Well so far here is my story
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Peace bro Eric and welcome
Sometimes I just feel so bound by ritualism rather than by Allah's mercy.
This is a very big problem with Sunnism, and you illustrated it well. Most here follow the quran only and abandon unnecessary rituals as derived from the ahadith. Please browse around the forum, and I am positive you will learn a lot, as all of us continue to gain knowledge.
May God guide us all. Peace.
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Peace Eric and welcome!
I think it's wonderful that you've found happiness through searching like that. I'd agree with you about the feeling of being bound by rituals though. My family is sunni (and so was I) and this Ramadan I've been praying the traditional way, but with a difference by focussing more on my sincere thoughts and feelings towards God. I've stopped mentioning Muhammad, sitting 'the right way', wrapping my head tightly so not to offend God with my hair, worrying about physical direction of prayer, etc. My mum happened to catch me praying without these fun rituals and gave me a nice little lecture. The more she corrected me, the more irritated I became. I don't see the point of prayer if its so strictly regulated as I was focussing more on getting these things right (she wouldn't stop telling me off about it so I gave in - temporarily) rather than focussing on God.
Finding the path of God alone has given me more peace than ever before (although I'm not completely at peace yet) and I hope that remains for myself, you and everyone else! )
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Assalamu Alaikum all
Thank you all for the warm welcomes. I really appreciate it.
So true twilight about the prayers. To me it really makes no sense why we have to sit in a certain direction and sit in a certain way for Allah swt to hear and accept our prayers. Would not that be shirk? Or am I missing the definition of shirk?
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salam and welcome Ewells30,
I believe the method of salaat is not important at all. The purpose of salaat is much more important. Remember God doesn't need anyone, so anything we're asked to do would be for our own benefit, correct?
Basically do whatever kind of salaat you want that helps you feel closer with God. Meditation is a great example. In a language you'd understand would be helpful.
2945 Recite what is inspired to you of the Scripture, and hold the Connection (salaat), for the Connection (salaat) prohibits evil and vice; but certainly the remembrance of God is the greatest. God knows everything you do
Remembrance of God invokes our Good side and protects us from evil. That is the most important objective.
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Peace and welcome Eric,
This always helps me
4122 As for those who believe and do good work, We will admit them gardens with rivers flowing beneath, eternally they will abide therein. God's promise is truth; and who is more truthful in saying than God?
These are the roots of islam, imo. Let the branches and leaves grow from these roots, but always remember the roots, and will be well.
Peace,
Tay -
Assalamu Alaikum everyone
First of all let me say that I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed satan.
What a ride it has been. I mean, I am always amazed at how Allah will open our eyes to the truth when we are confronted with it. I tried to run away from the truth of following the Quran and nothing but the Quran. I even thought well maybe right now I will try to be sunni and not believe in hadith or sunnah. That didnt work. So basically after trying to run away, Allah in all His graciousness and mercy led me back to true Islam - the worship of Allah alone and following the Quran alone. Mashallah! Allahu Akbar!
Now when I connect with Allah in my prayers it all comes together. No more oops I forgot to do this and that. It's all about Allah - coming to Allah with my praise, my questions, my fears, my shortcomings, my failures, my sins etc and asking Him for mercy and grace. So amazing.
I ordered The Message from this website and cannot wait for it to come in the mail. Finally a translation of the Quran without associations with any sect. Until I receive it in the mail, I will continute to read the Quran that I have and ask Allah to show me what it means.
No more feeling bogged down by rituals and man made inventions. I have finally been able to become free - free from the chains that once bound me in rituals and have been freed to worship and serve the only one worthy of worship - Allah.
If any of you out there have paltalk feel free to add me - my paltalk username is I_Seek_Refuge_In_Allah
May Allah always continue to bless those He blesses, forgives those who He forgives, and guides those whom He has guided. Ameen
Assalamu Alaikum,
Eric
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In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful
Let me begin by saying that on September 14, 2007 I embraced Islam. Now before I accepted Islam I was a christian off and on. I was extremely a hardcore christian from about ages 18-20. Then when I was married for the first time I became a mormon. I was a mormon off and on for about 5 years and then after getting divorced I began my search for other religions out there. I came across Hare Krishna belief - practiced that shortly, but it didnt last. So off to the next one and the next and the next......And that cycle continued for a while. So next was Islam and that is when I stopped searching. In Islam I find truth, peace, happiness, basically the whole gammit of emotions. I never have felt closer to God than I do now in Islam. But before taking shahadah I was feeling so free to praise Allah and found it quite easy to believe in 1 God and ascribe no partners to Him. Here comes the odd part. After taking the shahadah, my faith went immediately on a downward spiral. I know Allah will test us for out benefit, but I was like how come why now lol. Sometimes I just feel so bound by ritualism rather than by Allah's mercy. I dont like feeling that way.
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Assalamu Alaikum,
Eric
Brother Eric,
I bid you peace and extend you the warmest possible welcome ... )
If my personal journey in Islam has taught me anything my brother, nothing is quite as cut and dry and without layers of complexity as some would like to believe, especially when it comes to everything outside the Holy Quran. I can only speak for myself in saying that the choices that I endeavor to make are based on my personal connection to Allah as He revealed Himself in the Holy Quran. Other texts and ways may help me understand the revelation better and shed light in my endeavors to manifest my submission to Allah, or they may indeed, at times intentionally and often inadvertently, lead us astray depending on the role you allow them in your life. The resources available in this website alongside works of traditional scholars such as Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir of Zaytuna Institute have helped me appreciate the Holy Quran at several different levels, and stay on the path without imposing anything that assigns an intermediary between Allah and my salvation.
All I can suggest in good faith is that you keep the faith, use all of your faculties in ?internalizing? the Holy Quran and assessing whatever you?re dealing with in your journey, and use your own educated judgment. The following verse in particular always reminds me of what I must do as a willful submitter.
"That is because God was not to change anything He bestowed to a people, unless they change what is in themselves. God is Hearer, Knowledgeable." (The Message 853)
Despite all my battles with those who wanted to do things this that or their way, as perhaps expressed in the 'avatar' I use in this forum, I have managed to hold my own easily with the Holy Quran as my guide. Then again, I have been fortunate to be born and now living in Bangladesh where religious tolerance is deeply rooted, and did not face any hostility in Northern California where I spent most of my adult life, before the evil events of 9/11.
The Sunni majority of Bangladesh is perhaps notably more tolerant than its other South Asian, especially Pakistani and Afghan counterparts, and ?in your face? religious advocacy by ANYONE is traditionally considered somewhat rude by the mostly non-sectarian Bangladeshi culture as a whole. Allow me to clarify.
Sunni Islam in then East Bengal and now in Bangladesh has always been Sufi influenced and tolerant, even 'unitarian' in its general outlook. The very fact that most Muslims in Bangladesh, while identifying themselves as Sunnis, do not follow any of the Madhabs in great detail, often do not even know what a Madhab is for that matter, and do not consider various Shia and other non-Sunni sects to be 'deviant' and/or 'non-Muslims' - is a good manifestation of that attitude.
That said, despite recent, meaning since 1947, some Wahabi and Pakistani sectarian efforts to establish less tolerant and often absolutist ?Madhabist? institutions and thinking, most of the people here almost instinctively consider Islam to be a personal matter which can and must inspire politics, but not be political in the traditional sense. Perhaps that is why no Islamic political party in this nation of 150 million with 90% Muslim population has managed more than 20 seats in the National Parliament of 300 seats. After some of the more recent terrorism-related events in the country, it is projected that they will not get more than 10 seats in the upcoming elections in December, 2008.
Islam for most Bangladeshis is something closer to the vision of Lalon Shai, a late 18th to 19th century Sufi-influenced 'Baul' (a 'folk' poet, songwriter and musician from rural Bangladesh) and his hauntingly beautiful melodies and deeply resonating lyrics similar in spirit to the words of Jalauddin Rumi or Sheikh Ibn Al Arabi - than some ?Madhabist? absolutism or Maududi and other types of religious politics of Pakistan or Afghanistan.
http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Lalon_big.jpg
Lalon Fokir, also known as Lalon Shah (Bangla (c.1774?1890), lived in the village of Cheuria in the area known during pre-colonial, undivided Bengal as Nodia (in the District of Kushtia in present-day Bangladesh).
Early life
Lalon intentionally kept his place of birth and the identity of his parents unknown. Around the age of sixteen he was found floating by the bank of Kaliganga river, suffering from smallpox. He was taken to the home of Malam Shah and his wife Matijan, who brought him up.
Philosophy
Lalon left no trace of his birth or his 'origin' and remained absolutely silent about his past, fearing that he would be cast into class, caste or communal identities by a fragmented and hierarchical society. Despite this silence on his origins, communal appropriation of this great politico-philosophical figure has created a controversy regarding whether he is 'muslim' or a 'Hindu' -- a 'sufi' or a follower 'bhakti'tradition -- a 'baul' or a 'fakir', etc. He is none, as he always strove to go beyond all politics of identities.
Lalon does not fit into the construction of the so called 'bauls' or 'fakirs' as a mystical or spiritual types who deny all worldly affairs in desperate search for a mystical ecstasy of the soul. Such construction is very elite and middle class and premised on the divide between 'modern' and 'spiritual' world. It also conveniently ignores the political and social aspects of Bengal's spiritual movements and depoliticises the trasformative role of 'bhakti' or 'sufi' traditions. This role is still continued and performed by the poet-singers and philosophers in oral traditions of Bangladesh, a cultural reality of Bangladesh that partly explains the emergence of Bangladesh with distinct identity from Pakistan back in 1971. Depicting Lalon as 'baul shomrat' (the Emperor of the Bauls) as projected by elite marginalises Lalon as a person belonging to a peripheral movement, an outcaste, as if he is not a living presence and increasingly occupying the central cultural, intellectual and political space in both side of the border between Bangladesh and India (West Bengal).
Works
Lalon has composed numerous songs and poems which depicts his philosophy.Among his favourite songs are khachar bhitor auchin pakhi,jat gelo,dekhna mon jhokmariay duniyadari,paare loye jao amay,milon hobe koto dine, aar amare marishne maa, etc.
Legacy
Lalon is one of the most brilliant and philosophically insightful minds born in oral and textual traditions who expressed his ideas in beautiful songs and wonderful musical compositions using instruments that could be made by any rural households from materials available at home an Ektara (a one string musical instrument) and a Dugdugi (a hand drum). The texts of the songs was explicitly written to engage in the philosophical discourses of Bengal continuing since Tantric traditions of the subcontinent, particularly Nepal, Bengal and the Gangetic plains. In Lalon one finds critical reappropriation of the various philosophical positions emanating from the legacies of Hindu, Jaina, Buddha and Islamic traditions developing into a coherent discourse without falling into the mixes of being syncretic. He is definitely going to occupy a central position in various ecological, feminist and politics of care and responsibility aiming radical transformation of the society. In recent years Lalon has inspired Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agricultural Movement), the well known biodiversity-based ecological movements of the peasants of Bangladesh as well as inspiring young musical generations to build upon his oral and musical foundations.
Influence
Lalon Shah had a perceptible influence on the poet Rabindranath Tagore, who introduced the Baul tradition of Bengal to the world. His own music had been influenced by the diversity of Baul tradition.
In 1963, a mausoleum and a research centre were built at the site of his shrine, the place of knowledge-practices. Thousands of people come to the shrine known in Bengali as akhra twice a year, Dol-Purnima, in the month of Falgun (February to March) and in October, on the occasion of the anniversary of his death. During these three-day song melas, people,particularly fakirs and bauls pay tributes to this great mind the subcontinent has produced.
Among the modern singers, Farida Parvin is definitely the most notable one as she has recorded so far 300 songs composed by Lalon Shah.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalon
Here?s an example of one of his popular songs -
Sects
People ask, what is Lalon's sect?
Lalon says, my eyes fail to detect
The signs of such things.Don't you see that
Some wear garlands, some rosaries
Around the neck?But what difference do they make brother?
Tell me what mark does one carry when
One is born, or when one dies?A Muslim is marked by the sign
Of circumcision; but how should
You mark a woman?If a Brahmin male
Is known by the thread he wears,
How is a woman known?People of the world,
My brother, talk of marks and signs,But Lalon says I have only deliberately drowned
The raft of signs, the marks of sect
In the deluge of the One!From Azfar Hussain?s translation
Here?s the link to a recent video of this song -
http//uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ0p9XXIwvM
That ?folk? tradition is alive and well here in Bangladesh, perhaps the one of the most tolerant of Muslim societies, and continues to thrive and evolve an integral part of its dynamic culture. Here?s a song from Durbin Shah, a Lalon disciple, being performed by Bangla, a contemporary ?rock? band from Dhaka, the Capital of about 20 million people.
The Vocalist Anusheh is my distant cousin (by marriage) and the Bassist is her husband Buno, both dear fellow travelers ? )
Link http//uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCj3p5u8hes
Rough transliteration of the Bangla (Bengali) lyrics, without explanation of the parables and allusions used in the song -
I couldn't pray
I couldn?t pray today O Allah
Life got in the way of my prayers.I was sleepy during the Fazr prayers
The Zohr prayers came and went just like thatWork took me away from the Asr prayers
I was at the barn during Maghrib prayersThe cow didn?t return today from grazing
And the calf wasn?t tied to his postMy wife told me we ran out of rice during the Isha prayers
And hearing my children wail of hunger
Crazy Durbin Shai broke down himself
I couldn?t pray today O Allah ?Apologies for blabbering on ... )
Thank you for your time.
Peace, Sohel
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Peace and welcome Eric,
This always helps me
4122 As for those who believe and do good work, We will admit them gardens with rivers flowing beneath, eternally they will abide therein. God's promise is truth; and who is more truthful in saying than God?
These are the roots of islam, imo. Let the branches and leaves grow from these roots, but always remember the roots, and will be well.
Peace,
TaySpot on, and thank you ... peace