Islam and Ego




Nouman Ali Khan show

Summary: I am really honored and also kind of weirded out that you guys waited this long Alhamdulillah. Jazakumullahu khairun. If I sound a little out of it , that’s probably because I actually am… its eight hours of lectures straight but InshaAllah I will share some very brief thoughts with you about an important matter, something that doesn’t come under much discussion nowadays but it needs our attention. It certainly needs our attention InshaAllah.<br> The thing I want to talk to you about is a culture among young Muslims who go on a certain religious journey especially in Western society. A lot of times, Muslim youth live a life of..lets just say partying..ok..and then they have an epiphany sometimes in life and they turn towards religion. A lot of youth, brothers and sisters, have this change of heart sometime in their life and they become more serious gradually about religion but then what happens is ; when they become more serious about religion over time , they become very SERIOUS about religion, very very serious and they find themselves, a teacher.<br> Sometimes that teacher is a person, sometimes that teacher is a series of Mp3 or lectures, sometimes that teacher is a website, sometimes that teacher is a blog, sometimes that teacher is an anonymous screen name but whatever it is, in the end they find for themselves a source that they associate as ‘THE’ authentic source for taking knowledge and when they do and they become very passionate about it, slowly what starts happening is that they become very rigid, become very tough and they notice that people around them aren’t the same way as they are. . They don’t acknowledge the same teacher that they acknowledge. They are not understanding the deen the way they understand it themselves. So what starts happening is that first they become frustrated with people around them especially their family. So the youth starts changing and the first people they become frustrated with is their own family. “Why don’t you understand?”“ This is the right way to following the religion” and there is more and more friction.<br> This happens even within a Muslim family. Its even more so when you are Muslim and your family is not a Muslim but certainly even within your family when your family is Muslim too but now you are kind of rediscovering religion on your own right. So this friction develops. This is not limited to the family either. What happens is that you have friends and you have always been friends but your friends didn’t take this religious journey that you did and if they did, they didn’t take the SAME journey that you did.. Their understanding is a little different or they are not as rigid about certain things as you are. They are not as tough about it as you are and it becomes harder and harder for you to tolerate that. You start questioning them a lot more and you come in contact with people that don’t see things the way you do, then you make it a point to let them know that they are wrong; that you are right. That this is the way they should do things and that there is no other way to do it etc etc. An attitude develops and especially among youth.<br> There are many reasons for this attitude. The youth himself/herself thinks that what they are doing is called Amr bil ma’ruf wa nahi Anil munkar. They think they are commanding the good and forbidding evil. After all they are telling their brother/ sister a Hadith or an ayat. They are doing the good thing. This is what they should be doing… This is what is going on in their head. What they don’t realize, however, is that there is something more going on, there is something else going on. You know, before you become religious, you maybe the centre of attention among your crew. You are a thug, you are a gang, you are whatever..You are the centre of attention and when you turn to the religion, you no longer have that but you need something still. There is an urge inside you to want to show your domination over others..