By: MARIA YAHYA
How do you define ‘Identity’ ?
As per Webster’s dictionary, it is defined as:
“the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.”
It brings me to my next question-
What is our ‘Identity’ ?
The background to this question is illustrated in the following examples.
Aalia celebrating her tenth b’day by throwing a party OR
Mariyam on her tenth b’day offering 2 rakahs of ‘Nafl Namaz’ thanking Allah(swt) for His blessings.
Juveriyah participating in American Idol OR
Ayesha reciting the ‘Quran’ with Tajweed.
Ammar celebrating Christmas with his friends OR
Ahmad politely refusing the invitation to attend the Christmas Party citing his reasons and thus his ‘Choice’.
Bilal enjoying the company of his female friends OR
Julaybeeb enjoying the company of his male friends.
Fatimah dressed as ‘Hijarbie’ OR
Asma dressed in the proper ‘Hijab’.
Aasiya celebrating her marriage on a grand scale for seven consecutive days OR
Zain going for a simple ‘Nikaah’ and then ‘Walima’ (Reception).
Umar putting up a gorgeous profile picture showing him in his best OR
Sanah putting a verse of the Quran as her profile picture.
Talha rooting for the abolishment of ‘Triple Talaq’ OR
Osman fighting for retaining the ‘Triple Talaq’ but with proper rules regarding its implementation.
Yahya buying groceries randomly without any concern for ‘Halaal’ OR
Ismail buying groceries after checking the ingredients and confirming that it is ‘Halaal’.
Sumaiyyah reciting fairytales to her kids before bedtime OR
Sarah reciting the stories of ‘Sahabas’ and ‘Sahabiyahs’ to her kids before bedtime.
What CHOICES have we made ???
What ISLAM have we portrayed ???
What IDENTITIES have we adopted ???
What kind of REALITY faces us now ???
We, the Muslims, are so enraptured with the cultures and customs of other communities that we subtly try to blend in.
This blending has blurred the ‘LINE OF SEPARATION’ and somewhere down the line we have lost our ‘Innate Identity’.
What we are now and what we hold on to now is ‘Warped Identity’- this is the root cause of all our problems,
be it Education, Economy, Societal Values, Relationships everything.
If a gadget is made by man, then everything about that gadget is known to man. He can modify it, he can upgrade it, he can do away with it and create an entirely new one. All this is possible because man was the inventor of that gadget.
In the same manner, Mankind has been created by Allah(swt).
It is solely Allah(swt) who knows the whimsical nature of man and that is the reason why we have the ‘Quran’ and ‘Hadith’. They are meant to guide us in the right direction consistently and in all scenarios. All the communities have been done away with and its only ‘Ummat-e-Mohammed’ which has been given the honor of leading the entire world towards ‘Sirat-al-Mustaqeem'(The Straight Path).
Hasn’t the realisation dawned yet ???
Hasn’t the time come yet ???
Oh youth, where are you headed ???
” Nikal ke sehra se jis ne Roma ki Sultanat ko ulat diya tha,
Suna hai ye Qudsiyon se maine, wo sher phir hoshiyaar hoga.”
– Allama Iqbal.
I see hope in the above lines. May Allah(swt) help this ‘Ummat-e-Mohammed’ towards achieving this goal, aameen.
