“What I can’t abide is the man who wishes to convert other men’s minds; that tampering with beliefs seems to me impertinent, insolent, corrupt beyond measure.”
- Virginia Woolf
I’ve been wanting to write this piece for quite some time, cause it has been more of a challenge. I just don’t think I could do justice to it though. There are certain things I don’t talk about. To me, religion is a very personal thing. To talk about beliefs & views seem to be a daunting task. Religion is not a competition, in the first place. Opinions aren’t that sacred, in the second place. There are many ways to look at the same thing. Everyone is entitled to have their viewpoints. So where to begin with?
“We don’t have to accept each other’s beliefs…but we do have to accept each other’s right to believe them.”
- Jodi Picoult
“No one can tell how God worketh. His ways are very mysterious. It may be that the things which we call evil are good, & the things which we call good are evil. There is no knowledge of anything.”
- Oscar Wilde
Bertrand Russell has very rightly said:
“The important thing is not what you believe, but how you believe it.”
Again ‘how you believe it’ is a very, very personal thing. But yeah before believing it, have you been able to understand it by yourself? I’ve never been a huge fan of the clergy or the individuals who go around preaching & guiding others. I also don’t think much of those who are ready to be deceived or convinced by anyone who knows more than them. People only impose their beliefs & views on those who aren’t strong enough. Most importantly, God has provided us with brains, but we refuse to use our brain cells.
Anyone can acquire knowledge by using his brains. God hasn’t given brains to just some particular folks. We all have brains & so we all can use them, that is, if we want to rather than be convinced by others. I think we can understand the Holy Quran (or any other holy book) by going through the translations ourselves. I believe that theology is the kind of study in which one has to keep an open mind, if a person truly wants to understand or grasp the true meaning hidden.
What is faith? What is your faith? How strong or weak is your faith? I don’t think these questions are loaded, but they surely are personal. Faith could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me, faith has nothing to do with reason. Faith is believing without seeing. To put it mildly, I have a personal moral obligation to myself & others have nothing to do with it. I don’t like listening to the clergy or the preachers. I prefer asking questions, instead of accepting doctrines. But this is my choice.
“There is no reason why we should want everyone else to follow our own path.”
- Moradas
“The faith of a man follows his nature. Man is made of faith: as his faith is so he is.”
- Krishna (The Bhagavad Gita)
The Lord said in His word, “I will never fail you nor forsake you.”
- (Heb. 13:15)
We’ve read this in the Holy Quran as well as in other holy books:
“With God all things are possible.”
I’ve always liked what Jesus Christ said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
(Luke 23:24)
“He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me.”
The New Testament
You have to read between the lines. I can’t be more specific than this.
I’ve heard & read cases in which people have converted to another faith. And the question that naturally pops up in my mind is: What good are they, if their faith is shaken so easily? Calamity hits you…a little bit of preaching…& you switch your faith.
“So that’s how strong you are – a single push & you fall!”
- Maxim Gorky
The Quran very clearly says:
“We shall test your steadfastness with fear & famine, with loss of life & property & crops.”
“We have made clear the signs unto a people who are sure.”
The Holy Quran
A person who feels strongly about his/her religion ought to have the common sense that others too could feel strongly about their faith. Everyone is not in search of another religion. I believe God is one. He listens to the prayers of everyone regardless of his/her faith. It doesn’t matter in which language people pray, because He knows each & every language or medium that is being used to reach Him.
I would be the last person to say: My religion is the best religion. I don’t think it’s cool on my part to make such statements. I don’t have the right to besmear other religions either. And I repeat religion is not a competition.
“God is sufficient for us; an excellent Guardian is He.”
- The Holy Quran
“Yet it may happen that you will hate a thing which is better for you; & it may happen that you will love a thing which is worse for you; God knows, & you know not.’
- The Holy Quran
There’s one more aspect that I would like to talk, which has been misunderstood by many. The Arabic word al-islam means the act of committing oneself to God, & a Muslim is the person who makes this very commitment. We have seen that widely used translations such as ‘resignation,’ ‘surrender,’ & ‘submission’ fail to do justice to the positive aspect of commitment for which al-islam stands – it means a commitment in faith, obedience & trust to the one & only God. And these are different from the ones I used earlier on. Resignation, surrender & submission are the words that somehow change the meaning.
I have questioned myself a number of times as to why I’ve been born in a Muslim family. You know there ought to be a good reason & God knows it. I truly believe that through my writings (that is, if I get the chance) I could tell the world that Muslims aren’t fucked up. The world needs to know educated Muslims. The world needs to get rid of the notion that we live in caves…we are savages…we can’t converse in English…we are born terrorists…we don’t know what is compassion, etc, etc.
It’s not right to use the terrible acts of a couple of fanatics to label a religion. You have to have an open mind to accept that the real picture could be different. And it is…you don’t know, because you don’t want to know.
If I’ve hurt the sentiments of anyone in this write-up…I apologize from the bottom of my heart.
Nadira Rahman
