Looking for the spirituality in religion

When I was a young girl, through my school syllabus and from attending religious classes in the afternoon, I was told that only (good, pious) Muslims will get into heaven. I have always wondered at the injustice of that statement. I mean, I was living in a community where there are many kind-hearted souls who are not Muslims. To my young mind, it was unfair that the kind uncle who always ensured we school-kids crossed the road safely or my school friends who helped me with homework and were just being good friends to me will be condemned to hellfire and brimstone simply for being non-Muslims.

I remembered my late grandfather telling us to be kind to everyone, regardless of race and religion. Furthermore, most other religions practice goodness and kindness, too; and it is not my place to be mean or act with malicious to anyone. Growing up, the different opinions of the many schools of jurisprudence, or fiqh, within Islam were not emphasised – with my late grandfather focusing instead on the, dare I say, spirituality of Islam.

Tales from his and my grandmothers’ hajj pilgrimages, and subsequently from the hajj performed by my parents’ generation, tell of the different ways this religion called Islam is practiced by the myriad of mazhabs the pilgrims subscribed to; yet each and every person was there praying for salvation and for many, performed their once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the holy land. Returning from the hajj, instead of berating that others had the religion wrong, both children and grandchildren were told to remember God in our everyday lives and in what we do, and to appreciate the differences, be it within the boundaries of the religion or with others of different faiths than us. 

It was only recently that I was aware of “pluralism” and “liberalism” being threats to my religion. I have been reading many articles on this particular issue the past week, and I cannot help but feel that it is such a narrow way of defining what is “right”; and, furthermore, the only reason behind all this is the need for control by our religious authorities. For what I wonder? 

It’s almost as if as a society, we have lost all common sense about what is good, and are adamant on being judgmental about what seems to be “right”. What’s more interesting to me is the need by our religious authorities to be rigid, strict, and condescending; it feels like every day they come out with a list of who else should be condemned to hell today, or what new practices can be considered “against the sensitivities of Muslims”.

I find it interesting that even bottled water needed to be certified halal, more so that having a picture of a popular tourist attraction next to the halal logo is a no-no. Reminds me of the time I had to explain about the halalness of laboratory-made vaccines in a local conference – that instead of having to explain how vaccines work, especially a vaccine that potentially protects against cervical cancer, I had to explain that there was no porcine DNA involved in the process and that all the viral-like particles used are synthetically made in the laboratory.

What has our society come to?

It saddens me to see the widening divide of an “us against them” among our society. This is made worse by the many more categories of “them” – now 3Ms are also divided into “liberal muslims” on top of the many mazhabs we subscribe to. What’s ironic is the fact that all of us believe that there is only one God. What’s more ironic is it is mentioned in the Quran:

“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well-acquainted (with all things).” 49:13

It seems that in our need to be “right”, we all forgo the need to be kind to one another. We forgo empathy, tolerance, and the understanding that religions teach us all to do good and to think good of one another.

In our race to be religious, we forgot our faith. – November 11, 2014.

*In loving memory of Katie Badrul, the fearless and beautiful, who is now with Love. Al-fatihah.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.