The month of Ramadan is meant to be a month of reflection, dedication to faith and atonement to a certain degree. On my first night of the Muslim holy month I certainly did one of those things extensively. I have thought and reflected at length on the various questions of blind faith we are supposed to endorse.

Indeed all three of God’s religions are said to ask for not only faith but rather full blown blind faith (as per human literal interpretation in many instances).

We’ve all had our moments where we dissected the issues and questions about our very existence. Naturally our imagination and intelligence do stop very quickly when pondering such mind bending concepts.

On the first day of the holy month I merely continued on my twisted analysis of hell and its potential existence and reasons for being. My first line of thought was made up of various passages in the Koran referring to God’s forgiveness and loving nature. In Islam as well as in Judaism and Christianity God is said to be all knowing and forgiving and there in laid my dilemma.

Simply put, how can a God that is so loving and merciful send me to hell for eternity for being a flawed human that he created? It simply did not add up in my mind and I would not have it. I had to resolve this issue for my mind’s sanity and peace. For years now I had been struggling with difficult questions that to me meant I was at a crossroad and needed to urgently pick a path. Neither route meant that I had to relinquish my faith in the almighty but they certainly meant that I had to clarify to myself what I truly believed relating to the hereafter.

I am brought to now believe very firmly that none of us really knows what this whole existence is really all about. No one can explain the multiple apparent contradictions in our religion. By accepting that God is all knowing we cannot explain how we therefore also believe that he has put us here on earth on a test that we have to pass by being good for omniscient means that he knew before we even existed exactly how we were going to behave once here on earth!

This simple puzzler in no way leads me to disbelieve in our creator rather it leads me to the inevitable conclusion that we as humans simply have no clue whatsoever concerning his master plan.

I could list hundreds of such inexplicable twists but that would only enrage those who refuse to admit the obvious and fight to quell all resistance to blind faith.

God has asked us to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave and seeking further understanding of our cosmic and religious realities in our extremely limited capacity, is a great part of it.

The problem throughout our modern reported history has been that religion has merely been a subterfuge or a means to an end for organisms such as the Church, Islamic governments and various sects; the goals often times have had very little if anything to do with faith itself.

Many such goals have been thought control, power, money etc and have been achieved with the use of the sword, propaganda and misinformation.

This has led to religion getting a very bad wrap despite its original basic peaceful aim.

The issue, other than the personal, political and monetary gain aspects has been that our supposed religious leaders have often concentrated on details while missing the core idea of the book itself. If one were to select a given line in a novel and made that line the pivotal cornerstone of the book, it would most likely miss the topic entirely.

In my personal and humble opinion (Allahou Aalam, God only knows) this is precisely what is happening with religion today.

No one will admit to not knowing and most will quote scripture on a given subject forgetting the other ninety nine percent of the book in question.

I am continually seeking a human modest understanding of life and religion and so far have concluded that this is tantamount to running, trying to catch the horizon; I will simply never get there. I have grown very comfortable with my skepticism of mankind’s capacity to interpret religion for me or anyone else. The more I distance myself from what these supposed leaders claim the more I believe in the creator. I cannot look at a religious fundamentalist of any faith and think that I or anyone would want to join in, in their path.

I am not afraid to say that there is absolutely nothing appealing about a garb wearing, long untrimmed beard strutting Muslim walking five feet ahead of his wife that is for her part cover beyond the possible recognition of her sex, size or shape.
Who in their right mind would witness such a scene and say “this is for me”?

Isn’t the aim of religion to grow and attract more nice folks in the worship of a kind loving God?

The same goes for Orthodox Jews, Hare Krishna followers and all new age sects!

We all know how many mind boggling beliefs some of these pious people have.
These folks will want you to believe that our God, creator of the billions of galaxies and solar systems cares whether we mixed dairy with meat in a sandwich (Orthodox Jews), Whether we dressed in orange garbs (Krishna), or whether our women could show their forearms and drive a car (Islam in Saudi-Arabia).

On the topic of women in Islam the Koran never stated that it was a sin for females to show their hair for example but most of us will insist on the authenticity of this fact and even claim it is a cornerstone of our religion (Fard).

“Fard” (must), it is not! Here once again human interpretation has trumped the wisdom of the book and the prophet’s scriptures. Simply put Islam has five pillars (just like Judaism and Christianity have 10 commandments and nothing more) yet some have been very successful in convincing women that covering is indeed a must. Though the words stating “cover your hair and forearms in public forever” were never written anywhere, Muslims have searched for things they could reinterpret as “hair” in the Koran and isolated words of the prophet where he asks women to be discrete. A gigantic leap of logic and deduction has taken place in this matter. Being discrete and covering up in public forever and ever are two incredibly different ideas!
Instead of seeking the global idea of the prophet’s teachings, Muslims have sought to validate what they already believed. This is eerily reminiscent of  how some politicians in recent memory have twisted and cherry picked intelligence to arrive at conclusions they desperately sought in order to start some conflicts of their choosing (politics and organized religion are often soul brothers).

My final thought on these matters is that I truly believe that religion is a personal thing that should be kept as such. There are as many opinions out there as there are people, therefore we are left with two options; think for ourselves or follow someone blindly and trust them with our salvation.  The latter I plan to do the minute I see all religions living in complete peace and harmony with another.

Karim Kadiri

10/9/07