Sunday, February 18, 2007

A discourse on human relations with Allah (God)


"We as humans" have a problem.

We've done a terrible job at seperating our personal relaitonship with Allah from the political turmoil of the holy land. It is as if, our Iman (faith) is reliant on the truthfulness of certain nations/leaders of particular religious denominations. We tend to say, the christian religion is founded in the Neo-conservative policial ideology, or that, if you are a Sunni you side with Saudi Arabia and have faith in their leaders OR if you are a Shia, you have faith in Iran and have faith in their leaders OR if you are Jewish you have faith in Israel and their leaders.

STOP DOING THIS, this is anti-spiritual.

This is no way to conduct your religious affairs and will only act to corrode your personal relationship with Allah.

"We as humans" have a personal & private relationship with the ONE GOD; and this is above any political authority on this burdensome planet. Remember, your religion is not necessarily reflected in global politics. Do not rely on a particular country to help you re-affirm the validity of your religion.

Again, your relationship with Allah is above all, nothing determines it except your ability to witness him; not in the country which claims to carry it's flag.

Ameen.....If I've said anything incorrectly, forgive me.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting post.
I agree when you state "if you are a Sunni you side with Saudi Arabia and have faith in their leaders OR if you are a Shia, you have faith in Iran and have faith in their leaders OR if you are Jewish you have faith in Israel and their leaders". People have a tendency to want to box others into certain categories because they think it makes it easier for them to know what you're about or 'where you're coming from'. What it ends up doing, however, is reinforcing generalizations and stereotypes.

"Remember, your religion is not necessarily reflected in global politics. Do not rely on a particular country to help you re-affirm the validity of your religion." True that people should not rely on a particular country to re-affirm the validity of one's religions however in this day in age I think religion is reflected in politics. Things as simple as my right to wear hijab or your right to have a beard have become 'political' and as such I think we must address these issues politically, or attempt to at least.

just some random thoughts...

Neil Haj said...

Thanks for clarify Khadijeh....

You made some sense out of random thoughts...

But one thing sis, the beard and hijab are spiritual statments that have grown to be political.

"us as humans" are growing more political (my prof always tells me I'm becoming politicized) & less spiritual.

Therefore, we need to work to re-claim what was once spiritual from their new "political" definitions.

But we, on a personal level need to reclaim them, we need to re-claim them with our hearts. we need to see them as spiritual symbols before we "use" them as political symbols...Get what what I'm sayin'?

Unknown said...

lol I'm happy my random thoughts made some sense... they usually don't.

I do agree that wearing the hijab and having a beard are spiritual and not so much political. I do not believe i expressed what I was attempting to say. The hijab is more than personal to me, it is a part of me, therefore without the hijab I am not fully who I am... make sense?
In saying that when this part of my identity is being forbidden due to political agenda's, such as what my sisters in France and Turkey (etc.) are going through I feel it is important to attempt to battle these obstacles politically. They use politics as a way of limiting who I am and therefore I am forced to use this same medium against them. There is this notion of freedom of religion, freedom of speech or freedom of expression. Although these freedoms are severely abused by those in power as long as they exist, and these leaders are in 'democratic nations', then I should use these tools politically. These tools should be used to make sure the limitations on my personal, spiritual, religious foundation are not taken away from me and others. It is frustrating to think that things as personal and spiritual as the hijab must be made political but we must use their tools against them....

It's difficult to type out what I mean but I hope this makes more sense...

Neil Haj said...

RESPECT.

=)

azwar said...

Salam Hassan,

Yeh very true, I agree. Inshallah people can gain more knowledge and Iman...

I think the only person you can depend on in terms of "validity of your religion" is the Representative of God on Earth, and that is (for me) Imam Mehdi peace be up on him.

Neil Haj said...

I honestly think that due to the intense politicization of our culture and civilization; that people have mistaken and/or mixed the soul with politics....

in other words - people look through a political lens to analyze something spiritual...

very terrible...I do this sometimes, trying my best not to though

kinda like when you like someone, but due to seeing things from a political lens, their ideology may not be compatible with yours - but if you judged it from a spiritual lens, you'd realize how parallel they actually are...