Why Islam? Why should I be a Muslim?

 

Bismillah.

THINGS THAT CAN BRING YOU PEACE IS  I S L A M ~ ! !

Assalamu alaykum and greetings to all. 

(NOTE: I hope many of you will take the time to read this post fully as it is very mind awakening~! it also makes you become more aware of the simple aspects that we tend to neglect and forget~! this is also the post that took me the longest time to write. I spent at least 5 whole hours writing it while referencing a video from theDeenShow site. So, I really hope that many ppl will benefit from this because that is my ULTIMATE PURPOSE & REASON for writing this post here)

Today, I would like to share with EVERYONE (of any race, religion, gender, colour, etc.) something that's indeed going to touch your heart deep down~!!! Trust me! Well, at least I know very well that it moved my heart in the most piercing and poignant way.

Here's a list (probably many are thinking the same thing) written by a non-believer (a non-Muslim) to Eddie of theDEENshow -->>

1. I don't like to be religious because it makes me depressed. I would not be able to live your life, it's boring. Living Islam is boring.
2. What do you do for fun? Everything is forbidden in Islam. You can't date, you can't meet your soul mate. C'mon, you can't go clubbing. You can't have occasional drinks, you can't have sex if you feel like it. You can't get down when you want to. That's boring life Eddie. 
3. Women in your religion cover from head to toe; there's no freedom at all but men can have more wives as far as I know. This is ridiculous man, it's the best not to follow any religion. I feel sorry for the Muslim females. Men can have more wives and they put the women down.
4. Like I said, I really love my life and the things I'm enjoying right now. After we all die, we go to heaven anyway.

Eddie: This is something that an average person thinks of the Islam religion. 

Nouman Ali Khan's response::

The fundamental problem of this email isn't one of not being convinced of Islam. The problem is that this person is looking at Islam from the point of view of how is it going to serve me? But the very fundamental question in Islam is HOW DO I SERVE GOD? and once you come into that submission, you are showered by all sorts of benefits and favours that you couldn't even have imagined. The ULTIMATE one of which is PEACE WITHIN YOURSELF!

There's a great scholar of Islam that once mentioned: there are 2 fundamental obstacles that come in the way of people that want to reach the truth i.e. DOUBTS & DESIRES. Some people are not sure if this is the truth, and if they became sure, they would follow it. Other people, even if they were made sure that it's true, that still wouldn't be enough for them to follow it because THEY ARE TOO ADDICTED to their own desires (the nightclub, drinking, etc.). Your major issue and main problem is HAVING TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU LOVE; one's own desires and inclinations. Now the thing is, religion, in our times is almost looked like a casual lifestyle, fashionable kinda thing. And the idea behind it is, I'm going to do it, basically to find some entertainment for myself. So now, the first fundamental question or concern we have for such a person is: You haven't sorted out why you're put on this Earth. It is a reality of a human being that he/she is here to eat, drink, sleep, have sex, have fun and die. Is that the purpose of your life? And if that is the purpose of your life,and there is nothing coming, I mean you're saying there's a heaven afterwards; so everybody goes to heaven no matter what they do? What kind of God would it be that would let just any of this people to get away with their crimes? The thing is, however bad deed is committed, you would not think it's bad because your mind thinks in a way where you'd say, "No, this is not too bad. There are people far worse than I am. So, I shouldn't be worried." So, without knowing, you've become the judge of what's right and what's wrong. What Muslims are arguing, with all sincerity and humility; is that you and I are not in a position to decide even what is good or harmful for our own selves. And you saying confidently, that you want to have fun i.e. doing whatever you want(turning this life into a life of pleasure for yourself), to you is heaven right?  and then you argue, I'm gonna party here and when I die, there's more coming. THIS SHOWS THAT YOU'VE DECIDED TO MAKE A PAST JUDGEMENT ON SOMETHING YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF. You never know when you will be stripped off your life, but many ppl die before they get to live their life the way they had planned. And so, your false hopes and false aspirations; you think these things are going to bring you happiness? You know why you keep going back to the club? and you keep keep going back to these desires? It's because YOU NEVER FIND SATISFACTION. You're never satisfied. You're never going to be fulfilled, never gonna be content. What we are offering in Islam, what we have found in Islam for ourselves is the means by which our hearts are at peace, they're at rest, they're not discontent, we are pleased with what we have; and I promise you, one of the most beautiful things in Islam is finding your soul mate. That's one of the most beautiful gifts in Islam. 

You said earlier that one of the things is that you can't meet your soul mate. You see, what is a soul mate? It's not just about physical desires, physical pleasures; I'm sure you and other people you know have had the experience of "thinking" they found their soul mate, getting used, getting abused and getting manipulated like some kind of toy, and then being thrown off/left. and when this happens to someone who has been disregarded and used, you lose respect for yourself and you lose respect for others as well. So, the next time around, you're going to do it to someone else and not going to feel so bad about it either: because you've lost a bit of your humanity every single time. WHAT ISLAM IS SAYNG IS SO POWERFUL, WE TREAT OUR WOMEN WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT. Our Messenger, Rasullulah SAW said: "the best of you are the ones who are best to their spouses." So, he teaches us to be most merciful, kind and lenient towards our spouses. This is ONE OF THE MOST PRICED RESPONSIBILITIES or one of the highest responsibilities a man has in this life, as a Muslim, IS TAKING CARE OF HIS WIFE.It is one of the things he's going to be interrogated about in front of Allah (how did you take care of her, did u protect her, did u teach her, did u honor her, etc.) These are the things that a Muslim man are supposed to take very very seriously. but the bottom line isn't even this issue, the bottom line is: FORGET MEN ! This religion is not about men vs women. That's not the issue. The issue is: You & your LORD, you & your Provider, He gave you all of these things to enjoy and His asking you: You can be deluded by these things, you could adrift by these things, OR YOU CAN HAVE ETERNAL PLEASURE, ETERNAL LIFE. A pleasure far beyond what these few things that you're obsessed with can ever help you with. You know you're gonna get drunk, you're gonna throw up and you're gonna have a hangover, you're going to go to the club, you're gonna wake up somewhere, you don't even know what happened to you the night before. You're gonna do these things thinking they're going to bring you pleasure; and it's going to end up causing you, if it hasn't already, cause you a lot of pain. You think you're happy, YOU'RE KIDDING YOURSELF. 

Why do people love alcohol so much? Here's my personal take on it. It may or may not be true, but it's as an escape from reality. Why do ppl get into drugs? It's an escape from reality too. Your life is so bad, you got so many problems, you got nothing to look forward to in your life, the only thing that you have to look forward to is that time, where you will jump around like a wild animal, drink something to lose touch with your problems, your reality on purpose. So, from weekend to weekend, you're just looking to get high or get away from this world and reality around you.You don't want to take responsibility for why you're put on this Earth. That's what it is, you're trying to escape from the reality.

Even if you're trying to find pleasure, physical pleasure or monetary benefits; you know, ppl who run after money their entire life, they're still not happy, they still don't find happiness. They will buy something that they thought they'd love, and after a couple of months having that something, they will find somebody else having a nicer something than theirs then they say: "oh man, I don't have that and there's void in their heart." IT'S NEVER GOING TO BE FULFILLED. Your greed, your lust, it's never gonna be fulfilled. FAITH, REAL FAITH, TRUE FAITH on the other hand, OFFERS SOMETHING that nothing else can offer: IT CAN FILL YOUR HEART WITH CONTENTMENT~! That's what we're offering, so, you have to fight your desires, you have to for a moment, maybe for a day, for a week we ask you to just to put your desires aside, just put them aside for a while, and JUST DEEPLY REFLECT ON THE TRUTH, reflect on your real purpose in life; and see if that can push you in a different direction. There are many people like you who did this, and many found the truth and they're now at more ease and peace than they were ever before. Why do you think a young Muslim man, a young Muslim woman, good looking, healthy, smart, making good money, etc. is not going to go to the club? He has all the power to. What's stopping him? What is so powerful that it's not tempting him like it tempts you?! Why is it that he's able to fight that? He's got something that is so powerful that nobody else can see and we wanna share that treasure, that's what we want YOU to EXPERIENCE~!! 

(now the covering from head to toe response):

And it's really, that a lot of times, our sisters don't realise that in humanity, is that they're actually being used. THey think they're dressing how they want, but you don't want that, you just want to dress in a way that's appealing to the desires of men. That's what they(men) want, NOT what you want. They want it more than you do, they want you to dress half naked . and so the thing about hijab and covering and modesty; first and foremost, it's a commandment in Islam. But just to speak about clothing a little bit. In Islam, there are 3 purposes of clothings: PROTECTION, BEAUTIFICATION, & MODESTY. But the priority is different. In Islam, the priority first is MODESTY: You have to have decency. you shouldn't be objectified. 2nd is of course protection from the weather and together with beautification. There's nothing wrong with wearing nice clothes, so long as you're guarding your modesty. However, what happens in a non Muslim culture, is that a lot of times ppl don't care about modesty, at all they don't even care about protecting themselves from the weather(you see ppl dressing skimpily even in the freezing cold during winter), what are they concerned about? What THEY THINK is beautification. And when we say modesty, it's an aspect of humility. And why does a Muslim have to have humility? Because they've acknowledged that they're not in charge of their life. There's a higher power(God). Therefore, even in their speech, even in their daily life, they spend their time and their clothing; clothing is just one manifestation of humility but we argue that humility is something that has to be a part of your speech, your demeanour, your mannerisms, the way you speak to ppl, the way you deal with your family, the way you deal with your Lord, THERE HAS TO BE HUMILITY ALL AROUND. and one of those aspects is humility in clothing. 

(misconception on Islam as a man-made religion):

Just because there are religions that are man-made, all the religions are judged as man-made. That's not a fair assessment. Just like we don't judge people in that way like you don't meet 2 ppl from a certain race and then past judgment on the entire race. you don't meet 2 ppl of that gender, and then pass judgment on the entire gender. Same thing with religion, you come across a certain religion and you're not satisfied with it, you didn't find it convincing; it's not fair for you to just brush off all other religions. (That's just an oversimplification and intellectual laziness on your part). "So, I kinda tried out a religion and tried to submit to my Creator but then I didn't find something satisfying, so I'm just going go back to my old distractions." But let me give you an analogy: you're only going to dig into something, spend your time and effort in something when YOU think it's worth it~~Like if I asked you to dig a hole into the ground for 5 dollars, you wouldn't do it. But if I say, dig 10 feet and I'll give you $20,000, you'll start shoveling~! So, YOU ONLY PUT TIME AND EFFORT INTO SOMETHING THAT YOU THINK IS WORTH IT~~ hence, if YOU THINK THE TRUTH & FINDING THE PURPOSE IN YOUR LIFE IS WORTH IT, you'll dig and not find, you'll dig and not find, and you'll dig until you find it; u're gonna keep on digging. But this attitude of "Oh, generally, without even any incurring, without even caring to look into the matter, you just say, "Oh, you know, I don't have to look into it, I already know that it's all man-made, we're all gonna go to heaven, well, the idea of heaven comes from religion anyway, so where'd u get that idea? **lol**

But the problem is, maybe deep inside you, you're scared that if you find the truth, it's going to ask you to change yourself, and you don't want to change yourself.Allah said in the Qur'an, "No, to the human being who wants to continue to disobey and explore in his disobedience that is in front of him"

SO, you just need to be sincere with yourself and ask yourself, what is the purpose of your life and many ppl have found the truth and accepted Islam but there are also ppl who just past by these responses and said "No, my desires, my temptations, my seductions are just too powerful for me; I'm going to stay in this mess."

YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF YOU'RE STRONGER THAN YOUR DESIRES~!! 

(sense of URGENCY):

So, we have to have a sense of urgency to finding our purpose because once that clock stops ticking, and we leave this Earth, then like one of the companions of the Prophet said, "people are sleeping and when they die, is when they wake up." That's when their eyes open and so we ask that you wake up before you go into the grave, where everybody else think you've been put to sleep, the reality will be, you've actually been woken up at that time. and we don't wish that upon you, we don't wish that you wake up at that point, we wish upon you, that you wake up now, to think and reflect on the purpose and reality now. And it's not fair to your Creator or an analogy:  You go to your boss and he told you and gave you a list of responsibilities, you neglected it and now you want to get paid at the end. That doesn't make sense~~!!! 

THINGS THAT CAN BRING YOU PEACE IS  I S L A M ~ ! ! 

Wallahu'alam.  

Liana