Page 26 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger
P. 26

Bigotry:
                                       The Dark Danger












                         Islam: The Religion of Ease



                    One of the biggest mistakes of the fanatical mindset is their
            belief that religion must be difficult. As a matter of fact, some peo-
            ple believe the more complicated and difficult their religion is, the

            more merit they would earn. This is a warped viewpoint stem-
            ming from the failure to understand God's infinite mercy. This has
            also been a fundamental issue causing people to oppose the
            prophets throughout history. When the Prophet Moses told his
            people, "God commands you to sacrifice a cow," his people asked
            dozens of questions, rendering a very plain order almost imprac-

            ticable. Furthermore, as they worked to make a simple order diffi-
            cult, they claimed they were being extremely pious. However,
            being pious is simply living by the essence of religion; that is, it
            should be lived in its plain, pure state as revealed by God. In many
            verses of the Qur'an it is specifically stated that religion is easy:

                 Strive for God with the striving due to Him. He has selected
                 you and not placed any constraint upon you in the religion –
                 the religion of your forefather Abraham. (Qur'an, 22:78)

                 ... They invented monasticism – We did not prescribe it for
                 them – purely out of desire to gain the pleasure of God, but
                 even so they did not observe it as it should have been
                 observed. To those of them who had faith We gave their
                 reward but many of them are deviators. (Qur'an, 57:27)
                 We have made the Qur'an easy to remember. But is there any

                 rememberer there? (Qur'an, 54:17)





                                               24
   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31