Tag: piety

  • Engage, Not Just Condemn

    partytilfajr:

    It is great to identify problems, but the issue I have is that, especially in the West, we have fallen into a “culture of condemnation,” in which in order to be exempt from criticism, we simply must condemn “Issue X” or “Issue Y,” and therefore, we have shown, through mere words, that we are “acceptable” or “good” through our condemnation.

    I am sorry, I think that is terrible and lazy; it is easy to condemn something, it is far more difficult to change something. Great, you identify a problem, but the larger question is: are you prepared to take the necessary steps to change it?

    This is also true for the behaviour by many Muslims that profess to be on a rightly guided path compared to everyone else, then promptly go about condemning others because that’s easier than engaging meaningfully around the specific issue at hand.

    It’s also easier to dismiss everything a recognised scholar says just because of where he comes from, or who he may be affiliated with, than it is to understand that scholar’s perspectives and focus on unwrapping that.

    The easiest of all is to assume that your level of piety, your level of understanding, or your level of sincerity in practice is greater than anyone else that does not subscribe to your exact school of thought or interpretations, while emphasising the advice about hating for the sake of Allah, and completing neglecting the advice of good manners in speech and moderation. 

    When faced with the arrogance, condescension, and inconsideration of the majority of Muslims I see these days, both on Tumblr and in real life, my heart sinks, not only because of how steeped we are in our individual piety without any consideration for our collective responsibility, but also because I see more effort applied towards forming divisions and intolerance rather than establishing understanding and unity amongst all who profess the Shahadah. 

  • Question – The Distracted Ummah

    eatandbeawesome answered your question: The Distracted Ummah

    i think the most appropriate way to approach this is to bring about a change in one’s own life, which in turn will affect those around us.

    I agree with you completely. The danger is trying to find a balance between this individual piety that seems to be preached by the conservatives, whilst maintaining a balanced and responsible view of our accountability towards our families and communities. Being grounded and self-conscious but knowing when to speak out against what is wrong. It gets even more difficult when we see our elders and contemporary scholars also towing the sectarian lines and the abrasive condescension. 

    Alhamdulillah, it seems we definitely live in a time when holding onto Iman is like juggling hot coals on our hands. 

  • Question – The Distracted Ummah

    naziafk answered your question: The Distracted Ummah

    🙁 you know, i just went to makkah and came back a month ago alhumdullillah. i was one of those people who took a pic there. i felt hesitant.

    Alhamdulillah. I know how tempting it can be. To put my post into context, that was my experience more than 10 years ago, so it’s expected that things have gotten progressively worse since then, let alone the indulgence in materialism around the precinct of the Ka’aba. So I guess squeezing off a single photo with hesitation will hopefully earn you Allah’s pleasure for resisting the temptation to succumb to the urge completely. Insha-Allah your efforts have been accepted. Ameen. 🙂

  • The Distracted Ummah

    A few more memories surfaced after my last post about my visit to the Haramain in Makkah and Madinah, leaving me somewhat disillusioned about the state of Muslims today. Here’s a few experiences from that same first visit of mine that you may or may not find disturbing. 

    I was making tawaaf one evening with a surprisingly small crowd, when I passed by two young ladies also making tawaaf. Only difference is that they were taking a leisurely stroll around the Ka’aba with designer handbags slung fashionably over their shoulders. I don’t recall clearly if they were also absorbed in conversation or not, but focused on tawaaf they definitely appeared not to be.

    Before I could fully absorb this scene and while trying to turn my gaze away from them, a young man passed me by. He was tall, very well groomed, sporting a really fashionably shaped beard, gelled up hair, and had his cell phone firmly pressed against his ear while also performing his tawaaf. That just seemed wrong on so many levels, it left me really sad.

    Fortunately this was set aside by the sight of a woman in full niqab performing tawaaf, and suddenly jerking to a stop at the fear of accidentally touching a male that was walking in front of her. The man was obviously oblivious to others walking around him, but the motion of her hand that clearly indicated her concern and restraint remains clearly imprinted in my mind whenever I think about that moment. It had all the hallmarks of piety and modesty captured in a single gesture. Whether that reflected her true character or not is really irrelevant to me. But if I had to choose between the three incidents, the latter is definitely the one that reminded me of Allah, while the other two made me cringe.

    Then there was the time that I was walking through the souk in Madinah just after Dhuhr salaah, gaze firmly fixed on the ground in front of me as is my habit when walking in public (mostly out of shyness rather than modesty). Suddenly, from the side of me, I heard this deep throated grunt, quickly succeeded by this gob of discoloured mucus being spat out in front of me in the middle of the walkway, followed by a single flowing motion of the culprit stepping on it and spreading it wafer thin into the pathway as if that eliminated its disgusting presence. It was art in motion. Disgusting art at that.

    I won’t even go into the details of the woman that defecated on Mount Arafat at the time of Hajj a few years ago, as described by someone I knew that attended Hajj that year. Or so many other disgusting images and actions of impiety and filth practised openly by Muslims of all walks of life, and of all nations that I have no doubt that this is not restricted to any specific sect, or madhab, nor do I have any reason to believe any group is immune to this behaviour either.

    I look at many posts on Tumblr where people are sharing intriguing photos, often in real time, about their visit to the Ka’aba, and I wonder how far gone we really are that we can be standing in the single holiest place on earth, and instead of taking advantage of that nearness to Allah by focusing on dua and istighfaar, instead we’re thinking about looking cool and sharing cool photos with others, and wondering where we’re going to find that really cool gift for ourselves or someone back home. 

    The point I’m trying to make is that if we bothered to step away from our social networks for long enough, we’ll realise that the problems with the Ummah run far deeper than differing opinions about rituals, or sects formed by misguided zealots in the name of some innocent scholar. The real problem with the Ummah is that we’ve lost our self-respect, let alone the respect of what is sacred in Islam. We’re so distracted that we assume that our ability to focus on a single distraction at a time is in fact meritorious, forgetting that we’re actually still distracted from what’s important. 

    Look closer to home. Look in the masjid and see how many men of all ages engage in laughter, loud conversation and worldly distractions while waiting for salaah. It’s gotten so bad that at the place where I regularly perform Dhuhr salaah close to the office, some elderly men continue talking right through the Iqamah and only stop when the Imam begins the salaah. 

    So we really should stop trying so hard to focus on rectifying everyone else and convincing everyone else that we’re the only rightly guided ones because we ascribe to the sect that is closest to the correct path, while completely forgetting our manners, modesty, respect, dignity and so many other basic virtues that far outweigh our ability or responsibility to refute the opinions of the ill-informed in ways that expose our own arrogance and pride. 

    This post drips of the same condescension, rhetoric and generalisations that I despise hearing in the Friday khutbahs. But it’s not intended that way. It really is just reflective of how overwhelming the reality of this is when I consider the futile debates about theoretical perspectives while we’re holding on to our faith through token reference points that appease our conscience only, leaving us wondering in agony why our duas rarely appear to be answered. 

  • Is there really only one ONE straight path?

    More often than not, references to this ‘straight path’ is made in arrogant and condescending tones denoting that only a single interpretation of Islam is possibly acceptable and that everyone else are misguided deviants. This is like saying that there is only black and white and every colour in between doesn’t exist. I’ve seen this and many other similar sentiments appear on Tumblr, and the only emotions it stirs in me is the same frustration I experience when I sit in the masjid and listen to the condescension and rhetoric flowing thick and fast from the tongues of so many self-righteous imams that barely represent the sunnah in their physique, manner or disposition. 

    Islam is not a monolithic structure with a hierarchy that has only a single route to the top. There is only One Allah. This is indisputable and is also the only unforgivable sin. There are a million ways to achieve Allah’s pleasure and mercy, so assuming that there is only one interpretation or practice of what ‘THE straight path’ is, is a fallacy most often grounded in self-indulgent piety.

    This same inflexible thinking is what gives rise to sects and madhabs and so many other deviations that are hardly ever the teachings of the true pious scholars but instead are excessive interpretations by their over zealous followers. Those sects that were formed through the self-proclamation of its founders are blatantly misguided, and those that were formed through the proclamations of its followers have always been questionable. 

    The lazy ones insist on labels. The arrogant ones judge without true knowledge. The fools pronounce takfir on others without concern for their own standing with Allah. The same way that there is a million ways to give charity, and each way earns Allah’s pleasure, there is a million ways to be a Muslim without deviating from the principles that Islam has established through the example set by Rasulullah (SAW). Anyone that insists otherwise is at risk of judging others from a position of religious arrogance rather than true concern. 

    Sahih Bukhari ~ Vol 3, Book 49. Peacemaking. Hadith 861.

    Narrated By ‘Aisha : Allah’s Apostle said, “If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected.”

    Principles, not traditions. Far too often we confuse the two and end up hopelessly refuting people on the basis of arrogant affiliations rather than true contradictions or innovations that violate the principles of Islam. May Allah protect us all from such ignorance and arrogance, the combination of which is fatal to our iman.

  • Some stray thoughts

    I’ve often read about incidents where strangers approached a gathering looking for the leader of the Muslims, including the Prophet (SAW) and some of the Caliphs after him, and often they would not be able to determine who he was because he would appear as ordinary as the rest of them.

    Today I wondered about the context of this and how it may apply to what I’m doing in my life. The dress code and appearance of these blessed leaders was similar to the common people around them, not different. They didn’t appear to be more pious, or more religious, or more anything; they must have appeared to be as common as the rest. So I considered this in line with the obvious difference in appearance between the present day scholars, especially those living in western societies with no ties to the Arabian culture, and the common people of those same areas. 

    While I can accept that there is sincerity among many that choose to dress according to what is interpreted to be the Sunnah, I once again wonder how much of the principles of this simple Sunnah have been forgotten or overlooked, and how much of the practice is just a custom. For me, the Sunnah is about establishing your appearance based on modesty, not extravagance. Which leads me to question whether a man dressed in a casual jeans, with a casual top that covers his body appropriately to perform Salaah is in fact more modest than a man dressed in a cloak designed in the style of the Sunnah, made of the finest non-crease fabric, and with a recognised label from a prominent designer house with just the right combination of expensive pens sticking out from his top pocket, and an equally elegant watch to match. 

    I don’t know…that’s a pretty long winded way of trying to make sense of this. But the lingering thought in my head is still whether or not attention to detail in appearance taints our intentions or not? I think it does. And some may accuse me of extremism or impracticality in my views on this, but given the stigma that is attached to appearance being a measure or at least an indicator of piety, dressing according to the Sunnah, knowing about this stigma, surely must introduce a significant distraction about conformity of appearance with those social circles we aspire to be a part of, rather than establishment of modesty? Incidentally, one of the common traits in appearance of these pious predecessors was that it was often possible to count the number of patches on their clothes. I can barely recall the last time I saw a scholar walking in clothes that had any signs of excessive wear on it, let alone patches.