Whether Or Not To Convert To The Religion Of Islam Essays - Islam

Whether Or Not To Convert To The Religion Of Islam There are many cultures and traditions throughout the world, which have sprung up throughout history. Along with the different traditions of each culture, there are also the different religions. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism are just a few of these religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have somewhat the same beliefs in the way that they have evolved and in the customs as opposed to those of Buddhism and Hinduism. Well before going astray on that tangent on Buddhism and Hinduism that would ultimately lead away from the desired topic, let us get back to the topic at hand: the religion of Islam and whether or not to convert to it? In order to decide whether or not one would desire to convert to Islam, one must know where, how, why it came about and what reasons would cause them to want to convert. Enable to know these things, one must read and analyze the Quran to learn about the religion, its beliefs and its customs. Listening to sermons given by a person of the religion would not hurt either. The Quran is a book containing suras sent down to Muhammad and other messengers by God. In these suras are the messages of God given to his people. These messages were something that was non-existent to the people of Arabia in these ways; therefore, it was a new religion to them. However, before it could become an actual religion, people had to believe in it and follow it. Those who follow the beliefs of the Islamic religion are an Umma. To do this, Muhammad had to preach the messages of God to the people. Getting a group of people to convert to a new religion is not an easy task, it must be done with patience and under standing for their present beliefs or it may be taken in offense and cause serious repercussions to ones self. Now, Muhammad was a determined messenger, however, since I have never really been involved with religion, not saying that I am atheist, exactly how I would react to these new views is not quite clear. This does not mean that my views would be closed-minded or negative, what it means is that they would be open, yet cautious of these teachings. In my believing that something created all of which is on earth, both living and non-living, does not mean that my beliefs are of the supernatural. This would pose a dilemma as to whether or not I could express true faith in God as my creator. However, if a group or person came across with an idea on our creation, possibly, if strong enough, I would change my views. Whether or not I would consider converting to Islam would depend on how strong the argument was to say that it is the true way of happening. Those persons that are Christian and Jewish with strong faith in their religion would undoubtedly have no problem rejecting the thought of converting, however, those who do not have strong faith would be more apt in the possibility of converting. Pagans on the other hand, in light of their beliefs in worship, would undoubtedly have difficulty in believing in one God rather than many idols. That does not go to say that it wouldnt be conceivable that they would convert, just that it would take convincing. The same goes for the Christians and Jews. Now, wealth has never been a factor in ones beliefs so there is no reason in which t hat should apply here. It takes the rich just as much to convert as it wills the poor to convert to Islam; it depends on present beliefs. Muhammad received the suras not in the order that they are in the Quran, but rather in order of importance. Of these suras was The Pen (Q 2). The Pen presented the message that in order to avoid punishment, one must follow Gods will. A slanderer, going about with calumniesSo there came, on the (garden) a visitation from thy Lord, (which swept away) all around, while they were asleepSuch is the Punishment (in this life); but greater is the Punishment in

sex essays

sex essays Using his unique style and structure, Joseph Heller masterfully manages to interlay humor and terror, comedy and tragedy, and reveals in the process the perversions of the human character and of society gone mad. The first stroke of Heller's deft touch is his presentation of outrageous characters, acting outrageously. From the first chapter, we are presented with a slew of unbelievable characters whose actions and ideologies are uproariously funny, and horrifically disturbing. In fact, the manner in which the reader recognizes the character's dual nature will serve as the first example of Heller's amalgamation of comedy and tragedy. Dunbar's theory of life is first received with a burst of laughter from the audience. Life is short, and Dunbar wishes to extend it as much as possible. If time flies when one is having fun, then conversely, time must slow when one is bored. Dunbar endeavors to make his life as boring as possible, thus increasing the length of its passing. Indeed, it is understandable why such an attitude should elicit a laugh, but the further implications are horrific. Society's emphasis on life over meaning comes as a shocking revelation to the audience. Heller further reinforces that idea with characters such as Doc Daneeka, who values self-preservation and money over responsibility and friendship, and Milo who values self-improvement and fortune over the lives of thousands of others. The motif that follows gives us characters that are, above all else, more interested in self (Cathcart, Mrs. Daneeka, Duckett, the Old Man, Peckem, etc.). Though they are initially humorous, their nature is ultimately revealed to be false and horrific, arousing disgust and pity, a brilliant combination of comedy and tragedy. The perversion of society is revealed further in a second major type of character, the deluded. Though most serve largely as foils to Yossarian and his philosophy, much can still be made of their condition. Clevinge...

A Biography Of Booker T Washington History Essay

A Biography Of Booker T Washington History Essay Birth, Parents and Family Life The well known clichà ©, bad beginnings have good endings, resonates in one’s mind when this name is mentioned. Booker T. Washington’s life, undoubtedly encapsulate this well-known phrase as throughout his life evidence proves how he grew and became very successful. Booker Taliaferro Washington’s life began on April 5th, 1856 where he was born into slavery on the Burroughs Plantation in the rural, Hale’s Ford, Virginia. He had three siblings, one of whom was adopted. His mother Jane was an enslaved African American woman who worked as a cook on the plantation. His father was a white man, whom he knew very little about. His mother later married another slave, Washington Ferguson, who left to for West Virginia. Early Life Washington’s early life was that of a slave where he lived in a small cabin and slept on a dirt floor with only a â€Å"pallet† that was put on the ground for his comfort. Survival was a strugg le as his mother Jane from time to time would take a chicken or an egg from her masters and cook them during the night just to feed her children. From an early age, Booker knew what labour entailed and began working quite young. One of his duties was to carry sacks of corn to the mill on the back of a horse. Sometimes when a sack fell on the ground he had to wait for hours for someone to come and replace it on the horse’s back. Washington’s discomfort of his living arrangement and hard labour as a child was mingled with the discomfort of his clothes and shoes. Until his shirt was worn for six weeks, Washington had to bear the pain from his flax material shirt which pricked his skin. The discomfort was so great that once his brother offered to wear his shirt until it got a bit softer. His shoes also were uncomfortable as his first pair of shoes had wood as its sole and coarse leather tops. Education Although he went to school while he was a slave, Booker T. Washingtonâ €™s education only began when his family was freed of slavery. In Washington’s time, it was illegal for slaves to go to school and be educated. However, Washington went to school with James Burrough’s daughter in Franklin County, not as a student but to carry her books. It was only when the Emancipation Proclamation in April, 1865, Washington now nine, was read to the jubilant slaves that Booker was able to spread his wings a bit. Washington, his siblings and mother soon left the plantation with a wagon that his stepfather sent for them to join with him in Malden, West Virginia. Because of the state of poverty that the family was faced with, Washington could not have had a normal schooling experience. Instead, at the tender age of nine, Washington was thrust into the world of work. His stepfather, who worked in the salt mines, found work for him and his brother at a salt mine that began at four in the morning and ended at nine. Sometimes they even worked at coal mi nes. One Mr. William Davis opened a school for coloured children. Booker’s parents allowed him to go but on the condition that he maintain his job. As Booker worked in the morning period, he was now able to attend school later in the day but returned to the mine after school.

Working with Children Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Working with Children Case Study - Essay Example Each member of the family focuses on personal difficulties and has little interaction with others. Kerry, age 2 Under Theory of Mind, a securely attached child sees an image of self in a caregiver and this offers security. It is obvious Kerry is lacking the connection to her mother that she needs to form emotional attachments. Although the fact that she seldom speaks is not a real concern--children younger than 3 often hold back on conversation until they feel secure about communicating--it still might be an indication of a more serious problem. Since she would at her age be expected to use two or three word sentences, her development would appear to be slower than normal. Shouting or crying for what she wants is a definite bid for attention. There is a universal human need to form close emotional bonds, and Kerry seems to be lacking any positive connection to her family. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Attendance at a Sure Start Children’s Centre might offer Kerry the opportunity to make friends and learn how to communicate with others. Sure Start local programmes, in use since 1999, bring together childcare, early education, health and family support services for families with children from before birth to 4 years old. It has been targeted at the most disadvantaged areas of the country such as the industrial areas of the Midlands. Kerry might be a candidate for the Talking and Learning Together Project which addresses speech and language issues. The holistic approach with multi-disciplinary teams of professionals goes beyond childcare and supports families in parenting and employment aspirations (Sure Start: local programmes, 2006). Alcohol, drugs and physical abuse are possible concerns in this family. Declan appears to be at loose ends as far as being employed, and, although he claims to be looking for work, it is not clear if he is actually utilising the Job Centre as a source. He doesn’t have any specific work

Pursuing Criminal Justice Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Pursuing Criminal Justice Paper - Essay Example In order to ensure that the innocent person is protected against harm, the federal government has established various departments and structures to facilitate these duties, namely the courts of law, correctional facilities and other agencies, which are very independent. In the United States, it is very important to recognize the existence of a criminal justice agency. In every 50 states, this totals to 51 criminal agencies in the United States (William, 2011). Indeed, one cannot deny that justice is synonymous to law enforcement. Therefore, the law enforcing agencies are tasked to treat both the individuals encountered and perpetrators with utmost unfairness. This touches on the morality of the law enforcing agencies and their ability to enforce laws of the land while at the same time; they maintain a moral and honorable move. It is justice that encompasses upholding of right and respect of individual freedom by the law enforcers. The origin of the criminal justice, particularly in t he United States dates back to 1967 when the presidents’ commission mandated with the powers of law enforcement and administration of justice came up with a report called â€Å"The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society.† The report was seen by many as a ground-breaking since it provided more than 200 proposals in an approach towards fighting and prevention of crime (The National Commission on Terrorist Attack, 2011). This commission created a structural approach on criminal justice and among its recommendations was a methodology that would ensure coordination among the legal court systems, correctional agencies and law enforcement improve. It is this commission that tried to define criminal justice as the enforcing standard of conduct that could be significant to protecting communities and individuals from committing crimes. Moreover, the discipline of criminal justice dates back to 1920 with August Vollmer, the Berkley police chief, an established criminal justice depa rtment at the University of California. It was O.W. Wilson, a student of August Vollmer, who started and researched on the meaning of the criminal justice (The National Commission on Terrorist Attack, 2011). Throughout the evolution process of the criminal justice, its scope has included the additions or removals of certain forms of punishments. Precisely, policing has led to change in customs and rights of offenders that are considered among other transformations in the criminal justice system (Ritter, 2006). Essentially, it is of the best interest to promote justice in the society, having the knowledge of how many people have suffered as a result of the injustice. It is important to uphold the moral values of the professional law enforcement agencies, which demands that one remains partisan at all times and have the utmost sobriety when carrying out justice. This means that both the victims and the offenders have the right to fair treatment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every stakeholder in the judicial system to make sure that proper legal procedures are set in place (Ritter, 2006). One can be able to achieve promotion of justice as a law enforcing agent, through the protection of the freedom of speech, affirmative action, gay rights, and gender rights, build anti-poverty and economic opportunities that would help the poor. In addition, ending the mandatory arbitration to provide legal

Wartime Propaganda: World War I :: World War I History

Wartime Propaganda: World War I The Drift Towards War "Lead this people into war, and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of national life, infecting the Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street." It is one of history's great ironies that Woodrow Wilson, who was re- elected as a peace candidate in 1916, led America into the first world war. With the help of a propaganda apparatus that was unparalleled in world history, Wilson forged a nation of immigrants into a fighting whole. An examination of public opinion before the war, propaganda efforts during the war, and the endurance of propaganda in peacetime raises significant questions about the viability of democracy as a governing principle. Like an undertow, America's drift toward war was subtle and forceful. According to the outspoken pacifist Randolph Bourne, war sentiment spread gradually among various intellectual groups. "With the aid of Roosevelt," wrote Bourne, "the murmurs became a monotonous chant, and finally a chorus so mighty that to be out of it was at first to be disreputable, and finally almost obscene." Once the war was underway, dissent was practically impossible. "If you believed our going into this war was a mistake," wrote The Nation in a post-war editorial, "if you held, as President Wilson did early in 1917, that the ideal outcome would be 'peace without victory,' you were a traitor." Forced to stand quietly on the sidelines while their neighbors stampeded towards war, many pacifists would have agreed with Bertrand Russell that "the greatest difficulty was the purely psychological one of resisting mass suggestion, of which the force becomes terrific when the whole nation is in a state of violent co llective excitement." This frenzied support for the war was particularly remarkable in light of the fact that Wilson's re-election had been widely interpreted as a vote for peace. After all, in January of 1916, Wilson stated that "so far as I can remember, this is a government of the people, and this people is not going to choose war." In retrospect, it is apparent that the vote for Wilson cloaked profound cleavages in public opinion. At the time of his inauguration, immigrants constituted one third of the population. Allied and German propaganda revived old-world loyalties among "hyphenated" European- Americans, and opinions about US intervention were sharply polarized.

Hickey Fate Versus Free Will Oedipus Rex

The downfall of Oedipus was due to free will rather than fate shown in his De minding of information and his immediate, irrational actions. Oedipus being the arrogant king he is, was constantly looking for information when others had informed him that it would not be useful, even damaging to Oedipal use's current life and well being. In an exchange between Oedipus and Tires, Oedipus had deem need Tires to him palace to tell him his prophecy and who was the one who had killed Alias and plagued the and.Tires responded to these demands with â€Å"l will cause neither me nor y o distress. Why do you vainly question me like this? You will not learn a thing from me,†. Tires clearly tells Oedipus there is no benefit to this knowledge giving Oedipus the opportunity to stop questioning the blind prophet but it was Oedipus choice to continue to pester the old ma n until the devastating truth was revealed to him and in his ignorance questioned â€Å"Who t old you to say this? Rather tha n face the truth he had demanded.Oedipus later seeded inform nation to whether e killed his father and who his birth father truly was. His wife, and later to be discovered mother, stated â€Å"In the name of the gods, no! If you have some concern for you our own life, then stop! Do not keep investigating this. I will suffer that will be enough†. Though J coasts begs him, he continues to freely search for information that would bring him no be unfit when he could have ended his search right then. Due to his choosing, Oedipus looked for info urination when he could have listened to those around him and lived out a nice, yet ignorant life to the truth.Though Oedipus could defeat the sphinx with his intelligence, intelligence coo old not stop him from the irrational actions he chose. Once the pieces of information had finally matched up and he revealed the truth he had searched for, Oedipus and his mother took t heir fates into their own hands. Oedipus found his mother hung in th eir bedroom, dead and then decided to take her jewelry and stabbed his own eyes out. Though the news was devastating, these e actions were overly dramatic, considering both beings had known their prophecy but it was their choice to sake such harsh actions.Though it was fate who had propelled Oedipus to sat b his eyes out, it was Oedipus choice to do so rather than think rationally about how to go ABA out such a horrid situation. Oedipus had known his fate from the beginning but it was his choice to contain u to look for the information he had been warned not to find and stab out the eyes that t had blinded him from the truth all along. Fate is something that is inevitable but it is the choice of the one whose fate is determined to how they go about the destined events that will occur.