Tag: imaan

  • All we do is talk talk…

    We spend too much time researching and articulating our differences and too little time on our character. It’s easier to be an armchair critic than it is to be a practising philosopher. Discussing and debating ideals and perspectives is great, but like everything else, only in moderation. If my dashboard is anything to go by, then there is a very definite disparity in the amount of effort applied to practising, compared to discussing and refuting.

    Surely Islam has more to offer than the excessive debates between sects and madhabs? The next time you feel inclined to post something, reflect on whether it is pre-emptive, constructive or simply argumentative? More often than not, it’s argumentative hidden behind the guise of it being an effort to guide a potentially innocent person that may stumble across the misleading interpretation or viewpoints being rebutted.

    I think that if we focused more on practising our deen and less on debating it, we may just find that the true beauty of Imaan is realised rather than the incessant debating that prevents us from uniting.

  • My Struggle Continues

    It tires me just thinking about how futile some struggles can be. Many of my struggles fit this description quite well. Seeing all the posts about Muharram, about special occasions, about noted personalities, and scholarly quotes, and admirable leaders…all this sometimes inspires me, but most times it tires me. 

    It reminds me of how much people focus their lives around special occasions and forget to live in between. It reminds me about how so many become cult followers of notable personalities and inadvertently create sects within the Ummah. I see people arguing about who should have been the leader of the Muslims after the demise of our beloved Prophet (pbuh) as if that would influence their imaan or standing in Allah’s eyes as individuals…and they forget how many transgressions they commit in the process of such useless debate. 

    We’ve become historians about Islam more than we are believers…we need so badly to be right about whose view is correct and whose is kufr that we’ve lost sight of the essence of Islam. We focus on who practices which rituals and compartmentalise them so that it’s easy to define where they fit in the hierarchy of believers, as if we’re even capable of gauging the true worth of anyone. And all this leaves me feeling quite disillusioned about life and this Ummah that I so desperately want to feel a part of…but I don’t.

    I feel like I’m on the outside looking in, despite sharing the same articles of faith, and the same passion for peace and tranquility of the soul in finding serenity in the remembrance of Allah. But…sigh…it doesn’t seem to matter. Presentation is much more important than substance these days. The embellishment of the facade determines our worth in the eyes of others…reminds me of something someone posted recently that struck a chord with me…despite your best intentions, society will judge you by your appearance, but despite your best appearance, Allah will judge you by your intentions. Still, we focus on appearance…we focus on appearance…and social circles…and prestige…and social standing…and outward religiosity…and when this becomes the preoccupation of my mind, I remind myself that a prostitute was granted Jannah for a single sincere act of kindness to a dog…that same prostitute would have been openly declared by many a scholar as being a kaafir because of her chosen line of work…or her dress code…or her social standing…yet she was a Jannati…but STILL, we judge by appearance…and have useless debates that never strengthens our imaan but only strengthens our pride or arrogance because of our skill at debating and nothing more…it’s so tiring…utterly exhausting…

  • My Greatest Fear

    I fear hypocrisy more than I fear disbelief. Determining, subjectively or objectively, whether one is on the path of Imaan or Kufr is relatively easy, with the most daunting obstacle in this path possibly being arrogance or pride. And both arrogance and pride quickly subsides in the face of overwhelming odds. So at such a point, it would be quite easy to determine whether I’m a believer or not.

    Hypocrisy is so much more difficult to identify, both within ourselves and in others. Blatant hypocrisy is easy. Seeing someone visibly making statements about their beliefs and then deliberately or equally blatantly acting in contradiction to those beliefs is a litmus test of hypocrisy that anyone can apply, regardless of education, intelligence or upbringing.

    But hypocrisy can be easily disguised through the conscious application of our intelligence, especially if we’re naturally self aware. I can easily observe my own actions relative to my statements in front of others, and through conscious thought, ensure that they are always aligned. But if my motivation to do so is to appear to be sincere and consistent to others to save myself from criticism or ridicule, then this is when I believe I’ll be standing on the edge of hypocrisy and potentially not even realising it because at that point, if practiced for long enough, I would possibly succumb to internal debates that justify my actions to myself because my actions are beyond reproach by others. But…this internal debate is what I fear most as the potential seat for hypocrisy. 

  • It’s sad to see how much time we spend trying to decide who’s kaafir and who’s not, which sects are good and which are not, that we fail to notice our own dwindling Imaan. Whenever someone boldly states that so-and-so is kaafir because of doing such and such a thing, then I am immediately reminded of the Hadeeth (if I’m not mistaken) that when one person calls another a kaafir, then one of them are!

    We look for reason to create divisions, and to raise the status of one group above another, and I can’t help but wonder if at the bottom of all this might lie the simple vices of pride and arrogance of association? We have drifted so far from applying the principles of Islam, yet we’re ready to intellectualise the practices and beliefs of others and declare in our flawed wisdom the state of their Imaan?