I'm getting more and more irritated as the debate over the veil continues to dominate the news this past week. Other politicians have come out in support of Jack Straw's claims including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and even muslims are joining the bandwagon! Most disgraceful of all, was an article I read by Saira Khan (loser in the first series of 'The Apprentice') in The Times on Monday. She claims that women are mostly forced to wear the veil and if they continue to do so then there is no place in the UK for them and they should go live in an Islamic state. She also, unforgivably, states that there is no mention in the Quran of the veil, which just goes to show her absolute ignorance! It really p****d me off. Who the hell is she to make such viscous claims?
The Quran clearly states the role of the hijab on women and men: "Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do." (Quran Surah 24, Verse 31) "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty..." (Quran Surah 24, Verse 32). It is absolutely ridiculous that people can make such claims and the more I think about it the more irritated I get. What served to irritate me even more was an interview with Salman Rushdie who said "...the problem is that veils suck...” What a complete moron! Why do the media even try to seek his views? He's not a muslim and he's never going to support any Islamic ideals.
Anyway, I better move on from this as I am in danger of getting carried away! I've already spoken about the issue, so for more information, please read my blog titled "Convenient interference." It really gets me down to see this constant muslim-bashing in the media and now the government are joining in. Really disappointing.
I've spoken in my blogs about how Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. It is a month when all muslims are given the chance to get closer to God, seek forgiveness and renew our faith. It is this very faith in God which forms the core of every muslim. Without it we are lost, there is no point in life. A lack of faith is the main source of problems in society. Lack of faith leads to crimes against humanity, social problems, atheism and a general lack of purpose. What is the point in living without purpose? A lack of faith means people do whatever they want, which leads to the problems mentioned above and many more.
Lack of faith is also a big problem within the muslim community itself. Many people claim to believe in God, but that's about it. It's easy to say that, but it then means you have to follow the rules and guidelines set by God. Not having the faith in God means the guidelines set are not followed, out of convenience. We pick and choose what to follow and what to ignore.
So where do we get the faith from? I'm a firm believer that the majority of faith comes from our upbringing. Parents have a lot of pressure to make sure their children have a healthy faith in God which then governs their behaviour. I believe it is the faith instilled by our parents which then helps us develop faith by ourselves as we get older and more independent. However, to develop our faith independently, it requires the initial push from our parents and because everyone is different, some require a stronger push than others.
My ideas are not 100% full-proof and there are always exceptions, but from personal experience I believe a lot of the issues families face (including my own) arise from how much faith was instilled by the parents. Across my extended family I see examples of parents not instilling faith and the resulting consequences and parents promoting faith in God and reaping the benefits.
I honestly believe that many of the problems that I touched upon in my blog titled ""Family politics" are a direct result of a lack of faith. It is this lack of faith which has meant that people have gone down many wrong paths and continued to make mistakes which have only served to cause more and more anguish for their parents. Now, I'm not perfect and have made mistakes in the past, but it's always been my faith that has brought me back to reality and helped me realise what I need to do to change and correct myself. When I see certain people engage in activities which are just completely and utterly wrong and then continue to do so, it is mainly because they don't have the faith in God. They never learn from their mistakes. The lack of faith means there is no guilt in what they do, or if there is, then it is quickly forgotten.
From the outside looking in - and I'm about to sound extremely judgmental - the people who continue to make mistakes and cause tension are the same people whose parents have not instilled a great deal of faith in them from an early age! The focus has been on anything but religion. These people have suffered as a result, and then in turn their parents have suffered and so the circle as been completed.
To complete the argument, looking at other members of the family where these problems don't seem to exist, the converse applies. Parents have appeared to raise their children with a great deal of faith which has lead to fewer problems in the future. The way I look at it, I've been provided with great examples of what not to do, but also of what TO do and hopefully I'll be able to learn from other's mistakes and successes and apply them to raising my own children inshallah.
There are also exceptions which seem to confound these observations. Sometimes I believe that I myself am an exception. I'd like to think that I have good amount of faith and it has always kept me in check. However, looking back, I'm not sure whether that is a result of my upbringing. I can't honestly remember having a great deal of faith instilled in me by my parents. I'm certain that Miss LMA and MTL haven't either, and it shows in their actions on different levels. However what has been different between us is that my parents have been firmer with me. They may not have instilled faith directly, but did so by making sure I attended religious school every Sunday for almost 10 years. During that time I made sure I learned a lot about my religion at the school. Miss LMA and MTL both attended, but quit much earlier and were never keen to learn anything and were always looking for excuses to skip classes.
When I look back, perhaps it was the school which helped to develop my faith and encouraged me to develop it further once I had left, or maybe it was something else. But, if I'm honest with myself, I can't actually remember much of it coming from my parents. Perhaps I'm the exception. I don't want to send out the wrong idea, that I've become this deeply religious person, with bucket loads of faith off my own back, but I'm not sure about the role my parents have played. At worst, they indirectly instilled the faith by making sure I attended the school and maybe that has proved to be enough? At best, they supplemented that learning with teaching of their own which I've been too ignorant or selfish to realise. I really don't know.
My wife, in contrast, is someone who has been raised with a lot of faith in her life. She has constantly been reminded of her responsibilities and duties as a muslim, constantly told what she can and can't do because of her religion and this has resulted in a person extremely committed to her faith and her qualities and attitudes have shone through as a result.
She also wears hijab, and coming back to the first couple of paragraphs, I can only praise her for continuing to do so. With the way the government is portraying women who wear hijab, life can only get more difficult for her, and I know she has the strength to see it through and will inshallah succeed despite these hurdles, mainly on account of her faith in God and as a result, God will help her achieve whatever she wants.
I think that how much faith we have determines the type of people we are and the main source of this faith is from our upbringing. The majority of people who haven't had this faith instilled suffer and those who do continue to benefit from it. This has all been based on observations by me and I could be entirely wrong, but I thought I might as well write about it! After all, it's what my blog is here for!
Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?
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2 comments:
To instill faith, i believe that if people paid the same (if not more) attention to religion as they would to their own particular interests (e.g planning days out with friends, hobbies, going on holidays etc) their faith could grow even a TINY bit more than what it probably is, that shows your atleast TRYING to make a difference... So you think about why you want to take the next step to helping yourself become a better muslim, eg cutting down bad habits or wearing hijab, ...but, most of the time all you hear is "i want to understand the meaning of it" or "im not ready yet!"... OK fine, take your time...but dont wait forever, after all - Tomorrow's never promised!
I totally agree and well put. It's the small changes that can make a big difference. A good starting point would be to cut down on the bad choices/things that we do, that would create more time to do the right stuff hopefully!
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