The
Religion of Love
By
Ali Sina
Muslims
often wonder, if I am asking them to leave Islam, which religion I
recommend? Which religion is better? Here is my response.
Most
but not all the religions contain violence in their holy books and with
a very few exceptions all of them have had bloody pasts. However the followers of
these religions have managed to distance themselves from violence and
have learned to live in peace with people of other faiths. As a matter
of fact, religion can be a positive force in the lives of these
believers and inspires them to do humanitarian and altruist works.
The
problem with Islam is that it has not changed. Islam is a violent
religion, its author was a violent and indeed a brutal man and it is
designed in a way that it just can’t change. Islam can be weakened but
it can’t be reformed.
A Muslim asked
what Muslims should do if they leave Islam. Is it possible to be
irreligious?
My
response is yes it is possible. But each person should find his or her
own answer to this question. There is not a one size fit all response.
I do not
say everyone can live without a religion. I personally have a religion.
In my religion I am my own prophet and the Golden Rule is my holy book.
My awe and wonder of this universe satisfies my mystic
quest and my love for all beings gives me the religious sense of
belonging. My church is mankind and my God is the Single Principle
underlying the creation that gives harmony to the world and meaning to
the existence.
You are welcome to explore
this religion, if you dare not to be a follower but a prophet unto your own.
However,
this is not an easy religion. It is hard to be a follower and a prophet
at the same time. Sometimes you just wish you had a genie or a
guardian angel at your side that not only protected you, but also
answered your questions and freed you from the daunting task of thinking
and making decisions.
If you are among these people you find
solace in religions. Someone else has done the thinking for you and you
decide to trust this person. Religions provide you with all the answers. Those answers may not be true but they absolve
you from thinking and making decisions. Some people go to shamans; some
see psychics and some consult their holy books for answers. Even I
sometimes throw a coin. The point is that deep inside we are children, we are insecure and in need of guidance. It is easier and more
comforting to surrender and trust someone else than rely on our own
judgment and commonsense.
So the
question remains what religion one should choose? The answer is if you
can’t be a prophet onto your own; choose a religion that teaches love. God is in love.
There is
not a single and exclusive path to God. No matter where you are or which
path you take you can get closer to God if your heart radiates love.
Some religions claim to be the one and only path to God. This is because they have no
understanding of God. These are the ones that are misleading and the ones
you should avoid.
Compare
God to the Sun. There is no path on Earth that can take you to the Sun
or closer to it. All paths are the same. In fact to bask in the sunshine
you do not need a path at all. You can enjoy its warmth everywhere.
In the words of Krishnamurti:
'Truth
is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any
organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or
ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological
technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship,
through the understanding of the contents of his own mind,
through observation and not through intellectual analysis or
introspective dissection.”
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But if
still you need a path, the best are those that teach love and infuse in
you the oneness of mankind. The only way we humans can experience God
is through love. A religion is true to the extent that it teaches love
and is false to the extent that it instills hate. This makes Islam the
falsest religion and the most dangerous one.
Islam
preaches hate. It portrays the non-believers and especially the Jews as
the enemies of God and the enemies of Muslims. It makes Muslims paranoid
and distrustful of others. It whitewashes the horrendous crimes
perpetrated by the Muslims and magnifies the shortcomings of others.
Muslims are led to believe that if America
goes to Afghanistan
or to
Iraq
to liberate the people from tyrannical rulers and make the world a safer
place for everyone the real motive is to kill the people. They honestly
believe that American soldiers are ordered to shoot the children. On the
other hand if
Muslim terrorists ram passenger jets into buildings and kill
thousands, detonate bombs in metros and discothèques or slit the
throat of innocent people, it is not as bad because these are done in
“desperation” and in reality the culprit are the victims who oppress
the Muslims and leave them no other choice but to retaliate. Practically
all the Muslims believe that Bin Laden is created by America and yet
amazingly these very people can not get themselves to condemn him
wholeheartedly.
Muslims
do not think killing Jews is wrong. In fact millions of them fantasize
drowning all the Israelis
into the sea. Muslims are absolutely unconcerned about the right of the
Jews to life. But if a Muslim is driven out of his home, by non-Muslims this is
an insult to the religion of Allah and Jiahd and bloodshed is the
only way to restore this dishonor.
Islam is a religion of hate. It breads hate and it practices violence.
This religion is the farthest from God and it is sheer evil.
This
Muslims wrote:
"For me and
millions of believers in our Creator to stay unreligious is impossible.
This is the main issue Mr. Sina. You should find and offer an
alternative for us."
He is asking me to
do something that is diametrically contrary to what I stand for. It is not up to
one man to tell others what religion to follow. God has given us a brain
and we are responsible to use it and find our own way. I can’t tell
others what path they should choose. I can tell what path I have chosen
for myself. But everyone has to find his or her own path.
I have
chosen the pathless land. I search no more. I do not run here and there
chasing a wild goose because I know truth cannot be found anywhere
outside of me. I found the truth already in my own heart. I experience
this truth in my love for my fellow human beings. In little things like
talking to an old lonely woman and joking with her, in listening
patiently to an elderly man who just wants to tell you about his
youthful memories, in hugging a little child who is scared and wants
comfort, in giving a hand to a friend or a stranger, in bringing love to
mankind and in being an instrument of peace.
Truth
is in patience, it is in forgiveness, in fairness, in justice, in
service, in sacrifice, in compassion. Truth is in love.
Everything
is relative. All truths change. What seems to be truth today; turns out
to be false tomorrow. Only love is real. Love is real, everything else is fantasy.
“Forgotten lie
the martyrs in their dusty catacombs
And the faiths, for which they died, are cold and dead.”
(Margaret A Murray in The Genesis of Religion)
By leaving
Islam you do not have to leave your faith; but you evolve and your
understanding grows. When Galileo proposed that the Universe is not
geocentric, he did not deny the existence of the Earth. He introduced a shift of paradigm -- a different understanding of
the physical world. Likewise I am not
advocating the abandonment of the faith in God but rather a shift of
paradigm and a different understanding of the spiritual wrold.
It really does not matter what religion we follow. As long as our
religion does not make us hate our fellow human beings, that religion is
a true religion.
What is important is that these
theological introspections concerning religions are not the crux of the
matter but love is. If your heart is filled with love by contemplating a
tree, you can worship that tree. Choose a religion that makes you more
loving. What religion you choose is up to you.
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