My personal guide to help new Muslims

You will find Muslims welcoming with open arms, as far as learning about Islam goes, however it can be very daunting at first with all the different sects and takes but it's like any other discipline, get to the primary document first, the Quran and work your way down, what you don't want is read the Quran with filters on :)

One needs to get into the immediate history following the death of the Prophet of God to understand the political (sect) divisions within Islam (not the "official version" :) nor the Orientalist version either) Islam is a 100% verifiable religion, anything that does not checks out is probably false, besides a handful of verses of the Quran where in-depth research is needed to understand God's message, the bulk of it is very straightforward, more importantly, the injunctions and guiding aspects are easy enough to be understood by a High School Junior :)

The problem lies in the secondary literature, a source of all divisions within Islam.
After all, is said and done, the original compilers of Hadith (secondary sources) obviously used different methodologies because the results don't sync. Once again it will be illogical to declare all were correct because of the glaring contradiction, a Quranic standard demands free of contradictions. No amount of apologetic arguments can hide this established difficulty. In fact, the apologists took a 100% verifiable religion and turned it into a dogma, putting ordinary Muslims on the defensive and forcing them to defend laws and practices that are a product of the same flawed literature.

No true Muslim can deny the authority of the Prophet of God but the injunction of obeying the messenger has obvious limitation demonstrated by the Quran, the words "obey the messenger" are invariably preceded by the words "obey God" with an emphatic "and" separating the two, not "or". The obvious limitation is, you cannot disobey God in the process of obeying the messenger. The minimum expectation is that any perceived obedience should not contradict any of God's laws in letter or spirit.

In order to truly obey the messenger, we have to resolve the issue of fabricated Hadith. The immediate question to ask will be who and why. Once the motives behind are examined, the list of the usual suspects begins to emerge. One sure method to expose them is to attack those false Hadith that has been the source of divisions and subjugation throughout the ages. The process should identify the historical personalities involved in the fabrications on one hand and point out the present day crooks on the other. My personal favorites method in order to smoke them out is to question false hadith, by them I mean the beneficiaries of the fabrications, whichever group or individual tries to defend any of the followings are/is your usual suspect (s);

Laws on stoning as the punishment. (an unbelievable farce embedded in deception)
Laws that set the age of marriage for girls to 9 years (one wonders, what could be the motive)
Laws on silence of the girl as consent (just imagine)
Laws on beards and Niqab as obligatory
Laws that force women to be accompanied by mahrams (the ball and chain with a twist)
Laws on death penalty for leaving Islam (what are they thinking)
Laws on obeying unjust rulers (perhaps most are related to this gem)
Laws on instant divorce (of course this right is exclusive for the man)
Laws that propagate abrogation of Quranic verses (an impossibility but they need this one badly to complete the deception)
Laws on declaring Muslims who oppose the above farce as Kafirs (rejectors of truth)

While researching the issues I have this to suggest, if you can't read the original Arabic then stay clear of the following English translations for various reasons and degrees of bias ;

Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, Muhammad Muhsin Khan, commissioned by the Saudi Rulers and both the gentlemen were handsomely rewarded for towing the ruler's/clergy's line of the time.

Similarly, sites like www.islamreligion.com www.islamqa.com must be avoided, a more comprehensive list can be found here http://lifecheat.blogspot.com/p/list-of-sites-that-must-be-avoided-as.html

The Saheeh International started out it seems by taking the Muhsin Khan "Noble Qur'an," and modified and revised its translation, to come up with this new translation which was even more bracketed and with angles thus further going away from the original text. But the current efforts of the institution is worth more than a second look and using it as a serious research tool, it is still a good idea to ignore the brackets other than the purely linguistic inserts. The http://corpus.quran.com or its related site tanzil.info, both in fact are powerful tools to further your knowledge of the Quran. Always make a point of checking the word for word translation to ensure against any interpretation bias.

The following three gentlemen are guilty of religious bias, to put it mildly, Dawood, George Sale and John M Rodwell.

Be cautious with both Maulana Ali and Rashad Khalifa because of the later-day Messenger claims.

Cautious with Shakir' translation because almost nothing is known about him.
A new translation by Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, a first by a woman is still under scrutiny but promising and so is Abdel Haleem's recent effort, even though it is limiting in its interpretation because of the heavy reliance on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, thus giving it a dated feel. Asad's and Ahmed Ali's efforts are very Good for new Muslims. I just want to add one more promising effort that of Tarif Khalidi, professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Be very careful with all the traditional tafsirs like Ibn Kathir, they are full of glaring blunders of interpretations. Google "Ibn Kathir confession" to get a sense of what went down.

Just concentrate on the Quran to start with, tackle the issue of Ahadith (sayings of the messenger) in light of the Quran and not the other way around. Please check here to get a sense of how to avoid extreme interpretations of the Quran. Even if you don't know Arabic, it is always a good idea to research a couple of dozen Arabic words/terms that have been the target of manipulation by some Muslims and some non-Muslims alike. Words like ayat, Al-Hikma, zina, Siddiqoon, khimar, zeenatahunna, darab, zulufann etc needs looking up in more than one dictionary.

Here is another link where you can research a lot of them and then decide on which translation of the Quran you want to buy or use online.
http://www.islamawakened.com/Quran/

Allow me to rant a bit more :) and repeat what I have posted elsewhere on this blog. Isn't it funny that the Majority of Muslims are caught between the Devil and the deep blue when it comes to getting to the true message of the Quran, on one hand, the Islam haters are worried sick that the current trend of educated Muslims wrestling the interpretation of the Quran away from the "mullahs" will leave them in the dust. On the other hand, the "Mullahs" masquerading as scholars are equally alarmed and are fighting tooth and nail. They are fighting not only to protect their license to subjugate ordinary God-fearing Muslims but to protect their historical bedfellows, the corrupt leadership in the guise of Kings and dictators. And no less a figure than Ghazali agrees with Ahadiths like below, imagine that!

Muslim Book 020, Number 4524:

"It has been narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: It is obligatory for you to listen to the ruler and obey him in adversity and prosperity, in pleasure and displeasure, and even when another person is given (rather undue) preference over you."

and some more

Muslim Book 35, Number 4232:

Narrated Hudayfh Ibn al-Yaman: Prophet said: ............"There will come rulers after me who do not guide to my guidance and do not practice my Sunnah, and the hearts of some them are the hearts of Satans but they are in the body of a human." I said: "What should we do at that time?" Prophet (PBUH) said: "You should just listen to them and obey those rulers. No matter if the hurt you and take your wealth, you should follow them and obey them." ........

The presence of the above type of fabrication has forced Muslims all over the world to leverage the modern tools of data manipulation and communication to understand their religion as it was meant to be understood. They are actively researching the root meaning of Arabic words, they are applying the principles of logic and deductive reasoning, they are bringing themselves up to speed on the current scientific knowledge. As a result of all this activity, the sacred text is shining through and solidifying the faith of ordinary Muslims.

Muslims who previously used to struggle between the take of the Muslim apologist and the resulting Orientalist attacks are now amused by the twisting of words and the ever-ready brackets to add to the words of God. Some of the issues that stand corrected like stoning to death, under-aged marriages, wife beatings, dress codes, death penalties for apostates, rape evidence, divorce procedure etc and in the process defanged the Islam haters and mullahs in one stroke.

At the same time, it is hilarious to note that these two enemies of Islam, one from within and one from without having ended up supporting each other inadvertently in a strange twist of events. Both insist that the false and fabricated Ahadith literature is indispensable in understanding the religion and the primary document the Quran. Both insist on the alien concepts of abrogation and Shaan e Nazool as central to understanding the Quran and both insist on the mythical consensus of the scholars. (this last one is totally made up)

Who in their right mind would refuse to follow the instructions of how to understand the intended message of a guide, found in the guide itself, that is if the intention is to understand the message? Irrespective of the age of the guide and the set of instructions found in it. Even more baffling is the behavior which results in insisting on an interpretation which is at odds with the one arrived by following these same set of instructions. 

The words of God describe it beautifully in Quran 21:18

‏21:18 بل نقذف بالحق على الباطل فيدمغه فاذا هو زاهق ولكم الويل مما تصفون
Literal: Rather We throw/hurl with the truth on the falsehood, so it nullifies/eliminates it (the falsehood), so then it(the falsehood) is vanishing/being destroyed, and for you (is) the grief/misfortune from what you describe/categorize.

Yusuf Ali: Nay, We hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish! Ah! woe be to you for the (false) things ye ascribe (to Us).

With that, I welcome you to the fold of Islam as equal and pray you to benefit fully from this most beautiful of guides.

You may want to read my summary of all important issues of our Deen on a single page http://lifecheat.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-is-wrong-and-what-needs-to-be-done.html

If you are interested in a relatively in-depth understanding of Islam, please read my all inclusive post here http://lifecheat.blogspot.com/2015/10/just-read-this-if-you-dont-feel-like.html