Hypocrisy and the Role of Religion

Oftentimes, I ponder about the role of religion and my deep disdain of hypocrisy. According to the dictionary hypocrisy:

1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

2. An act or instance of such falseness.

I've noticed in my short sojourn on this planet that the biggest hypocrites tend to be in religion. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a "religious" person per se, but the problem with us religious folk is that we tend look out the window and look at others, but forget to occasionally look in the mirror and look at ourselves.

For instance, over the past "holiday" the "Christian" right decided to go to war with companies and people who said "Happy Holidays" vice "Merry Christmas". As a Muslim, I found that quite funny for several reasons:

A: By now we should all know that Jesus(PBUH) was not born in December, and that his birth is celebrated then, as an act of the early church in their attempt to wipe out paganism by putting "Christian" holidays over the old pagan ones. The irony is that many of the pagan traditions remain to this day. Christmas tree anyone?

B: Christianity is supposed to be about those who follow Jesus(PBUH) in speech and deed. Why is it that most who practice this "holiday" care more about themselves than others?

C: It really troubled me at how "Christians" really rallied around this "war" but, won't rally against the wars Jesus(PBUH) would have cared about, like the war on poverty, illness, and wars against the fellow men.

I mean lets be real for a minute people, Jesus(PBUH) never taught us that we should celebrate his birth, which is probably in the fall, so why exactly are we doing it?

Then there's the Muslims.

We are supposed to be the example for ALL of mankind in manners, modesty, deeds, and worship. Yet, look what's happening in the Muslim countries! Look at North Africa, the Sudan, Indonesia, Iraq, Palenstine, Pakistan, etc. We are so busy talking about how righteous we are, yet we allow our fellow Muslims to suffer, treat our women like crap(and worse), and the so-called kings are living like pharaoh, while the masses suffer. I could go on and on, but all one has to do is turn on the news to see what I mean.

Then there are the Jews....well I will leave that alone, because its not Politically correct for a Muslim to comment on them. However, I will say this, since when did righteous supposed to take a back seat to financial gain and greed?

I point out these few examples and I could go on and on to say this, how can we as a believing people ever expect to get non-believers to follow us when we are just as bad if not worse than them?

One of the truest leadership principles I learned in the Marine Corps was that we are to Lead by EXAMPLE.

We have to rid ourselves of our iniquities and Submit to the One God of Abraham(PBUH) whom we claim to serve.

My battle against Atheism

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that any particular ideology holds the exclusive rights to all that is knowledgeable. I mean as a firm believer in a One Supreme God, Creator and Originator of all that is, I understand that such a massive being cannot be held in such minute "titles" that we give Him. Now as far as Atheism goes, I don't really have a problem with them, what works for you is for you, and what works for me is for me. The problem I do have with them is their so-called mental superiority that they claim to have over the believers. Sometimes, they are so good at it, that the believers stumble and fall at their suggestions. Atheism, as they believe is a system of logic and or reason, and religious ideology is not. Sometimes they are right in that assessment, because some of us are so weak spiritually, that we get so caught up in doctrines, titles, and rituals to the point we don't even know why we do them, and can't explain their purpose. If your one of those types of believers, I suggest you cease and desist, because your never going to win over the hearts and the minds of the people being a blind follower.

This is where atheists love to attack the most. They love those blind followers who can't explain their beliefs logically. Many that may read this blog know me as Abdur Salaam on the Russ Parr Message Board. I have been called Mujadeen (warrior of Islam) by many fellow Muslims because of the way I articulate and defend the faith. Of course, this comes with a price, because every chance people get, they "attack" me with questions and or ideas to try to "stump" me. This doesn't just come from my Christian brothers and sisters, well most of the time, but it does every now and then come from the Atheists. As believers in the God of Abraham, we must learn to deal and speak to all peoples if we are to truly be fishers of men. We can't allow ourselves to come off as fanatics or ignorant adherents to fairytales. As Solomon(PBUH) wrote in the book of Proverbs: "It is not good to have Zeal without knowledge, nor be hasty and miss the way"

Three Questions

Yesterday, I asked 3 questions that I think are and were profound in what I like to call my "spiritual" development. Oftentimes, many of us don't sit back enough and contemplate this whole thing that we call "life" and or God or Allah if you will. Sometimes pondering on the things that we tend to put on the back burner not only strengthens us, but makes us draw closer to Allah.
I have heard one too many times from "religious" folk that they definitely fear the Lord. If that is the case how come we don't submit as readily? As I asked yesterday:

Unless we are willing to submit to God are we truly fearful?

I mean, lets get real here, we have all seen it before, you know the same people at the club Saturday night, up in the Church Sunday morning shouting and passing out. Or the biggest hell raiser in the family is also the most so-called religious one. I'm not saying that we have to be perfect to praise God, but lets think about it for a minute. I mean even I do it sometimes, I such a good Muslim, yet I miss some of my prayers, or I'm not very careful in my speech. We all do it to varying degrees, which is the human flaw of non-perfection, but doesn't fearing God mean that we should try extra harder to please Him? Some of us consciously go against the will of God, and what's even worse, many of us don't have that self accusing spirit that allows us to at the very least fell bad about our transgressions.

What does it mean to submit?

There are volumes and hundreds of years of knowledge that try to communicate the precise definition of what this whole "submission" thing means. Personally, I believe that submission is not just the active or permissive obedience to God, but it is the conscience acceptance of the reality of God that lets us know that in truth we really don't have a choice but to submit, so instead of trying not to, we come into compliance naturally. Only when we accept our spec of sand position in the universe, and reverence Allah as He should be revered then in our humbleness we bow down and submit and true peace enters into our lives.

How can one submit on a daily basis?

Daily submission is not as hard as it sounds. First one needs to recognize that the world is going to go on with him/her or without them, and its best to act in harmony with the "way it is" than go against it. Then one should pray. Prayer is our communication with the divine and it centers and balances us on many physical and psychological levels. Submitting also means we have to exercise restraint. You know, when someone cuts you off in traffic! Instead of blowing a gasket, just learn to ignore the human flaw and just pray for them. Think positive about life. Thinking positive also forces you to act positive. As Jesus(PBUH), remarked so as a man thinks so is he.
Be positive to others and yourself. Watch how you communicate. A friend of mine told me that their mothers favorite saying was, once you write something, it can be erased, but the marks are still there. We really have to get away from our loose tongues. You know the phrases "if you have nothing nice to say don't say nothing at all" "the pen is mightier than the sword" etc. Lets not forget that God created the universe with a word. We are all little gods according to the scripture, at least potentially, so we have to remember that our words and deeds can not only create, but also destroy. Don't forget to be positive to yourself. Stress is the #1 killer. We have to learn to let go.

We must also be conscious as to what we put in our bodies as well. Don't forget you are what you eat.

I could ramble on and on and would probably start sounding like Confucius, Plato, or the Dali Lama, so I'm going to sign of for the day and God-willing come back tomorrow with another musing.

I really want to get into what going on with the world. The news is just so troublesome these days....