Q&A: “I Think I’m Faith Depressed. Please Guide Me.”

Source: http://www.onislam.net/

Question and answer details
Name of Questioner:	Mel (34-female-Canada)
Reply date:	2012/03/29
Question:	Salam `alaikum,I think I am faith depressed and I do not know how to get better. Whenever I try to read the Quran, I get depressed. All I seem to get is that I am doing everything wrong and that I will burn in hellfire. Praying has become a chore and I am constantly thinking bad thoughts before, during and after prayer. Actually, I am constantly thinking bad things about my faith and my God. I do not feel motivated to ask for forgiveness or to do any acts of worship. I have become totally belligerent in my faith and thinking things like “I never asked to be created” or “Why is life all about struggling and suffering…and if I get any pleasure, I will likely suffer or burn in hell for it”. Whenever I learn something new that I should not do and that I will be punished for…instead of being afraid…I just chalk it up as one more thing I will burn for. I know I should not lose hope but even that has me depressed for I read that losing hope is akin to shirk…which leads to hell. I have become lazy, I am always late for prayer and I feel no desire to fast or do dhikr. I can’t wait to be menstruated so I do not have to pray. I do not want to live but do not want to die either. I feel hopeless and helpless and yet somehow, I am filled with arrogance and probably hypocrisy too. I feel like it’s not fair even though I know that is a childish thought. I used to be full of iman and I thought Islam was so beautiful…but after learning more and more instead of gaining in faith, I have lost faith. I still believe in Allah and angels and heaven and hell and so on…but I have become so diseased that I fear that’s next. I do not drink or fornicate or steal – I try not to lie and I try to be somewhat good…but always I feel like it’s not enough and I am just exhausted and exasperated. Everything is rules and work, rules and work. I want to be good and do good but it’s just too much. For a while I was making myself sick with it all and then I guess self preservation kicked in and I started not caring anymore. I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I make duaa and ask Allah for help but I feel insincere and I recall something along the lines of “Allah helps those who help themselves” and I am left wallowing in my pool of self made misery. I read hadith or the Quran and I read things that I just can’t accept or that I think are not fair. Yet, I know Allah is just and compassionate…and so the fault lies with me. I am flawed, diseased or perhaps Allah has made me blind and confused due to my sinfulness. I just feel like I’m going to hell no matter what I do and I am just short of committing total debauchery in the hopes that I will only burn for a while before being released. This perhaps is my only hope, if you can call it that. Sometimes, I am jealous of Christians…who seem to have it easier. The bible seems less scary and there aren’t so many rules. I know that Islam is the truth but…it’s just so much harder and stressful to be Muslim. I also fear that my being this way and having these thoughts will negatively impact my children. How can I teach them Islam when I am filled with doubt and other bad feelings and thoughts? What can I do? I feel like I need some counseling but there are no Muslim counselors here…either I can talk to an imam, who cannot give me what I need or a non-Muslim counselor. I do not want a…”make du`aa, pray on time etc. etc. and you will be fixed” answer because I believe I need to get to the root of my problem, so I can fix it from there instead of just band-aiding it. Otherwise, it will just happen again. I need to know why I started thinking like this. I need to convince my mind and I know my heart will follow in sha’ Allah. I do not want to be in this slump when I die and if I am lucky enough to get out of it once…I do not know if I can do it again. I am very good at creating doubts, perceiving problems, asking unanswerable questions and running circles in my head which usually lead me in a downward spiral. Can someone please help me or point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance. Salam and may Allah shower you with blessings.
Counselor:	Dr. ‘Abd. Lateef Krauss Abdullah
Answer In the Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Most Kind Assalamu `alaikum dear sister, Sister, my heart goes out to you. You sound as if you are in a virtual prison of your mind and heart and see very little hope of ever getting out. There may be many different factors and elements influencing your state of mind that go way beyond the parameters of your question. Unfortunately, I am limited to what you have stated here and I cannot guess what or how many things might be influencing you. By that I mean everything from physical, metaphysical, health-related, family-related, economic and other factors that could be influencing how you feel about life, your religion and yourself. As such, I will only speak to what I know from what you have told us, which is not a lot. And I encourage you to follow up with us after this and help us to better understand your past and how and when these problems started surfacing. Clearly, you need a different orientation, understanding and practice of Islam that is not solely about rules. You’re right – you need to get to the root of the problem, which requires someone that is capable of helping you by understanding you and how you got to be where you’re at. You need to be engaged in meaningful activities that you love, but that also contribute something to the world around you. I don’t know where you were taught that Islam is just about rules and about avoiding hell. Islam is about living a life in fitra, about contributing goodness to the world and about being a real and complete human being. The rules of our religion exist only to avoid that which is not healthy for us. That’s it, which is what Allah wants, for us to be healthy and happy through our love and attachment to Him. The few rules that we have in Islam are not meant to suppress or oppress. They are healthy boundaries that are designed to protect us. Even if we cannot see the immediate results of their application, we must know that is what they are for and if you try hard enough, I think you will see that they are for our benefit and never for our harm. That is why He is the Most Merciful, but we have to realize that by living in a manner that reflects that mercy. It requires operationalization by being merciful to others and to ourselves, not solely following rules to avoid going to hell. Islam is about realizing your true self, and working/being in a manner that is true to that self. Brooding does not make one a Muslim – doing good out of love of Allah and wanting the best for His creation is. Also there is no point in working – as you put it – in a manner that makes you resentful toward Islam. Actually, Islam and the rules of religion are not holding you back – you are holding you back because you are stuck in a state of mind and heart that is totally one-sided and lacks the full understanding of what Islam is and is meant to be. Islam is liberating in the sense that we don’t dwell in guilt in Islam. If we sin, we make tawbah with sincerity, and we move on. We are not Catholics that spend their entire lives drowning in guilt. That is not Islam. If that is what you think Islam is, then you need a new orientation. And my feeling from what you have written is that orientation is a major problem – your orientation to this deen. Our shari’ah is wide, with different interpretations about many aspects of life. We have different schools of thought/law with different opinions on many matters within those schools. Therefore, the rules of Islam are not as rigid as you seem to think, but we need real knowledge and understanding of how these rules should fit and help us shape our lives; not as some oppressive monster, but as a way of maintaining healthy bodies, minds and relationships, for that is their goal. The tests that we are put through in life have one purpose and one purpose only – to know and to serve Allah, who is the Most Merciful. Now, I know you’ve heard that before and it doesn’t help you but what you aren’t realizing is that this ‘test’ is not meant to make your life miserable, it’s meant to show us the meaning and composition of Reality itself. In a well-known Hadith Qudsi, the Prophet SAW said “Allah said, ‘I was a treasure that wished to be known, so I created creation so that I could be known.’” The scholars have determined that from this hadith, we can better understand the meaning of life/existence in sum – that existence itself is a manifestation of God in the form of His Names and Attributes and it is our role/function in this life to know Him. Therefore, every second of every day our purpose in life is to know Allah in everything we do and experience. Our purpose as the highest of creation, the only form of creation that has been blessed with intellect, is to realize Allah’s greatness, oneness, mercy and love; by what? By manifesting these same beautiful attributes in our lives. We realize when we do. Confucious said, “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do, I understand.” This is perennial wisdom, and its truth is that we can only fully understand (i.e. realize) Allah’s mercy and kindness when we do it, which is why when we pray we use our whole bodies, not just our minds and our mouths. We practice surrender to God by physically placing our faces on the ground – an act of humility and self-effacement – so that we can feel surrender, not just say it. Therefore, our purpose in life is to live life to the fullest in terms of being merciful to creation in a way that is best and easiest for us. By using the natural gifts, affinities and abilities that Allah has given each of us we can fulfill our divine purpose which is to glorify Allah by not ONLY worshipping Him ritually, but by working on His behalf to spread mercy to others. I say this only to tell you that you need to stop trying to do things out of a need to fulfill a command, and start realizing that the commands, rather, are Allah’s way of getting us to fulfill our divine purpose which is to realize our true selves and live accordingly. Look at the life of the Prophet SAW who is our greatest example of this. Everywhere he went, with whomever he was with, he was always engaged in an act of worship by helping others, teaching others, smiling, joking, bringing peace to people, and the like. He served his family, helped his friends and was always there for people when they needed him. Even his worst of enemies respected him for his trustworthiness and kindness. That is what we should be striving for – not perfection but just simply contributing something positive to the world and being ourselves in doing so. The best way to undo feelings of depression, guilt, and general darkness is to give of yourself – to be charitable and selfless for no other reason other than because that is what we are supposed to do. Mind you, these don’t have to be ‘big’ things. Remember, even a smile is a form of charity that is loved by God. So don’t get the idea in your head that you are not doing ‘enough.’ Just being your true self and not harming others is a form of charity in Islam. Of course, that does not mean we abandon rules and rituals, it means that we put everything in its proper context and place, and understand how these things are helpful and good for us and not meant to be oppressive. I’m not sure who is teaching you and where you are taking your knowledge from sister, but you a need drastic change in direction. You need to find (and I know I’m probably not helping you by stating that which you already know) a teacher – who is knowledgeable about the heart (i.e. tasawwuf, Sufism), who can understand and help you with your heart – and a community that can support you. If you email me at abd_lateef@hotmail.com I can give you some suggestions of people/groups that might be able to help you, in sha’ Allah. For further guidance, please try the following links: Need to Get Rid of This Feeling of Guilt Problems in My Faith Understanding the Wisdom of Allah’s Trials The Nearer I Become to Allah, the More Waswasa Help Me Stop My Obsessive Thoughts

Puffin caught on camera (IMAGE)

 This greedy puffin was caught on camera stuffing himself with more fish than he could fit in his mouth. Amateur photographer Mike Meysner captured the portly puffin mid-snack as he snapped the birds. He said: ‘The puffin shots were taken on the Farne Islands, a 20 minute boat ride from the Northumberland coast. I’ve taken lots of pictures of puffins, and I know they are all roughly the same size, but this shot did make me laugh because he looks huge.

Picture: Mike Meysner/Caters

The attack on Islam has always followed a predictable pattern

FIRST attack the Prophet (saw) and try to discredit him. When that fails they attack the Sahaba (ra) as they were the carriers of the Sunnah and many a hadith can be traced to them and the Mothers of the Believers (ra). When that fails they attack the ulema (from back in the day until modern times) because they are the ones that help us understand the sunnah.
Once you know this and start reading Islamic history you will see the many different and creative ways we were attacked. Nowadays the pattern of attack is the same but instead they know have 24hr “news” media to do it. However, don’t fret as Allah swt has promised to protect His (swt) deen and Quran and Sunnah. Alhumdulilah.

On Facebook Israelis wish death for pro-Palestine Holocaust survivors

Source: http://972mag.com

By: Ami Kaufman

Nope, it’s not The Onion.

A few days ago some 300 Holocaust survivors placed an ad in the New York Times  condemning the massacre in Gaza. My colleague from Local Call, John Brown, has selected a few of the responses on Facebook that Israelis posted in response to the ad.

MAP: GLOBAL INTERNET USAGE BASED ON TIME OF DAY (IMAGE)

Map by Carna Botnet via Reddit

Earthquake Prank On Muslim Imam (Video)

 This is a Tunesian Prank TV Show, The Imam in the video was invited to a radio show, but it was a prank, the Imam does not know he is pranked and thinks that the earthquake is really happening. But despite that he stays firm and keeps giving blessings to he Prophet and His family. He is not scared to die, as long as God is with him.

4 THOUGHTS ON CONDEMNING PEOPLE DOING TERRIBLE THINGS

By: Iesa Galloway

Source: http://muslimmatters.org

Here are four thoughts that normally go through my head when folks ask for individual American Muslims to condemn some foreign group of people claiming Islam while doing terrible things:

Over 300 Survivors and Descendants of Survivors of Victims of the Nazi Genocide Condemn Israel’s Assault on Gaza

Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza

Source: http://ijsn.net

327 Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide have signed this letter written in response to Elie Wiesel’s manipulation of the Nazi Genocide to attempt to justify the attacks on Gaza.

Balancing Work, Home and #RUGLIFE: Brief Thoughts on al-Ghazzāli’s Ihya (VIDEO)

Imam Suhaib Webb: Part 30. There are over 200 lectures in the vaults, recorded by the folks at my masjid. Sadly, the audio is horrible. Inshallah, new lectures will be posted soon!