Daily Times

I sincerely appreciate the
feedback that readers provided after reading last week’s write up. It resonates with me as I go through such situations very often. When I try to introspect and find out about our dichotomous personalities, it worries me. We are somewhat divided in our own self-created imagery.What strikes me as odd is our so-called self righteous attitude and the sheer arrogance about our belief system. Often, when I go to public gatherings,I see our self-righteous lot engage in discussions about the religion and their specific practices. The intra-religious dialogue, though on the surface seems to be for educational purposes, very often turns into a heated debate and from there on, at times,a shouting match. Emotions flare and one just sits and wonders about what is happening. In the Islamic faith it is believed that, for a Muslim, losing his temper or exhibiting his anger is strictly forbidden.

When I see the angry and devout engaging in a verbal brawl and quoting from books of repute about the sayings of the prophet (PBUH) about a certain act or a practice, I smile. The idea of the discussion shifts from being educational to who can brag of being a better and more devout Muslim. Often I wonder if our peopleshould really focus on the essence and perhaps not so much about the content of such books.

When I raise the topic of people from other faiths, many Muslims jump to the conclusion that all of them will burn in hell because they have brought another deity in parity with the real one. So since they do not believe in the one and only Allah, they are going to end up in hell fire. That is when I remind some of our passionate friends that both heaven and hell belong to the same Allah and we, as mere mortals, have no right to decide over who gets to go where. It is only up to the Almighty to make that call. This often does not go down well with our friends.

Of course, on the final day there will be an accounting process and,in the end, it is up to the Almighty to grant whatever He wishes. When I remind our folks that we begin our prayers by seeking refuge from the devil and begin with the name of Allah, the most Merciful and Beneficent, I get some angry stares. What infuriates people the most is when I bring up the possibility of forgiveness for the non-Muslims.“Hell no” is what I hear! In other words, what most of our folks are trying to imply is that we work ‘so hard’ and worship the true God;how dare these other folks end up in paradise right next to us! I smile and often infuriate a few by asking,“Do you own paradise my dear brothers?”

I know the topic of religion can either bring the best or the worst out of anyone — more often the worst in our case. That is exactly what I mean by dichotomousexistence. On the surface, we show that we are the best and make claims of having been the leaders of the world at one time, but in reality we are stuck in our own little cocoon. That time of glory that we often boast about has passed and we are nowhere near that greatness.

While we are on this subject, every now and then I see people from Pakistan or India paying a visit to the local mosque. They come here to preach, which in itself is quite noble and praiseworthy. However, what I find strange is that mostly these folks are either going after local Muslims or are circling around and repeating the same lines to one another. I may be utterly misinformed but I have not seen a mass conversion of the local population based on the preaching efforts of our righteous brethren.

By no means have I intended to ridicule or question the role of our ummah who are out there on the path of God Almighty, so to speak.However, my personal experiences with such groups have not been so impressive. These folks insist that you join them for a journey of a year and when I question who is going to be responsible for my family, I get the rebuke that I am not a true believer because a true believer knows that Allah will take care of my family and their needs. I smile and ask who will pay the mortgage, the utilities and the bills? Of course, Allah will, comes the spontaneous reply.

I wish it were that easy. You get up and tell your family ‘adios’ and go on a spiritual quest. When I ask them about their families they all have a ready-made response:“We have left them with Allah”. I certainly am an extremely sinful person and lack the strength and fortitude of our brethren but do find their pitch a bit like a used car salesperson or perhaps like an auctioneer. It starts with one year and ends up with one hour. If you can guess where that one hour is spent, then you are relatively close to what I just pointed above. It is within a circle regurgitating the same lines. It is said that this exercise is the purification of our soul. Fair enough but I do question:“Once that hour goes by, how about knocking on the doors of some of the ‘non-believers’? You can guess what happens next.

The writer is a Pakistani-American
mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar