Blindspot!
From Issue: 698 [Read full issue]
Sacred Actions
In addition to being a religion built upon a few foundational unchanging doctrines or rational assertions, Islam is a religion of obligatory practice and observance. If a person wants to run a marathon, we all understand that she will have to embrace a long-term, daily routine of training and discipline. This might include a special diet, a specific number of miles to run every day, a curbing or letting go of certain activities or behaviours that are not conducive for the training, and other life changes. While her work or study life might continue somewhat normally, everything else in her life, including her social life, would be touched and affected by the consuming preparations that are required for this great task.
In a sense, observant Muslims all see themselves as "in training" for a kind of marathon; the great task is making one's way home to God, in whose presence Muslims believe they will find their greatest happiness and peace. This worldly life is understood to be the training ground and the theatre for the most crucial part of the race. Thus, the daily discipline an observant Muslim embraces is the basic part - the nuts and bolts - of the training, the preparation for the race into eternity. When seen in these terms, the daily prayer, the fasting, the almsgiving, the dietary observance, and the other aspects of Islamic practice may not seem so strange or foreign to us.
Compiled From:
"In the Light of a Blessed Tree" - Timothy J. Gianotti, pp. 51, 52