"Bear patiently that which they say and take leave of them in a beautiful manner."
Quran, 73:10
In the Quran we are reminded again and again (and again) not to judge. To me this passage spells that notion out briefly and wonderfully eloquently. Of course, and sadly, so many Muslims (as with all practitioners of all religions) manage to forget this. Naturally, I'm not actually any better, if I were being honest with myself (and that's one of the reasons why I'm taking on this year-long quest). If I'm adversely judging my fellow brothers and sisters for judging people then I'm just judging them myself, if only basing it on a different, although equally unfair set of criteria. One of our ex-Imams, who I often found myself in conflict with, would encourage the members to critique each other. His rationale was that since we are instructed to compete in excellence we really needed to work harder at our faith, and thus we should bring in the entire community. It bothered me it seemed like we were being asked to focus on exactly the part of the faith, the external, that it's awfully easy to get fixated on while ignoring the more profound internal search for the divine. It seemed that we were creating a community of busy-bodies rushing around to look down our noses at the other members for not starting their fast on time or potentially missing a week. Obviously, I was being just as judgmental, and overlooking a part of the faith which is important, but which didn't agree what I found most interesting. This is a passage that I find myself repeating quite a bit, because I both think it's crucial but it's also all too frequently one of my shortcomings. I guess if you were going to translate it into regular secular jargon it would be a reminder to count to ten.
Quran, 73:10
In the Quran we are reminded again and again (and again) not to judge. To me this passage spells that notion out briefly and wonderfully eloquently. Of course, and sadly, so many Muslims (as with all practitioners of all religions) manage to forget this. Naturally, I'm not actually any better, if I were being honest with myself (and that's one of the reasons why I'm taking on this year-long quest). If I'm adversely judging my fellow brothers and sisters for judging people then I'm just judging them myself, if only basing it on a different, although equally unfair set of criteria. One of our ex-Imams, who I often found myself in conflict with, would encourage the members to critique each other. His rationale was that since we are instructed to compete in excellence we really needed to work harder at our faith, and thus we should bring in the entire community. It bothered me it seemed like we were being asked to focus on exactly the part of the faith, the external, that it's awfully easy to get fixated on while ignoring the more profound internal search for the divine. It seemed that we were creating a community of busy-bodies rushing around to look down our noses at the other members for not starting their fast on time or potentially missing a week. Obviously, I was being just as judgmental, and overlooking a part of the faith which is important, but which didn't agree what I found most interesting. This is a passage that I find myself repeating quite a bit, because I both think it's crucial but it's also all too frequently one of my shortcomings. I guess if you were going to translate it into regular secular jargon it would be a reminder to count to ten.
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