Religion is ease not extremism
Being born a Muslim does not always give you a better insight into being Muslim than outsiders think. Only if you are blessed with religious parents do you realise what a benefit it is to be a Muslim. Many or most people who become Muslim suffer for a period once they become Muslim. They can be affected by all the different groups bashing each other and look on in bemusement about the slogans people chant. It takes time to get the prayer right and it also takes time to get your head around things.
When one of the companions led a prayer and made the recitation long. Some of the congregation complained to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) whose face was seen to go red. He admonished the companion who lead the prayer advising him that people have needs and he should make the prayer light. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, “Whoever among you leads the people in prayer should shorten it, for amongst them are the weak, the old, and the one who has business to attend to. And if anyone among you prays alone, he may then prolong it as much as he likes.” (Bukhari).
Religion is ease and with ease comes mercy because you can be as hard as like on yourself but you have to be easy with others. Yet at the same time you cannot be so hard on yourself that you take things to extremes. You should be balanced and be in tune to the society that are living amongst. Imam At-Tahawi in the Tahawiyyan Doctrine point number 104 states, “Islam lies between going to excess and falling short.” These are two extremes, those who are extremely slack and those who are extremely uptight. Why? Because this is the nature of the Nafs/ego it is either very lazy or extremely active and both these are destructive. If you are lazy then you do not do anything that is obvious but being extremely active means that you'll wear yourself out. So by being balanced only then do you get what you want from the deen and dunya (here and hereafter).
Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, “Religion is ease and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that manner. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by offering the prayers in the mornings, afternoons and during the last hours of the nights.” (Bukhari 1/38)
Islam is not about overburdening people. It is about giving them what they need and allowing them space to grow. It’s not about being harsh and breaking their hearts when they do not what you told them to. We assume that what we are doing is perfect and what everyone else is doing is flawed. One thing that I am learning that different methods need to be used with different people and no one method works with everyone. We realised the flawed method of our teaching when we saw how high the standard we set for others and when they could not reach, it we scolded them. This type of arrogance must be looked at in the cold light of day. Weren't you once a student and did you not make mistakes? We have learnt the hard way that people need encouragement not debasement, as it is only through encouragement do people grow. Know your audience.
One of the ways that leads people to extremism in belief is when they take the Quran and Hadith literally which leads to countless misunderstandings. As the Quran uses metaphors and if you translate those literally then you actually leave the meaning of the text and misinterpret the text thus you betray the text you are trying to teach! If you translated the phrase the door is ajar literally is would mean that the door is a like glass jar! But it does not mean that, it means that the door is not closed and open.
Extremist is a term that denotes they are taking something that belongs to the religion to an unacceptable level. This is not true they are leaving the understand of the religious precepts that they are trying to convey.
Being religious is about taking a balanced middle course thus avoiding harshness to others or by making things difficult for others. We invite people to Islam with mercy and ease but we cannot force people into Islam. We encourage those brothers and sisters who are not praying to the beauty of practice by encouraging them even though they may often fall short we do not give up on them. Many religious people do not realise the harm they do to others with their "my way or the highway" Islam. Islam is Allah's way and he commanded us with mercy and compassion. Any other way is not the ethical standard that is Prophetic way and raising his banner means raising the banner of hope not the banner that my group is the saved sect and yours is not.
Being born a Muslim does not always give you a better insight into being Muslim than outsiders think. Only if you are blessed with religious parents do you realise what a benefit it is to be a Muslim. Many or most people who become Muslim suffer for a period once they become Muslim. They can be affected by all the different groups bashing each other and look on in bemusement about the slogans people chant. It takes time to get the prayer right and it also takes time to get your head around things.
When one of the companions led a prayer and made the recitation long. Some of the congregation complained to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) whose face was seen to go red. He admonished the companion who lead the prayer advising him that people have needs and he should make the prayer light. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, “Whoever among you leads the people in prayer should shorten it, for amongst them are the weak, the old, and the one who has business to attend to. And if anyone among you prays alone, he may then prolong it as much as he likes.” (Bukhari).
Religion is ease and with ease comes mercy because you can be as hard as like on yourself but you have to be easy with others. Yet at the same time you cannot be so hard on yourself that you take things to extremes. You should be balanced and be in tune to the society that are living amongst. Imam At-Tahawi in the Tahawiyyan Doctrine point number 104 states, “Islam lies between going to excess and falling short.” These are two extremes, those who are extremely slack and those who are extremely uptight. Why? Because this is the nature of the Nafs/ego it is either very lazy or extremely active and both these are destructive. If you are lazy then you do not do anything that is obvious but being extremely active means that you'll wear yourself out. So by being balanced only then do you get what you want from the deen and dunya (here and hereafter).
Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, “Religion is ease and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that manner. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by offering the prayers in the mornings, afternoons and during the last hours of the nights.” (Bukhari 1/38)
Islam is not about overburdening people. It is about giving them what they need and allowing them space to grow. It’s not about being harsh and breaking their hearts when they do not what you told them to. We assume that what we are doing is perfect and what everyone else is doing is flawed. One thing that I am learning that different methods need to be used with different people and no one method works with everyone. We realised the flawed method of our teaching when we saw how high the standard we set for others and when they could not reach, it we scolded them. This type of arrogance must be looked at in the cold light of day. Weren't you once a student and did you not make mistakes? We have learnt the hard way that people need encouragement not debasement, as it is only through encouragement do people grow. Know your audience.
One of the ways that leads people to extremism in belief is when they take the Quran and Hadith literally which leads to countless misunderstandings. As the Quran uses metaphors and if you translate those literally then you actually leave the meaning of the text and misinterpret the text thus you betray the text you are trying to teach! If you translated the phrase the door is ajar literally is would mean that the door is a like glass jar! But it does not mean that, it means that the door is not closed and open.
Extremist is a term that denotes they are taking something that belongs to the religion to an unacceptable level. This is not true they are leaving the understand of the religious precepts that they are trying to convey.
Being religious is about taking a balanced middle course thus avoiding harshness to others or by making things difficult for others. We invite people to Islam with mercy and ease but we cannot force people into Islam. We encourage those brothers and sisters who are not praying to the beauty of practice by encouraging them even though they may often fall short we do not give up on them. Many religious people do not realise the harm they do to others with their "my way or the highway" Islam. Islam is Allah's way and he commanded us with mercy and compassion. Any other way is not the ethical standard that is Prophetic way and raising his banner means raising the banner of hope not the banner that my group is the saved sect and yours is not.