YOU KNOW YOUR ISLAM IS
IN TROUBLE WHEN… By Taha Ghaznavi
the last thing you learnt about Islam, the Quran, or
Jihad was from CNN
all your conversations with your friends have to do
with guys/girls, or movies, or guys/girls in movies
you spend more nights at the club during Ramadan than
at a Masjid
you can't remember the last time you asked someone a
question about something you didn't understand in Islam
you find time to watch three movies a week but find
yourself too busy to pray Salah regularly
that Quran translation you were given last 'Eid is
still sitting on the top shelf of your bookrack
the 'inner voice' you hear when you are in complete
silence sounds surprisingly similar to the latest hip-hop song you heard
you don't know any people who you can say Salaams to
without feeling embarrassed
the feeling that God is watching you in all that you do
is never more than a passing thought
you are available to receive phone calls at 2 a.m.
your clothes and hair smell of cigarettes on Sunday
mornings even though you don't smoke
knowing something is right or wrong and feeling guilty
about it does not effect whether you actually do it or not
you gave hope of ever entering Paradise because you
don't feel you deserve it after 'all that I have done'
when you want something in your life you fantasize
about it and say "I wish!"
you can't figure out why you are never truly happy deep
in your heart and why nothing good in your life ever seems to last (why
does it always have to end?)
the happiest day of your life so far was on a
Christmas, Valentine, or a dance
you are loneliest when you are sad or when something
bad has happened to you (where did all my friends go?)
you don't think of the Prophet at least once a day
when you hear of Muslims dying somewhere in the world,
you consider it part of 'politics' which you have nothing to do with
your 'best friend' is a person of the opposite gender
yet not your husband or wife
you have no motivation to change things in your life
when your faults are pointed out to you, you reply
"This is who I am, for better or for worse!"
listening to the Quran does not make you feel guilty
you are actually flattered when people on the street
stare or ask you out
you friends never object to any of your bad habits or
behaviours and vice versa
you don't care whether you go to heaven or hell since
no one can really be sure about these things
to you, Islam is just another 'organized
institutionalized religion'
you actually agreed with everything your philosophy
professor taught in class
you generally feel crappy and often find yourself
telling people that
your consider and justify your sins as 'a part of who I
am'
you want to travel around the world someday but Makkah
is not one of your planned stops
your parents hate you and have said so to you
you read the horoscopes yet have never performed
Salat-ul-Istikharah
you have never felt like falling down on your face and
crying to Allah
you look down upon people who are more practicing than
yourself as 'just mullahs and molvis'
your past bad experiences with some Muslims prevent you
from getting closer to Islam and other Muslims