Spiritual vs Religious?

http://www.jumbletalk.com/art9_spiritual_04_12_13.html

I am a Muslim who loves to blog and over the past few weeks I have been receiving a lot of questions on the anonymous “ask what you please” link on my blog. These questions were regarding my religion and included questions related to sexuality, partying habits, and why I wear the headscarf. I love my readers and followers because their questions entice me to think about things I usually try to avoid thinking about and this stimulates me intellectually.

Many of these questions are intertwined with my religious beliefs and theological view on life. As I answered each question I began to ask myself questions I have always been afraid to ask because I was afraid of the answers I might discover. Questions like “How Muslim am I, if I am a true Muslim at all?” “Am I spiritually religious?” “Have I become too westernized?” and other such question. To stimulate thought and raise awareness to this topic, I want to share my spiritual journey and my relationship with God.

Recently, in a conversation with an old friend, I asked her, “Do you think I am a bad person?” She responded, asking “What makes a person good to tell who is bad?”. I should have known. Of course she is smart and asks questions as such. It certainly got me thinking, what does it mean to be good? Am I “good” good, or am I just good. Am I neither and just not good? I did not have an answer because technically, according to my religion, you’re a good person when you’re a good Muslim and obviously I wasn’t even close to being an average Muslim. Society tells you you’re a good person if you don’t lie, steal, and cheat, respect the elderly, and such, but I can not wholeheartedly say I adhere to these morals.

Now, this might not mean that I lie, steal and cheat literally. Instead it means that I sometimes commit such actions without even knowing and in ways I am not aware of. So are these actions good? Are these qualities of a good Muslim? Is my moral code “moral”? In attempting to ask those in my life whether or not they thought I was good. I began asking the religious people in my life if I was a good Muslim or not and I began to try and see myself through the eyes of others.

In doing so, I realized I was on the wrong track. I was missing one key component: me. Do I think I am a good person? Do I think I am a good Muslim or even Muslim at all? I began to shift my attention from what others thought to what I thought. This led me to a few little discoveries. It took me sometime to realize that there was a difference between spirituality and religion. Being one or the other meant different things. I continued my thought process and then had a talk with my sister, whom I asked the same type of questions: what does it mean to be spiritual vs. religious?

Well, to me at least, being spiritual means having a personal, heart-filled relationship with God where you believe there is no god but God and essentially just believing that there is a higher power that controls us all. To believe that there is one God that controls us all means believing that God is omnipotent, all-creating, all-powerful, immortal and simply one. The 113th chapter of the Holy Quran says it best:

Say: “He is Allah, (the) One. Allah, The Self-Sufficient Master, He begets not, nor was He begotten; And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.”

So to be considered a Muslim, one must believe in the oneness of Allah (swt) and believe Mohammad (pbuh) is his last messenger. “Okay, so I believe this to be true, what now? Am I Muslim or not?” I asked myself, but it wasn’t that simple. Islam comes with rules, and Islam is a communal religion that takes more than one person to practice it fully. How come? Here is an example: part of the five pillars is Zakat, which is an obligatory form of tax that is given every year to feed and help the poor. Another part of Islam is respecting your elders, taking care of your parents, giving charity, etc. Therefore, it really does take a community, or Umah, to fully experience Islam.

Fortunately, I grew up in a predominantly Muslim country, Palestine, for about 13 years. Because of this, I had that Umah, that community of Muslims which allowed me to properly practice the religion my parents and God chose for me. However, what happens when culture mixes with religion and you are too confused to tell them apart? For me it took a really long time to tell them apart because anything I would do that was “wrong” was said to be “haram” or “A’eab” meaning either forbidden or socially unacceptable. Those two words are used interchangeably ALL the time and it confused me and bothered me that they were used in that way.

So while sitting there trying to figure out my relationship with religion, I had to figure out what was really forbidden by God, not simply society, along with why it was forbidden and what it meant to me morally. It was quite a process. In the end, I know one day God will forgive me like I have learnt to forgive myself and I know one day I will be a modest Muslim female, but for now, I’m good with being spiritual and being the person I am regardless of if I am “good” or “bad”. I share this with you to stimulate thought and to encourage you to also take a deeper look into your spirituality. I believe that in the end, it will serve us all well.

-Muna Sharma is a proud jumbler and a former student at the University of Virginia who is currently applying to art schools hoping to major in photography. She plans to work in the Fashion Photography field and is currently working for BeachMonkey.com. You can contact her at mrs5pd@virginia.edu and find her on Wordpress

Holi, A Festival of Color!

Image Source: http://www.soschmeckt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/holi-festival-of-colors-2012_soschmeckt-3.jpg

This article on Holi is late, but you know what? My community’s celebration of the festival is too. But it's for good reason, you see, because the city I live in here in the States has a somewhat moody temperament with regards to the weather, and this was a particularly pissed off winter. So, while India celebrated the arrival of their spring a few weeks ago (March 27th), we here in colder areas wait for it to hit the 70s before we can lionize the festival of colors in honor of the arrival of spring.

In general, Holi is a gala time in. Celebrated in India and the diaspora, the religious festival of colors is literally that: About using waterguns and waterballoons to wet and color people- your friends, or on the street. It's about making rangoli (intricate designs with colored powder) on your doorstep. People either wear new white clothes and have them splashed with color all day long or wear faded clothes they don't mind getting dirty. To walk on the street means you're fair game; Don't risk it if you're not ready. There is a special Holi drink too, it's called bhang and it's made from milk, ghee (clarified butter), spices, and….cannabis. It's really popular too, rumor has it an adult neighbor once tried it before she was aware of its ingredients, and apparently, she had a good Holi.

For me, living in India, the celebration climaxed in middle school. That was when the war was still playful, but had just begun to get personal. We used eggs, water guns, powder, balloons, mud – I remember one of the biggest games I ever played was against my neighbors when I lived by the sea in Bombay. There, when I looked like a brown canvas that a child had used to throw globfulls of paint at, there was always the warm sea to lay in, reveling in the day's victories. That fat water balloon full of purple color I threw stealthily from afar at a neighbor boy. He was impressed, too. And not that new “safe” vegetable color either; the original kind, the one that lasted on your ears and neck for weeks to come.

As to the religious background of Holi; it's a Hindu festival, and in part, celebrates Prahlada's salvation. This I remember well, curling up to my grandmother in her small bedroom under the gentle creaking of her ceiling fan, and requesting her to tell it for the two hundredth time. It’s my favorite story from the Bhagvada Purana: the story of Prahlada. In a previous avatar, the Lord Vishnu killed a monster. His brother, Hiranyakashipu, wanted to avenge his death and so prays to Lord Brahma vehemently in order to be granted a boon that may help him in this goal. When Lord Brahma answers his prayer, Hiranyakashipu asks for immortality. Brahma says he cannot grant this, but that Hiranyakashipu can ask for a death bound by conditions, which he asks for. His conditions were that death cannot be from the hands of a creature living or dead made by Brahma and cannot be by animal or man, inside or outside, on earth or in space.

With that, Hiranyakashipu sets out to find Vishnu. But Hiranyakashipu's son, Prahlad, is a devout follower of Vishnu, and believes him to be the center of the universe. So Hiranyakashipu turns his attention to Prahlad and tries to kill his own son; each time though, Prahlad is protected by Vishnu in his new avatar Narsimah, who finally descends to finish Hiranyakashipu. Keeping with Brahma's boon, Narsimah appears in the form of a half-lion-half-man, in the threshold of the house (neither inside nor outside), places the monster on his knee (neither on earth nor in space) and eviscerates him with a nail.

Holi, then, is about Prahlada's deliverance. It’s a wonderful and glorious celebration and will always be a favorite of mine.

-Nikhita Venkateish is a proud jumbler and a student at the University of Virginia who will be graduating in 2013 with a B.A. in Biology and minor in Media Studies. She plans to work in the Media/Communications field and is currently looking for entry level positions in that field as well as in Advertising. You can contact her at nv5bs@virginia.edu and find her resume on LinkedIn at this link: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=230685366&trk=tab_pro