By: MuslimVillage
Source: MuslimVillage
Everywhere we look, it seems difficult to be a Muslim these days. From asking to defend stupidity done in the name of Islam to responding to American political dogma. How do we fit it in?
Do we have to be like everyone else to fit in? How do we raise a family in this contentious environment? Remember, if we just try to be like non-Muslims, they don’t need us. We become boring, mundane, and irrelevant. Every culture has something to add. And obviously we are no exception.
And unfortunately we are no exception to xenophobia. Every culture in the states, for example, fell victim. From the blacks who were enslaved then told separate but equal, to the Japanese who were sent to concentration camps, to women who were told they weren’t smart enough to vote, to Native Americans being told to live somewhere else.
We as Muslims are the latest chapter in the West. How do we react? To quote the first Bush, “How do we be prudent at this juncture?” What do we do in this turbulence?
The first step is to understand we do not need to defend stupidity. Allah Most High, told us “No soul shall bear the burden of another” [35:18]. Unlike the Christians, we don’t believe in vicarious atonement. We are only responsible for our own actions. And we don’t have to respond to every headline, true or not.
Next, as Muslims we don’t just act. We acquire knowledge first, and then act. Action without knowledge more often than not only pours gas on the fire. What knowledge? Following the Shariah. Let’s take one of the simplest acts, wadu’. First, we learn how to do it, and then we do it. We just don’t just splash water everywhere and say Allahu Akbar, and hope our “good intentions” is sufficient. If we did our prayers wouldn’t be valid and we would be guilty of wasting water. (Wasting the precious resources that Allah gave us is a whole other discussion!) And instead of performing one of the acts closest to Allah (purity) we are now in a state of sin! The point is worth repeating: We need knowledge before action.
How do this point apply to Islamic identity and the current trials of Islamophobia? Simply, like wadu’, we need knowledge before action. Anybody can go and protest, or hold a sandwich board trying to defend Islam. Or, you can try to acquire knowledge first and embody the prophetic hadith “Whoever Allah wishes well, He gives knowledge of religion.”
The obvious question is where can you go for knowledge on this topic? Qibla, a leading organization for teaching Islam online, is teaching a course on Islamophobia, with a world renowned American Muslim, Scholar, Sheikh Nuh Keller.
This special four-week course starts on April 24th. For more information and registration, please go directly to Qibla.com!
