In common Islamic practice, there is a constant stream of reminders from scholars, parents, and self-righteous average joes about what you should and shouldn’t do. The entirety of Islamic practice is boiled down to avoiding sins, and doing good, but only out of fear. You mustn’t listen to music, you mustn’t eat the meat at your friend’s barbecue, you mustn’t take friends of non-muslims, you mustn’t dance, you mustn’t clap ( if you are a man ), you mustn’t hold hands before you are married, you must enter the bathroom with your right foot, you must sit in a certain way when eating, and you should fart in a certain direction.

The individual does these things out of a sense that they are doing good or through a feeling of fear. This kind of Islamic practice is toxic, and not conducive to living a fulfilling life or making you a better person. Why is adherence to these obsessive-compulsive rules so important? I choose not to do this, but to follow a moral code derived by my own intellect, inspired by Islamic principals. This constant badgering from others to follow these puritanical and controlling rule set nearly drove me away from Islam forever. But, I found another path that brought me back that is more driven by using Islam as a guide for spiritual fulfillment rather than an instructional manual of Dos and Donts.



It was said that your moral code should be developed through your own intellect, but guided by Islam. This means throwing away reliance on the interpretations of scriptures by others. Instead, you should use scripture as a trigger for your own independent and rational thought process. The Qu'ran says, surah 47 verse 24: “Do they not then think deeply in the Quran, or are their hearts locked up (from understanding it)?”. It is up to you how to interpret any part to fit with your conscience, you do not have to accept everything, and remember that stories such as Noah’s arc and the people of Lot are allegorical. That means they aren’t actually accounts of history, but stories that have hidden meaning that must be rooted out by thought.

When it comes to Haidths, only follow those that you deem to be moral, good, and beneficial to your life. This is because no one really knows which hadiths are authentic or not, they might claim to, but anyone with intellect will know that recording words passed down through mouth to mouth hundreds of years after the prophets death is susceptible to fabrication, the Chinese whispers effect, and just plain old being completely out of context. If the hadith is authentic, we have no idea if the Prophet just meant those words for a certain situation.

If I ever pass down hadiths to my children it will be ones like this: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say, “Allah the Almighty has said: ‘O Son of Adam, as long as you invoke Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O Son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and you then asked forgiveness from Me, I would forgive you. O Son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the Earth, and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it [too].’ ”. Beautiful. I would not pass down: "the Prophet ordered the two adulterers to be stoned to death, and they were stoned to death near the place where biers used to be placed near the Mosque. I saw her companion (i.e. the adulterer) bowing over her so as to protect her from the stones.” That hadith is from Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 60 page 79 ( https://muflihun.com/bukhari/60/79 ). It is considered Sahih by most orthodox Suni religious leaders of our time. I do not need any explanation to justify this to me. It says very clearly that one of the lovers protected the others from the stones, whilst their peers continued to stone them, allegedly on command by the Prophet. As a Muslim, I will say straight that this is abhorrent, the only act that showed morality was the adulterer who was being stoned protecting her lover. I reject this disgusting account, imagine if you lived in such a country, where people were dragged into a field to be stoned for “illegal sexual intercourse”. This is the kind of hadiths ISIS (Daesh) used to justify their ways. Most Muslims are great in condemning ISIS, but unfortunately, most have not made the jump to condemning hadiths like that which is the bread and butter of Daeshi mentality.

I will pass down: “The best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind.” (Daraqutni, Hasan) and not “Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to `Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn `Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’” ( Book 84 hadith 57 sahahi Bukhari ). No thank you, Freedom of religion for everyone is more moral, whilst killing someone for leaving their religion is immoral.

I am a Muslim who is in a pre-marital relationship, has drunk wine in moderation, and enjoys listening to music, and I do not feel bad or ashamed for it. I do not find any of these things immoral. I do not need anyone to “guide” me to the so-called light. I don’t judge others who do or do not do these things, as long as they abide by their personal moral code and do no harm to others. I do not pray out of fear of burning in some everlasting hellfire, I pray because it gives me spiritual fulfillment, and I find the best place to find that is in Jam’ah (congregation) at the mosque. I feel their is great benefit in the support of a merciful God through good and bad times. I do not think the mark of a good person is how much of the Qu'ran they have memorized, but rather it is in how they treat others. I am not a Sunni, Shia, or Quran'ist. I am just a Muslim who takes what is good from orthodox Islam and Muslim culture and discards everything else in favor of his own rationality. Islam enhances my life, it doesn’t limit it and make me act horribly to those around me.

The Qu'ran says: “People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another. In God’s eyes, the most honored of you are the ones most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware”. God is the most moral and high, to be mindful of him is to question and judge your internal thoughts and external actions to your own moral code. No one really knows what religious rulings are authentic, so as a Muslim I simply take what is beneficial and leave out everything else. No matter if it is from Sahih Bukhari or the most respected of tafsirs (Quranic interpretations). What I am left with is concepts to live life by, such as Jihad of the nafs (Combat with the self), Prayer, and developing good akhlaq ( characteristics ), and not an outdated list of Dos and Donts.

