Taking Responsibility for a Positive Life

Personal responsibility and self-discipline are essential characteristics of people who live meaningful lives. By accepting responsibility for your life, you give meaning to your existence. Responsibility is empowering specifically in the sense that it motivates the individual to believe, ... if anything is going to be, then it is up to me. Blaming others is often an excuse to transfer accountability rather than take responsibility, thus comfortably avoiding liability

Positive Engagement
The Prophet (pbuh) said;   “ Deal with people with the best of character.”
This demands of each one of us to realize that …
-    if someone is rude, if someone is impatient, if someone is unkind; I will not respond in like manner.
-    I will carefully choose and guard my words, being certain that I do not spread gossip, slander or malign anyone in any way.
-    I will find ways to alleviate the burden of another and make life more pleasant.
-    I will do my utmost to forgive any hurt or injuries that I may experience and treat others as I wish to be treated in every encounter.
-    I will exert every effort to fulfill my personal and social obligations and to execute my moral responsibility.

All this, for I know that …
•    whatever I do has consequences, and that the consequence of good is ultimately good
•    I must carefully consider what I think, what I say, what I do;  how I say what I say and why I do what I do …for all these determine who I am.
•    my smile, my words, my expression of support, my touch, my care; can make the difference
•    eventually, I’ll be held personably accountable for my life

The Call of Islam: Peace & Moderation

(Not Intolerance and Extremism)

Islam is salaam (peace) and taslim (submission to the Divine). In Islam Peace is the standard, it is the principle, and each person of faith has the moral obligation to maintain peace, without compromising on justice and truth. Islam invites to the subul as-salaam (pathway of peace); peace of mind, peace of conscience, peace in the family and society, peace with one's Creator and His creation. One of the attributes of the Divine is As-Salaam (The Source of Peace) and Muslim greeting universally, upon meeting and departing, is As-Salamu 'alaykum or "peace be unto you". The final and ultimate reward for human endeavor is Paradise, referred to in the Qur'an as Dar-us-Salaam (Abode of Peace)
The Believers were intended to be a ummah/community that serves as a standard/model for others; what the Qur’an describes ….And we have made you (ummatan wasata) a median community / a people of moderation/ a balanced medium in order that you may be a testimony or model for humanity. [Q 2:143] It is the absence of the balance provided by wasatiyyah (moderation) that extremism creeps in. Wasatiyyah is indeed an antidote to … ghuluww (excessiveness), tanattu’ (harshness), tashaddud (severity), tatarruf (extremism) … in all its forms.

Extremism undermines the very essence of Islam
The very spirit of Islam is underpinned by the Qur'anic conditioning of the Muslim as a social being who needs to be fully cognizant of the fact that …
•    Life is sacred (5:32)(6:158)(17:33)
•    Overcome evil with good (13:22)
•    Neither be destructive nor malicious (4:29)
•    No animosity to those who are not hostile to you (60:8)
•    Do not be aggressive ( 5:87)(2:190-193)
•    Pardoning is better than revenge (7:199)
•    No compulsion in Religion (2:156) referred to as the “Freedom Verse”. The reason for the enshrinement of the values of the “freedom verse” is that: the two largest tribes of Madinah, Aws and Khazraj, before Islam made a pledge if their wives give birth to baby boys they will Judaize them. This is how some of the members of those two Arab tribes became Jews. However, when many among those two tribes entered Islam, members of these families wanted to forcefully return their children to Islam. This verse was then revealed to protect the rights of those offspring to choose their religion.


Muslim Terrorist is an Oxymoron
There is no command or teaching in Islam can be referenced as the direct reason behind an extreme act, and killing on the innocents is unforgivable.  Those who are planning and orchestrating any senseless killings are the worst enemies of their religions and communities. Those who are perpetrators acts of wanton violence in the name of Islam are doing a most grievous disservice to Islam. Others take pride in being Muslims however anti-Muslim their stance may be. Then there are those who cheer up acts of violence because they too have degenerated into a hateful people.
Zealots are a scourge
Zealots are a plague upon religion. These “religious” extremists come basically in two types …

-    The reactionary extremists do not want any pluralism; they view the world in black and white, good and evil, in terms of their understanding. They are good and anyone who opposes them is evil. From among the Muslims these are people who ‘excommunicate’ any Muslim who fails to share their interpretations of the Quran and their understanding of Faith. They use takfir (denouncing a Muslim as an unbeliever) and character assassination as a tool for marginalizing any criticism directed at them. They consider those not of their school of thought as those who are not of truly their faith; and they consider those not of their faith as worthless. The notion of the honorability of all humanbeings [Q 17:70] is alien to them

-    The radical extremists differ only in that they will use violence to further their cause and that the end justifies the means. They see any act as acceptable if it will further their ‘cause.’ This is blatantly anti-Islamic. In Islam the means must reflect its noble ends. Any means that does not embody the core truths and ethics of Islam is not from Islam and thus denounced as aberration. Islam is not a secret society of conspirators where no one knows what they are planning. Islam declares openly its aims and objectives and these are recognized by good people everywhere as pure and congruent with     higher wisdom and accepted traditions. Islam never allows a Muslim to kill the innocent and the helpless, nor does it allow anyone to entertain the intention of harming them. May Allah protect the innocent from the injustices of the self-righteous.

Divine and Prophetic warning regarding extremism
Extremism is condemned as the Prophet said; I warn you regarding extremism, because communities before you were destroyed due to extremism [Nisa’i] Greater still is the warning against extremism in religion. Allah warns do not be extreme in your religion  [Q 4:17 1]. The Prophet thus warned …My intercession will not be availed to two categories of my community; an oppressive/unjust ruler and a rebellious extremist [Tibrani].
Let us align ourselves with the guideline of the Prophet. According to Sahih of Imam Muslim, the Prophet (pbuh) advised … Allah is kind and loves kindness in every matter. Kindness has been granted capacity which violence could never attain.

Resolution for Life

The new calendar year being ushered in is a good time to make personal resolutions. A resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to an attitude, a moral task, personal habits, or a lifestyle change that is advantageous to the self and others. These commitments set goals to be achieved and is a means of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty, moral commitment, humility and dedication.

For a meaningful resolution, there needs to be pre-resolutionary questions…Where am I, where could I be?   Our lives are continually being shaped by the choices we make and the convictions and values that underlie them. In this sense, our lives are like works of art, in progress. We can take the material of life and either react to it in a passive way, always remaining life's victim or take it and use it creatively, becoming the architect of one's life and a participant in shaping one's destiny and in designing one's true potential.

What is “my” role in a troubled world at a difficult time? There is a dire need for introspection and an honest evaluation of our potential and our limitation, an assessment of our activism or lack thereof; a self-appraisal of our prospective value as a global citizen.

Learn to recognize the purpose of your existence, and realize the value of what you could offer.  No person is insignificant and no good deed is too small. Every little counts; the desert is vast, but it is constituted of tiny grains of sand. No grains, no desert. We may be a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that drop and if every drop was to be removed, there’d be no ocean.

Shift in Perception ~ Change in Life

Meaningful living comes from honoring each moment and making every action count. It is a tiny shift in perception that assigns meaning and importance to each moment. It means stopping to notice the beauty and love around us, and within us. It means being fully present in each moment, because only the present moment truly exists.

So many of us worry about the future, hold regrets about the past, and completely ignore the present. When we give the now our full attention, even mundane tasks can take on an aura of significance. It is then that our lives become millions of meaningful moments, and we learn to value the Prophetic advice to be in this world as if you a stranger or a passer-by, appreciating every moment