and a month that changes more than your eating times Fasting in Islam: Meaning, Benefits and Safety Islamic Research Notes · Islamic Ethics · Written in Kathmandu · 28 minute read In short Fasting in Islam is not a diet with a religious label on it. It is a month of training in restraint, with a stated purpose in the Qur'an and a set of exemptions written into it from the beginning. This is the long version: what sawm is, how it became obligatory, the voluntary fasts most people never hear about, how other faiths fast, what the medical research honestly shows — including where the popular claims run well ahead of the evidence — the rules for missed days, the last ten nights, and who should not fast at all. I've also cut one very famous saying that gets quoted in articles like this and turns out not to be a hadith. What's on this page Why I stopped calling it "not eating" What sawm actually is The verse, a...

Salam means safety before it means calm — and safety is something you owe other people Islam and Peace: Salam, Jihad and the Rules of War Islamic Research Notes · Comparative Religion · Written in Kathmandu · 33 minute read In short "Islam means peace" is the standard answer and it is not quite right. The root means safety and wholeness, and the noun islam means submission — the two are related, but the popular slogan skips the connection. This is the long version: what the root carries, the sequence in which fighting was permitted, the sword verse and what surrounds it, why the famous "greater jihad" hadith has a weak chain, the classical rules of war set beside modern humanitarian law, the treaties, the conquest of Makkah, and a full section on the claims in this genre that don't survive checking. I've corrected four of them from the source I was working from. What's on this page The slogan and the problem with it What the root ...