What is a real Muslim?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Wednesday, December 23, was Mohammed's birthday.

[robvalue]

Do you mean the anniversary of when he was made up?

[Brian37]

Almost every post on Facebook about the atrocity in Paris has comments by people stating the terrorists weren't real Muslims or something similar but none explain what a real Muslim is?  I would ask them but I get the impression even doing that would cause them to brand me islamaphobic a racist or worse.  I therefore ask any of our resident followers of islam to help me out by explaining what they mean.  I have a few questions to add later if the expected responses are forthcoming.

Please be assured I'm not baiting for an argument or looking to cause offence in any way, I truly wish to understand so that I can further develop my own mind set in regards to the current events.

Thank you in advance.

P.S I'm currently on early shifts (up at 0300hrs so in bed for 1830) so it may take me a few hours to respond back.

The word's "real" or "true" are a fallacy known as the "true Scotsman" fallacy and that bad logic applies to all labels, even atheists.

How we as individuals wish others would behave is a separate issue than the positions they hold.

Sunnis and Shiites are both Muslims. A economic conservative Baptist and a social liberal Baptist are both Baptists. And I am an atheist and so was Ayn Rand regardless of the fact I hate her "fuck you I got mine" economics.

7 billion humans and the only thing all of us have in common as a core, is that we are all the same species. No label will automatically make an individual do good or bad. Our species ability to be cruel or compassionate is in our evolution, not our labels.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Do you mean the anniversary of when he was made up?

You betcha.  The amazing thing though is that some Islamic sects actually celebrate his birthday while most of them consider celebrating his birthday to be wrong.  Some even worship a hair from his beard.

[vorlon13]

Funny, no, that Joe Smith and Mohammad both punted their succession plans ??

{I think that there might be one of dem der 'clue' things I keep hearing about}

[yukapuka]

it really is amazing at the amount of ignorance here but not surprising since atheists prove to be just as ignorant and stupid as those who they criticise most

and further what is amazing, is that it is not just here but the majority of atheists are just as bad as ISIS or any other extremist group , who hold onto some idea that they propagate and insist on despite that nobody has any idea bout it

firstly if any of you had basic knowledge about Islam, and if your going to argue about anything you ought to KNOW what your talking about and not simply hearsay

a Muslim is somebody who declares "There is no God but Allah(swt) and Muhammad is His messenger"

however it doesn't end there , a person can lose this status of being a Muslim by doing even one defined action in the Quran which is considered as a major sin, such as being a polytheist or being a disbeliever and other things

in which case he would need to restate the "Shahadat"(as above) and repent for his/her sins

being a Muslims is the lowest state of faith, being a believer is a higher state of faith, and being a "Mummin" is the highest mentioned state in the Quran, there is higher states but they are not easily achieved or self declared, but God given titles such as "Messenger" "Prophet" "Imam" and others, some are unattainable at all at this point in time i.e Prophet since the revelation was completed with Prophet Muhammed(PBUH) and he was the seal of the Prophets and others are not defined literally but implied secretly with those who have higher understanding of the secrets of the Quran which are often mentioned in the Quran as "..those who have knowledge..." or "..those who are given knowledge.." and other titles , also special titles are reserved for them as well such as the Quran says "..None praise God appropriately except the Angels and those who have been given knowledge.." meaning that no human is even able to praise Him or know Him except those who have special revealed knowledge

but other states are still achievable and available, but not easy or even their paths known, they are more esoteric

a person who achieves a high level state can perform God given miracles, but such people are extremely rare and if they exist they are very secretive because that is a God given secret to them

the main thing is that it comes down to actions

the Quran says "Have you seen the one who has taken as his lord his own vein desires" so belief in God or gods or your own gods is even defined in the Quran (not in positive connotation) but what is defined here more importantly is that lordship and worship and belief is not what you say but what you do , and some who might even consider themselves otherwise might in God's eyes look differently then they know or think , and vice versa

and this is complemented by God as "God knows you better then you know yourself..." and "...He is more closer to you then your jugular vein.."

[The Grand Nudger]

Sounds like an MLM scam. How many boxes of cookies do you have to flip for your betters before they up-tier you to Imam?

[yukapuka]

if you were an intelligent person, even if you didn't believe in what is being said you wouldn't have asked inappropriate and biased questions

not for myself, but for your own self , in other to not be ignorant and understand and learn instead of jump to stupid conclusions