CULTURE vs. RELIGION

Asalamualaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu,

How are you? It has been a long time since I last posted on my blog. Alhamdullilah exams are finally over, so now I can relax a bit more and hopefully be more regular in posting.

One of the topics I want to address that has been playing on my mind recently is this idea of religion and culture being merged together, creating blurred lines.
I personally think that this is one of the main causes of misunderstanding of Islam, particularly in this world especially in the media.

Religion is a belief system, it allows you to have a set of morals and values that you follow, it gives you a sense of purpose and it gives you hope and information about the world that you may not necessarily find the answer to somewhere else. Culture on the other hand, is a set of traditions which have been marked by man, and is largely influenced by people and their way of life.

There are soo many examples I could give regarding how they become confused, but if you haven't noticed lately, Islam has become this targeted religion that has turned so many people against it (of course not everyone is influenced so easily), and the things that they mention as being 'Islam' is CULTURAL.

Islam doesn't teach pride, yet people are prideful, it doesn't teach aggression, yet people are aggressive, it doesn't teach the killing of men, women and children yet people continue to kill. It teaches you to act in a way that is opposite to how we may naturally react.

ISLAM IS PERFECT, MUSLIMS ARE NOT.

Another huge mix between Islam and religion is ... WEDDINGS.

I cannot express how many times I have seen weddings that are for muslims but they have so much in them which makes me think is this a muslim wedding. Subhanallah, it has always been said that if you start something in the wrong way, then this may affect the future. Islam doesn't teach us to listen to music and dance with the opposite sex, it doesn't teach us to show our hair if we usually cover it, it doesn't teach us to mingle with our non-mahrams.

I understand that my examples may not come across as clear. It is difficult to express something that you feel strongly about in writing just because it doesn't come out the way it makes sense to you.
I mention this only to say that I believe that so many of us do not regard the after life strongly enough to compromise things in this world that we hold dear, including myself. We make mistakes yes, but that is not enough of an excuse to try harder to become better. It is not enough of an excuse to say 'I know its wrong but I am still going to dress a certain way, or do a certain thing', it is just not enough.

We KNOW we are all going to die. Its a given. So WHY do we continue to do the things that we do that we know are wrong? Why do we let our nafs take over.

I know its hard, its never easy, but I just really hate seeing these things happen right in front of me, every where I go and know that I have a responsibility to say it when I don't know how.

Lets just pray that Allah gives us strength to do things responsibly and to get our messages across in a way that is inspiring and not ruthless.

Share your opinions and Insha'Allah we can grow as a society.