Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| sinner<>------<>saint |
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| se7en |
| 08/25/00 at 11:49:10 |
| as salaamu alaykum wa rahmatAllahi wa barakatuh, It's like a disease that has spread in the Muslim population, and one from which many people never recover. I'm sure you've seen it too. Even lived it. Moving from extremes. Meaning moving from an extreme sense of religousness to the exact opposite. That doesn't sound too bad does it? But how healthy is it? And how do you stop? It can start with subtle differences in the way you act with Muslims and non-Muslims, the way you let the stubble on your chin grow a little before an Islamic conference and shave it all away the day after, making sure you quote some hadeeth and Qur'an in your speech even if in reality you are the last person to abide by them... until you become like a swinging pendelum, moving between two crazy extremes, living with two seperate but equally messed up identities inside you. There are specific examples I could give that would horrify you. Seemingly hard core Muslims that do the unspeakable. I thought this was rare. That people like this were exceptions to the rule. Not true. And this frightens me. I've been thinking about why this happens. There's a psychological break down somewhere, not to sound cliched but, the person has feelings of inadequacy - and this is why the person usually lashes out at people - when in their "religious" cloth, trashing other Muslims for their faith, their practices etc. But when in their other persona, indulge in whatever they wanna indulge in. Rasulullah saws despised extremism and false religosity, despised it. I understand now why he, peace be upon him, put such an emphasis on moderation. I just want some feedback here. D oes this scare you the way it scares me? What are some ways of resolving this? Where do you think the problem starts? How can we do something about this? I am serious when I tell you that if people aren't real with themselves, if people don't stop fronting and start to deal with who and what they really are, our entire ummah is gonna have a psychological breakdown. How do we get people to confront their hearts instead of just acting? I am aware of the ahadeeth on nifaaq and it's punishments. But it seems like scaring people with them is not good enough, and some people have reached a level where that doesn't even effect them. Lemme hear what you have to say. |
| Re: sinner<>------<>saint |
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| jawadio |
| 08/25/00 at 19:15:51 |
<I just want some feedback here. D oes this scare you the way it scares me? What are some ways of resolving this? Where do you think the problem starts? How can we do something about this? > salam... generally, we have to realize that there is a process that one goes through in order to reach a state of belief w/o hypocrisy (or: where our actions are in accord with our ideals). The basic schemata that the `ulema' have traditionally given about this is a move from `ilm ===> `amal ===> hal ===> maqam knowledge ===> action ===> state ===> station So one would first get knowledge of the deen, then practice it. By practicing it, it is not meant, "I prayed five times today, so I'm cool... don't know if I'll do it again anytime soon." Rather it means that one makes it a characteristic of themself. This leads to one being in a state of iman - and this state is fluctuating, where one goes in and out of it. They are not fully firm in their practice of the deen. Finally, for those that are shadeed (strong) in their practice of the deen they are at a maqam - a station. And this is where basically one is firmly grounded in their practice of the deen and do not fall back to their times of laziness because they have gotten RID of laziness. For a lot of us, we have problems with point 1 in that we don't have sound knowledge. Another big one is point 2: a lot of us DO have sound knowledge but we are lazy in our implementation of what we know. Another problem here is that we might get to point three, and instead of making that final leap to point 4, we experience a set back at which point the weak amongst us (me) will say, "Ah what's the piont," and we'll stop back to point 0. To give a concrete example: 1. Person learns the importance of prayer. 2. Starts to act on their knowledge by praying. 3. Makes it a new habit of theirs to pray all their prayers. 4. One is characterized by it (ie they are affirmed in that practice). The slip back to point 0 is where they lose all awareness of the importance of prayer. <<I am serious when I tell you that if people aren't real with themselves, if people don't stop fronting and start to deal with who and what they really are, our entire ummah is gonna have a psychological breakdown. How do we get people to confront their hearts instead of just acting? I am aware of the ahadeeth on nifaaq and it's punishments. But it seems like scaring people with them is not good enough, and some people have reached a level where that doesn't even effect them. >> I think that we need to realize where we are in our practice of this deen (in one particular aspect, ie prayer, reading Qur'an, etc). If we experience a setback, we should brush ourselves off and start again. Part of the problem for many people who burn out is that they try to do too much at once and they don't realize that we've had 20+ years to make all these bad habits and we have a whole society that encourages them, "friends" and family that do so as well, and we have shaytan and our own nafs - to fight these forces is difficult and that we might lose a few battles but we should never just surrender. In the past, one's realization of Islam was usually done under a teacher in a systematized way - learning, practicing what you know, shunning the haram, and then progressing. Allah kareem... Wa salam, Jawad. |
| Re: sinner<>------<>saint |
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| bhaloo |
| 08/26/00 at 22:10:32 |
| Asalaam alaikum wrt wb, [quote]Moving from extremes. .............. until you become like a swinging pendelum, moving between two crazy extremes. ............ I just want some feedback here. Does this scare you the way it scares me? [/quote] Interesting question Se7en, alhumdullilah. Are you also referring to those people that just do deeds without having the proper intention and concentration in them? That they are just going through the steps? Certainly it is scary to consider that one can go to an extreme where there is very little Islam left in him or her. Of course our iman goes up and down like a swinging pendulum, we need to control it so it doesn't swing out of control. Some of the ways I think one can control this is by reading more Quran when one thinks one's imaan is down. Also making sure one has friends that have strong imaan. Keep yourself busy, increasing your knowledge and making sure that you are getting knowledge from authentic sources. I dunno, I don't think its that big of a concern. :) |
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