Horrible Muslims, Beautiful Islam

Islam is considered a very archaic religion by majority these days. Not only in the non-Muslim countries, but even in a Muslim majority country like Bangladesh. Here while some of us are trying to gain more knowledge on Islam every day, some of the less fortunate ones are “spreading” Islam on social networking websites in the worst possible way. Nowadays in this country, whenever you open up Facebook and visit a page of a popular celebrity (especially female) you get to see some particularly enlightening comments like “bhai apnar bou-ke shalin hote bolen” (Bro, tell your wife to cover herself) or “tumi jahannam e jabe. Ekhono shomoy ache. Borkha poro.” (You will go to hell. There is still time. Wear Burkha.). Most of these self-proclaimed “knights” of Islam, are in fact the victims of mass ignorance about the religion’s true values. Islam is not something you can use to bash other people’s self-respect. It is not something you want to show off to people just to establish how “righteous” you are. It is not a TOOL, it is a way of life.

I also used to think Islam, or any religion for that matter, is unnecessarily strict and can only be applied in modern life theoretically. None of the rules anyone mentioned to me made any sense. When I asked the person giving those religious advices about why this rule exists, they just used to say “Because Allah said so” or “Because Prophet Muhammad (SM) said so”. NONE of them could explain to me why either of those entities suggested such rules. And therein lies the problem – YOU DON’T KNOW WHY YOU ARE A MUSLIM.

Being born to a Muslim family can introduce you to the existence of Islam and familiarize its concepts and rituals for you, but that’s it! Once you grow up a little bit, you need to figure out this religion yourself. Because Islam is not just a manual of Halal and Haram. If it was so, there wouldn’t be a whole book of 114 Surahs to demonstrate hundreds of situations and consequences just to give the background and the usefulness of each of those rules. This book, the Holy Quran, touches upon many significant and sensitive topics, but most importantly, it describes why and how much God Loves you. He didn’t need to make this world a beautiful place, He could just make it a sustainable one and you would survive. He didn’t have to give you a sense of art and emotions, He could just put a moderately functional brain inside your skull and you wouldn’t even know how to complain. But He didn’t provide the minimum for you, He went beyond His way to make everything as comfortable and useful for you as possible. So tell me, HOW can a God who loves you so much just throw you into the pit of hellfire just for wearing western clothes? Doesn’t make sense does it?

One of the fundamental features of the Holy Quran and this whole religion is freedom of choice. Every human being has been given a brain and a heart to judge things on their own and figure out which option seems to be the best one. The angels pointed out to God that we humans will abolish the earth and its beauty if we are put here, but He placed His Faith in us nevertheless. He showed the angels that we as a species will have the capability to think for ourselves and learn things ourselves. THAT was His special gift to us. THINKING  and LEARNING has always been our primary job as His creation and based on that we are supposed to make our own choices.

Therefore, if someone chooses to follow Islam, awesome! But if someone doesn’t, it’s still not your place to comment on that person or call that person a Kafir (extreme disbeliever). You have NO right to tell ANYBODY that he or she will end up in Jahannam (Hell). Both the power and the right to make those decisions lie with God and only God. That’s because aside from being our Creator, He is the only One who knows everyone’s stories. We can never tell what the person we are judging so eagerly has gone through in life and thus we don’t have the capability to make the absolute judgment about him/her. That person you so passionately hate, might actually be a better human than you. You wouldn’t know.

Those commenters not only judge people 24×7 and leave ultra-ignorant comments on random posts, but also believe that whenever a girl is raped or sexually harassed, it is because she wasn’t wearing Burkha or some similar religious outfit. Really? REALLY??? Yes God encouraged women to cover themselves up but whenever a woman does NOT do so, HOW does it give any guy the license to rape her? Also what if she is not a Muslim but a follower of some other religion? Will it be her birthright to be raped or harassed then?The line from Quran they always quote to justify their claim, is placed right beside the following line in the Quran:

HOW do they ignore this part EVERY, SINGLE, TIME? The guys are supposed to NOT even stare at the women sexually let alone rape them, no matter what they are wearing. What level of mentally retarded does someone have to be to justify rape using Islam, is beyond me. Unbelievable. But since these people are at the revolutionary level of stupidity, here is another example, of how Islam thinks a man fancying another woman physically should act:

If you really want to spread Islam, try to LEARN it first. It has both beauty and wisdom in it, but you have to look deep into it for that. You have to understand every line of the Quran in details. Until it makes sense to you, don’t stop looking. Because everything God said in that Book, has a reason, a purpose. If you try to know Islam just from the surface, you will not go very far and will be frustrated after reading a few lines only.

Also, not only Muslims have the right to read this book, anyone interested can pick it up and start reading. Just mind the translations. Arabic and English are extremely different languages. Many words in Arabic cannot be explained in English accurately. So try to watch some videos on Youtube (I would recommend Nouman Ali Khan’s) where each of those lines is explained correctly and also with examples.

In the end just remember, Muslims can be corrupted, Islam cannot. So, no matter how horrible Muslims you come across in life, throw tantrums at THEM, not at the religion so carefully crafted by God and responsibly preserved by the true Muslims. 🙂