Random ramblings

one of the biggest problems of our society is anger, impatience and the habit of engaging in unproductive and useless arguments. No doubt, healthy arguments do exist and they do have a positive impact on the society overall but unfortunately we, as a society or even as a group of individuals do not engage in such arguments. We are so caught up in the trivialities of life that we overlook the major issues. While talking from just the religious perspective, we tend to argue over issues like whether we should pray 8 rakat of taraveeh (Ramadan prayer) or 12 or 20. Or we tend to indulge in long and fruitless discussions about how high our hands should be while saying the takbeer in Salah or  how low the arms should be folded while in Qiyam during prayer. Yes these things are important but there are things bigger than this which need our individual and collective attention. We, as a nation are humiliated and crushed  today not because we are not loyal to our worships in the form of Salah, Fasting,Zakat ,Hajj but because we have failed to adopt the Islamic spirit within us.In the eyes of the rest of the world we are a nation of diverse thoughts and ideas with absolutely no consensus on religious matters and hence we fall prey to their criticism and sarcasm. Divided into a zillion sects, each faction is fighting for its own personal gain and the victory of Islam has been sidestepped and pushed to the lowest level in priority rankings.
Unfortunately, in a nation where the Ulemas should be leading and educating the masses, they themselves are engrossed in petty arguments and tussles amongst themselves.We need to realize that the the purpose is not just to learn Islam but it is actually to adopt Islam in our daily lives and use it to solve problems, implement its teachings to solve societal issues etc.
It is believed that memorizing the Quran and learning it's meaning and then passing it on to others is the need of the day and infact the purpose of this life. No it's not. Islam teaches us to be intellectual muslims and that level of intellect can be attained only if we APPLY the knowledge of Quran to solve the problems of our society today. What good is knowlege if it does not solve problems? And Alhumdulilah Islam is the one religion that offers a solution to every possible problem a man can face on this earth.
Rather than using Islam as an outlet to vent out all our emotions, we need to utilize this blessing so that we may rise as a nation and Ummah. Today, Islam is seen as a religion of self destruction and extremism on the international forum. Among the muslims themselves, Islam is taken as an emotional platform where muslims are looking for a reason to flare up and create an havoc on an international level. How easy it is for the disbelievers to control our emotions. they make danish cartoons of our Holy Prophet pbuh and we create an emotional turmoil in the entire muslim world. We lead protests, make slogans, call for strikes, go on hunger strikes and even create violence in our own city making innocent muslim brothers suffer losses for something the non believers did thousands of miles away. and then we have the nerve to complain that we have become the laughing stock on the international platform. What we fail to realize is that protests and violence is not going to convince the non believers of the beauty of our religion or the integrity and dignity of the personality of our dear Prophet pbuh, rather its our actions, our attitudes and our deeds that may win their hearts and will pull them towards the study of this religion which preaches of harmony and peace even in the face of opposition. If all religious factions unite into one under the flag of One Islam, if we all adopt islam in our lives, the entire world will look up to us and admire our religion, our Prophets, our beliefs and our mode of worships.


We may pray 5 times a day with punctuality and regularity but then we indulge in practices that definitely do NOT define a Momin. For instance, selling sub standard goods, deceiving customers and clients, lying , not fulfilling promises and committments etc. have become an integral part of our life. Islam is not only about having a prostration mark on our forehead or a head-covering on our head. No, it's much more than that. A believer is not only recognized by how he dresses and carries himself  but more importantly, a believer is recognized by his day to day dealings. Lies, deceit, corrupt dealings, dishonest transactions etc have become a trait of our society and yet we still label ourselves as Momins and believers. We need to look beyond the petty issues , we need to focus on factors which are eating up our society, our moral values, our ethics.
isnt it a form of arrogance to not be able to stand being corrected? We like to believe that we are always right, whatever we say or do is perfect. Anyone who finds fault with us or dares to disagree is at the receiving end of either a silent treatment or a verbal abuse (mild or aggressive). why are we so insecure? why dont we have the patience to listen to the other and gain benefit from his input. If only we could mellow our ego and learn to listen more and talk less, we could achieve self improvement in no time. As Nouman Ali khan emphasized the point that the very first and foremost relation we need to work on is with our own selves. We need to analyse where we go wrong,  where do we spend our idle time,  how do we interact with the rest of the society, with our family and our near ones, what do we do when we are alone when we feel no one is watching. we have sufficient time to point our fingers at others and emphasize their flaws but in the process we fail to realize that not focusing on our own flaws is the biggest flaw of all.