“I could never wear ‘Tudong’ on my head”…”It’s hot and it ruins my hairdo”.
“I couldn’t imagine fasting for the month of Ramadan” I couldn’t bear not eating for hours…!
“I like to go clubbing”,“Carnival is my life”
“I don’t think I could pray 5 times a day” I’m busy with my work..
“I love women/men too much”
“I have to drink a glass of wine every now and then”
etc. etc. How many times has someone uttered the aforementioned phrases to me? And how many times have I thought to yourself, Is this person really serious? Believe me, I’ve heard a thousand and one reasons why family members and friends have a hard time in practicing the Basic Islamic practices which are considered as “Fardhu or “Wajib”. For some reason those practices are cramping their current lifestyle.
The way I see it, when you combine faith and dedication, you can give up or do anything (even the things you previously said you could not do or give up.) I cannot imagine standing before Allah on judgment day and saying, “Well, I couldn’t at least make the effort to submit to you because I enjoy life too much or being busy with it.” I realize that trying to be a religious person, a person who lives a God-centered life, means that I will have to give up some of the things I used to love. I realize that I will have to make small changes in my life or even drastic ones. After all, how is there growth or improvement if my lifestyle and my behavior stays exactly the same as it did before I committed myself to Allah S.W.T? One of the things I’ve had to accept is that I won’t be able to partake in everything that goes on in the world. And “Alhamdulilah” for that!
However, that is not to say that a person will not have struggles. Being a muslim or any religion for that matter, you have and would still have things to struggle with. I think that is the nature of a faith. In some matters we will struggle and then succeed. In others matters we will find ourselves succeeding one moment and then right back where we started. As frustrating as it is, I believe that Allah recognizes the effort and judges us by the intention to improve and not just by the success itself.
