29/06/2013
The way Muslims are portrayed in this world and they way Muslims have become "Muslims", is really an irritating trend that forces me to clarify the stand of Islam on Muslims. Most of the religious people are religious just because they were born in such a family and Muslims are no exception to this. So if this is the case with anyone of us, he/she has got no right to claim of being a follower of the only true path or disregarding others as deviants. As my concern is about Muslims so I’ll present them as examples to talk about some characteristics that are found in them, thus making them no different from followers of any other religion.
A Muslim who offers five times Salah regularly, gives zakaat, observes fast, or as we like to say, is a “True Muslim” but has never ever given a thought to his religion, the path he/she is following, but keeps on doing what he/she is told to do in Quran and Ahadith just because he/she saw his parents and others around him/her doing the same for the sake of Jannah and respite from hell fire, and a Non-Muslim who follows the commandments of his/her religion in the same manner but has never ever given a thought to his/her religion, the path they follow is nothing but just the same. Unfortunately, we Muslims think that “the Muslim” is destined for heaven and “the Non-Muslim” for hellfire, when according to Islamic principles and doctrine both are destined for destruction as none of them tried to follow the commandments of God but only followed their forefathers and the society they were born in, as Quran describes them:
They said, "We found our fathers worshippers of them."(21:53)
They said, "But we found our fathers doing thus." (26:74)
Rather, they say, "Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are in their footsteps [rightly] guided."(43:22)
I wish to ask my Muslims brothers and sisters, are these verses just for Non-Muslims? Can’t we apply these verses to ourselves? And the answer is simple yes for both the questions. So, we all need to introspect and unfit ourselves in the above mentioned definition.
Muslims like other religious people are accused of following blindly, let me clarify it here that “A Muslim is a blind follower but never follows blindly“. A Muslim is not a Muslim until and unless he/she hasn’t been a freethinker at the time when he/she had to decide which way to go and what to follow, once that is decided and he/she has chosen Islam then he/she becomes a blind follower, because when a Muslim gets the ultimate sense of satisfaction about Qur’an as “the word of God”, the need to exercise logic in the commandments of Qur’an ceases to exist and becomes completely null and void. So, now he/she is a complete blind follower but hasn’t followed blindly and that’s what Muslims ought to be, but unfortunately aren’t. Muslims also need to understand the word Kufr and the way it is used in Qur’an and find out whether they unfit the definition or not, because as I already said the reason why Muslims are Muslim, makes us fit into the definition of Kaafir. As we know, it’s in the Fitrah of a human being to search for haqq but when he oppresses/hides that desire deep inside and never lets it take him for the search, he automatically fits in that definition. So, lets start introspecting whether we are following blindly or we‘ve been proud freethinkers that decided according to the bestowed fitrah. We have to decide, we have to get over that stage where we decide the path we have to take, and not let others decide our fate, be it our parents, the society we live in or anything else, because God won’t ask you what you were told to do, but will certainly ask about what you did.
