Beware of mixing islam with culture!

[abz121]

Salaam to all my new muslim brothers and sisters,

Amongst the many advantages of reverting to islam, one of the best is that you are free from culture that some of us unfortunately have mixed with Islam. One of my close friends reverted two years ago, and he was really confused at first by uncle's approaching him in the mosque with off key quotes like: "if your fingers touch your knees in tashahud, then you will go jahannum" and other made up quotes that they like to pull out from thier pocket, especially wedding traditions. It is really important that we do not mix islam with culture. Safeguard yourselves my brothers and sisters!

[tigerkhan]

alhumdulilah even b4 my diversion to islam, i was a person who never care of traditions. at that time i just go by my mind. and now Alhumdulaih in every matter, i only see what ALLAH SWT had said and what was the way of prophet PBUH.

[CosmicPathos]

i do think that many reverts (not all, allhamdulillah) bring their own culture when they convert to Islam. It is really arrogant to say that reverts are not influenced by the culture they had their upbringing in while we "born" Muslims have mixed culture with Islam. I've seen it in excessive social 'activism' of revert sisters while Islam tells them to not speak in a light voice to any nonmehram. Also Islam tells wives to obey husbands but ive seen some white revert sisters not "obeying," cuz of their upbringing in Western culture which is rife with rebellious feminist ideas. I dont mean slavery by obeying but I mean that husband has the final say. I have also seen "revert" sisters asking for the barriers to be removed between the jamaa' of men and women in the masjid.

[tigerkhan]

^ bro its actually we dont not REVERT completely. we accept islam by saying sahada, and accept the slavery of ALLAH SWT by our tongue. but still we didnot leave the worship of our desires and nafs.
but i say only revert are not alone in that matter, we by birth muslim also follow our traditions more than our religion. eg as u mentioned if revert sister are more demanding as in westren culture, i think we also behave un-islamically. u blv i heard prophet PBUH never in their life point out any msitake from the meal. its bcz if some wife is cooking for her husband, its her ahsan and kindness, not her duty. but i see many ppl who never eat by saying alhumdiliah. rather always point out missing in the meals. blv esp pakistan situation is v.bad in this regards.
anyway the solution is we built so much strong eman that commadment of ALLAH SWT and way of Prophet PBUH will bcm everything for us. even we are a revert or by birth muslim.
i remember once Ibn Umar RA says to his son that prophet PBUH said dont stop to ur wives if they want to to masjid. his one son say we cant allowed it bcz they use this for just outing. Ibn Umar RA get much angry with him and said i was talking that prophet PBUH said that allow them and u r saying i will not allow ? i heard He never talked to him anymore. so that was eman of Suhaba RA, only and only ruling thing to them was deen, no culture, no desires, no nafs,

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[Abu-Abdullah]

thank you for this brother and infact we should not mix culture with Islam; however as a poster mentioned, many reverts do bring culture into Islam too; I have come across many converts that have very liberal views about Islam; obviously their liberalism comes from their liberal culture their used to, but most of it does go against Islam

[Woodrow]

thank you for this brother and infact we should not mix culture with Islam; however as a poster mentioned, many reverts do bring culture into Islam too; I have come across many converts that have very liberal views about Islam; obviously their liberalism comes from their liberal culture their used to, but most of it does go against Islam

Each person whether born Muslim or revert does have a cultural side and is influenced by the culture of the nation they grew up in. It is often difficult to separate religion from culture as one tends to believe that the life they live is based upon the religion they follow and fail to understand that often the cultural they live in has much to do with how well or how poorly they adhere to what their religion teaches. It is only in Islam where I find the concept of De'en in which culture and religion are inseparable. If we all followed the true De'en in all things, the concept of nationalism or national culture could no longer exist.

But humans being humans we have such things as different languages, different food dishes, different climates that greatly influence clothing. No matter how halal we keep things, the simple basics of life will differ, such as Pakistan cooking and Malaysian cooking are going to taste different. The responsibility we all need to learn to to understand what part of our life is from cultural and what part is from Islam and to be certain we do not let cultural practices replace what we learn from Islam.

[Max-DC]

i do think that many reverts (not all, allhamdulillah) bring their own culture when they convert to Islam.....Also Islam tells wives to obey husbands but ive seen some white revert sisters not "obeying," cuz of their upbringing in Western culture which is rife with rebellious feminist ideas. I dont mean slavery by obeying but I mean that husband has the final say. I have also seen "revert" sisters asking for the barriers to be removed between the jamaa' of men and women in the masjid.

Interesting that you say this....if I convert to Islam, if God provides me with a Muslim wife, I still would not feel comfortable at all having "the final say" or asking her to obey me in any way. This is because I was raised in a Western liberal culture, and even though there's a lot I don't like about Western culture, this "equality" of women (even though I am a man) is one thing I really treasure.

However, as I am learning about Islam now, I really agree with the fundamental beliefs, which in my humble opinion is the core of Islam. If someone is getting worked up because they think that their wife is using the mosque visit as an excuse to leave the house and socialize with other human beings, I think that can be attributed to -their- own cultural beliefs as well. As another poster said, we're all human beings with our own culture and backgrounds, so let's try not to judge other people. That is, please go easy on the reverts from western background, look at the big picture. :)

[aadil77]

Interesting that you say this....if I convert to Islam, if God provides me with a Muslim wife, I still would not feel comfortable at all having "the final say" or asking her to obey me in any way. This is because I was raised in a Western liberal culture, and even though there's a lot I don't like about Western culture, this "equality" of women (even though I am a man) is one thing I really treasure.

However, as I am learning about Islam now, I really agree with the fundamental beliefs, which in my humble opinion is the core of Islam. If someone is getting worked up because they think that their wife is using the mosque visit as an excuse to leave the house and socialize with other human beings, I think that can be attributed to -their- own cultural beliefs as well. As another poster said, we're all human beings with our own culture and backgrounds, so let's try not to judge other people. That is, please go easy on the reverts from western background, look at the big picture. :)

It's up to you how you and your wife how you run things in your family, you both have rights over each other in certain matters - its your choice how you use them.

Regarding the bold part, its not forbidden to socialize or leave the house, lol what kind of impression do you have of muslim men?

[Max-DC]

It's up to you how you and your wife how you run things in your family, you both have rights over each other in certain matters - its your choice how you use them.

Well this is a very fair and reasonable position. :) I agree it should be up to the couple. I'm interested in learning more about what these rights are.

Regarding the bold part, its not forbidden to socialize or leave the house, lol what kind of impression do you have of muslim men?

Haha, please don't worry brother, I have a very favorable impression of most Muslim men. Especially all my Muslim friends who have helped me to learn about Islam. :) I was referring to the poster who said:

i remember once Ibn Umar RA says to his son that prophet PBUH said dont stop to ur wives if they want to to masjid. his one son say we cant allowed it bcz they use this for just outing. Ibn Umar RA get much angry with him and said i was talking that prophet PBUH said that allow them and u r saying i will not allow

...as an example of conflating "culture" with "religion". But I fully know that it is not forbidden to socialize or leave the house, please don't worry. =)

[shakylla]

Salam!

I completely agree that we shouldn't confuse religion with culture. I think that both reverts and born-Muslims are guilty of doing so, and sadly, sometimes we aren't even aware of it, which is more worrying. Therefore, I think it's the obligation of the Muslim individual to spend time researching/studying Islam, as well as seeking advice from well-informed scholars or Imam about Islamic matters.

[tigerkhan]

^agreed......................