Religion Is Very Easy
- From: "I bear witness that there is no deity worthy to be worshipped but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger." <muslim.with.mission@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:44:22 -0700 (PDT)
Religion Is Very Easy
Source :http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?
ref=IC1109-4861
Faithful believers, who worship the One and only God, and sincerely
follow the teachings of their religion, find it very hard to
understand how other people who worship the same God and follow the
same religious teachings, can engage in acts of corruption and
deliberate terrorism. Perhaps we think that people of other religions
can do such things; because we do not know in much detail what their
religions actually teach them. But we do know our own religion, and we
know that it does not permit the sexual exploitation or murder of
women and children. Yet we frequently read of such activities, not
only being done by members of our own religion, but condoned or
covered up, by some leaders of our own religion. How can this be
explained?
All religions condemn hypocrisy. Almost always this refers to those
who claim to be believers, and yet do less than they should. But what
about those who do more than they should? Examples of condemnation of
religious fanaticism and extremism as hypocrisy within ones own
religion are much less frequent. It is not easy to tell your own pious
followers that more isn't always better, or that pious intentions do
not justify evil deeds. The Talmud records a good example of this rare
type of criticism of the more is better philosophy. Rabbi Isaac
condemned the extremism of some super pious Jews who advocated extra
self-imposed abstinence saying, "Aren't the things prohibited by the
Torah enough for you, that you wish to prohibit yourself additional
things?" And several Ahadith report that Muhammad told Muslims,
"Religion is very easy, whoever overburdens himself in his religion
will not be able to continue in that way. So do not be extremists, but
try (only) to approach perfection, and receive the good tidings that
you will be rewarded (just for that)."
If self-imposed extremism is condemned, how much more the extremism
that hurts others. Indeed, all disgraceful activities by religious
people reflect negatively on their religion and on God. In Judaism
this is called Hillul Hashem- profaning God's name/reputation. In
recent years religious riots in India, the slaughter of innocent
Muslims at prayer by an Orthodox Jew in Hebron, Muslim suicide bombers
throughout the Middle East and in Pakistan, and the cover up by
Bishops of molestation of young boys by some Catholic Priests in the
U.S. and Europe, brought terrible disgrace upon organized religion's
reputation. One way to understand these terrible events is in the
light of a saying by a Hassidic Rabbi (Michael) who taught, "When the
Evil Urge tries to tempt people to sin, it tempts them to become super
righteous."
God tells us that such activity must not be covered up or sanitized by
religious believers. It must be vigorously and publicly condemned
since it undermines the very ability of God's religion to influence
people to live according to God's directives. We all know that
religious people are human and sometimes religious people can do
dastardly things. But when piety influences religious leaders to
attempt to rationalize, sanitize, or cover up, rather than to publicly
condemn these activities, people will increasingly reject organized
religion and God. A religious piety that does not require morality and
kindness is valueless and hypocritical, and thus as serious a sin as
worshiping other Gods or idols, the first two of the Ten Commandments.
The third commandment applies to pious religious hypocrites 'DO NOT
MAKE VALUELESS THE NAME OF ADONAI YOUR GOD, FOR ADONAI WILL NOT
SANITIZE ONE WHO MAKES HIS NAME VALUELESS.' Exodus 20:7 and
Deuteronomy 5:11 (My translation) This commandment doesn't refer to
the important issue of perjury, or to the trivial issue of profanity.
Perjury is prohibited in the ninth commandment and profanity by itself
isn't serious enough to be placed in the Ten Commandments. This
commandment refers to the great harm done to religion, and to God's
reputation, when religious people do despicable deeds in God's name
and/or religious leaders try to cover up or sanitize the sins of
religious people to preserve the institution's name. The burning of
witches, the Inquisition, and Jihad suicide bombers, are examples of
the misuse of God's name by some segments of organized religion. This
commandment warns religious people and their leaders that, "Men never
do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction." (Pascal)
Fanatics believe the ends justify the means, thus subordinating God's
goal to their personal or political goal. Extremists believe that more
is always better. To them the Talmud says, "If you (try to) grasp too
much, you don't grasp anything." Our Rabbinic sages extended the
prohibition of misusing God's name even to taking unnecessary oaths
i.e. not required by a court, and making unnecessary blessings i.e.
not required by Jewish law. Personal piety and sincerity do not
justify excessive behavior even if self-limited. How much the more so
if extremists judge others by their perfectionist standards? Religious
people should not misuse their piety by going beyond normal community
limits, and then try to justify it in God's name. This is a religious
principle that Islam, Judaism and Christianity apply to both excessive
personal, as well as political behavior. As the Bible says, "Do not be
overly righteous." (Ecclesiastes 7:17): and as Muhammad told Muslims,
"Religion is very easy, whoever overburdens himself in his religion
will not be able to continue in that way. So do not be extremists, but
try (only) to approach perfection and receive the good tidings that
you will be rewarded (just for that)."
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