in the hadith of bukhari and muslim from umm al-mu'minin sayyidah ayishah raDiyallahu anhaa:
when the Prophet SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam took ill, one of his women mentioned a temple named mariah. when sayyidah umm salmah and sayyidah umm Habibah raDiyallahu anhuma had been ethiopia and seen this church and were discussing the pictures made therein.
RasulAllah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam raised his head and said: "when a pious man amongst them died, people would build a masjid upon the grave and decorate it with their pictures. these were the most evil people in the creation."
ali al-qari comments:
"that is, they made pictures of pious people to remember them; to encourage people to worship by looking at them. and thereafter came a generation and the devil made their [ugly] actions to be adorned for them, and told them: 'your elders used to worship these pictures' and thus they fell into worshipping idols."
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i would describe myself as orthodox in aqida
if you compare it with the 'orthodox' aqidah, it is not only Haram to play the prophet, watching such things for fun is belittling prophets alayhimu's salam and which could earn the ruling of kufr. al-iyadhu billah.
but liberal in most other ways.
ghurur. or delusion. intellectual slaves imprisoned by nafs and desires tend to think of themselves as liberals. the true liberated soul is one free of nafs and desire.
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will do shafa'at for me-after all shafa'at is for the sinful Muslims!
i won't dispute that, but the Master sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam who promised shafa'ah said:
'a wise man is he who checks his nafs and works for [what comes] after death. and impotent, incapable is he who follows his nafs in its desires and yet, hopes for reward with Allah.'
a parable: a king gave three people identical pieces of land and bade them work on it. and the one with the best harvest will be entered in the king's court.
one of them studied the whole thing carefully, spent time learning from experts on the various methods to cultivate the land and thereafter put his knowledge into practice. worked on it and the harvest was full and plenty.
the second, tilled his land, watered it, sowed the seed, but was distracted now and then. his harvest was poor; for he was not as diligent as the first. yet, he hopes that the king will consider him for he tried.
and the third, did nothing. left the land to be full of weed, and then snakes and scorpions festered in the land and spent his time loitering around as a vagrant. the news of his mischief and waywardness had already reached the king. there was no harvest, and yet he takes a handful of weed to the king and hopes for reward.
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do you think all those great people who wept for mercy and spent their nights in istighfar were fools? or did not have a shaykh? or did not have faith in the Messenger's shafa'ah? sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam?
none feel secure from the secret plan of Allah, except a doomed people. [al-a'araf 99]
i am sorry to say this again, but you don't seem to have a clue of
aqidah or things that cause one to go out of islam. unlike most muslims, you think you are smarter than others, so you 'choose' what to do and what not to do.
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such things were known to common unlettered people in the past generation. today, even such basic things of aqidah/fiqh are alien to
reasonably educated people.
Allah ta'ala knows best.
