Back again

I met a Muslim called Kresna yesterday. It was a bit strange. I've known him for some time, but because of his name I assumed he was a Hindu. So yesterday I asked him and he said he's Muslim, but because his parents liked some of these Hindu stories they decided to name all their children with Hindu names.

What's even more surprising is that the brother was practising Muslim. In his youth he had attended Qur'an lessons and was very strict, but as he grew older he became more disillusioned with Muslim attitudes and he let the dunya get to him.

I feel exactly the same thing as him. Muslims tend to make Islam extremely difficult for themselves and for others. Nowadays in the West, for example, you can either be a Sufi/madhhabi or a Salafi. If you are a Sufi/madhhabi you have to be really strict in following a madhhab otherwise you're considered not a proper madhhabi. If you are a Salafi you have to be extremely strict in following either the Saudi scholars or the Jordanian Salafis otherwise you're not considered a proper Salafi.

For most Salafis or Sufi/madhhabis, if you don't fit neatly into a particular camp, you're considered deviant and you're not a proper Muslim. It might not be stated, but it's definitely there, underlying any interactions.

And I find it odd, mainly because when you look at the early scholars, they were tough about 'Aqida issues, but not about where you held your hands in the prayer, or whether your garments were a certain length or a certain width. But that's part of what makes Muslims so weak. Pettiness. And the worst thing is we're proud of it.