Continuous prayer, Charity, Hajj and Fasting are looked at by some people as hardship and heartache for Muslims. But the Muslim sees them as a blessing from ALLAH. As they are commanded repeatedly in the 55th Surah, Muslims look inexhaustibly for blessing from God. [Knowing that man is fixated on the negative, Allah even challenges man to count all his blessings and favors from God (16:18)]. A Muslim will find in these practices remembrance of God, familiarity with the words of God, prevention from sin, a sense of unity and camaraderie, a system for the disassembling of racism, culturalism, classism and any other prejudice. It is a system which abolishes slavery and poverty simultaneously. It establishes and reinforces morals, ethics, self-restraint, and willpower. Not only do these practices build your self-esteem, but it promotes punctuality, health and hygiene, cleansing your body and mind. It is conducive to self-evaluation, altruism, empathy and sympathy. And most importantly these practices provide man favor with God and the map to a straight path to Paradise.
These practices along with the belief in ALLAH are the core, the soul of Islam. I would be surprised if anyone, whether a theist or an atheist, would have a problem with these methods and their goals. They are methods geared to solve the ills of society. Practitioners of Islam are to be philanthropist and humanitarians because adherence to these practices would cause great positive change for themselves and society at large. So what happens when you pursue philanthropy more fervently? Strict adherence would only increase and intensify its positive effect. For this reason, I object to misnomers like “Islamist”, “fundamentalist”, “radical Islam” and “extremist.” These words are given meanings which do not fit. Every Muslim is an “Islamist.” If a racist is someone who believes his race is superior to others, then an Islamist is one who believes submission to God is superior to any other way of life. A Muslim chose Islam because he believes that it is the best and correct religion, just as Christian view Christianity, Jews view Judaism and Buddhist view Buddhism.
Also, ever Muslim practices “radical” Islam. The definition of radical is something “proceeding directly from the root.” Islam is rooted in the teachings of the Quran which was revealed 1400 years ago. Every Muslim and mu’min believes that these roots are relevant to and compatible with the times of today. In fact, getting back to the roots planted by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is the ideal place for all Muslims, due to its outstanding results in terms of propagating Islam, freeing slaves, providing for the poor, giving women rights and abstinence from sin. Also every Muslim begins with the fundamentals of the teaching of Islam. That would make him a “fundamentalist.” The common name given to Muslims who disassociate themselves with terrorists is “moderate” Muslim. Moderate meaning one who does only what is required. In other words, they are the mediocre or average Muslim. Maybe most people fall in the category of “average”, but this is not a goal to reach for. After a fundamentalist has mastered the basics, his goal is to be a Muslim “extremist” or one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm in his submission to Allah. He offers extra prayers to Allah, he gives more of his time and wealth to charity, he goes to Hajj twice, he sponsors others to go for Hajj, and he fasts more than the month of Ramadan. What is the problem with this? The Muslim should be correcting these misnomers. The words that they are looking for is fake Muslims, false Islam or Muslims in error. Radical, fundamental turned extreme Islamists would be nothing but a blessing to the world.
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