Category: Islam

  • Muslims, Christians, and Atheists. Spot the difference…

    I find it strange, if not unfortunate, that people that choose atheism, a great many of which despise religion, do so on the basis of acquiring (sometimes) in-depth knowledge of Christianity mainly, finding the flaws in their logic, tenets and scriptures, and then proclaiming that as the illogical base that substantiates their views on religion in totality.

    Muslims, unfortunately in their present form, do very little to dissuade such an approach because we’re just so ritualistic and often illogical in our application of the beauty of Islam based on how our forefathers did it, rather than a conscious effort through understanding the principles of what Islam offers, with the only saving grace being that we have a more logically sound base off which to work.

    But when we contaminate Islam with cultural rubbish and use that as a yardstick to measure the worth of other Muslims, boldly proclaiming who is kaafir and who is not, we erode that very same pristine base and expose ourselves to the same debasement and ridicule that the majority of Christians have so rightly earned, thereby playing into the hands of the atheists that can rightfully find so much in our actions to ridicule any true belief in the Oneness of Allah. 

    We imitate them (Christians) more than we realise. Look at our clerical hierarchies that we’ve created? Our symbolism that we attach to our places of worship? Our rhetoric from the pulpits launching our lectures on the basis of us all being sinners? The list goes on. We quote dogmatically from the books of scholars because we’ve been led to believe that we’re too simple-minded to apply the source in our own lives because the true teachings of Islam contained in the Qur’an and Hadeeth have been reduced to a science to be studied before it can be applied. We define the scholars as superior to the masses and openly refer to the masses as the ‘Awwaam’, which despite the best intentions of the one using that term, is a condescending term steeped in pride and arrogance. 

    I am not of the scholars, nor am I of the Awwaam. I am a Mu’min before I am a Muslim. This, to me, is the meaning of taqwa (piety/god-consciousness); realising who I am, and what I believe in before I contemplate how I wish to present my beliefs to the world in my appearance or rituals that are to be observed by others, hopefully in conformance with their expectations so that I may be accepted in those circles. Purity of intention is lost when we try to conform to a broader societal expectation. We’re breeding well-intentioned hypocrites by insisting that our children are schooled in the rituals of Islam without ensuring that they understand the principles and substance of the beauty that Islam offers. 

  • On Atheism and Theism

    This is a subject that has fascinated me for a long time, and will continue to do so for an even longer time. So when I came across this in a book that I’m reading (which is extremely rare for me, to read a book that is), I just couldn’t help myself but share it because of the eloquence in how it explains my perspective on the subject.

    “…the parable of the feeble-minded person who thinks that the light of the sun is the result of its rising, is like the parable of an ant which as it happened upon the surface of a sheet of paper, was endowed with reason and thereupon watched the movement in the process of writing, only to think that it was the work of the pen, but would not go beyond that to see the fingers, and behind the fingers the hand, and behind the hand the will which moves it, and behind the will a deliberate and an able scribe, and behind all, the Creator of the hand, and the ability, and the will. Most people do not look beyond the nearby and earthly causes and never arrive at the Cause of all causes.” ~ Imam Al-Ghazzali (The Book of Knowledge)

    The reason I’m so positively incensed about this is because recently I’ve been plagued with the arguments of science and religion on so many blogs. And the one thought that always lingers in my mind is that science will always be on the back foot because it is always an observation of what has been. Never will it be able to advise on what is to be, or why, only how. It will always be an observation after the fact, and never before, since it is aimed at establishing the knowledge of how everything relates to everything else.

    Anything before the fact is considered mere theory and therefore subject to change, interpretation or perspective. This does not imply that our ability to predict future events based on established relationships between different events or forces is not part of science. It is, but it is also entirely dependent on what is known, and will therefore always be a work in progress. Weather forecasting is a typical example of this.

    Therefore, in my mind at least, the belief in science as the ultimate pursuit of knowledge to define the purpose of our existence is inherently flawed. But this is just my opinion, and I suspect that I may be blissfully unaware of numerous refutations that have already been compiled in defense of science and atheism, of which I have no knowledge because of my aversion to read lengthy discourses about the philosophies of others.

    Am I naive, or perhaps ignorant? Am I over-simplifying a complex issue? Or does this perspective hold some merit?

  • When Will We Awaken

    I received an e-mail from someone earlier today about a certain Dr van der Hoven from the Netherlands that supposedly did some research about the effect of reciting the word ‘Allah’ compared to the recitation of other Arabic words. This e-mail has been doing its rounds for some time now, but this time I decided to see if there was any way to determine the authenticity of this claim.

    So I Googled it and was not surprised at all by the results. The exact same article was published on numerous Islamic web sites as if it was a testament to the relevance of Islam and the truth about our way of life. I am a Muslim first and foremost, but the last time I checked, Islam taught us to verify the accuracy of information about others before we repeated it…and for good reason as well. As can be seen from this article, we’re so desperate to prove to the West that we’re on the right path and that they’re missing the point or the truth or both, that we’ll grab the tackiest piece of information without question just to satisfy our own doubts.

    Yes, doubts! We’re so doubtful about our beliefs that we search for miracles every chance we get. We need these miracles to confirm our faith, as if faith is supposed to be based on miracles that we can witness in our own time. What is wrong with us??? We went from being the greatest nation, greatest culture and most revered group of human beings to being the most punished, abused and helpless nation on earth. There was a time when everyone else imitated US! Now we’re like mad dogs looking for the scraps of the icons of the West so that we can appear to be ‘with it’ or ‘accepted’ or ‘cool’. We’ve become despicable in so many ways.

    We used to teach the world about hygiene and manners and truth…now they’re teaching us after they took the accumulated knowledge of our pious and knowledgeable predecessors and adulterated it to make it appear as if they were responsible for it. The contribution of Muslims to every great endeavour is lost to history because we have very few, if any scholars that are capable of being ranked amongst the great Muslim intellectuals of the past. We established civil societies, human rights, social and welfare structures and amazing architecture when the rest of the world was still experiencing the Dark Ages.

    What are we now? A group of weak excuses that have to resort to suicide bombings, guerilla warfare and politicing just to make a point. I respect and honour the brave Muslim men, women and children that are fighting to defend the lives that are being abused and trampled on by the corrupt politicians of the West. But that wouldn’t be necessary if we had leaders with backbone. Leaders who practised and understood the PRINCIPLES of Islam and not just the literal interpretation of the traditions and Quranic injunctions and enforced it when it suited them.

    The honourable Sahaabah (companions of the Prophet Muhammed S.A.W.) spread Islam to parts of the world that couldn’t even understand a word they said. But people saw their ways and admired what they stood for, because their behaviour was exemplary. Just the way they carried themselves was a good enough example for people to immediately realise that their way of life was superior.