Failing to Identify the Self as a Muslim
Pre-note: Like all the articles in my tumblr, this entry that I am going to write serves as a reminder for MYSELF first, so InsyaAllah I hope none of you feel as if this is a personal attack. Instead, InsyaAllah may you and I take what is good from it, and ignore the bad. I am still learning, so all the mistakes are mine :)
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim.
In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful.
As most of the long time readers of this blog have already known, my journey to discover Islam began only a little over a year ago. Personally when I refer to the period before Allah s.w.t. has showered me with His mercy, I refer to it as my Period of Ignorance (zaman jahiliyyah).
Even though my identification card, my passport and all the official documents I had stated that my religion is Islam, even though by default I was a Muslim in the eyes of the state, the question that arises is am I really a Muslim in the eyes of Allah swt?
What comes to mind when I ask myself this question is the incident where a Christian friend of mine enquired as to why I am still sitting there dunking cups of coffee even though the muezzin has delivered the call to prayer (the azan). My answer to her was that I was a non-practicing Muslim.
A non-practicing Muslim. *slaps forehead* I have learnt today that there is NO SUCH THING as a non-practicing Muslim. You are either a practicing Muslim, or you are not a Muslim.
The thing is, a lot of us (myself inclusive) fail to understand what is the meaning of being a Muslim and not less significantly, we fail to identify ourselves as Muslim.
The Qur’an has explained to us in detail on what being a Muslim really is, but to simplify what I am trying to convey, let us look at the basics of our faith - The Five Pillars of Islam.
Picture this :
If at this moment I hand you four straws and tell you to construct the basic foundations of a building, logically each of you would place these four straws in four corners, where they will provide a structurally sound support of which you can then place a ceiling and roof. These four straws make up the first four Pillars of Islam, namely:-
1) The Shahada
2) The Five Fardh Prayers
3) The Zakat
4) The Fasting during the month of Ramadhan
So once you have all the four pillars in place, I make an announcement that for those who have the means (the wealth and the health), you must buy another straw from me just to make the building foundation stronger. This fifth pillar is:-
5) The Performing of Hajj
So using this very very simplified metaphor, we realize that without any of the four pillars (or five, if the means are there), the claim we make that we are Muslim no longer stands because we do not have the means to make our claim valid, just as a building cannot stand if it is missing any of its important foundations!
If we do not understand what is the meaning of the shahada when we recite it, if we do not perform the five prayers, if we do not pay zakat and if we do not fast during the month of Ramadhan, how are we even remotely Muslim?
Liking and joining groups on Facebook like “I love Allah!” and “Say NO to Burn the Qur’an Day!” etc , watching The Arrivals a million times over and proclaiming that the Zionists are devils, what use are all these if our building cannot even stand?
And these are just the foundations!
In the Qur’an, surah An-Nur verse 31, Allah swt describes how the believing women should dress and conduct herself. Allah swt does not say ‘women’ but ‘believing women’. So if we Muslimahs do not understand this, and we go against this command by Allah swt, then we have to ask ourselves if we still fall under the category of the ‘believing women’ in Allah swt’s eyes.
A pen is a pen because it performs the functions of a pen. The pen can be in any shape that it likes, but it is a pen because it has ink in it which allows you to write on a piece of paper. If I point to a ruler and say this is a pen, surely you’d laugh and said I was crazy because the ruler does not perform the functions of a pen.
Similarly, a Muslim is a Muslim because he/she does what a Muslim is commanded to do by Allah swt, right?
As you can see, the hidden disease that runs through the blood of many today (myself included) is what I have mentioned earlier; a lot of us fail to understand what being a Muslim really is and we fail to live up to that name we have tagged ourselves with.
InsyaAllah, with His mercy and blessings, I hope that all of us reading this can today henceforth, refer to the Qur’an and the Hadith to find out what Allah swt has defined a Muslim to be. With this understanding, we need to self-reflect and question if we have successfully lived up to the criterion that Allah swt has presented to us. Lastly, we must make a change in ourselves to be true Muslims.
It is only when we Muslims understand the definition of what makes a Muslim, and when we identify ourselves correctly as Muslims, then can the rest of the world understand what Islam really is.
InsyaAllah, Ameen.
