Umbrella of Islam.

Islam feels like a sinusoidal wave. It goes up and down just like a wave. Following Islam with a persistent attitude feels a little harder. So many instructions and expectations of Allah (swt). One ends up feeling “Embracing Islam at its fullest for me is impossible”. Hard to stay away from music, harder to keep the trouser from touching the floor, difficult to say 5 prayers a day in winters while all the prayers are timed so close. Finally we corner it and declare it another aspect of our life.

Family, Profession and Religion become 3 different groups. Where some preach, each group should be given a different a 33 % share of the day.

Today I will be discussing the impact of cornering Religion into a different group.

What we end up doing with Islam:-

Make the lowest educated in town, Imam of Mosque.

Send the child to a madrissah (Islamic Center) to make him Hafiz because he failed in other groups.

Side line religion from our routine affairs.

What felt the nicest solution to us, we resorted to it. We gave this religion a corner in our lives, where we only go when we feel down and miserable. When we need something solved, can not get it easily, we go to this corner of our life.

I feel, the sole reason we have cornered our religion is we are afraid, it will make us do intense amount of work to keep up to the standards laid by Allah (swt). Something that always resonates in my head is:-

A believer does everything to his best.

or

A believer is best in everything he does.

Islam is a logical religion. It does not over burden anybody. Simple and minimal. Emboldens strategies that reduces the work. Organises our desks. Islam does not give weird orders.

Imagine one day you decide to turn around. This is it no more sinning. But the perception to achieve perfection suddenly makes your life miserable.

Do not go back to Zero

Nothing can be done perfectly. This life is just a test. It is fake. Do not let Satan take you away from path. Calm down. Go to work with smile on your face because now you have decided to stop sinning. Open your laptop with a smile, write good work on your computers, take a little shower while going or coming back from work. Fix one thing in one day.

People might criticise, “Islam says so and so, you are not really following Islam.” Do not worry, you are on the right track. Islam is not perfection. It goes without beard. It only emphasises on You smiling to your hardships and staying connected to Allah (swt) like a Man.

Satan overburdens our religion for us and we end up either cornering it or we start disliking it. It makes us an extremist person, that we start neglecting the meaning of Islam. We become a bad implementation of Islam.

So how to embrace this religion?

Yes, the most important question is how to embrace it. To embrace anything, we need to understand what it is. If we ask the molana (teacher) of our mosque,

“Who is Allah, I can not see Him?”

“I do not believe in Allah, prove He exists?”

“How do I know Prophet (PBUH) was telling the truth. Did angels really come to him?”

Such questions asked by anybody makes them blasphemous and they will be punished to their death…link here. Molanas of mosques belittle such people. It leads logical people further away from our religion. People who ask really sensible questions, go astray.

Most muslims avoid these questions, saying:-

Accepted Islam, now stick to it. Asking questions is dangerous and might lead me out of this Imaginary Circle Of Islam.

What is the circle of Islam.

Islam is everything we do systematically, politely and maturely.

Every structure we build after deliberately thinking about its features and dimensions. We design it, we discuss it with nice passionate people. We build it with love for it.

Islam is any nicely designed, well thought out written book. It is every tasty dish coming out of kitchen. Anything we give a deliberate thought to before jumping into doing it, is Islam. It is not hastly, badly designed or coded script.

Think of Islam’s circle as an art. That creates artists.

Ignorance is also harmful.

In today’s lesson, Allah (swt) says:-

Indeed, they who conceal what Allah has sent down of the Book and exchange it for a small price - those consume not into their bellies except the Fire. And Allah will not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them. And they will have a painful punishment.
- Surah Baqarah verse 174

According to tafseer, this Ayat came to assure Jews, Prophet (PBUH) is the same Prophet as mentioned in their books. When Jews were told about the authenticity of Prophet (PBUH) they contacted their Ulemas. And Ulema, knowing fully well the authenticity of Prophet (PBUH) told their followers,

No! This is not the Prophet (PBUH) which was mentioned in our books. He has not arrived yet. He will be from among us.

These Ulemas were earning good amount of money and respect. Arrival of a real Prophet will affect their businesses. If these Ulemas surrender to Prophet (PBUH), no body would come to them. They ended up altering the meaning of their own Holy Books just to keep their businesses open and running.

Resemblance of Jews to Muslims

A false ulama in our neighbourhood. Good beard, muslim cap on head, five prayers a day, achieved doctorate from university. Preaches about Islam. Gets emotional at times and starts weeping at other times. He is a drama in short. If we ask ourselves, “Will we not follow him.” Yes we will.

So yes, we will follow anyone around us who seems and acts muslim visually better then others. We will end up following him and absorbing the distorted, ill intended lessons preached by false ulemas. Cornering Islam in our lives, kept us from getting a feel about our own religion. Any illogical thing ever told to us needs to be questioned, searched for and accounted for.

Following religion just because, our father and mother were Muslims is no justification. We have to search for truth ourselves.

Conclusion

Islam is a logical religion. It has an umbrella that encompasses all aspects of our life. Whether it is our route to office, our doing tasks assigned by the boss, playing cricket in the ground or waking up next to wife with smile. It never over burdens its followers. It eases things up.

I am always worried before writing the article, ‘Will I be able to write today’s article? I have nothing to write. Will I be able to do it?’. Initially it feels hard, but as I start writing it, it tastes so good and full of energy.

Islam is not heavy. Getting away from evil is not difficult. It is so colorful. You sit back on sofa and smile for no reason. Who wont want that feeling. Islam gives you this feeling in just 20 days of non stop 5 x prayers a day. It makes life fun and easy. It does not teach perfection. Islam teaches us to become travellers, writers, directors of our own lives. It sets people free.