It’s not easy trying to answer the question, what is it to be a Muslim? Try it yourself, whether you were raised in an Islamic household, or if you converted/reverted, what would you say to someone who does not identify as a Muslim. I guess for me, it is quite simply the belief in Allah (God) and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the final messenger (Prophet) of God. That is in fact the only requirements needed if someone were to convert to Islam, you don’t need to sign anything, change your name, recite the Quran in front of everyone – I mean you could do that if that’s what you’ve been told. But upon conversion, would anyone believe you…In a way, why should anyone believe I’m a Muslim? Just because I was brought up culturally as a Muslim: you don’t know if I believe in Allah or not, or if I follow the doctrine of Islam? And I guess this is true for every religion, be it Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism (or any others I have not mentioned), but you get my point – the way you live your life is a reflection on your beliefs. Being a Muslim, believing in Allah, is a very personal belief and Islam means, quite literally, submission to God – and they are many ways for someone to do that, in accordance with Islam: belief in one God, to be faithful, honest, charitable, offer prayer to God, turn away from evil deeds and wrongdoings etc. There’s much more to just being given an Arabic name and being born into a Muslim family. But what is it to be a Muslim in the today’s ‘World’ and in ‘our culture’?

The World – It is not easy being a Muslim in today’s world. There is a common belief amongst Muslims today, that the religion of Islam is being attacked and Muslim’s are being targeted for the actions of a minority, I cannot stress enough that word, minority. There are many statistics out there, but one simple one I will highlight: there are ~1.5 billion Muslims in the world and 99% of them are living pretty normal peaceful lives. And yet as a Muslim I still have this fear that we aren’t being accepted all of a sudden. I’ve been told that not enough Muslim’s are condemning the acts of ISIS for example, as if I have to apologise for the despicable acts of a minority who ‘apparently’ represent Islam and are Muslims. I mean why doesn’t a Christian on the street apologise for the KKK, or why doesn’t the random Atheist promote social equality more? I don’t want to distract away from the main point of this article, but even while writing, I feel the need to just list a few things that Islam does teach that unfortunately the media will never highlight, and which I have been asked out of ignorance:

Women are given equal rights as men, in everything in Islam.

Muslims all around the world represent Islam, not just Saudis or the supposed Muslims in ISIS.

represent Islam, not just Saudis or the supposed Muslims in ISIS. Killing of any innocent soul is FORBIDDEN. Be it suicide bombing, stoning etc.

Islam is tolerant to every religion or belief, and Islam has no right to hurt or persecute a person of another religion.

Islam isn’t this taboo religion. As mentioned before it has ~1.5 billion followers, and yes shockingly none of them are perfect human beings. But the Muslim you might walk past on the street also has a job, like you, to pay for their new clothes, dinners and his/her bills. Contrary to popular belief, Islam, places an incredible emphasis on ‘Knowledge’. Bettering one self with knowledge and not being extreme in your religion was preached heavily by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam has had a profound global impact since it was founded, where modern Education, Health Care, Science, Philosophy owe a great deal to the respective great Muslim thinkers of the centuries past. To name a just a few:

Fatima and Miriam al-Firhi, two Muslim women who opened the first recognised University in the world. The University of Qarawiyyin located in Fes, Morroco.

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, named as one of the fathers of modern algebra, the word itself comes from the Arabic word ‘al-jabr’, which literally means ‘reunion of broken parts’.

Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, was one of the first hospitals to give care to the mentally ill. While a surgeon named Al Zahrāwī is often called the ‘Father of surgery’ whose methods, tools and extensive encyclopaedias were ultimately used as guides for modern surgeons today.

Zahrāwī is often called the ‘Father of surgery’ whose methods, tools and extensive encyclopaedias were ultimately used as guides for modern surgeons today. Jabir Ibn Hayyan, cited as the founder of modern Chemistry. His experimental and systematic works in alchemy and translated works has influenced and shaped European chemists. There is even a popular theory that the word ‘gibberish’ derives from his name as a reference to the incomprehensible technical jargon used by Jabir!

Now my aim isn’t to just list random Islamic influences but to try and point out that there are many modern day practices in use that Muslims have contributed to and unfortunately, this contribution is not being taught in today’s day and age.

Hearkening back to my introduction and the focus on groups like ISIS, in what way do these people claim they can be Muslim and represent Islam and why does our society look like its starting to ignore all the great things Muslims have done? As I mentioned, Islam forbids the killing of a single innocent soul, I mean you don’t need religion to tell you that it is the wrong thing to do so. But more to the point, these people in ISIS aren’t exactly submitting to God are they? In a way, the media have painted us Muslims with this tainted brush, that all Muslims represent ISIS. I’ve read stories of Sikhs being attacked for ‘looking’ like Muslims and receiving verbal and physical abuse on the streets of Western cities, just because of the way they look (which is normally a person of colour and with a beard or a hijab). I don’t want the media to stop alerting us of such atrocities, that is their job. However, I do feel that unfortunately, the way in which they report these atrocities only promotes Islamophobia. And conversely, they do not report about the Muslims who DO condemn these inhumane atrocities and do carry out acts of peace and kindness.

As a user of Facebook, I wish they offered the Turkish, Syrian, Pakistani and Nigerian Flags to be used in users’ profile pictures showing solidarity in their respective atrocities, such as when flags were used in the tragedies in France and Belgium. Isn’t that promoting even more divide within people, Muslim or not? If it is a question of simply supporting a fellow Western country, last time I checked we are all human and Facebook is a worldwide social media platform. Oh and, isn’t Turkey also a part of Europe? I can’t even imagine how the country and of course the victims’ loved ones feel, and yet this small act could have been the one rare ray of light for them. If it were me I would simply feel: alone. As a Muslim I feel like there is nothing I can do, that we are fighting a losing battle. I don’t see a positive program about Islam on TV, Islam has influenced so much in the modern world, and yet even amongst Muslims, we don’t see this being taught. Instead it’s just ‘Islam’ causing terrorist attacks…which has killed more Muslims by the way than any other group. But that is not to say there aren’t any positive role models out there trying to drown out this stigma surrounding Islamophobia, therefore it is also my duty to name such figures. Programs like the Daily Show, where people like Aasif Mandvi, Jon Stewart, (who is Jewish by the way), his successor Trevor Noah, have all successfully used satire and comedy to attack these misconceptions about Islam, that it’s simply filled with hatred and that ‘Jihad’ is only about killing Americans. Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, AJ+, Facebook users have all shown the good that Islam spreads and how Muslims can be an example for people of all faiths and backgrounds. I mean even the new Radiohead music video has said to have been produced to draw attention to the ongoing refugee crisis, paranoia, anger and Islamophobia incited by the “blaming of different people…the blaming of Muslims”, according to Virpi Kettu who worked on the project. So there is a positive outlet out there for Islam, but how can they compete when the mainstream media refuses to highlight this? Does there need to be more Muslims in the media sector for this to change? Or does the Media need to stop peddling this fearmongering into us?

Cultural world – How is it being a Muslim or being classed as a Muslim in the cultural world? More specifically in the UK. Culture is a beautiful thing, I am not only extremely proud to be Muslim and a part of Islam, I am proud of my Islamic culture. We have such a strong sense of community where loved ones comes first. You are encouraged to share your troubles with your parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents, friends etc. While you essentially don’t ever feel lonely, I have heard many times of Muslim’s feeling alone. Critics though, say that Islam needs to catch up with modern times, and perceive it as rather ‘Medieval’ in comparison to the other Abrahamic religions, that have essentially become a part of Western culture now. One aspect of the culture, is the infighting and distrust between Muslims (not all of course, but enough to catch a Muslim’s attention), too many times have I seen another Muslim target and corrupt a fellow Muslim, exclude them and offer no help. I don’t want to push stereotypes here, but I can’t ignore that in the Jewish Community, they tend to stick together, they may separate themselves a little from other groups but they never forget their own, and as a Muslim I can’t help but look upon that with admiration. Their religion was persecuted heavily and they have gone through so much (still do in some places). And yet they have come out even stronger, the support they show for each other is incredible. Of course I have seen many Jewish people offer support to Muslims and vice versa, as it should be.

Personally, our culture is starting to forget what exactly it means to be a part of Islam. As I touched on before, Islam, in the Quran, heavily promotes the idea of thinking and educating yourself. It is your duty to ask questions, to pursue truths and answers for queries you may have, the Quran encourages this. It is for this reason Islam has taught this world so much. And yet, the culture here is simply learn how to pray and be a Muslim and you’ll go to heaven and be expected to ask no questions later, isn’t that unreasonable? A misconception in Islam, and something I even feel not enough Muslim’s know is that ANYONE can go to heaven, NOT just Muslims. When I was younger I remember a family member expressing that we are ‘very lucky to be born in a Muslim family’ as we believe Islam to be the final word of God, we are pretty much set up to go to Heaven. But Heaven isn’t the lottery or a monopoly, you can’t go to Heaven because you were lucky. That goes completely against the idea of Islam: submission to God. Islam claims to be a universal religion for all human beings, as the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was sent to ALL humanity, which therefore means Heaven and Hell are there for anyone. Allah sent messengers, for all people, not a select group. A Christian, Jew, Sikh or anyone who has never been exposed to Islam, will be judged on THEIR own good deeds and submission to God. Islam never has preached he/she will be turned away from God just because he/she is not a Muslim. And yet I have overheard Muslims say these people are the ‘unbelievers’ and must accept Islam as the true faith. We are told that these people should ‘convert’ if they are to be sent to Heaven; that is not the case in Islam as it is not for us to say who can be granted Heaven or Hell. What if a Jewish person came up to you (a Muslim reader) and asked you to convert because they say their path to God is the correct way. I bet you would find that VERY hard to do. There is not one simple path to God, but many, and yet our culture has buried this and ignored a key part of Islam. In Islam, ONLY Allah knows whether you will go to Heaven or Hell and nobody has a right to say otherwise.

Everybody is different and grows up experiencing different things, nobody knows if such a person really does believe in God, let alone follow the other teachings of Islam. Let’s say a Muslim person believes in God, and prays, you would say he/she is on course to book his/her one way ticket to Paradise. But he/she is dishonest in their job, does not give to charity, does not fast, does not help their fellow human, does not forgive people, preaches anger more than happiness – all of these things do not get magically wiped away just because he/she prays. Praying in Islam is an extremely personal thing and it should be a reflection on the good you do in life and true belief in being forgiven for past sins. When praying to God, only you will believe or not, no matter how much someone sees you do it. A Muslim on my left could perform his 5 daily prayers but their heart may not be pure, whereas the Muslim on my right prays only once but is filled with love for God and submission – I wouldn’t know any way, but I have no right to say the Muslim who prays 5 times is ‘the better Muslim’, let alone point my finger and say to the person who prays less that they are on the way to hell. Take it a step further; what if a person does not drink alcohol, gives to charity, is honest, faithful to their loved ones, believes in God, prays in their own way – they do all this without Islam teaching them this, according to our culture, that person is going to Hell. And unsurprisingly, there are many people like this in the world – Islam even says that, that person will not be submitted to the hell-fire as they will be judged separately, so why is it in our culture will we be the first to say, he or she is doomed? Take our own Prophet, who had met many ‘unbelievers’ in his life and showed them respect, and of course his own uncle, who essentially raised him, Abū Ṭālib ibn ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib rejected Islam throughout his life, but protected and loved his nephew, the Prophet, with all his heart. Do we Muslims think he will be in Hell then, even though our own Prophet held him in such high regard? In Islam, forgiveness plays such a key role, both between Allah and the person and between people themselves. No matter what you do, Allah will forgive you, you will always be given another chance if your heart is pure. If Allah can forgive, why does our culture find it so hard to forgive and forget and segregate people?

There is a lot of good in this world, from both Islam and without it. we see it around all the time, whilst it is sad that Muslims are fighting this battle from the rest of the world, if we are to succeed and show the goodness that Islam can bring, we first need to stamp this ‘backward’ thinking out of our own culture and stop alienating the people around us. On a side note, while somewhat related, it saddens me non Muslims will never get to experience the love and happiness around in Mecca and Madinah, where a poor and elderly white man can sit side by side with a young, rich Asian man, and yet there is no difference between them, they are wearing the same clothes and doing the same thing. They are equal in every way in God’s eyes. With the exception of the millions of Muslims that go for Hajj, I do hope one day non Muslims will be allowed to visit. Not to see the overbearing sight of the hotels sadly, but the peace amongst all the people. There are no signs of animosity no matter who you are or what your background is. Is this the only place in the world we Muslims can do this?

As an Egyptian Islamic jurist, scholar and liberal reformer, who is regarded as one of the key founding figures of Islamic Modernism once said – “I went to the West and saw Islam, but no Muslims; I got back to the East and saw Muslims, but not Islam” – Muhammad Abduh.