By: Dr Shadee
Hypothetical: you're driving cross country and you get lost somewhere in Nevada, running out of gas in the desert. You're two little children are now really sick, bordering on death. You know for a fact that the nearest hospital is a one day drive north-east.
A straight-laced guy shows up on the scene. Very polite, very educated and easy to get along with. He has a nice car and air-condition. He offers to take you, but he *insists* that the nearest hospital is south, a journey of four days. Your kids will be dead by then. No matter how much you try to convince him, he simply will not believe you that there is a hospital only one day drive north-east.
Another dude shows up. A horrible, uneducated, uncouth guy in a dirty pick up truck with no AC. This guy is sweaty, smelly, cursing every other word, and is an all around source of misery for everyone. *But* he agrees with you: the nearest hospital is north-east, and he can take you there to save your kids' life.
So who do you go with? The guy who is really nice, but whose position on this hospital issue will get your kids killed? Or the guy who you actually can't bear to be around, but at least took the right stance on the directions so that if you pick him, your kids will live?
The right stance on things is more important than all the other good traits a person might have. Beliefs are not just accidentals, like ethnicity or skin color. One thing we have to say to Liberals, is look, stop trying to pair "race & religion" all the time as if they're equal. They keep repeating this phrase so that people drop their beliefs. It's a bait and switch, because as soon as you let go of your deen, they will force-feed you theirs. Thier religion of liberal, humanist, social justice.
Race and religion are not even near to being equal. Race is an immutable thing outside of everyone's control. Religion is a consious choice people make about the most important thing in human life: what is reality and what is right and wrong. Can there be anything more important than these questions? In our world-view as Muslims, the right belief is the greatest good a human being can have. It is the asset that must be protected first, before anything else. It is more important than anything physical. More important than nationality or ethnicity.
It’s funny with these Liberals. They’ll preach to you, “…whether you’re white or black...Muslim, Jew or atheist…gay or straight.” How many times have you heard this mantra. It's like a prayer to them. But they’ll *never* say, "Democrat or Republican…Trump supporter or Obama supporter…Evangelical Christian or just a spiritual person..." Hmmm I wonder why. Why do they draw the line there? Maybe it's because when it comes to *their* positions, beliefs suddenly matter! Evangelicals are summarily excluded!
For Liberals, who drive the lion's share of media in America (and the world now), heavenly religions don't matter, but the synthetic Humanist ones do. What they consider 'justice' or 'social justice' is worth getting angry over. It's worth breaking ties and boycotting people and companies for. They'll happily ostracize a celebrity who goes against their creed. It's probably worth dying for to them. So who says beliefs don't matter? These people hold beliefs above everything else, just that it's only *their* beliefs that matter. (Actually, some of these Social Justice Warriors are so extreme, if they ever became Muslim, we would have to calm them down. I would say listen, let me give you some Sufi biographies so you can calm down.)
So what's the final point we're getting at? It's that we have to get our confidence back. As a whole community, not just as individuals. And that confidence is not going to come from personal bravado, a natural talent, or because someone is rich or powerful or good-looking. All those things can change, and they're limited to a few accidentals. Rather, the belivers' confidence is based on iman. Our trust in Allah. And that iman is bolstered and fortified by ilm, knowledge. "Verily those who truly have awe of Allah are those who are learned."
I look forward to the day that this type of confidence is reflected in our institutions, not just in individuals. Don't you always feel like it's just a small band of individuals, but that the larger the institution, the more useless it gets. It's because institutions always play it safe. There are alot of innocent people who rely on the institution and can be harmed by any mis-step. So I say, I agree 100%. Play it safe: don't anger Allah. That is the safest position possible. Don't support what goes against the Sacred Law. Like gay-marriage or Perennialism or all-religions-are-equal. Why do we have to whisper these things?? I hate that. It should be out in the open: "This isn't Islam, I can't and won't do this. Period. I'll do a ton things, but not this." That's how simple it is.
May Allah increase us in knowledge, iman and confidence to make Allah boast of us in front of His angels. And it's not one or two people who will change anything. It's all of you, the readers and listeners out there. You might think you have no influence, but you do. If every one of us just voices their opinion in a polite and measured way, with humility and gentleness, and we crowd-source this, then things *will* change. Talk to the people in your family. Use the internet to spread the truth. You never know what will happen. And if the worst possible result occurs, then at least you can sleep with a sound conscience. In the sight of Allah, you did something. May Allah give us strength and tawfiq to live and die upon the Sunna and the Jama'a.