Finding Perfection in Islam
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim
“To someone who does not understand, Islam seems like a strict religion with its many codes of ethics, but to someone who has been given understanding by Allah swt, these codes of ethics are what make the religion beautiful and perfect in every way.” - [A beloved sister]
It has been a little over a year since I have donned the hijab and MasyaAllah, as I scrolled through my photo albums all the way back to 2007, I cannot help but find tears in my eyes as I realized how different my perception of Islam is then, and now. In fact, even my perception of Islam since I started wearing the hijab and my perception of Islam now, is different… very, very much different, Alhamdulillah.
How do I explain falling in love with Islam? How do I explain the ‘A-Ha!’ moment when everything clicks together, and it dawns on me how complete Islam is? How do I explain the feeling of ‘smallness’ when Allah swt has revealed to me the expanse of His Greatness, His Knowledge, His Mercy in sending us guidance after our creation? How do I explain the beauty even in the struggle to try and be a better Muslimah? How do I explain how my mind has been blown every single day with a new discovery about Islam that makes me weep at my past ignorance and ego, the injustice I have done against my own self?
Wallahi, Allah swt has created us, and He has not left us to find our own way. He created us as to be the best of creations, and sent us guidance upon guidance in a million and one ways but why do we reject Him who only seeks to show us the right path? His Nur, His Hidayah, has been shining on us since the day we are conceived, but have we opened the door to let the light in?
Thing is, the problem with many of us is that we choose to nitpick what we want from Islam and turn a blind eye to the things we thought were not in conformity with our lifestyle aka the modern lifestyle. I can tell you with 100% certainty and conviction in me that we will NEVER see the beauty in Islam if we continue trekking on that path.
Islam is a complete religion - everything in our life including the political, economical, social arena etc and especially how we run our OWN life - has a certain guideline, the how-tos. Look at it this way, assuming you have no prior knowledge in physics or engineering or maths etc, and I give you all the small little parts of a rocket and say “Here you go! Make me a rocket!”, could you make a rocket and make it go to the moon and beyond on the first try?
But if I were to give you an instruction manual detailing all the steps from A-Z and every single step is carried out without question, insyaAllah getting that working rocket done would be a guaranteed outcome. This is Islam - it is a complete instruction manual on how to run mankind, how to achieve that high status that caused angels to prostrate to us, how to seek what perfection we can in this dunya.
Look at the world now, with its man made political systems, its man made economic systems, its man made social rules and regulations etc. Is the highly touted democratic and capitalist system doing any good to us? Yes, most of us in ‘1st world’ countries are happily prospering, but at what cost? How do we answer to our Muslim brothers and sisters in Africa who do more work than us but are barely able to feed their children and what more, themselves? How do we account for the increasing debt in the world, how do we account for the increasing income inequality, how do we account for the depletion of our environment, how do we account for the ruin of societies in Arabian land due to the liberation given by democratic powers?
Is the highly revered women’s freedom doing any real justice to women and mankind? Yes, yay hooray we women are now allowed to work and take off our hijabs and be the same as men but at what cost? Society! The shaping of society begins at home, the shaping of morals begins at home, the shaping of ideals and perceptions and worldviews begins at home! Now if all the women go off and abandon the most beautiful job of shaping society, who then will shape society? Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber on MTV? And we wonder again and again why the young ones are so different in their characteristics and behaviours. We strive so hard to be the same as men, but why can’t we just open our biology books and understand that we can never be the same? A pencil and eraser are never meant to function the same, both of them have their proper places and it is this co-operation that makes writing easy for us.
Why is it so hard for us to fathom that Islam is never backwards? It is a million trillion septillion years ahead of mandkind! Man and women are equal, but not the same; we all have our own places in society! Look at us, look at us and the state that we have got ourselves into! Why have we let ourselves be blinded by alien ideals? Why do we allow man-made codes to consciously or unconsciously shape our lives and our perceptions when our Creator has already given us a manual on how to achieve our status as vicegerents of the earth? Why do we measure Islam against the yardstick of modernity when modernity should be measured against the yardstick of Islam?
Allah…
Wake up, o self, and sisters and brothers in Islam. Wake up and open that door, let that hidayah, that nur, that guidance in! Wake up and strive to understand how perfect Islam is, and how blessed we are to be Muslims! Wake up, for the ummah has been sleeping for too long and as man-made ideologies are beginning to crumble (it is only a matter of time), the only one who can save us is Allah swt. La hawla wa la quwatta illah billah… There is no power nor change except with Allah swt.
From Him we come and to Him we return. Our returning to Him is the only direction that we are supposed to head towards… Let us open our hearts and our minds, and strive to strengthen the ummah, beginning with ourselves.
InsyaAllah…
