Consolidating my blogs

cynicallyjaded:

After some thought, and considering the feedback I received from a whole three followers to my previous post about this, I’ve decided to go with consolidating my two blogs. On the one hand, keeping them separate allowed me to share my views about universal themes without triggering the prejudices of those that will feel repulsed by any Islamic undertones in what I say.

The truth is, my views about the world have been very strongly influenced by the philosophy that Islam engenders towards leading a balanced life. This is evident in the posts that I have shared on the72sects regarding my disagreement with the way in which Muslims conduct themselves relative to what Islam requires of us. 

One of the reasons I’ve decided to consolidate the two blogs is because by keeping them separate, it may give the impression that I am suggesting that Islam and universal issues of my daily life belong in two different domains. That’s not true. The two are inextricably interwoven. However, when we approach Islam, or any religion for that matter, as a spiritual guide independent of life itself, it ends up being practised as a set of rituals with the principles being lost in translation.

The numerous debates that rage between Muslims of differing schools of thought bears testament to this unhealthy separation of the two. Someone once asked me what my view was regarding a specific issue that had religious connotations. I can’t recall the specific issue at hand, but what I said was that being a Muslim, the Islamic view is my view. If I try to divorce the two, then I would be guilty of being selective in what I practised based on personal preferences. This is not as ‘extremist’ as it may sound.

Too many times we go on the defensive and try to justify our actions when those actions fall short of the prescribed behaviour. However, in accepting that we’re human, and therefore flawed by nature, we need to accept that our actions may not always be in line with what is required. Accepting that we’re wrong, and acknowledging that improvement is required in some spheres of our lives will automatically keep us grounded and sufficiently introspective to dissuade us from focusing on judging the actions of others. 

With these, and so many other thoughts in mind, I’ll stop publishing new content to the72sects with immediate effect and will share my views on everything in this blog only. I look forward to reading the views of my Muslim and non-Muslims followers alike about any and all the posts I may share in future. 

Does this mean that I need to change my blog title to ‘Ramblings of a Mad Muslim’ instead? 🙂