Why are we Muslim: Faith and Ramadhan (an introspection)

If we ask ourselves, or one another that question, how many of us can answer it without hesitation, without pause, and with conviction and certainty? Out of the three people I asked in my short field research (very short and very brief lol ), only one could provide the ready answer, without having to think for even three seconds why s/he chose Islam as the faith to follow. The eloquent response showed the depth of their knowledge and the sincere understanding they have found as to why Islam is the best path for them, why being a Muslim provided the enlightenment s/he needed to go on the journey of life with a brave face, no matter the obstacle presented before them. Does Islam provide the same enlightenment for us? Does being a Muslim enable us to stand up strong and proud or do you feel even more burdened? Do we follow the faith we are in because of unadulterated, sincere conviction or because of familial loyalty, of socialization, of an inherited tradition we dare not to question/challenge for fear of reprisal from respected authorities?

Why are we Muslim?

Embedded in the Qur’an is the belief that true faith comes from within. Faith is not just an accessory we put on whenever we deem necessary. Faith is not a blanket we use to cover ourselves from transgressions we oft repeat. Faith should not just be our facades but that innermost layer of ourselves whereupon we build our foundations on.

Faith, most especially the Islamic faith, calls for us to be patient, to be calm, to be persevering. Faith wants to help us brighten that inner light we have been blessed to have from the moment of our birth. Faith brightens, not dims. Faith forgives, not harbors contempt or resentment. Faith understands, not belittles or spread harmful gossip. Faith lifts us up, not brings us down.

There are a great many sins of this world, but the one that can slowly erode our inner light is the sin of harboring negativity. We do not realize it, we cannot feel its effect directly, but the ripples cast forth from our being and spread out affecting any and everything it touches with our inherent ill-will. As in the words of the Beatles, “ Let It Be“. The coworker who just wronged you, let them be. The friend who just belittled you, let them be. The boss who does not recognize you, let them be. The sibling who is annoying you, let them be. The car who just cut you, let it be.  “Let it be” does not mean, in any way, acquiescing to the maltreatment or frustrating behavior, but to look at it, the situation, the person with an eye and heart that is free from emotion: to see the other side of the story, to find an understanding and compromise and not fuel for a heated argument.

I write this not because I have 100% conviction in my faith, but because, in all honesty, I do not. I have let my inner light slowly dim as I allowed myself to be overcomed by life’s obstacles. That has led me everywhere but the path I hoped I would be on now. As I watch my son grow, every day he becomes less and less a baby and more and more a child, I realize that I have more than myself to think about, more than myself to care about. And I wonder: what shall I pass on to him?

As we are the future leaders of our communities, be it our immediate families or the society at large, we owe it to our future generations to introspect and endeavor to understand the very faith we use to build our life’s foundations on. Islam is not a weekly or yearly religion, it is one that encompasses all aspects of our lives, not to burden it, but to lift its soul. We should ask ourselves if who we are today, the path we walk this very day, is the person and path we hope our children and grandchildren would emulate and follow?

Will we pass faith that brightens their souls or faith that will slowly fade their light away?

As Ramadhan is before us again, that holiest of month, why not explore the question and challenge ourselves to understand our faith just a little more better, so when we are asked, we would not hesitate. If we can pray the sholat tarawih, fast, then surely we can dive into the religion we claim to embrace and strive to learn more about it.

I call and challenge all of us to this task. By the end of Ramadhan, let’s hope that we can provide the answers to the question, “Why are we Muslim?” and answer without hesitation, and with firm conviction as to why being a Muslim is the path for us.

May we all have a blessed Ramadhan!

 

Profile: Moez Masoud

*Thank you, Rima for including this link in one of your posts.

“In the name of Allah the most beneficial the most merciful

I would like to start by saying I wanted to speak from my heart and not through any particular position that this temporarily world may have given me. Am also being very challenged right now because I am a public speaker because I want to say a meaning that is very sincere, and I think sincerity is something that is very difficult and a very rare commodity nowadays and am speaking for myself I think that the very word personality finding it’s root in Latin word persona meaning mask and I don’t want to have a mask before I speak and am hoping that everyone has shed their mask before they leave and have truly understand one another and looked at one another face trying to genuinely understand another one in what we all believe in below is a verse from the Qur’an.

O people we (God) have created you from a pair from a male and a female and we have made you into peoples and tribes that you may know one another.

I think that I would like to live it of saying that to me in this context Allah, God is if I am allowed to say sin ominous in this context with truth, justice, beauty and a sovereign good and I think that everybody here in one way or the other believes, that there is something true you wouldn’t be here if you believed that nothing can be true and there is something beautiful one way or the other again and there is something good because everybody has good in them, and that there is justice but the only difference between us is how we define respectively truth, justice, beauty and good so let me just tell you that Walahi by Allah I swear is all semantic

 

Beginning to understand the burqa

The burqa, the long and flowing dark cloth covering women of the Islamic faith, has become a symbol of oppression, of latent fear, of submission, of unimaginable abuse. Even I, a Muslim woman, cannot look at it without cringing, without wondering what really goes on in the homes of these covered women whose eyes are our only access point to the mystery within. Is there really a mystery underneath the imposing veil covering their physique from head to toe? Or are we the imposers – putting our understanding of how women should or should not be as the basis for our judgement of their culture and lifestyles?