This post is gonna be lengthy. I assure you.
I hate shallow minded people. Especially the religious type. This time I'm not holding back. Today, I logged in to my Facebook account and I saw someone's status. He was giving condolences to the people who lost their live in hurricane Sandy. In the very same status, he also said and I quote;
"how does it feel?! what you give, you get back" :)
the power of GOD :)"
Now what does this tell you? If you asked me, I'm utterly disgusted by the fact that initially he wanted to give his sincerest condolences but at the end ended up being a jerk with that stupid statement. I mean, come on. You call yourself a muslim? I know I'm not that pious but I thought Islam teaches us to be grateful, considerate, and forgiving? Where does those teachings fit in that Facebook status? None.
I'm sorry to say that I have lost my sense of respect towards this man. To me, this is just like when the tsunami hit Acheh almost 10 years ago. Many shallow minded people was falling for the tabloids saying that Acheh got hit by the tsunami because the night before, the people of Acheh had a wild party where they had sex and drank booze. It is God's punishment towards them. This could be true. But here's my argument;
No, I'm not saying that it's not God's work. Of course it does. Everything that happens is in God's will but please, by making statements like "It's god's punishments" and what not is just gibberish. By making such statements and accusations towards God, you are making yourself look dumb. As a muslim, when such catastrophe happens, what I learned was to always be grateful and pray that you are safe, pray that the people affected by the disaster get help immediately and pray to god for forgiveness while you still can. I had an argument with a friend years ago about this tsunami issue. He said that all the bad muslims were punished by God for organizing those wild parties. So I asked him, "But they are still muslims. Why didn't God punished the non-muslims too? Why send the tsunami at Acheh which is part of Indonesia which has the largest muslim population? Why did God punished his own servants?" My friend just stood silence. I continued "How are we to convince people that Islam is the right religion? The only religion? I bet if you say that tsunami was God's punishment towards bad muslims, then those people will never want to embrace Islam as their religion. Why would they wanna embrace a religion that sends you tsunami everytime you have sinned? Might as well embrace other religions and die old and still can commit sins without worrying about any tsunami killing them." This is how I analyze the situation.
If God wanted to punish people who have sinned, why not God burned down those night clubs in Malaysia? Why does God had to hit Acheh with tsunami killing thousands of innocent people? Why? Why? Why? It's called fate. Takdir. The only thing you can do is take solace that you still have a chance to beg for forgiveness. Don't go wander around saying that hurricane Sandy was a way of God punishing America. Innocent people were killed too. Do you think they deserved to die something they didn't do? Sure you do, by making shallow minded statements.
This got me thinking, how are we the muslim trying to show the world that Islam is a religious of peace, love and compassion when muslims themselves have a hard time being peaceful, loving and compassionate.
I know this topic is very sensitive and I the words I used are harsh. I just really couldn't stand it anymore and stay silence when someone makes a shallow statements and use religion to justify it. I could be wrong the entire time I'm writing this so please, if you feel like I didn't get the irony of such shallow Facebook comment just like the above, do enlighten me with your two cents because I really want to be a better person and importantly a better muslim. Do share your thoughts. *I'm not being sarcastic*
In addition, I want to say that my prayers goes to the people who are affected by hurricane Sandy, also to all the muslims in the entire world. May you guys find the strength in each other and also have faith in God.
