Who has the right to decide how religious an individual is? I happened to have upset a lot of my Muslim community by coming out and lobbying for humanity before religion. As a child I was told that I should try to do at least 3 good deeds in a day. It could be anything as little as greeting someone with a smile. That was not hard at all.
The idea behind this was not understood until I was a teenager. This little act kindness not only taught me to be thoughtful for others but made me ever so thankful for what Allah had bestowed upon me. I soon understood that my best moment of the day was when I shared a smile with someone.
Isn’t this the basic teaching of Islam? Often in discussions with friends and family, I am always of the opinion that, “Islam is not a religion, its a way of life.” This I had understood at an early age of my life. Anyone who reads about the life of our Prophet Mohammed SAW, will soon realise that simplicity, dedication, humility and integrity are the few characteristics of a Muslim. But aren’t these characteristics of a good human being too?
Recently I was caught in a controversy where I happened to have done the same and supported a campaign against anti-Semitism for which I was hugely criticised. Standing up against wrong was the right thing to do. I have always believed, Allah SWT is ‘Rabbil alamin’, when he does not differentiate then who are we to do so?
At the moment world is going through tough times where existence of humanity is on stake. Its time that we sit back, think where this world is heading to and make positive contributions to make our world a better place to live. Would we want our generations to come live in a world of hatred? Allah SWT has given us the time to think and may be by making small improvements we all could make our planet a better place.
It is only Allah SWT who will decide how well we did in our lives. Why do we tend to engage with negative things more than positive? Do humans need to change their mind-set? Why are we so concerned about others than our own deeds?
