"To me, Islam has almost nothing to do with saying your prayers in Arabic or making the hajj to Mecca, and everything to do with how you treat other people every moment of every day."
GS, August 2019
I try not to quote morons on my blog, but I'll make an exception here. This is something I found myself saying yesterday, and I don't know what I would add to it. I suppose this is a continuation of my discussion about my personal war between the internal and external aspects of the faith, but it also reflects the blog post discussion the other day about the difference between attending and participating in the communal service (and that would be any service from any religion) and quietly reading and meditating upon your religion's holy writings. Again, I keep coming back to the foundational Islamic concept of returning the worse with the better, and our emphasis on small kindnesses. Does any of this matter if we're not being consciously and consistently kind and compassionate and forgiving to the people, near and far, in our lives? I can't control the end of the world but I can control what I do with this one moment.
GS, August 2019
I try not to quote morons on my blog, but I'll make an exception here. This is something I found myself saying yesterday, and I don't know what I would add to it. I suppose this is a continuation of my discussion about my personal war between the internal and external aspects of the faith, but it also reflects the blog post discussion the other day about the difference between attending and participating in the communal service (and that would be any service from any religion) and quietly reading and meditating upon your religion's holy writings. Again, I keep coming back to the foundational Islamic concept of returning the worse with the better, and our emphasis on small kindnesses. Does any of this matter if we're not being consciously and consistently kind and compassionate and forgiving to the people, near and far, in our lives? I can't control the end of the world but I can control what I do with this one moment.
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