“Being religious doesn’t pay the bills.”

As I was conversing with my lovely Mum this morning about lack of representation of Muslims in the UK and total lack of justice around the world (a completely normal morning conversation) my mother told me, “It’s a harsh world we live in and being religious doesn’t pay the bills.”

Which I fully disagree with but it shocked me how differently we, as humans, think, feel and act. No one on earth will agree with my every thought and inclination and likewise, I will never agree with someone else, totally, either.

As humans we are so complex and unique that we sometimes, through our own ignorance fail to appreciate that. We wake up to greet our tired faces in the morning, forgetting what a blessing that is. Forgetting our purpose, forgetting our Maker Astaghfirullah and I mean this sincerely for Muslims and non Muslims, alike.

We are actually more similar than we care to say. We are all fearful, opinionated, ignorant, awkward human being’s. My beliefs will not always be 100% right and neither will yours.

That does not mean Islam is not 100% right btw, no. Islam is 100% pure, clean, beautiful, sensational, wonderful and enchanting. There are no words to describe the total perfection of Islam – it’s us who are imperfect and therefore misrepresent Islam through our own lack of understanding, practice and knowledge.

But, with everything else in life, there is hope!

How to respect & tolerate others:

Start with yourself and educate the ignorance out of yourself. Do yourself a favour and read, read, read. Always make sure you are learning something new each day, regardless how small.

Build relationships. Start talking. Get to know the Hindu girl, the Buddhist, the Muslim who doesn’t wear hijab, the Muslim who does wear hijab. Learn from each other and build each other up.

 

“If I remained silent and you remained silent who would teach the ignorant?”
– Ibn Taymiyyah

Ask questions and listen. It’s difficult to talk to other about religion and it takes a great deal of patience. But that’s exactly what matters, it’s not always what you say but how you say it. People won’t always remember what you said but they will remember exactly how you made them feel.

Eat together, allow your children to play together and hold each other’s babies.

Embrace mystery and realise that everything you were told could and was probably a complete lie. (I’m talking about some of the Muslims, too) – sometimes there are “hadith” going around that we teach to our children, generation after generation, that are completely fabricated and untrue. Astaghfirullah.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pray for others and Ask Allah’s guidance for ourselves and others.

“Half of disbelief in Allah in the world is caused by people who make religion look ugly due to their bad conduct and ignorance.”
– Ibn Qayyim

May Allah bring us all from darkness into light. Ameen.