Common misconceptions about Islam and the attainment of Heaven due to the media and Hollywood
Again as I've stated in a previous section; I’ve found that the primary reason that people hold misperceptions about Islam is due to the constant bias reports of the media and the overwhelming negative depictions of Islam in Hollywood movies.
This has an enormously negative and often underrated and understated effect on the minds of Non-Muslims. If you’d like to read more about this negative influence you can read one of my research papers I wrote a few years ago concerning this very topic, including its annotated bibliography. To access the paper click on the following link: Arab Portrayal: A Research Paper
One of the many common misconceptions people have is that suicide bombings are allowed and sanctioned in Islam. However, the Qur’an strictly forbids suicide.
“O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you Traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah ‘God’ hath been to you Most Merciful!” – Qur’an English Translation [4:29]
"Because of this did We ordain unto the children of Israel that if anyone slays a human being-unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth-it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind. And, indeed, there came unto them Our apostles with all evidence of the truth: yet, behold, notwithstanding all this, many of them go on committing all manner of excesses on earth." – Qur’an English Translation [5:32]
Clearly Islam outlaws suicide and the killing of innocent people. The Qur'an even goes so far as to mention how the killing of one innocent life is as if all of mankind was murdered. Also, it states how the saving of one life will be as if all of mankind was saved...Islam stresses the importance of a single human life beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Also the media and some people commonly think that Muslims believe in a heaven where each person will receive 70 virgins…ha-ha which is actually laughable and very untrue. There maybe some crazy fanatics who believe in that but this definitely is not part of Islam’s Doctrine. Read the following link about Heaven in Islam. The page was actually written by a knowledgeable Christian: http://www.muslimparadise.org/
A more accurate description of Heaven in the Qur’an is that of a beautiful garden where people who were righteous on Earth and lived a pious life dwell in peace and eternal happiness with their loved ones.
"And those who believe and whose families follow them in Faith,- to them shall We join their families: Nor shall We deprive them (of the fruit) of aught of their works: (Yet) is each individual in pledge for his deeds." – Qur’an English Translation [52:21]
"and who are patient in adversity out of a longing for their Sustainer's countenance, and are constant in prayer, and spend on others, secretly and openly, out of what We provide for them as sustenance, and [who] repel evil with good. It is these that shall find their fulfillment in the hereafter: gardens of perpetual bliss, which they shall enter together with the righteous from among their parents, their spouses, and their offspring; and the angels will come unto them from every gate [and will say]: "Peace be upon you, because you have persevered!" How excellent, then, this fulfillment in the hereafter!" – Qur’an English Translation [13:22-24]
"God has promised the believers, both men and women, gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide, and goodly dwellings in gardens of perpetual bliss: but God's goodly acceptance is the greatest [bliss of all] -for this, this is the triumph supreme!" – Qur’an English Translation [9:72]
"But those who shall have attained to faith and done righteous deeds will be brought into
In Conclusion
I could list all of the stereotypes of Islam but then this page will go on and on plus there are already a million sites like that. So to save time and space I shall just give you the following links so that you can perform your own search.
So for many more misconceptions answered check out the following links:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/notislam/misconceptions.html
http://islam.about.com/od/commonmisconceptions/tp/myths.htm
And if you do any Google searches on your own make sure you don’t just believe what any random site says. Use your intuition: Question the sites Authorship, the sites intended reader, the authors rhetorical sensitivity. Is the site an Islamic site speaking about Islam? Or is the site a (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist, etc)-based site speaking about Islam?
Are they using facts and quotes from the Bible and Qur’an to support their argument or are they using other unknown sources. You will definitely find some crazy stuff out there but after a while you’ll be able to recognize fact from fiction. It's everyone's obligation to explore and learn the facts for themselves, we are not suppose to just swallow up every bit of information someone throws at us and accept it as the absolute truth.
Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur'an:
"O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done. " - Qur’an English Translation [49:6]