by Elmi Habib—

Muslims and Christians both believe in the afterlife but their views are surprisingly different. This includes the respective compositions of heaven and hell and the criteria by which people get to one or the other (or both). In this article my young Muslim friend Elmi provides ample information on the Islamic view on this subject. Following one personal conversation we enjoyed I asked him to provide sources for his assertions, and here was the result. I thought it was so interesting that I asked him if I could post this in the blog, to which he agreed. Later we engaged in a few rounds of discussion on the article via Facebook messaging which I have copied and pasted into the comment section.  As a biblical Christian I disagree with Elmi, but I appreciate my discussions with him because we go deep into the given subject and we are willing to go beyond mere politeness without forsaking mutual respect. We realize that we can't both be right but we mutually accept those terms for the sake of their non-politically-correct honesty. Thanks for the great discussions, Elmi.

*Elmi is a student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

by Wissam Yousif

Ramadan has two faces.

Most people see its happy face. Ramadan is a happy part of the year for Muslims, and no one can really tell why. On one hand, Muslims have to fast Ramadan anyway, so they are not looking for an extra blessing, but rather a fulfillment of an ordinance, a Pillar of Islam. On the other hand, they talk about a month that is especially generous in its blessings, “Ramadan Kareem,” when God multiplies His rewards for good deeds more than the rest of the year. It sounds like He doesn’t care for benevolence, for example, throughout the rest of the year, the way He cares for benevolence in Ramadan.