Religion: Nafizul Islam

Nafizul Islam Final Paper

Professor Tirana Rel. 311

Ambition Plus Cognition Equals Tradition

“My name is Nafizul Islam and I am proud to be a Muslim.” The funny thing is that if this was two years ago, I would not have dared to utter this statement of identity. Why? Well, to start, I did not always find the religion of Islam appealing because it was always forced upon me. Praying five times a day, going to the masjid every weekend to study my Arabic alphabet, and learning how to read the Qur’an every other night, after finishing my school homework, was a daunting task for me, as well as any other Muslim child who went to public school in the United States. To add on, the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001, enforced my resistance towards my tradition because I was being constantly taunted by my peers with phrases like, “You’re a terrorist!” or, “Go back to Afghanistan!”, even though I was neither a terrorist nor from Afghanistan. So, like any other individual who simply had enough, I slowly moved away from the religion of Islam because I did not want to be associated with “terrorists”. This then lead me to become an Atheist for the most part of my life. But, in the past two years, I have learned that ambition plus cognition equals the reclaiming and love for tradition because I converted from Atheism to Islam on my own accord.

I believe that a person does not acquire a true sense of what their tradition is and what it means until they attain that knowledge, perception, and interpretation about their customs on their own. That is the cognitive aspect of tradition. When a person embraces their tradition, whether it may be a religion or other cultural customs, they also obtain a sense of purpose in life. Th...

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...re not theologians and who listen to religious leaders, that it is wrong to marginalize and oppress women. We need to embrace the idea of equality for all, as the Prophet Muhammad avidly campaigned in his respected lifetime. According to Islam, the best way to live is to follow how and what the Prophet Muhammad did. So, if the beloved Prophet denounced inequality 1400 years ago, why can we not? This ideology of acceptance should be carried out throughout the world in our societies and cultures. We as intelligent human beings should understand that ignorance, intolerance, and inequality breeds more injustice in the human race. We should always strive to conquer and overcome those destructive dogmas in order to achieve an egalitarian Earth. As the Prophet Muhammad once keenly said, “Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.”