format_quote Originally Posted by
Karina
Hi Martyr,
Welcome!
I too frequently feel angry with Bush and his warped ideas but I'm not sure I would use this as a reason to embrace religion. :?
What else was it that made you revert?
K :)
Karina I would like to offer you some sincere words of advice. A long time ago I used to be pretty much against/mocking the word 'religion'. I always thought it was something boring or against me having a fun-filled and meaningful life. I think this serves as a barrier against understanding Islam let alone any of the other religions of the world. Ironically after becoming serious about Islam I still find the word a little dross only because I believe Islam has a better word in Arabic ('Deen' - way of life) but I understand it better anyway.
If we take religion to simply mean
'one's way of life' and not necessarily 'a strict life free of fun', 'choir singers', 'monks' or any other of the 'in the back of one's mind' type of things, stereotypes or socially engineered misconceptions used to control the masses then things start to become clearer.
I heard an excellent talk once a long time ago where the speaker (Abdur- Rahmeem Green) said EVRYONE has a religion i.e. 'way of life'. Even the one who says "I hate all religions and and free of all of them" can be described as 'religiously unreligious'.
Its like this: I understand racism and how evil it is. Nobody chose the colour of their skin when they were born. I know to be racist is wrong so I am non-racist. I hope you are the same Karina but there are people out there who don't think like this on the race issue and are members of neo-Nazi parties like Combat 18 and the BNP or skin-head groups to give you more of the extreme examples.
Now in a nutshell you can say Islam is like this:
If God or Allah (as we refer to Him in Arabic) exists (which most people do believe) then
surely He
alone should be the one worthy of all worship without any partner/equals or associates as He is so great. He created everything from nothing and did not need any teacher to show Him how to do this.
In other words just the ONE true God or Creator should be worshipped ALONE.
Put in yet another simple way (I'm really trying to give you clear and simple statements!!) :
We worship the CREATOR not the CREATION. People worship many created things such as money, friends, football, beer, women etc. - just look around you and see how many people are devoted or 'in worship' of things. Some will talk a lot about these created things they love - others can be understood from their actions e.g. an alcoholic (who might be ashamed of admitting so) may be seen as worshipping drink by always drinking whisky. In this case he literally becomes a slave to alcohol which controls him to the point where it could very easily kill him. In Islam we are slaves to NOTHING or NOBODY except Allah.
If one can HONESTLY understand
what Islam is then I say that that person will
definately convert to Islam. Of course Allah guides who He wills. One cannot guide Himself to Allah/Islam - He/She is guided by the mercy of Allah. Honesty is the key and we are living in a world of many liars. In fact Islam prophesises (hope that is spelt right!) that as time goes on the number of liars will increase.
However Karina - be honest with yourself and don't let any arrogance come 'in between' this concept I have described above i.e. If God or Allah (as we refer to Him in Arabic) exists (which most people do believe) then
surely He
alone should be the one worthy of all worship without any partner/equals or associates as He is so great.
Once you can do that then you are in direct contact with Allah and you attain a life of true peace Insh'Allah.
Think with care and contemplation about these things Karina and I pray Allah lets you say the declaration of faith (words which make one a Muslim which in English are :
"None has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone and Muhammad is his Messenger".
(ameen).