Some people tell me I am foolish for what I believe. Maybe I am. But I have no problem stating with full cognizance that I am a Muslim, I am a Sunni Muslim. The ‘why’ of it is not so difficult to explain but I will anyway.
I was born to Sunni Muslim parents but that is not the full reason nor even most of it. Were that all, I would, I believe, have abandoned belief long ago. Surely, beliefs that make it harder to do whatever one wants to do and to do what, if one did not have such beliefs, would be easier would not be kept if not sincerely held. How much easier, when living in America, not to be Muslim, not to eat hallal food or wear hijab … let alone to force oneself to remain chaste …. To not fast in Ramadan and not to pray and so on …
And as I’m lazy and fearful, if I didn’t strongly believe, I’d long ago have abandoned the religion. But I did not, because I believe.
I believe firstly because of personal experience of the divine. Now, that can be explained away as magnetic fields or aberrations of the mind, if one is strictly rationalist, or as emanations of some other spirits, rather than of God.
For me, though, having accepted that what I saw and felt and experienced was real, I applied logic and reason to the world. To me, time is directional and history has a meaning. There is an end and a beginning of all things. The universe itself, we find, exists with conditions that, were they any other way, would be impossible for us. They call that the Anthropomorphic principle, if I recall correctly, and also press the idea of cosmic mediocrity. Ours is an average planet around an average star, out in the edges of an average galaxy, and so on and so forth. We are an average species in size and form. There is nothing special about us.
But we live in a universe that is not an accident. We are rational beings and we have a moral sense. I believe that there is a creator of the universe, a First force, a God of the Universe, who set the rules that make this world. I believe that the universe is vast but that God is vaster. I believe that this God set forth the Cosmos in the distance of time and made the conditions such that, in the fullness of time, life would appear and, with it, intelligence.
But I do not believe that we ourselves are the purpose for that; I see no reason to think that Earth is special nor that humans are perfect. The universe was made for intelligent and rational beings to behold but humanity is likely not the only rational intelligence in the vastness of the universe. Otherwise, there’d be a lot of wasted space.
So I believe in a rational universe; I am a deist, I suppose. But why be Muslim? Why not find another path to the divine?
For me, that is a bit more complicated. I view God as above and beyond humanity, as much greater than we are as we are to a virus, only much more so indeed. God is infinite, endless, without beginning or end. God is neither male nor female and far above any category of our minds. God is beyond our comprehension, but just and moral, compassionate, and unchallengeable. God is so great as not to be contained in a man or a woman or a tree or an animal or a rock or anything. God is everywhere.
And God does not play favorites; no special people, no special family. I reject that God begets or is begotten; I reject Holy Nations and Holy Families. I believe that God is universal, one God for all humanity, the same God for all the intelligences in all the universe. I believe in a God unchanging through time for God is beyond time. I believe in a God who cares, not just for certain people in certain places, but for all humanity, for all sophonts wherever we may be in time or space. I believe in a God who sends messages and messengers to humanity to steer us towards what is right and place the keys of our natural religion, the natural religion of the universe, in our grasp.
I reject the idea of original sin; no one is damned because of what their parents did or did not do and salvation is available for everyone, all the time, from the beginning of time until the end of the universe.
And that is also why I call myself a Sunni, not for sectarian reasons (though I bear a name that marks me as ‘damned’ by birth to some), but for reasons of my belief. I reject the idea of special people have special access to God; I reject the notions of Popes or Imams who are infallible. I reject wilayat I faqih. I reject the notion of priests and prelates needed to mediate the experience of God for ordinary people.
I believe that all of us, men and women, are capable of comprehending the divine as much as any human can. There are no special people, just humans. A priesthood of all believers and all believers priests.
And so I believe that there is no God but God, I believe in the Messengers of God and their teachings. I try to reconcile my own life to the precepts which have been given because they come as close as humanity has known to describe both my own experience of the Divine and my own rational explorations of how the universe is made.
I am a Sunni Muslim because I am a rational person who believes in God and in freedom of humanity, who believes in the equality of all people before God and in the difference between Good and Evil.
That may seem crazy but that is what I believe.
46 comments:
Thoughtful and thought-provoking post. As an agnostic, a lot of what I read ridicules religious people and even believers as irrational and even mentally-ill. I love reading the views of intelligent, rational believers to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of their beliefs. Excellent post.
Amina,
The reason that you believe what you do is because you were born to Sunni Muslim parents. In all probability, if you were born to a Mormon family in Utah you would be Mormon and if you were born to a Shiite family in Tehran, you would be Shiite. And if you were born to a Dati Leumi Jewish family in the occupied territories, statistics show that there is at least an 80% change you would be Dati Leumi and convinced of the rightness of settling in the West Bank.
The vast majority of people believe in the faith that they were raised, but like you, they are convinced that their beliefs are “rational” rather than beliefs that result from the time and place in which they were born.
Good thing Veganovish, as always, knows better than Amina!
Where would we be without these western men to explain how stupid we are?
veganovich:
you do have a point. however, the system that we grow up in is a violation of our human rights. children are not property to be thought and made in to the image of their parents. children are senescent beings that become independent of us. the more we teach our children how to be a good (insert your Favorite religion here) the more we deprive them of their human rights... their freedom of choice. it would be prudent to teach the coming generations ABOUT religions (pleural) rather than A religion. and allow them the right to choose their own system of belief rather than impose one upon them. all religions have the same basic teachings about morality. each religion differs in the way that these basic teachings are thought through metaphors and stories that specific to the tradition and cultures of the religion's originating peoples. then there are the assimilations of other religions and traditions that have been going on for thousands of years. there is no one religion that is better than the other.. nor is there a god that is mightier than the others. for me god is the a concept that we use to describe that which our minds can not comprehend yet. what our logical brain can not processes with the lack of information that we have. just consider how we once though the earth was flat, and then that th earth was at the center of the universe, etc.. the boundaries of god keep receding the more knowledge we attain, but that is not to say that the concept of god should be eliminated because we need to have faith and believe in something greater than us in order to keep on evolving. otherwise we might as well declare ourselves gods and become stagnant and decadent.
each person has the right to believe in god or the gods any which way they like so long as they keep it a private mater and not force it down the thoughts of others by proselytizing or at the end of the barrel of gun. nor should the belief system of one people be forced as law on others who do not wish it. the specifics of a religion are only important on a personal level. not on a societal level and certainly not on a national level. the basic ideas of religion, the teachings of basic ethics (don't kill, don't steal, respect others, do on to others as you would have them do on to you, etc) are the important message of any religion, everything else is just personal preference of ideology and an accumulation of assimilated tradition and other religious ideas.
Lamise,
At no point did I suggest that “western” people know better than anyone else. Your response to what I wrote is an ad hominem argument and thus is a logical fallacy.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adhomine.html
If I simplistically categorized the world into “east” and “west,” I am not sure that I would categorize someone who grew up in Virginia as “east.”
So obvious and staright forward, ur still a muslim because u have been rejected by the americans when u were a child, so u needed to grasp what other identity u have. That stoped u from invloving with the new emerging global identity.
Having typical ideas and not having special indivisual ideas about life and relegion is shameful, and thats why u worked hard to justify ur self by creating these and ideas long ago, and thsts why u posted this post,
One can be both American and Muslim. They are not oppositional categories, dearie
You can't really be both a deist and a Muslim (or any theist for that matter). A deist god created the universe and then went away or doesn't intervene anymore. It's only a creator deity, nothing more.
You brought up morality briefly. There is some evidence that morality is evolved and inherent in us. You can also make an anthropological argument that in small tribes, it's best to treat your neighbors well, because your survival depends on it. That only broke down in complex societies where sociopathic behavior is actually viable.
From what you posted, I see very little reason why you actually want or need a god, but I applaud you for rejecting many of the nonsensical and outright immoral beliefs theists (of any religion) hold. It's more like a personal kind of spirituality and that's fine for the most part. The real problems with religion usually come when it's organized and forced on other people.
Beautiful and thoughtful and amazing. Thank you. Much love!!!!
As Muslims we believe that human beings are born with an innate inclination of tawhid (Oneness), which is encapsulated in the fitra along with compassion, intelligence, ihsan and all other attributes that embody what it is to be human.
It is for this reason why we Muslims prefer to refer to those who embrace Islam as reverts rather than converts, as it is believed they are returning to a perceived pure state.
The perfect embodiment of fitra was Abraham and Muhammad.
Narrated Abu-Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "No child is born except on Al-fitra and then his parents make him Jewish, Christian or Magian (Zoroastrian), as an animal produces a perfect young animal: do you see any part of its body amputated?"
That's exactly what I believe in Ameena.. but unfortunately saying I'm Muslim doesn't express all that these days.. ppl start arguing with me about my behaviour and belief after I say I'm muslim!! As if I should either look, think and act exactly like them or not call myself a muslim. I just don't get it.. I don't know if I should find my religion and belief another name or if I should give them another one.. But then thinking like this only makes me just like them!! Don't want to be judgemental.. Still don't know how to express all of that with just one word.. so I chose to call myself a Believer!
Anyway.. I wish you get back to your family and friends safe and sound ya rab..
How come that one believes in freedom of people and in not imposing a religion on children and so on and in the same time believes in having to wear certain clothes, having to fast during certain periods, having to remain chaste and so on?
@Undecided
Wearing certain clothes, fasting and chastity are self-imposed restrictions that are designed to bring you closer to god. They are the external manifestations of an inner spiritual journey. As long as you don't judge other people for not doing these things, these *self imposed* requirements are entirely compatible with believing that other people and children should be able to make up their own minds.
Having said that, I personally don't believe an 8 year old can make up their own mind about what religion to follow - they don't have enough life experience to decide what they believe. As such I hope to InshaAllah raise my children with full knowledge about Islam and how to be a good Muslim in such a way that they understand the faith thoroughly. They can decide when they're old enough if they believe it or not and I won't judge them, in fact I'll encourage debate, as is done in the Quran :) It's funny how in making the argument that children shouldn't be raised with a religion the idea that atheist parents are passing on their lack of belief is fine and would never be labeled as 'abuse' (which is just frankly offensive hyperbole)
This is a beautiful post, and you've articulated exactly what I believe in a way I don't think I'd be able to. I'm praying for you with all my heart for your safe return. The world needs people like you.
MashAllah awesome post
You cannot be logical and believe in any gods in the same time,it doesnt make sense at all.
Fact : sucide bombers is a Sunni muslim's trade mark. In any random day if u watch al-Jazerra for one hour with a calculator, it will be enough to prove this fact.
You say you are a rational person, and that you believe in god. Sorry, but those two attributes are mutually exclusive.
How can rational person believe in the koran???it seems like an oxymoron...
You might want to reconsider original sin, or at least its place. Take the song amazing grace, someone who is so bad, sinful etc, experiences amazing grace(forgivness). There is no greater love from God.
Some consider original sin the Happy Fault. It allows the person to feel the true love of God, almost by design.
As a rational (I like to think) Christian, many of my beliefs mirror yours.
Praying for your safety.
God bless you. I too pray for your safety and for a free Syria.
-Allan
Please don't just spread rumers and misgivings..
If you have a point please make your argument civilly and intellectually...
spreading hate speech inicates that you are ignorant..
Awesome post.
We pray for your safety and for a free Syria...
God bless you
Hi... as I type this you are missing. I pray for your safety to the same God you love and worship. When you are safe and writing again I would like to ask you some questions and maybe discuss what you wrote in this post.
In the Bhagavad Gita God (by the name Krsna) says: "Ye yatha mam prapadyante, tams tathaiva bhajamy aham, mama vartmanuvartante', manusyah partha sarvasah."... "As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects."
Great insight on your perspective and beliefs. I pray you are safe return to your loved ones soon. God Bless
"One can be both American and Muslim. They are not oppositional categories, dearie."
Nice condescending tone! And how would one reconcile Sharia law (mandatory for Muslims) with American law?
This is bullshit. You can either be a mature modern person or you can be a medieval child who believes fairytales to be true, not both.
I am a young, queer, Christian Minister. We exist. Why is there such attack for a woman of faith here? It's beautiful... and God created us just as we are, in all of our identities... Including those of faith, and queerness.
There is a kind of tension that exists in the global Christian community, and a kind of tension that exists in the queer community at large. For the most part, we’ve been seen as this dichotomy: that to be gay, one must deny their Christianity. To be Christian, you’ve got to suppress your sexuality. Even the most open churches still expect young queers to fit traditional models of self-expression and relationships...
We HAVE to be out as people of faith (ANY FAITH), and people who are queer. Every time I do come out as a woman of faith in a queer setting, there is a story that is aching to be told by whomever I am in conversation with. Often, it includes pain, misunderstanding, and hurt. Occasionally, the desire to overcome everything comes forth, and always, the need to talk about it is present.
As a Southern Baptist I have to say that your profession of faith is almost the same as mine. Christ only gave one example of salvation, and that was the priest and the publican(read it if you want the details, and it does not involve any of the 'sinners prayers' that every preacher, priest or imam tells you). My conversion was not accompanied by lights or singing, but that one moment was more real than anything I have experienced before or after. From your matter of fact way of expressing it, you have seen the same.
I say that all the major three religions are made of gold....but at their origins...they were 24k ....with time and influence of rulers and bad translators and lying narrators..they became 21k or 18k or more or less. As a muslim I believe that islam at its origin = christianity at its origin = jeudaism at its origin....some christians now have 23k and some muslims have 18k ....they are all made of gold any way...but I should say that Islam currently is the only way to get to 24K (if i dont say that i would not be a muslim)
@Veganovich....I respect what you said about all of us tending to believe in what our parents taught us to believe in....but to say that Amina is under this influence...I dont believe so....she proved her self as un independent mind so dont doubt it
To Ali....
please stop trying to preach your shia sect here ...especially by attacking other people`s beliefs
@ Veganovich
and whoever said like u things like "its indvidual and shouldnt be taught to children"
u know its so triky using such arguments ! why? bcoz if parents dont transfer their values and faith to children does it mean child remain thought-less till he is adult? no! the countries system will start filling their minds from 7 and even b4 ! a mother has no right to teach her son about God bcoz he is too young ,but u have right to teach him darwinism from his childhood? isnt this double standard a bit hypocratic?
just go watch ben stein's documentary called "Expelled" ! he shows how famouse university prof got expelled bcoz they thought there is design in universe ! so u see ,when u see let generations choose ,u r saying ,"dont teach them let them only learn what i say" ! and that will go same from a chinease school which teaches communism to an american school which teacher liberalism ! and what is fairy tale in my opinion is when richard dawkins the famous denier of God cant escape from admiting the design in nature and he says it could be that aliens seeded life form on earth !!!
when he admits Creator to escape God he refuge to Alliens ! great Job ! who is fairy tale child now?
and parents shouldnt teach kids about God and send them to school to teach them evrything just came of nothing by itself and then some aliens came from no where and created a system of monkey to human ! and then all of the sudden we see whole universe has order and ofcours its all un-designed and the scientists who find formula in evrything waste their times bcoz there is rule or design in nature to discover its formula !
hmmm
sci-fi !
@ anonymous
i just explaind my faith which i think was misunderstood
i like even if my ideology is going to be rejected ,get rejected in the way i believe it ,not in the not as something diffrent
hmmm and i dunnowhy i cant see what i wrote anymore?!
You obviously don't know what being a "sunni muslim" is, you probably wouldn't want to be one.
This my first visit to the blog. I have found all of the posts to be very insightful. I have always found it hard to understand how one's religious beliefs can result in such hate and commission of violent atrocities against each other....all in the name of religion and perceived differences.
I was certainly influenced by my religious indoctrination as a young child, but as I began to experience contact with others during my early school years from different religious backgrounds and ethnic groups, I started to question the biases my parents expressed against these people just because they were "different" based upon their religion. Every day presents us with an opportunity to reevaluate our own preconceived beliefs about each other. Learning more about each other is a first step and approaching our "differences" with an open mind, a receptive heart, and coming in peace.
Regardless of our place on earth, I firmly believe us all deeply more alike in our dreams and desires than in our differences.
Daily, I offer up prayers to the universal entity greater than all of us for peace, freedom, and safety for all people who are experiencing oppression by their governments, as well as, those who are being persecuted because of their religious beliefs.
God bless you.
I stumbled on this... and it was the purest text I needed this moment... in between the lines I see the same 'struggle' we all have, east-west-north-south-religious-nonreligious- the struggle of making sense of things that are far beyond our knowledge.. things we cannot grasp, yet we were born in this universe, on this earth,.. and to this species...
thanks Amina - and I pray for your safe return home
You believe in a Baal god...you make up who god is and then believe it...God is God and He is a jeolous God...Baal means The Lord and Israel made the same mistake of worshipping this made up "Lord" but Elijah came and said "How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him."
He challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown. They went to a mountain and built a altar to their god...Elijah built one to the LORD. They were to have their god answer by fire. They put the sacrifice on the altar and prayed to Baal but nothing happened. They cut theirselves but nothing happened. Elijah made fun of all 450 of them as Baal would not answer. Elijah had people dig a trench around the altar of the LORD and fill it with water and drench the sacrifice with water. He prayed and fire came from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and licked up all the water in the drench. Baal lost and so did the prophets of Baal.
The universe is big but our "star" is not a star. It is a sun. We know about stars by looking in a telescope but we do not know what the scientist tell is true. When the spaceship went to Saturn, the scientist said that the rings were rocks from two inches to eight feet in height probable from a exploding moon. They were saying that right up until the spaceship went between the rings and took pictures. They seen the rings were solid with grooves like a phonograph. Until they got there they did not know. So, with the stars they do not know. God made the stars for light at night with the moon. They could be nothing but a reflection to confine the wise in what they think.No one will know for sure for we will never get to a star...
We are worth as much as God loves us...He created us in His image...He did beget a Son and His name is Jesus...prophecied many years before his birth.God loves us enough to send His only begotten Son to die for our sins...to say we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves. To say anything other than what God says would be foolish to find out to late! Better find out while you have time.
A Prophet is a true prophet if his prophecies come true. All others are false prophets as the prophets of Baal were. They are enemies of God because they made up a false lord and would not believe in the real LORD.
Too many logical flaws in this post.
We are the way we are because the rules of the universe are the way they are.
You can't look at the end result and be amazed by "omg if the thing we have adapted to for billions of years would be any different, we'd not be alive!!!!".
It's like being amazed by how water takes the form of a vessel when it's poured into it.
"WOW, if this vessel would be any different, it would not have this shape at all!!".
I just read that you were taken away by three armed men. I hope you are find and you'll get back and eventually read these words.
I do not wish you well, however, because I believe what you believe. In fact, I don't believe that there is a God who will judge us when we die. If there is a God (and I don't know whether there is or there isn't,) I don't think she cares one way or the other. I don't believe there is anything after we die. And, yes, there could be a God. I still don't think there is anything after we die. Yet, the reason I hope you're fine is because if you aren't then I too am in danger. We all need each other, not because God said we should look after each other, but because God created (if we agree she did) this universe where there is a lot of harm and danger, and we should protect and look after one another.
But going back to your post, I have to say, if anything you are *not* a Sunni and most, absolutely most certainly you're *not* a Muslim. I'm sorry to give you the bad news. But you don't get to decide, not only you. The majority of Muslims and Sunni's do not agree with you on some very important points you reject. That alone makes you a non-Muslim.
Yes, you are a deist. The rest of what you believe can be labeled a new religion, a personal religion or, probably, a religion that already exists and has a name. What it isn't is Islam or Judaism or Christianity. It might take you a while to admit it, but here is something to make it easier for your: Every observant Muslim reading this has already decided that you aren't a Muslim. You are the only one in denial.
Besides that, I commend you for your courage and logic to denounce all the downright unintelligent beliefs that many people hold, except, that is, when you denounce priests and imams and "special people [who] have special access to God" only, you like to exempt the messengers of God from that list of special people! Not very consistent, don't you agree?
Otherwise, you're practically looking truth in the eyes... there is no special access to God. Religion is man-made. Whether there is a God or not, we don't and we'll probably never know. But until then, no one can claim to know anything about God or her wishes. And I don't care if anyone think they are God's son or daughter or messenger.
What's wrong with believing what you want? Poking holes in arguments is pretty easy. Creating an opinion about the faith you follow isn't. Being conditioned to believe something is a fact of life, wrong or right that's what people do. You can't be completely unbiased, ever. The moment you take a side, you've lost your neutrality.
Amina, I agree with everything you said. I'm bisexual but that doesn't make me less Muslim. I'm American but that has nothing to do with my faith in the One God I follow. Why others have a problem with one's personal beliefs I'll never know - they have no Right to criticize a person's faith. Because faith is something that is too personal for anyone, and I mean ANYONE, to criticize. Unless, that is, you believe that you should blow everyone up for the glory of the Lord. No one should hurt others like that either.
Come back safe, come back soon. People send prayers to you. I will pray for your safe return too. Ameen.
hoping you are safe Amina and will return to those who love you soon
To 17:49,
I'm a conservative sunni male. The only thing that takes somebody of islam is "shirk", or associating others with God. Even being a gay, alcoholic prostitute wouldn't do it. And certainly nothing Amina has said puts her out of the fold of Sunni Islam. Infact this post captures the essence of our faith quite well (tawheed).
As a non Muslim I am ignorant of whether your post conforms with Muslim belief or does not. I appreciate those of the Muslim faith who have posted responses. That said, I am very moved by your statement of faith and belief, and very worried about you. The world is not kind to spiritual women who are different. Christianity has its own terrible history in that regard over centuries. I hope you are not /have not become a martyr to your beliefs, and am holding you in Love and Light.
I have a question; well you claim to be a muslim who believes in god etc etc.. but what do you feel about being a homosexual when clearly it is forbidden in Islam? Hence, do you think you live up to your beliefs?
very inpiring. froma sunni muslim too who sometimes sins, its a reminder for me that my Islam is stronger than any of my desires
and i pray that you are freed soon inshAllah. from the shackles of this world and the next. Ameen
Post a Comment