[Rufio]

Bismillah Ir-Rehman Ir-Raheem

Peace, Sister Peaches:

May Allah guide you, me, and all of us to the Straight Path.

When I was in college freshman, a program director hired me as tutor to highschool students from low socioeconomic and disadvantaged backgrounds who were struggling academically in school. During this time, in one of the one-on-one meetings with student to find out their academic challenges, I was confronted with an insolent and blatantly rude attitude from one of the students. The ebony girl was large and tall, and she was confident she could intimidate others, including me. I had no doubt that the girl adopted the same attitude with teachers, and they probably gave into her “don’t-mess-me” attitude probably by ignoring the behavior, secretly hating her, or chewing her out in front of her peers.

However, I decided not to play her game. Instead, I calmly called her out on her attitude, undoubtedly surprising her. I don’t know what she expected, but it probably wasn’t my telling her that I thought her “attitude” was bluster and a front and she had better realize that I saw beyond it to the person she was and could be.

In those few minutes, I think we forged an understanding that went beyond our tutor-student relationship and she dropped her guard. No, she didn’t magically transform into a model of propriety from that session onwards, but I can honestly say she never from that moment of our acquaintance behaved with me the way I saw her still often behave with others, most especially her teachers and peers.

In that same way, I refuse to play your game.

If we are to play a game, let’s change the game, shall we, my sister in humanity?

Life is precious and scary; people can be mean and critical. Bad things happen. That’s just life. However, I refuse to accept your excuses. You cannot camouflage your own inadequacies and lack of understanding in regards to Islam to tell me that you left Islam because of Islam and not because of your own limitations and insecurities.

Frankly, my dear, misguided Sister, Islam is perfection. Having been once an atheist, I can tell you this as a 21st century modern, highly educated independent woman. I am 100% sure that Islam is the truth and I now find /agnosticism an intellectually inferior and spiritually deficient position and view with grimness my own blindness and ignorance to the truth.

You and I…we have walked different paths in life…made different choices. However, let’s not pretend with one another that you have found the “answers” to life’s problematic questions. Instead, all you have really done is chosen a different path and run away from facing all the questions to which you do not possess answers.

You know, when I was in high school, I remember watching The Oprah Show on successful people. However, what stood out that day to me that day was one particular story of all the others because of the human aspect that rung true, even if sad and pathetic. The successful businesswomen featured in the show said that before her success, she was in a committed relationship with a man whom she believed she was going to marry. However, one day, that same man, after years of refusing to take the plunge into matrimony with her, married happily to another woman within one month or so of dumping her. She was shocked, not to mention angry. So, she found out where he lived with his wife and slashed his car tires. When she shared the story, mortified color flushed her skin. Since she was denied the means of lashing out at him, as she had obviously then desired, she thought up the next best thing in her mind. In that same way, you came on the Forum as a means of lashing out. Oh, you did in a very gentle and subtle way, but to me, it could not have been more pronounced than if you had in bold, big font text written, “Happily ex-Muslim, you idiots.”

Also, your words belie your saying that you have studied Islam with any care or precision, apart of course from some rules and injunctions at a superficial level that had your eyes roll in disbelief at what you considered outmoded ideas. Many points about Wahabbism, spirituality, and other relevant points pertinent to homosexuality underscore your lack of knowledge about what Islam is, let alone why you or I or anyone else in the world would want to submit to Islam.

If you can, imagine life as a vehicle in which you are in the driver’s seat with death as a destination.

If the driver’s seat is occupied by a competent and knowledgeable person, the person is able to navigate. Without knowledge and competence, a person is bound to get lost. Whether you believe me or not, you are presently lost because you have neither knowledge nor competence. Competence requires knowledge, and because you do not have knowledge, you lack the competence required to judge your knowledge. When I say knowledge, it will surprise you to know that I refer to not only Islam as a way of life but practicalities and realities of the status quo world.

To underscore this point, I refer you to the results of a study of two men from the Department of Psychology at Cornell University, which measured in quantifiable and viable terms how profoundly people miscalculate their skills or knowledge in relation to actual knowledge or abilities. The article is called, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing in One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.”

You see, my dear, misguided Sister, the reason you feel competent to judge Islam is because you do not have the requisite knowledge of Islam to understand its spirit or any of its underlying depth of wisdom. Also, from your own sweeping statements and generalizations, I do not believe you have studied human nature or its myriad perversities manifested in the world. If you did, you would see from every which way that you would look at Islam, you would see the answer.

Also, with regards to aspects of the spiritual such as witchcraft or the like, I have to say that they are true. If I brought a glass of water with salt dissolved in the liquid, you would not be able to tell that the salt is present until you tasted it. Therefore, it is foolish to deny something that falls under the realm of the Unseen, just as the salt in the transparent liquid would be in the realm of unseen to you and therefore unknown to your naked eye until you drank from the glass. Frankly, my dear, misguided Sister, spirituality is far too advanced a topic for you right now, because a baby must first learn to crawl before it can walk and walk before it can run. And since you deny the first principle of Islam, “La la ilaha illa allah muhammad rasool allah,” I would say that you should first concentrate on that if you were interested in learning about Islam instead of theorizing and speculating on Islam as an edifice.

Tell me something. Does the answer to 2 + 2 change? Does it ever become 5 or 6? Why does it remain 4? In that same way, as you know, Muslims say that Islam is the Truth. Therefore, you are right. Islam cannot change. However, that is in the nature of the Truth. Truth does not change because it is All (Objective) Reality for All Time.

After I read your words, a memory niggled me. It was the memory of a car bumper sticker, of all things. One day, when I was in the car with my parents a long time ago, I saw a car bumper sticker that had read, “If you live like there is no God, you better be right.” The words had spooked me even when I did not believe in God. I wanted to share them with you because they might be food for thought.

Allah has said in the Quran, “But Allah is free of all wants, and it is ye that are needy. If ye turn back (from the Path), He will substitute in your stead another people; then they would not be like you (47:38)!”

Sister Peaches, the above is the importance Allah gives to people who turn back from Islam. In some ways, many of us assign ourselves some outward value, but Allah tells humanity that far from the importance we assign ourselves as individuals, we should realize we are not irreplaceable. Therefore, if we desire good for ourselves, we will do as Allah says and not our own imperfect will because His Will is Perfect.

Presently, Sister, what you have done is exchanged gold for dross. Islam is gold, and the world is dross. You have made an inferior choice.

You may hope that you have made the right choice for yourself, but you will never have the certainty, will you? My advice would be study Islam again (and this time do it right). If you wish, you may begin with these two videos: Divine Speech Prologue 1 and Divine Speech Prologue 2. Or you may not.

In the end, however, as you know, the choice is really yours. Allah never forces anyone to believe, because He wants us to exercise our free will.

Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects Evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things (Quran 2:256).
If I have said anything that is good and true, it is from Allah, and anything other that is my own mistake.