Day 11 - Differences that Divide

I have come to the conclusion that organized religion as a whole has made a huge mistake. The mistake was not in encouraging people to reach God, or in giving them a path to walk. The mistake was in making their own path the exclusive road to God. Instead of unifying humanity in an effort to love God, organized religion (in an effort to control the path to God and thus control the travellers on that path) has pitted humanity against each other in an eternal battle of who is "right" and who is going to hell. And EVERYONE thinks they are RIGHT.

It is not just religions who battle it out between one another - the Christians verses the Hindus verses the Jews - within religions, sects or denominations also seek the exclusive rights to being the only ones who have God's ear.

That being said, Islam is no different with the sects, and I hope I can explain the denominations here in an understandable way.

The vast majority (84 to 90 percent) of all Muslims are Sunni. This is about the same as the percent of religious people in the US who are Christians, to put it in perspective! :-)
Sunni means "tradition" and they emphasize following the traditions and teaching of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the early Muslims who formed the Muslim "church" similar to the early Christian church, who formed the basic principles and practices of Christianity.

Shi'ite muslims make up about 10-16%. They believe that Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law was his successor and that the Muslim community at large should be headed by designated descendents of Muhammad.

Sufis are to Islam what Kaballah is to Judaism or what Charimatic Christianity is to mainstream Christians. They are a little "out there." Generally, most Muslims still view Sufis to be Muslim, but some uber traditional ones don't. Sufis have alot of admiration in my book, however, because they emphasize, more than any other branch, the importance of a personal relationship with God, a personal EXPERIENCE of God, and personal as well as spiritual growth. A number of Sufi orders (much like monastic orders) exist. Historically, Sufism has played an enormous role in Islam - both in literature and in producing scholars and poets. Sufis were more responsible for the spread of the Islamic religion outside of the Arabic world than any other group, and converted people in primarily sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) and central Asia.

Its interesting to note that although the sects call themselves by different names (and there are a few lesser-known and lesser-associated with Islam sects), they all are unified by the spirit of Islam - to know God, to love God, to submit to God.
Sunnis and Shi'ites alike pray five times a day. The both hold to the Essential Beliefs and the Pillars of Worship... the division is the path to God...and one wonders, if you're headed to the same destination, does it matter so much how you get there?

Day 10 - Loving God

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

- Rumi

The strongest motivator in any relationship is love. No less in Islam: the most important thing is that a Muslim love God, and from that love results submission, obedience, and peace. But the LOVE OF GOD is the keystone of Islam. "Love is what integrates the human soul, and the ultimate object of love is God." (Ahmad al-Ghazali)

If a life lived without love is not living at all, and if love is what creates life, what continues life, what extends life, and what enhances life, then the object of our love determines the dimensions of our world, in a manner of speaking. Loving other humans increases our dimensions of experience in life. Loving ideas or ideals increases our dimensions in an intellectual way. Loving GOD, who is described as everything - All knowing, All powerful, All controlling, Eternal, All seeing, All hearing - Loving God would then increase our dimensions of living to vast, perhaps infinite, proportions.

Love is an important concept in all religions, not just Islam. It is notably important to love God in Christianity certainly, but actually acting on the love is a different matter altogether. If loving God is important, what exactly does that mean to the Muslim who, by definition, is following a religion of peace, submission and obediance? How does love play into the whole scheme of things?

Putting aside the abstract idea of how one goes about emotionally loving God and producing the feeling of love, one must physically show love to the one being loved. Physical demonstrations of love are clearly set forth in the Five Pillars of Worship, in which all Muslims take part:

1. Shahada: A person becomes a Muslim by making the basic statement of testimony: "I testify that there is no God but God, and Muhammad was [one of] his messenger[s]"
2. Salat: Salat is a formal, ritualized prayer performed at five specified times each day, consisting of a sequence of recitations and bodily positions, including prostration with one's forehead touching the ground. (Interestingly, 47% of Muslims in America perform Salat five times daily. 66% perform Salat at least once daily. I wonder how many Christians would be able to say that they pray five times daily at specific times, were it required? Or Jews?)
3. Zakat: Charity and giving is important in the Muslim religion, and Zakat is due yearly and can be given to any charity, but primarily one that promotes Islam is encouraged. Zakat is 2.5% of income and assets.
4. Saum: Fasting during the month of Ramadan from sunrise to sunset is an important way that Muslims act out their love for God and recieve spiritual renewal.
5. Hajj: At least once in his or her life, Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and perform a series of tasks related to remembering Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and remembering the life of Muhammad.

Performing the rituals and rites don't create love, however much they come out of love. Its important to remember that loving God begats the desire to please him by service and obediance and submission. Love came first, and everything else grew from that love.

Ritual becoming real involves the infusion of love. And the relationship that God desires requires a catalyst of love.

Last Sunday afternoon, sitting with three beautiful Muslim sisters, Lubi spoke of getting past the ritual of Islam and making a personal choice to love God:

"[In many cases], you are born into [Islam] and you don't really think about it as much because you're just told you have to do it like this or like that, and this is how you think and this is what you should believe, and you just learn to believe that.

Some people question themselves, question their parents, question the religion, some people are told it's forbidden to question - that you shouldn't you should just accept it, so I started questioning - not the [existence] of Allah, but some of the practices that we do: Why do we do it like this? Why are we Sunni and they are Shi'ite?

I went for my Hajj with my parents when I realized the importance of it all. Seeing the Ka'ba (altar) in front of me and reading the Qur'an and the biography of the prophet changed me. When I went back [home], I studied the Qur'an. I love the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of the Christians, and I love Jesus. But in my heart of hearts, I know that every word in [the Qur'an] is from God. He is speaking to me."

Lubi's task was not to seek for love because it was there in front of her. God was there in front of her, and a relationship with Him possible at any time. Her task was to remove the barriers that she built in herself against it.
Her task was to MAKE IT PERSONAL.

I believe that...

Love must be personal to be real.

Loving with abandon is ecstasy. 

We were made to hope and to love, it is our nature as humans.

Seeking God, pursuing love, learning trust - these are natural yearnings of the human heart.

Wait, until you take a look inside yourself -
Recognize, what is growing there.
Oh seeker,
A leaf in this garden,
Means more than all leaves
You will find in paradise!

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come

-Rumi