The Star and Crescent: What do you associate this symbol with?

Published by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 14:14
Islam
54% (56 votes)
Mosques
13% (13 votes)
Islamic Calligraphy
4% (4 votes)
Other (If you choose this option, could you briefly explain what exactly you associate it with?)
17% (18 votes)
I haven't really thought about it
12% (12 votes)
Total votes: 103
Submitted by Seraphim on 7 February, 2009 - 14:33

Pakistan Flag, Turkeys Flag. Theres also a middle east equivalent to The Red Cross that has the Red Crescent as their logo. It does seem to have been adopted by alot of Muslims, but i dont know why? Or its significance.

Anyone care to explain?

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Back in BLACK

Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 14:37

I was going to write something on it.
Thats why I wanted a poll result first, to see what people thought about it first.
Theres lots of good websites on it though.

Isn't it interesting that Saudi Arabia, don't have a crescent and star symbol on their flag? Apparently, when Muhammed pbuh made a flag, it was black. TO contradict with the white of the Qurayish.

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Submitted by You on 7 February, 2009 - 14:36

It's Turkish in Origin and the Ottoman empire was based in Turkey too.

From there the "allegiance" of the symbol got transferred from Turkish to Islam.

AFAIK, the flag used at the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam (Peace and Blessings be upon him) was plain white, but that may not go down well nowadays as it could be seen as a sign of capitulation?

EDIT - I voted Islam because that is what it is used to symbolise now.

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 14:40

You wrote:

EDIT - I voted Islam because that is what it is used to symbolise now.

Isn't that the same as Shirk? Or am I getting it all wrong?

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Submitted by You on 7 February, 2009 - 14:46

Nope. Not IMO anyway.

I am not associating any partners, equals to God and by seeing thyat symbol I doubt anyone else will either.

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by Seraphim on 7 February, 2009 - 14:48

s.b.f wrote:
You wrote:

EDIT - I voted Islam because that is what it is used to symbolise now.

Isn't that the same as Shirk? Or am I getting it all wrong?

How is that Shirk? :doubt:

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Back in BLACK

Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 14:49

You wrote:
Nope. Not IMO anyway.

I am not associating any partners, equals to God and by seeing thyat symbol I doubt anyone else will either.

Thats completely in your opinion then.

Well, this is someone else's opinion:

Now, as Muslims, why should we be so concerned about all this? Well, for one thing we should never want to look to any person, nation, government or anything as a source of guidance or direction over Allah. To do so would be shirk. No one is worthy of that honour except Allah, the Almighty.

So, coming back to our original subject, what does all this have to do with the symbol of the 'star and the crescent'? Well, for one thing, both symbols, the star and the crescent, come from the false worship or adoration for someone other than Allah. In the case of the crescent, it was the goddess Diana and with the star it was Mary, the mother of Jesus (peace be upon him). As much as we love and respect Mary, the mother of Jesus, peace and blessings be on her, she is not worthy of worship and she would be the first to tell you so. For that matter neither is Musa (Moses) or 'Isa (Jesus) or even our beloved Prophet, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon them). Nor is the Qur'an worthy of worship or the entire record of ahadith or the two Holy Mosques or the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (may Allah be pleased with them) or anything in this universe, past, present or future. Only Allah stands alone as worthy of worship. Yet some of us carry these symbols around as an expression of identity with those very beings and are proud to associate ourselves as Muslims by them.

Some may think that this is making a mountain out of a molehill and that it's silly to think that the use of these symbols could jeopardize our relationship with Allah; but I think it deserves a lot of prayer and deep meditation and thinking about this. Do we really want to take a chance of offending Allah and facing Him on the Day of Judgement with this on our record? Is associating ourselves with these symbols or icons really worth it? We must strive to 'always be true to Allah,' says the Qur'an, Al-Hajj 22: 31 'and never assigning partners to Him'.

Let us use our ability to reason and ask ourselves, is it really necessary to have an insignia or symbol to make the statement that we are Muslims? If one can so easily identify oneself as a Muslim by simply carrying the symbol of 'the star and crescent' around, then what's to say that the enemies of Islam can't do the same, as some of them have? I remember, my first Ramadan, one brother proudly revealed his chest to show 'the star and crescent' tattooed above the area of the heart. Wouldn't it be better and certainly more reliable, to identify ourselves as Muslims by our Islamic personality; demonstrating by our righteous deeds that we are of 'those that bow to Allah in Islam' (Qur'an, Al-Baqarah 2:136)?

There are many nations and religious organisations today that identity themselves as being Muslims by the use of these two symbols, 'the star and crescent' and yet we can see by their deeds that they are totally un-Islamic. How easily they live among us, corrupting the word of God and causing divisions among us and all they have to do to prove they are Muslims is flash the sign of the star and the crescent.

On the other hand, there are organisations like the Red Crescent that do so much good work for their fellow mankind. Also there is a big difference between the symbol of the 'star and crescent' and the hilal.

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Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 14:51

Seraphim wrote:
s.b.f wrote:
You wrote:

EDIT - I voted Islam because that is what it is used to symbolise now.

Isn't that the same as Shirk? Or am I getting it all wrong?

How is that Shirk? :doubt:

There was a reason why I said "Or am I getting it all wrong?"
I was a bit confused. And I wrote that according to the article above.

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Submitted by You on 7 February, 2009 - 14:53

s.b.f wrote:
..Well, this is someone else's opinion:

Now, as Muslims, why should we be so concerned about all this? Well, for one thing we should never want to look to any person, nation, government or anything as a source of guidance or direction over Allah. To do so would be shirk. No one is worthy of that honour except Allah, the Almighty...

I stopped reading at this point as I can see that I will disagree already.

Ask this person if all we needed was Allah (swt), why did he send down countless prophets to guide us?

and then ask him how using the moon and the star will give us guidance from some other source.

The guy is off his nut and is preaching an HT'esque path.

Besides no one is worshipping flags - and if they were, the symbols on them would be the least of concerns.

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 15:35

You wrote:
]

The guy is off his nut and is preaching an HT'esque path.

Besides no one is worshipping flags - and if they were, the symbols on them would be the least of concerns.

Okay.

I dont know what the HT'esque path is.

Whereas its okay/good to criticize what hes saying theres no need for the phrase "The guy is off his nut.."

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Submitted by You on 7 February, 2009 - 16:20

s.b.f wrote:
You wrote:
]

The guy is off his nut and is preaching an HT'esque path.

Besides no one is worshipping flags - and if they were, the symbols on them would be the least of concerns.

Okay.

I dont know what the HT'esque path is.

The HT argument is that because there is no higher authority than Allah (swt), participating in other forms of government (like UK politics) is not allowed full stop.

I was comparing his view to that, but its not the same thing.

However, I will not that following the argument to its conclusion would mean that many of the clothing brands (Nike for one - but would that be a bad thing?) would no longer be halaal to wear either.

s.b.f wrote:
Whereas its okay/good to criticize what hes saying theres no need for the phrase "The guy is off his nut.."

Yes you are right and I apologise. Personal attacks are something I have always been against and its not good to notice that I did the same thing here.

Apologies to the readers and to that guy who wrote what he did.

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 19:52

You wrote:

The HT argument is that because there is no higher authority than Allah (swt), participating in other forms of government (like UK politics) is not allowed full stop.

Makes sense.

I made a spelling error in the title. "asscociate" :roll:
could you change it please?
Why can't I edit that myself?

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Submitted by s.b.f on 7 February, 2009 - 20:03

Thanks You! for changing the spelling error. Smile

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Submitted by s.b.f on 8 February, 2009 - 17:45

Nothing to do with religion/flags/islam or anything wednesday at all?

Have you always associated the symbol with that?

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Submitted by Hajjar on 9 February, 2009 - 20:50

Assalamu alaikum,

As a kid i remember going to a masjid to learn the Quran, bengali kids were separated from pakistani kids, ridiculous but it happened. Anyway when the men would go downstairs for jamaat girls would get to mix with girls on other side of the curtain. The pakistani sisters were the first to subject me to the moon and star symbol. Thereafter i noticed it in a lot of their homes.

So I'd associate it with Pakistani muslims, as I haven't seen it being used by other muslims much. I wouldn't link it with Islam.

If there was any symbol I would link to Islam it would be the shahadah on a white, or black flag.

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“O my people! Truly, this life of the world is nothing but a (quick passing) enjoyment, and verily, the hereafter that is the home that will remain forever.” [Ghafir : 39]

Submitted by s.b.f on 9 February, 2009 - 21:27

Hajjar wrote:

If there was any symbol I would link to Islam it would be the shahadah on a white, or black flag.

Really? Why is that?
That would never cross my mind.

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Submitted by You on 9 February, 2009 - 21:53

wednesday wrote:
Question: WHy is the colour Fresh Green so popular in Muslims?

Apparently it means peace, it's a 'green' colour ... and Prophet's Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam (Peace and Blessings be upon him) fav (?) colour and liked to look at green.... why else?

From what Chemistry was taught me. "fresh" green as seen nowadays was simply not possible before the mid 1920's and its chemical revolution.

Not sure what shade of green was possible to do though.

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by You on 9 February, 2009 - 21:56

oops my bad.

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 9 February, 2009 - 21:58

wednesday wrote:
It better be!

Lol

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Submitted by You on 9 February, 2009 - 22:01

I think different places/countries use different hues of green?

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 9 February, 2009 - 22:12

wednesday wrote:
s.b.f wrote:
wednesday wrote:
It better be!

Lol

And may I enquire why you laughs?

I laughs because of your dominant character shown there.

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Submitted by Ya'qub on 10 February, 2009 - 01:12

My friend converted to Islam when he was about 15, but left it COMPLETELY. Then one night about 5 years later he came out of a club and saw the crescent moon with Venus (which is 'the star') next to it, and right then and there he dropped to his knees and accepted Islam fully, and gave up all the haraam habits he'd been doing.

So I picked 'other' because I associate the Star and Crescent with this.

Plus, when I was on Umrah I saw the same crescent moon next to Venus over the Masjid al-Haram and it was really beautiful!

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Don't just do something! Stand there.

Submitted by You on 10 February, 2009 - 01:36

Ya'qub wrote:
and right then and there he dropped to his knees and accepted Islam fully, and gave up all the haraam habits he'd been doing.

Mashallah. He must have thought about it before hand though?

—

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by The Lamp on 10 February, 2009 - 14:02

Ya'qub wrote:
My friend converted to Islam when he was about 15, but left it COMPLETELY. Then one night about 5 years later he came out of a club and saw the crescent moon with Venus (which is 'the star') next to it, and right then and there he dropped to his knees and accepted Islam fully, and gave up all the haraam habits he'd been doing.

So I picked 'other' because I associate the Star and Crescent with this.

Plus, when I was on Umrah I saw the same crescent moon next to Venus over the Masjid al-Haram and it was really beautiful!

Subhanallah! Brilliant! A really inspiring story, but did he think about it before, was this just the spark that set him off, or was it really spontaneous?

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“Before death takes away what you are given, give away whatever there is to give.”

Mawlana Jalal ud Din Rumi

Submitted by Ya'qub on 10 February, 2009 - 14:10

The Lamp wrote:
Ya'qub wrote:
My friend converted to Islam when he was about 15, but left it COMPLETELY. Then one night about 5 years later he came out of a club and saw the crescent moon with Venus (which is 'the star') next to it, and right then and there he dropped to his knees and accepted Islam fully, and gave up all the haraam habits he'd been doing.

So I picked 'other' because I associate the Star and Crescent with this.

Plus, when I was on Umrah I saw the same crescent moon next to Venus over the Masjid al-Haram and it was really beautiful!

Subhanallah! Brilliant! A really inspiring story, but did he think about it before, was this just the spark that set him off, or was it really spontaneous?

As far as I know he'd 'known' Islam was the Truth for a while, but hadn't done anything about it. This was the spark that turned belief into action, or the internal into the external.

He's like my best friend Biggrin !

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Don't just do something! Stand there.

Submitted by You on 10 February, 2009 - 14:16

(I think that grin smiley needs to be toned down a little.)

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

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