Islam is perfect, I'm a Muslim, but I'm not perfect, because
I'm a human and humans make mistakes,
so if I made a mistake,
don't blame Islam, blame me...
I would like to share with you a story happened with my
brother who is studying at the united states.
From the first semester he established a good relationships with classmates from different nationalities and religions, he used to send me photos for him with them all the time and always tells me how much they like him. Everyone knew he was an Arab student from Palestine, but non of them knew he was a Muslim till the very last day of the semester, the day this situation happened.
The instructor asked each student to prepare a presentation about a ceremony or a ritual from their culture and tradition. My brother chose to talk about Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr ( Al-fitr holiday ). When his turn came up, he stood in front of his classmates and started to explain to them that Ramadan is a hloy month where Muslims fast for 30 days from dawn till afternoon, this is mandatory in Islam by Allah. All students where some kind shocked, one of them said that Islam is cruel and starts cursing Islam, he asked my brother how can a Muslim tolerate forbidding himself from food and drinks, this sounds like a punishment for me not worshiping, what's the point of doing that ??
My brother smiled and told him that this holy month teaches Muslims to appreciate Allah graces upon them, it teaches them to sympathize with the poor who can't afford food most of the days, in this month Muslims share the poor food, even money to make them feel that we are all one. Not just that, all families invite each other to share iftar "dinner" together. This month strengthens families relationships.
The reward at the end of Ramadan is a holiday called Eid Al-fitr when everyone wears new clothes and special deserts are made for the occasion. Muslim don't forget the poor either, a day or two ahead of the holiday, they give away a specific amount of money what Islam called "Zakah", for the poor to make it possible for them to celebrate the holiday and make them feel that they can also be happy just like everybody else , and to dhow them that in Islam we are all equal.
Another student asked my brother that what a Muslim would do if he had a Christian neighbor for example who does not celebrate Al-fitr holiday ??
My brother answered him :" Islam taught Muslims that all people are equal and to respect all people from religions. That means a Muslim can share them desert for instance and give them a visit in the holiday. "
My brother told me that all his classmates where surprised by how much Islam is flexible and a tolerant religion.
At the end of the presentation a student asked my brother:"I'm curious why did you choose a topic about Islam in particular??" My brother answered him: " simply because I'm a Muslim "
At that moments all students where extremely shocked. My brother told me that it them a few moments to understand what he just said. Then, one of them asked him :"why you didn't tell us that you are a Muslim when you introduced yourself at the beginning of the semester??" My brother said :" because i wanted everyone to see who I really am and to judge me based on my attitude and manners not my religion."
All students stood up and clapped for him including the instructor herself.
One of the students apologized to my brought and asked him to forgive them if they hurt his feelings in any way during the presentation, and that all the misunderstanding of Islam is due their ignorance of the reality of this religion and because they were misguided by the media, my brother smiled and said that he has absolutely no hard feelings toward anyone and he totally understand the situation. He finally wished that the fact of being a Muslim won't change the way they look at him , they told him that now they respect him even more and that they are proud they have such a friend.
This story made me smile and cry at the same time. Smile because I'm proud of my brother for the way he handled the situation, and cry because a lot of people around the world misunderstand Islam and Muslims and have mistaken stereotypes about us...
I will repeat what I said at the beginning of this blog :
Islam is perfect. I'm a Muslim but I'm not perfect because I'm a human and humans make mistakes, so if I made a mistake, don't blame Islam but blame me ..
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