I am not an expert on religion

I am ever so grateful to God to have been raised in a home where His name was mentioned often. I don’t think most of us realize what a great blessing this truly is. I was raised a Muslim and I am blessed to have parents who encouraged me to ask questions and seek out my own answers, even when it came to religion, to use reason and not follow blindly. And so, over the years as I learned more about Islam, a discontentment began brewing within me. Even setting aside the violent Al-Qaeda ideology that always earns a perfunctory dismissal from just about everyone I know – even so – I found so much of my religion to be disagreeable, so much of it that I could not accept.

I know of others who share this discontentment. Much of what they know about this religion hardly sits well with them. They admittedly find it depressing, yet they hold fast to their faith, a loyalty borne of sentimentality and dutiful servitude to the norms of the Muslim societies/countries we hail from or the religious precepts of our families. They hold it all to be true and they believe it all to be right, even if they would never practice some of it themselves… and would never want to. But when this strife between what one believes to be right and what one feels is right in his heart grows enough to spill over to blemish one’s day-to-day life, and one’s esteem, it is time to question what one believes to be true.

Now I know there is an overabundance of “experts” nowadays. Be it health matters, money management, stocks, parenting, resume writing, spirituality; there is never any advice, suggestion or argument. There is always “expert” opinion, unequivocally worthier and undeniably accurate (presumably… and we’ll believe them because they’re the experts). They stake a know-all-end-all claim to their domain, planting a flag and calling themselves king. I suspect this phenomenon has been native to religion far longer than to popular culture (just judging by the commonalities it bears with the notion of crusades and conquests that litter religious history), and it may perhaps be the true culprit behind the creation of the various divergent sects of Islam in existence today… all claiming to worship the same God, follow the same book, and stake a higher claim to authority over the religion than others.

So I would like to clarify that I am absolutely not claiming to be an expert at all. I am not seeking a following. I do not think I have all the right answers or that God has inspired me with truth that no one else can see. I only desire a critique of my own thoughts and findings. If anything, I wish to inspire dialogue and independent critical thought. I hope to inspire others to think so that they may reconcile their faith with their reason – so they know why they believe what they do and can be at peace with their religion and themselves.