There is no doubt that the world has changed tremendously over the past couple of decades. If we were to compare our daily lifestyles with that of our parents’ generation, there would be so few similarities. We now live in a world where everything is instantaneous – food, communication or information.
Socially, the landscape is also changing. In the past few decades, society has become more liberal, and the erosion of values have crept into our homes. Modesty has been redefined, and many of the prohibitions which applied in the past have now been lifted in the spirit of “liberalization” and “free choice”.
We were trained from young that success is defined by material wealth and status – today, the primary purpose of a good education to get a good job and be wealthy, not because of the love of knowledge. Materialistic and superficial values have been instilled in us from young – a typical fairy tale involves a wealthy prince and a beautiful girl, the story usually culminating in a lavish wedding before the couple lives happily ever after to rule their kingdom. Our upbringing has indoctrinated us with love of the superficial and desire for the material, where a woman’s only virtue is her beauty and her only criteria is a handsome man who owns a palace. We perpetuate these false values by re-telling the same fantasies of pots of gold and caves of treasures to our children.
We were brought up to believe that success in this life is judged by beauty, status and money. These are the main benchmarks in assessing whether our lives have been worthwhile. We have been conditioned to believe that with wealth comes everlasting security and that anything can be bought, even our happiness. Material wealth and luxuries are the lifeblood of our existence, and we pursue these relentlessly.
In the process, we sideline our spiritual needs. We feed our physical and material desires, but we leave our souls starved and diseased.
Human beings have spiritual demands which also need to be fed. In the chaos of today’s lifestyles, under the immense pressure of instant delivery and gratification, many feel that Islam is not just irrelevant, but also incompatible with our daily lives.
We may have made significant technological advancements from when Islam was first revealed. The world is now a different place, unrecognizable from the days and lifestyles of our grandparents’ generations, much less those of the times of the Prophets. We might as well be living on a different planet.
So is Islam now an alien concept which just does not fit into our landscape today?
Who are we?
Let’s subtract the gleaming skyscrapers, the demanding careers, the difficult exams and the important assignments from our lives.
Stripped to its bare basics, all human beings are wired the same way. We have the same universal physical and emotional needs, and we all function the same way. We laugh, cry, experience the feelings of joy and sadness, taste the same hunger, have the same desires, and will all die. It doesn’t matter whether we were born in the desert or in the city, whether we were born twenty years ago or two hundred years ago – humanity comes the same set of basic values.
Whenever we were born, wherever we live, whatever our lifestyles, humankind was created for a single purpose – to worship Allah.
Pause and examine human history and the nations before us, and we will realize that mankind has not changed throughout the ages. Societies then were just as keen in pursuing material successes as they are today. Vice and promiscuity have existed since the dawn of time. By and large, with some notable exceptions, past civilisations mocked the righteous and failed to make religion relevant to their lives.
The buildings may be different, but mankind has not changed. We face the same challenges and corruptions as our ancestors, and they gave the same excuses as we do now. Society is filled with the same personality types as existed then, and they faced the same pressures and obstacles in adhering to their faiths as we do now. The only difference is the combination and proportion of all these different elements in society today. Technology may have progressed, but at the core, mankind is still the same! There is nothing about being born in this day and age that makes us any more unique than them, or any more exempt from God’s laws than they were.
If so, then another understanding should be apparent. If we were created for a specific purpose, then it is only logical that if we live out that purpose and do what we were meant to do, we will function better and find fulfillment in this life and in the hereafter. If we disregard that purpose and try to do something that we were not created to do, we would only damage ourselves in the long run.
If we make the objective of our lives the pursuit of material life, while disregarding the more important and overriding purpose of worshipping our Lord, we are forcing ourselves into an environment for which our natural selves are not designed to handle. This incompatibility leads us to short circuit and burn out.
Instruction Manual
Parents joke that they wish their babies had been born with instruction manuals. Actually, humankind came with an instruction manual from our Creator – the Qur’an. In it, are detailed prescriptions for our lifestyles, the do’s and the don’t’s. And that is reinforced by the teachings of Prophet Muhammad SAW. Allah has not simply left us stranded to figure out our direction in life, He has given us ample clues and answers. All we need to do is to apply them in our lives.
Yet often, even Muslims disregard these instructions. Or, we cherry pick, choose the aspects of Islam that please us, and ignore (or even deny) the ones that are inconvenient to us. In doing so, we keep pushing ourselves into environments that Allah has warned us against in the strictest terms.
Incidents of relationship problems, broken hearts, substance abuse, financial stress and family problems, are usually rooted by our disregard to what we are meant to do in this life, compounded by our persistent lack of following Allah’s teachings on getting out of difficult situations when they occur.
Excessive attachment to material goods and people, family, setting unrealistic goals for worldly success, behaving in ways to achieve our hearts’ desires, longing for the superficial, judging people by their beauty or wealth – none of these values were prescribed to us by Islam. In fact, some of these actions are strongly condemned. Yet, we stubbornly persist, implementing them in our daily activities, and in doing so, we steadily push Islam out of our lives.
Would we buy a car, ignore the instructions and fill the engine with water instead of petrol? Would we buy the latest smartphone and leave it unprotected in the rain? Would we ignore the labels of our expensive dry clean only suits, and put them in the washing machine?
If we are cognizant enough to observe the simple labels and instructions for the things we possess, then why are we careless about observing the rules and injunctions which guarantee the safety of our souls?
When all levels of our lives are out of synch with Islam, the natural conclusion is that, Islam will not compatible with our lives! Yet, have it the wrong way round. It is our lifestyles which are not compatible with Islam.
Going back to basics
The first thing we have to remind ourselves of why we are here. Let us again contemplate the question:
What is our purpose in life?
We were all created to worship Allah.
What we get in rerun is peace on this earth and Paradise in the hereafter. We will taste the joy and contentment that can only come from experiencing Allah’s love and protection to us. It is a reward unmatched any career, money, house or spouse can ever give us on this earth.
But there is a catch –
During our time on earth, we will be tested again and again for our sincerty.
Through fear, hunger, the loss of our loved ones, the fruits of our labour.
There will be distractions, and the call of dunia will constantly entice us to make us forget our original purpose in life.
Our goal is to pass these series of tests. And Islam has been sent to us to show us how to pass these tests.
If we understand this, we will live our lives in a way that is compatible with Islam. We can still continue with the exams, careers, spouses and children – after all, Islam is not devoid of practicality, but the priorities of material objectives will be reprioritised to accommodate our overriding goal in life.
There would be no question of Islam being incompatible with our lifestyles if our lifestyles are compatible with Islam.
Whereas, if we set goals for our earthly benefit and make material accummulation the lifeblood of our existence, we are distracted from our core purpose in life. That’s where the conflict starts and that is when we will have difficulty accommodating Islam in our lives.
When we ignore any one of our needs, we become imbalanced and weakened. By placing too much emphasis on our material (often, short term needs), at the expense of our spiritual needs, we lose the plot. In the pursuit of a new house, new friends, new places to travel, new hobbies, children, work … life becomes a confusing and hectic whirlwind and we lose sight of what we are meant to do.
Now what? What now?
If you are still reading this article, then you know deep down that even if you do find your material comfort, it will not make you happy if your soul is starving.
You know as a truth, life is more profound than the simple accumulation of status, wealth and good looking spouses.
You know as a fact, that you were created for a higher and altogether nobler purpose!
Now ask yourself – are you willing to accept that purpose, and make your life compatible with Islam so that Islam will be compatible with your life?
The choice is yours.
