Quotes

A very good friend of mine in my religious school once complained about my use of quotes to express my opinions. He asks on why in some issues, I quoted Bible, Mother Teresa, Buddha, Aristotle, Agnostics, Shia hadiths, even atheists to be used in my opinions.

I would say this as a response:

1) I simply don't know the Quran verse or any Sunni hadiths that corresponds to the issue at the time or I might not know at all. Sorry, I don't have photographic memory.
2) What is wrong with that?

I simply think, if the issue or topic is universal, I don't think it is wrong to quote any renowned, inspirational, or excellent quotes from anybody. In fact, pantheists like William Wordsworth produces very beautiful quotes, and Mother Teresa's quotes are simply divine. I also wonder, what is wrong to quote Shia hadiths which to us Sunnis don't against any of our doctrines, like love etc?I respect al-Imam al-Kulaini as much as I respect Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim.

I might be faulty here, but I believe in mankind. There are excellent and insightful people out there. I believe that in terms in universal and general issues, my religion counts but I also can refer to others. I can speak of nature preservation from many perspectives, many sources, to which, I know, Quran and our beloved Prophet Muhammad's hadiths can be used as an answer. But still, I feel wrong to neglect other inspirational figures out there.

This world has many intellectuals. I adore all of them, from Saint Thomas Aquinas, to Ibnu Sina, to Picasso and Raphael, to Imam Sunan Sittah, to the historians, to the sociologists, to the mathematicians, to the doctors, to the theologians, to the warlords( I hate war in a way, but nevertheless, war is an inescapable essence of life), to the simple rural country teachers who shouldn't be considered intellectuals academically, but I adore them for they won't be any continuity of intellectuality if the lines of mankind learning stops.

As a muslim , I am deeply respect and proud of my religions' great success in intelectual menas for all these thousands of years.

However.

As a human, which is more important to me, I respect all of achievements in the world by our great ancestors to the present. I am proud of our thousands of years achievements- the pyramids, the temples, the architectural wonders, the philosophical works, the spiritual memorabilia,all of them. I am proud for the human civilizations, for we are now what they are then. Bad and good, all the same. Cynical it is, but it's the truth anyway, though the existentialist, historians and interactionists might want to differ.

Just my opinion. You may want to agree or not. Peace.