"When the innocent are murdered, we all go into the dark with them -ZS"

tis is the month for us to reflect. i am reflecting at this hour becoz of news which terribly upsets me..

i cant articulate my thoughts as well on it. in place i may, in the next few days share bits and pieces of excerpts of some reaadings which spoke to me. and these can be our food for thought as we near the end of ramadan.


"1. A Matter of Faith

- Desperately Seeking Paradise

"The members of the brotherhood believe themselves to be perfect in their faith.

Sardar makes an interesting comment on the perfection of their faith when he saw in the eyes of a member of the Brotherhood ‘the light of the certainty and faith.’

He says, “… faith is never certain; by its very nature it hovers constantly near doubt. My own faith went up and down like a yo yo! As an imperfect individual, I thought, I could only have imperfect, but dynamic faith that keeps me constantly on the verge of doubt.”
- ZS"




- No matter how good a person you are you will not go to Paradise if you do not have true faith.

The general understanding of this statement is that all Muslims, by virtue of the fact that they believe in one God and Prophet Muhammad being His last prophet, are assured a place in paradise after being punished for their sins. On the other hand, all other people, who do not believe in the basic faith of Islam, forever will be condemned to Hell after being rewarded for their good deeds.

Now, there are billions of non-Muslims. In fact, 80% of the world population is not Muslim, primarily because they happened to be born in other faiths and are sincere followers of their faiths. Most of them are wonderful human beings living a virtuous life. For Muslims to claim that all of them are condemned to hell because they have not recited the ‘Shahada’, seems very severe and smacks of arrogance.

An appropriate approach to this issue would be to believe that the decision as to who will go to Paradise and who will not is something only Allah knows. He is just and His mercy is boundless. He is the one who will judge who has the true faith and
who does not and He is the one who will judge the acts of each one of us and will decide our fate. We mortal human beings cannot and should not play God.
-Dr W Siddiqee"