The Measure of Love

I received a question from a visitor to explain the differences between Islam and the religion Bahai’. The visitor’s friend had converted from Islam to Bahai’.

Note: I am not a learned on both subject matters, but I can only attempt to highlight what I’ve learned or understood from my personal investigation so far. I hope this would not create conflict between Muslims and Bahais, but seek to understand one another better.

With the issue of conversion out of Islam i.e. apostacy, I believe we need to understand the issues the individual faced, counsel and discuss with them on an intellectual platform. Most times, people leave because they confuse culture with religion, or misguided Muslim fundamentalism as the true Islam.

Similarities
The Concept of God
Muslims believes in the concept of Tauhid or the Unity of God.

Baha’is also believe in 1 God.

Peace
Islam is a religion of peace.

Many of the Baha’ism teachings were borrowed from Islam. Hence, Baha’ism do not preach to its believers to hate Islam. The Bab believes that he is the 26th prophet after Muhammad, but clarifies that he is not propagating the religion of Islam.

Differences
Concept of God
Muslims pray to Allah swt, which is not the same God as other religions. (Christians pray to Prophet Jesus, Hindus have a few Gods. etc). Islam’s concept of God is very comprehensive from the 99 Names describing His characteristics and atttributes.

Although Baha’is believes in 1 God, they believe the God of Christians, Judaism, Buddhists and Hindus are the same. The do not have a comprehensive concept of God, and His attributes. They do not even have a name for God.

The Concept of Man
Islam clearly states man’s roles and responsibilities as a child, student, male, woman, husband, wife, community leader, etc. Man was not born in sin as stated in the Christian concept of original sin. If man accepts Islam man is not automatically headed for Heaven, but man must conquer his carnal desires and do what is pleasing to Allah.

Baha’ism has 7 general fundamental rules for man.

Prayer
The concept of prayer in Islam is more to help Muslims remember Allah at all times. These prayers are revealed prayers. Muslims have a structured method for praying, frequency, and for all occasions such as travelling, eating, weddings, newborns, calamities, etc.
For solat (prayer), Muslims are united in 1 language i.e. Arabic. This means Muslims recite official daily prayers in Arabic. However, the dua after prayer can be done in respective languages in the Muslims heart.

Baha’ism has also a collection of revealed prayer for several occasions. They do not have a unified language for prayer.

Personal thought: Some born Muslims find that Islam is taxing because you need to perform many acts or devotional worship, or always on your best behavior.

This is how I perceive being a Muslim:

Illustration 1: Imagine if you were an employee. In order for you to excel in your job and get that promotion, you need to work hard. You need to meet your targets by following all the work processes, working long hours and even weekends. Some even go 2-step further to do ANYTHING PLEASING for the boss, in the hopes of getting a favor/promotion. (Note: I am not condoning the act of excessive brown nosing but merely a comparative analysis)

WHY CAN’T WE WORK HARD FOR ALLAH?

Illustration 2: Imagine if you were a student. You would do your homework for hours. You would practice piano lessons for hours.You would play paintball or futsal for hours to be the best, in hopes of getting straight As, to be the best in the piano recital, and to be representing Malaysia at international competitions.

WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO GET As in ALLAH’s BOOKS?
WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO PLAY MUSIC PLEASING TO ALLAH?
WOULD YOU WANT TO REPRESENT ALLAH AT ALL COMPETITIONS?

One of the things I think about is, if I die tomorrow, what have I done to get to know Allah or to please Him?

Jordan Richter and Me

I went to my first live documentary screening at Central Market. It really opened my eyes. I was really moved by what I saw. The screening was attended by Malaysians of all races as well as foreign tourists and expats.

Documentary title: Wayward Son: Jordan Richter

Producer/Director: Mustafa Davies

http://www.pop-fashion-wholesale.com/page.html?id=20

Google Jordan Richter and Mustafa Davies.

Briefly: Jordan Richter was a promising teenage skateboarder in '90s. He rose to fame quickly; won competitions and awarded many endorsements.

However, at the height of his early career, he found Islam and became a Muslim at 16 years old. Unfortunately, he befriended Muslims who had a very narrow understanding of Islam. They advised him that photographs and skateboarding were haram. Not wanting to displease Allah, Jordan Richter gave up his passion of skating for Islam.

15 years later, he discovered that skateboarding and photography is permissible. He is now skateboarding and entering competitions again.

The documentary focused on his pain growing up with drug-abusive parents, and his challenges of becoming a Muslim in America.

This is what I learned from the documentary from Jordan's experience:

• when he converted, the Muslim community were proud to be associated with a new believer i.e. muallaf
• the Muslim community taught him ritual and cultural practices confused for Islam
• most of them did not bother to guide him post conversion. he had to guide himself
• he felt very lonely as a Muslim; having lost his friends when he was Jewish, and now that he's a Muslim, he has not gained many true Muslim friends
• thinking that skateboarding was haram and inpermissible, the discontinued his passion for what he thought would please Allah, and found other permissible means to survive but surviving on little income

What moved me:

• even though he gave up his passion, he was never angry at Allah. He never left Islam and just soldiered on
• even though he was lonely without companionship, he soldiered on. He did not desert his faith
• that many new believers face a possibility of losing their family and friends, and yet the majority of the existing Muslim community are not as accepting or indifferent to their situation
• many existing Muslims do not realize that reverts/converts are just like young children. they are learning step by step. The average insensitive and unlearned Muslims expect reverts/converts to don Muslim-Muslimah dress immediately, to know how to perform prayer, to understand the adab at a mosque, etc. IMMEDIATELY. Rightfully, new reverts/converts need to have a solid understanding of Islam (aqidah) to strengthen their faith (iman) & behavior (akhlak) before proceeding to the ritualistic aspect of Islam.
• For example, if a revert/convert used to enjoy alcoholic beverages, they are not required to abstain immediately. They are expected to reduce their consumption gradually until they no longer crave the beverage. It's just like smoking or emotional eating.
• the majority of existing Muslims tend to be very judgmental towards new believers i.e. always looking for faults
• Muslims in general tend to only assist or do charity for MUSLIMS only. Yet, they forget that Islam encourages you to help others inclusive of non-Muslims. I do agree that I do observe this. Muslims do not like to help non-Muslims in the city, what more at rural areas. I cannot explain why this is so.

Having a friend who is already beginning to embrace Islam, I feel moved, and I feel I can foresee her challenges. Alhamdulillah, my family has agreed to unofficially adopt her.

I cannot bear if she has to experience the same things as Jordan Richter, or any other new Muslim for that matter.

She needs a support group more than ever.

May Allah make things easy for us.

Thanks Jordan. No, thank you Allah for leading me to the documentary and giving me the realization.