Ramadan: What kind of example are we(muslims) portraying to the non muslims?

Islamic Values vs. Muslim Values

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The misconceptions that surround Islam in this day and age are too great to number.

A repeated scene is that of a Muslim having a discussion with a non-Muslim and trying to explain that Muslims are not terrorists, Muslims are not wife-beaters, that these actions are the deeds of a few which are then unjustly imposed on the whole Muslim population. But if the whole Muslim population had presented themselves in an Islamic manner in the first place, the reputation of a Muslim would be far too virtuous to allow the misdeeds of a few to tarnish the image of the whole Muslim world. But Muslims generally do not present Islamic values, they present Muslim values; and the difference between these two can sometimes be as vivid as night and day.

What do I mean by Islamic values and Muslim values? Islamic values are those that are set out in the Quran and the practice of the noble Messenger, Muhammad (S). Muslim values are those that are created as part of the culture of the Muslim communities. These include the day-to-day interaction between the Muslims and their outlook on Islam's rules and regulations. The difference is that Islam is perfect and pure, while the values formulated by the Muslims may or may not be in accordance with Islam. The detriment that arises from this is that many times precedence is given to the Muslim values over the Islamic values.

This is not to say that Muslims do not care about Islam, they care for and love Islam deeply, they have concern for their children's Islamic upbringing and the welfare of the Muslims all over the world. But what happens is that certain practices become common among them and their mentalities are set on justifying these practices instead of accepting the Islamic rulings on such things. They become a part of the Muslim culture and mentality, and so it becomes difficult to try to explain to them that Islam forbids such things. Because of this transformation in mentality, the average person in such a community will be hostile to someone bringing Islamic rulings forbidding things such as music and dancing and enforcing things like hijab and modest conduct. Having gatherings and parties that center around music and dancing, and removal of the hijab and modest conduct have become common among many Muslims, and so they constitute what we have called Muslim values, as opposed to the Islamic values.

The Muslim values are caused by a relaxation on the enforcement of Islamic laws. The Islamic values, principles, and priorities are contained within these laws. Prayer, fasting, charity, hajj, hijab, modesty, being kind to others, giving parents their due rights, emphasizing the importance of marriage, attending the Islamic centers and masjids, gaining knowledge, all of these are designed to build spiritually healthy individuals and a spiritually healthy society. When the performance of these actions is relaxed then a void is created that is receptive for outside and often unIslamic ideals.

When there is relaxation then a distorted concept of freedom is adopted, it gives the Muslims the courage to challenge the Islamic laws and present their own philosophy as to why following the laws is not necessary. They make excuses to oppose the laws and create their own, when the Quran has clearly said,

And it behoves not a believing man and a believing woman that they should have any choice in their matter when Allah and His Apostle have decided a matter; and whoever disobeys Allah and His Apostle, he surely strays off a manifest straying. (Al-Ahzab, 33:36)

An understanding has to be conveyed that the Muslim communities will only thrive if they adhere to the principles of Islam. The concept of Islam that the non-Muslims have is directly related to the actions of the Muslim communities, because the majority of them will not go out and research about Islam, they will make their judgments based on what they see the Muslims doing. So it is not surprising for them to think that Muslims drink alcohol, that they eat pork and ***** food, they listen to music, dance, go to discos and nightclubs, engage in promiscuous relationships, and many other things that a Muslim should not be doing. On the flip side, it is not surprising for them to be ignorant of the fact that a Muslim is supposed to pray at least five times a day, he/she has to fast during Ramadhan, go to Hajj once in a lifetime, abstain from cursing and abusive language, abstain from backbiting, go to masjid on Fridays for jum'a prayer, read Quran, and other basic obligations that a Muslim has.

The result is that a distorted image of Islam, the pure and perfect religion, is presented to them, and in response the Muslims try to say that it is a few Muslims ruining it for the rest of them. But this is not the case, the responsibility lies with the majority of the Muslims who themselves are not acting Islamically. Yes, it is true that the terrorists are few, and that the equation of a Muslim with a terrorist is wrong and unjust. But this is an isolated incident, and in general it is the majority of the Muslims ruining things for themselves. This can only be corrected by starting at the root of the problem, the Muslim family and attendance in the Islamic centers. If the parents are consistent in teaching their children and are themselves consistent in practicing Islam, and if the entire family attends the Islamic centers on a regular basis, then we will see an amazing transformation in the conduct of the Muslims, as individuals and as communities. Then when the non-Muslims look to the actions of the Muslims they will actually learn about Islam, and will not have to worry about whether or not what they are seeing is Islam.

As Muslims, we have to strive to make our Muslim values the same as our Islamic values. Only then can we truly be considered believers.

An Article written by : Atiq Ebady

http://english.islamway.com/bindex.php?section=art...

I agree with you and FML. Fortunately I am married to a Muslim and know many Muslims so I know that many in this section are not a true example of Islam. However, people who don't know Muslims personally and only have the media or this section to learn about Islam and Muslims would be so turned off they would run as fast as they could in the opposite direction. I didn't start coming to this section until after I'd met my husband and I was shocked at the behavior of many here. I stupidly and naively assumed all Muslims who claimed to follow Islam were just as loving and kind as the ones I knew personally.

I've said many times in this section that whether it is right or wrong people do judge a religion based on the actions and behaviors of it's members. It's human nature to do so. There are only a handful of users in this section that I admire because no matter what is thrown at them they respond with patience, love and kindness. These are "true" Muslims.

So many here gripe and complain about how the media portray Muslims, well the media doesn't come anywhere near how people in this section portray Muslims. The media report about terrorists and their activities and seldom do they report about everyday Muslims. If they spent even one hour in this section they would have enough to make several hours of reports about just how bad Muslims are.

It's not the media making Muslims look bad, it's Muslims who make Muslims look bad.

Yes thank you for bringing up this point,it is a tragedy of modern life (especially in the west)that so many people suffer both ill health and poverty,or old age and poverty.If you are unable to work due to something which is out of your hands,there should be a system to protect you.But sadly the systems such as welfare and medicare have failed,and so many suffer. Its also tragic that the rich are doing very little to help the poor,instead they throw million dollar parties and live a life of excess ignorant to the fact so many suffer.Few people realize how merciful and comprehensive Islam really is,how it has a solution to every problem within society.~Tarre

"Rather, too many rely on what is said about Islamic theocracies (such as that of Saudi Arabia and other countries who implement strict Sharia law), which can often be quite awful (in the case of Saudi Arabia, women not being able to have a job, drive, defy her husband, or elect whether or not to cover herself, and people cannot be with unrelated people of the opposite sex, not to mention you can be beaten or killed for many things that most of the world feels undeserving of such harsh punishment)"

ROFL, another noob saying Islam oppresses women.

Not all Muslim countries are like that. And actuall Saudi Arabia is ruled by tyrants which in turn is supported by the US.

In fact there have been at least 5 Muslim countries that had women presidents for long terms. And even then, they still have women in leadership roles such as companies, villages, communities, etc.

Stop spreading false information.

To answer the question, Islamic preachers merely focused on the quantity of converts rather than the quality of the conversion. This was especially true during the old days when Islam was spreading throughout the world.

Salam.

Why do U want 2 know ???

What difference does it make ???

Personally It's the feeling of insecurity caused by various acts (be it muslims,hindus,christians or chinese etc) that concerns me the most.

Since u've asked only about muslims i'll talk only about them.

I believe all people are trying their best to do good, be good, for good. So i view every one as normal even muslims.

I talked about feeling of insecurity caused by various acts. Just quoting one recent example. I agree Muslims in India are a minority ( guess they are around 20% of total population). Recently Jamait-e-Ulema Hind organisation in India issued fatwa against singing national song 'Vande Mataram' to all muslims. Personally I feel they should have just appealed to muslims & left it to their wisdom & judgement instead of issuing a 'FATWA'.

Acts like these are disturbing. Some feel the ego & pride of their religion is hurt. I personally felt worried bcoz a minority community can deny the national song because it contradicts with their religious interests(fine with me) say what if they become the majority community in coming 50 years then will they deny the national song to the entire nation just bcoz they are the majority. What guarantees are there that they wont do so.

I may be paranoid & dellusional. I apologise to everyone who may feel offended by my words.

If at all i want to blame anything I will blame the two human traits pride & fear which can drive any one to insanity irrespective of religion.

Im a Hindu & I believe in humanity.

It's a really good question. I've seen a lot of answers on Ramadan saying that the majority of muslims do not espouse terrorism, and getting quite annoyed when they are constantly linked to it. I can understand that annoyance. But I think there is also a gulf of misunderstandings that muslims have about the ordinary non-muslims.

I don't know how we get around this, but I think if ordinary muslims and non-muslims could spend more time together, socialising and actually discussing issues rather than just glossing over them in the name of tolerance and multiculturalism, that it could really help things.

I don't know about in other countries, but in the UK we have this culture of political correctness, where you "tolerate" everyone. But what gets my goat about this is that sometimes you end up "tolerating" something in someone else that isn't actually there.

So non-muslims "tolerate" the "fact" that muslim women are all abused and subordinate and that muslims all want to destroy the west. And muslims "tolerate" the "fact" that non-muslims are all like wild animals who just want to copulate at every chance.

Neither of these things are right, and the fact that we are "tolerating" them, rather than confronting them means that we never find out that our ideas about the other are actually wrong.

We are more similar than we think.

The Muslims I know at school are great people, but most people do not have Muslim friends on which to base their opinions. Rather, too many rely on what is said about Islamic theocracies (such as that of Saudi Arabia and other countries who implement strict Sharia law), which can often be quite awful (in the case of Saudi Arabia, women not being able to have a job, drive, defy her husband, or elect whether or not to cover herself, and people cannot be with unrelated people of the opposite sex, not to mention you can be beaten or killed for many things that most of the world feels undeserving of such harsh punishment). It's really an issue of lack of choice, especially for women. Also, many people in the world (especially in the U.S., where I live) did not have hardly any understanding of Islam before Muslim terrorist attacks started making the news, so people wrongly think that this is just how Muslims are, not realizing that the Christians who bomb abortion clinics and the KKK who uses Christianity to justify racial and faith-based segregation and hate towards non-whites and non-Protestants are not representative of Christianity as a whole any more than the Muslim terrorists are representative of Islam as a whole. Also, many people focus on the violence and bad things in the Quran as if those were the focuses of religion, not realizing that the Christian Bible has some pretty horrible things too that aren't followed.

You guys watch movies and listen to Music and but oh oh, do you which Surah says Ar Rahman, A'lamal Quran... Surah Rahman, do you know which Surah potrays the tauheed, Allah is One... Surah Ikhlaas, how many chapters out of the Book of Allah, out of the words of Allah, out of the speech of Allah, do you know?

Answer - Oh i only know 10.

how many music lyrics and movies names you know?

Answer - 25.

Is this your Islam? is this your imaan?

and I AM THE FIRST TO SAY THAT IM A HORRIBLE SLAVE OF ALLAH.

Live like an ordinary human being showering lots of love and care to the people.

lol

I have a few Muslim friends. Some of the nicest people ever.

Then I come here...

Most Muslims here make Islam look very bad. I've seen them calling other names and being very very rude.

Yes I know I've been mean too but I don't have a religion lol