struggling between morality

[psyah]

Re: struggling between morality

@lil_ash

How do you distinguish between morals set by religion and morals set by society/yourself. I’m struggling between morals set by myself and the so called morals I hear set by religion. I feel like an outcast in my own religion. I feel like I have a different Allah than other Muslims. I disagree with so much of what some Muslims have to say about our religion, morals, or Allah swt. I believe in Allah, I believe in Prophet Muhammad pbuh, but I don’t agree with what people have to say about our religion, or the ways of following it. Does that make me a non Muslim? A lot of mullah type religious people have told me that I follow a religion set by myself not Allah swt, and it breaks my heart being an outcast. Do morals set by me make me a non-muslim?

Peace lil_ash

Now this is a topic worth a real discussion … so I thank you for raising it. Also, include yourself as a resident of my ‘household’ - my sister in faith, in race and in humanity.

Where we all may feel outcast - we are not outcast until we have walked out of the door ourselves, knowingly. If we feel that we belong and others still say salams to us, then to differ in understanding is not the same as differing in values and core beliefs. And even then if we differ in core values and beliefs this is not the same as being insincere to Allah (SWT) and RasoolAllah (SAW) …

I trust you are sincere to Allah (SWT) and RasoolAllah (SAW) in which case you will be rewarded for that sincerity, however it is the job of the ulema to guide us and align our understandings - that is the process of orthodoxy. And at times we should not hold fast to our values and principles without first seeing if there are higher authorities than our personal judgments on a matter. Even amongst the ulema there are differences of opinion … but again the choice is ours to take … the human mind is a prism it diffracts pure knowledge into different colours - and each colour will be traceable to source … of course different circumstances demand different considerations … I feel the rule is regarding oneself to be “strict” yet on others be very “lenient” …

So on this basis I say that if you are knowingly **setting your own morals **instead of following the established morals in Islam then you need to ask yourself are you setting them in order to please Allah (SWT) and RasoolAllah (SAW) or yourself? And if the former then you are basically proposing an alternative understanding than other humans - be they ulema you disagree with … if on the other hand you do so to please your own self in the sense that that is what you WANT Islam to be, then you can question yourself whether if it is fair for you to be making that choice or should you try to seek what Allah (SWT) wants it to be? In this case, I would seek from Allah (SWT) the ability to be true to His Purpose for us … Ask Him to send you guidance … And if you conclude that you are wrong about a matter then … ask Him to send you contentment in the other opinion and wisdom to understand it …

The morals set by you do not make you a non-muslim … if you feel you can justify the position then keep your opinions … it is better to be living as a Muslim who has faults than a person who believes they are non-Muslim. You are judged on the intentions behind your actions … and Allah (SWT) is in full knowledge of your ability to reason, access to knowledge and how well others have tried to portray their version of the message to you … Your concern about being a Muslim is the important bit here …

Lastly, please bring your issues about faith in the critical areas regarding your beliefs here and we can discuss them through inshaAllah … I can almost be sure that you will find not only that you are far from being non-Muslim but you may find a lot of agreement.