Are We True Muslims?

Can we call ourselves true Muslims? An estimate is that from every 1000 people in this world who call themselves Muslims only 4 are actually Muslims.

One of the main reasons is the different sects that we have in the current population of the Muslims in the world. Each sect has independently studied the Quran and Hadith, and made their own rules and assumptions based on their understanding. If we read the histories of the many founders of the different sect, we see that they all made rules and assumptions based on their own understanding. We have more than 73 sects in Islam with their own understanding of Islam.

A common man is now picking items from each sect that he likes or wants to do. Rather than following any given sect and going into details as to what is right and what is wrong. Many just choose few easy things from different sects and say that they are following them as per Islam. One example is that if a certain sect says that working in a bank where the major income is through Interest is haram (forbidden) and another sect says that it is halal (allowed) a common man would say that it is Halal. And in another case, if the same sect that terms working in a bank as Halal says that Zakat must be paid on certain items which another sect says that it should not be paid then they would follow the other sect in order to stay out of socket. Now the question is, are we truly following Islam? Or we just use the name of Islam to do what we need and enjoy the luxuries of life the way we need?

Islam has very clear instructions on how women should cover themselves fully with hijab in front of other males, but are we doing that? Even in Islamic countries we do not see that alcohol is prohibited in Islam and are we avoiding that? Nowadays, some Muslim countries are top importers of expensive wine and other alcoholic drinks. In many cases, men and women are both found drinking alcohol. Is this what we call true Muslims? We are getting so involved with the luxuries of life and taking so many habits from the non Muslim world, and we are forgetting what being a real Muslim is.

Many of us do not even do the very basic requirements of Islam on a regular basis. If we look at the mosques in today’s world, we see many being empty. If we look at the Islamic education institutes which should be filled with kids, we see them empty. Now, how can we expect to spread Islam and follow it when we do not even have time to go to the mosque ourselves or send our children to the institute? For us the normal academic education is more important than to teach our children the fundamentals of Islam at the early age when they would really remember what they learn.

All of us should really take a close look at what we do, how we behave and what we follow before we say that we are Muslim as when we look close enough we would probably be shameful if anything on calling ourselves a Muslim.

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