The Foundation

Salam everybody,
I'm sorry I have taken a while to write. I have been thinking a lot about something. Foundation is an important aspect of life that I hope to address a lot in my posts. One aspect of foundation I would like to discuss today is the foundation of knowledge in Islam and the foundation for understanding what Islam is and what Allah asks of us. What would that foundation be you might ask? Well, I am guessing that a large part of that foundation has been given to us through the book Allah gave to all of us as a guide for our life - the Qur'an.

For some time I had been reading a lot about Islam and studying Tajweed and learning many things about my life as a Muslim and reading and reflecting on the Qur'an. Yet, I was trying to address so many questions I had without having read all of the Qur'an first, and I think this was just making things more difficult for me. I realized that I should work hard to study and read through ALL of the Qur'an before I should start asking so many questions and trying to answer them based only on my partial knowledge of the book and on verses taken out of context. A friend of mine had called attention to this and I see why it is so important to have friends who can be positive influences in your life. Sometimes they can see things from an outside perspective that you may not notice about yourself.

At any rate, although I had been reading the Qur'an almost everyday, I was not reading with the fervor and consistency that I needed to get through it within a reasonable time. At first I had told myself, it's fine that I am reading it at such a slow pace so I can truly receive and reflect on the words I'm reading, but I figure, I should try to read through it more rapidly because I need to understand it as a whole, and later I can always go back and analyze each detail I would like. So this past week I have been reading a lot and staying away from analyzing aspects of Islam too much until I have completed the entire Qur'an. I hope to finish it within the month. I find myself having a very hard time putting it down once I start to read it, no matter how sleepy or late it might get.

As a convert I want to approach Islam through as fresh and as virgin a perspective as I can. I want to see how I will interpret the meaning of Islam simply by understanding the verses of the Qur'an. I don't want to just take what others tell me to be Islam and live through their perspective. I want to live through the perspective Allah gives me, through the mind and heart and spirit he has given to me.

Once I have read the Qur'an, I feel that I will be able to better interpret what I learn from other Muslims and from the research I do about Islam. So far, reading the Qur'an has been very clear and straight-forward. It has been very easy to follow and understand. I have learned so much about Islam just in the short time I have been reading it. More than the way I was doing before by reading it through Tajweed and in bits and pieces, although that was also helpful as well, so I can't really say anything bad about that either. But I feel in my heart that once I have completed the entire Qur'an I will have a better foundation to grow as a Muslim and truly understand what being Muslim means and how I should live my life as a Muslim.

There are many things I see in the world today among Muslims that I have questions about, that I believe the Qur'an will help me to address. One thing I have noticed so far is that every single thing I have read so far in the Qur'an has entered into my heart and spirit so smoothly and warmly. Like drinking cool water on a very hot day, so quenching and refreshing. All of it has been so easy to believe in and receive into my life. It just feels right.

Also, I have found that through just reading the Qur'an first and keeping from distractions of all the things there are out there to read about Islam and to teach me the laws of Islam and the ways, has actually helped me to grasp what Islam really is much more efficiently and effectively. Also, I feel more of a direct and growing relationship with Allah as I concentrate on His word. Before this, I was everywhere, reading everything. I did learn a lot, but also, it was hard to have a focused perspective and it brought me a lot of questions into my mind. Now that I am just focusing on the Qur'an for now, it has really helped to redirect my life. I feel like a door of understanding has been opened for me.

I am now not looking at Islam through others' eyes, but through my own, and it is much more different and more amazing than I had been shown it to be by others. No one can truly make you understand what Islam is more than Allah's word and Allah Himself. Let me be clear, I know that many of the resources we have available to us, the scholars, the hadeeth, the sunnah, the shari'ah, the wise people, the teachers, the research articles, and all of the resources and books are so beneficial and can greatly contribute to our learning of Islam and living piously, but the message from me today I guess is that the Qur'an should be the foundation of all of this. How can we go and read all of these great sources, without first consulting with the book that Allah has given to his messenger (pbuh) for all mankind to benefit from? Not only should it be the foundation and the first source, but it should also be held miles above all other sources of knowledge. It is after all the perfect and complete word of Allah and we have been given it to live by it, not just revere it.

As I read it, I am seeing Islam from a perspective I had never seen it before, and much of what I had believed to be the way of Islam, was not so much anymore. It is an eye-opening experience to say the least to be learning what is written within the pages of this holy book. It is making me to question a lot of what I thought was the correct way to do things in Islam based on what I had learned from others and from what I had read through other sources. It is also so refreshing to see that Islam really emphasizes not ascribing partners to Allah in worship. It is repeated a lot in the Qur'an.

I came to Islam because I wanted a more direct relationship of submission to Allah. I was tired of the barriers that the concept of the trinity caused for me and my worship of Allah and my love for all of the prophets who had been my teachers all my life, including Issa (Jesus) pbuh. I found though that as I went along in Islam, the prophet Mohammad (pbuh) was mentioned or highlighted as much or if not more than Allah. This was a problem for me, because I wanted so much to just throw myself at the feet of Allah and focus all my energy on worshipping and obeying Him. I found myself where I was in Christianity, forcing to focus my energy in multiple directions between Allah and Issa (pbuh). But now it was with Mohammad (pbuh), although the one difference and important difference was that Mohammad was not said to be worshipped as God or ascribed as a God. Yet there seemed to be placed a bit too much emphasis on him, more so than I think would be pleasing to Allah. Yet, I could not judge this as I fear Allah and wish no bad upon any of the prophets and of course have come to love Mohammad as I love Issa and all of the prophets (pbuh).

I of course understand that we must praise Mohammad and obey him as it is written in the Qur'an and commanded by Allah, but I also have come to see as I read the Qur'an that this is only emphasized at least once, while the worship and praise of Allah is emphasized constantly and throughout the Qur'an. So clearly, this would lead any reflecting Muslim to conclude that we must emphasize the praising of Allah far above the praising of the prophet, although if Allah asks us to do something we must do it too. It is just having the common sense to know where the balance is and how much is too much. Allah knows our hearts, and we also can know when Allah convicts and weighs our hearts in our thoughts and actions.

So, my last conclusion for the day is that reading the Qur'an as a whole and trying to see Islam through an open-minded perspective as you do it, can really help one to take a more critical look at oneself and at what we adopt as behavior as we grow in Islam and to take care to make sure that what we do is what Allah wants of us and what he has defined about in the Qur'an or if what we are doing is simply learned behavior from the world around us that may or may not be what we should be doing.

Anyway, as I have said before, I am not professing to know things or to claim what I am saying to be correct. I am just sharing with the world what I am coming to understand through my own reflection and trying to pursue knowledge and understanding so I can try to live according to Allah's will. I just want to inspire in others to do their own searching and inspire others to open their mind to everything they know to be true and to reflect on it and to keep studying the Qur'an and meditate on it day and night so that we may insha'Allah become strong in our faith and in avoiding the pitfall of sin.

As I continue to grow and learn my perspectives may change, what I once think to be true, may be altered as I develop so keep visiting my blog to see what i come to understand as I continue to reflect on the Qur'an and Islam. I may not analyze concepts in Islam as much for some time until I have completed my reading of the Qur'an, but I will continue to post blogs as I go and as I continue to read, just about how I am feeling about it.

To read all of the Qur'an may take me longer than others because I am a slow reader, yet I feel to have read and understood the Qur'an in its' entirety is the best foundation for my formation as a Muslim and to have the purest understanding of Islam. Anything I build upon that will just be stronger. It is like the parable of the house built on sand. We must take care about first creating a good foundation for everything we build, and that foundation must be solid, and what in Islamic knowledge is more solid than the word of Allah himself?

May Allah forgive me for anything that I may have said that is not in the right way and may my blog help to lift my brothers and sisters up in any positive way. Alhamdulellah. Allah is great and worthy of our highest praises.