been a while since the last time i visited this forum, few years back when i was searching for answers in life. in many ways, questions were answered after i found this website and some other progressive islam sites, as a matter of fact, i dont were hijab anymore, i dont do my prayers no more, i tried to eat pork (but got to quit coz of my cholesterol), tried some wine and beer (but didn't like the taste), i'm not even fasting this month of ramadhan. i dont know if i went overboard with my 'liberating' adventures, but i do know that after a while i started to feel like something is missing... i started to miss the rituals i used to do, started to miss my hijab, started to long the noise of azan from the mosques (don't hear it here in the US). i just feel like i want to go back to my old life being a 'regular' muslim (which was a sunni,btw) not principally perhaps, merely nostalgic. dunno if any of you got the same kind of feelings i do, guess it's just a temporary drawback (hopefully...)
If you want to became 'sunni' again.. feel free to do so!!
What's stopping you???
It's not wrong to do the sunni's cultural habit, if you found peace and happiness in doing it.
What's wrong is; if you're intolerance to other people's culture!
To every People have We appointed rites and ceremonies which they must follow, let them not then dispute with you on the matter,
but invite (them) to your Lord
for you are assuredly on the Right Way.
If they do wrangle with you, say, "God knows best what it is you are doing." "God will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning the matters in which you differ."
(2267-69)
PS
From my perspective I still enjoy and love the long, highly-pitched and wailing azan, and found my self longing for such azan when I'm abroad.
But now I don't believe that it will repel Shaytan/Devil, as I once believed when I was a Sunni.
I'm also still fasting on Ramadhan, doing shalat rites as my sunni's teacher once told me to do when I was a kid.
The same cultural rites, but the perspective and meaning now is different.
I'm now doesn't feel 'terrorized' that God will burn me in hell if I missed one shalat or missed a fasting day..
As shalat, fasting and rites are actually FOR YOURSELF / FOR YOUR OWN SPIRITUAL ENHANCEMENT.
Salam / Peace
