We Err In Our Perceptions of What Islam Is

Once a person took a group of blind people to a zoo where there was a tame elephant. The person allowed each of the blind to feel the elephant and requested him to describe the elephant.
Feeling the trunks of the leg of the elephant, one said: “An elephant is a bark of a massive tree”.
“No, an elephant is a huge leaf of a tree” said another whilst running his hand over the ear of the elephant.

Said a third one even as he held the trunk of the elephant in his hand:
“Both of you are wrong, an elephant is a thick, fat hosepipe”.
Each of the blind presented his own personal opinion of what an elephant was as an incontrovertable fact. Because of being blind, each one erred and thought that he was accurately describing an elephant.
Just as they erred in their perceptions, so often is it that we err in our perceptions of what Islam is.

In proportion to the weakness of the eyesight, a person fails to see reality. A squint eyed person will see four instead of two. Instead of seeing clearly, a short sighted person will see blurred images. A colour blind eye will only see things in grey and white and fail to grasp the beauty of colors.Similarly, in proportion to the blindness of the heart, the Haq (Truth), will not be fully grasped. It will either be non-existent, squinted or blurred. Whereas a blind person is handicapped and deprived of comforts, conveniences and pleasures and delights which the eyes behold, he is not harming his soul, Imaan and Aakhirah.

On the other hand, a person who has the strongest eyesight but whose heart is blind, harms and destroys, damages and devastates his soul, his Imaan, his Aakhirah. Other than being a danger to himself, a person whose heart is blind, is a constant threat to his family, friends and society. In fact, his existence is a burden to the earth.
Everyone is united in the understanding that we have a Holy Qur’aan as a guide, Nabi salallahu alayhi wasallam as an example and our noble predecessors as models worthy of being emulated. Despite this, why is it that we squander an entire life floundering and faltering in our quest for a strong Imaan? Sadly, many of us cannot even get the basic five times salaah right. We bash and harass our own wives and emotional wreck and condemn them to a mental prison infinitely worse than Guantanamo
Bay.
That our children suffer in the process, does not even seem to bother us. Emotionally they are traumatized and silently bear the torment with scars upon their hearts and wounds upon their minds. Yes, o yes, our hearts are indeed blind. A million suns cannot illuminate such blind hearts.

A major reason for this blindness is that we do not pay sufficient attention to the Words of Allah and His Rasul (salallahu alayhi wasallam). To our own detriment, we treat the advice, warnings, glad tidings, instructions and prohibitions in a casual manner, unworthy of serious thought, unappreciative of gratitude.This despite the fact that Allah and His Rasul (salallahu alayhi wasallam) are fervently desirous to ensure our well-being in both this World and the ever-lastinghereafter. Has Allah, Most High, not proclaimed and announced openly?

“And Allah calls you to Jannah…”
“And what shall Allah get by punishing you if you are grateful…”
And as for our beloved Nabi (salallahu alayhi wasallam) did he not sob and cry the entire night in Salaah begging and beseeching Allah to forgive his Ummah? Such passion, such love…

So how does the heart become blind?
Says Allah, Most High: “Nay, their hearts have been sealed by the sins they have accumulated.” (Qur’an 83:14) Nabi salallahu alayhi wasallam pinpointed the exact cause of what makes hearts blind.
He said that when a person commits a sin, it falls like a black dot on the clean slate of his heart. If he repents, the dot is erased. If, however, he persists in same and continues to sin, the dot will continue to expand until it covers his entire heart, in which case his spiritual soul becomes completely sealed off. As a result he fails to recognize good as good and evil as evil. And this is the root of many of our problems: We fail to recognize good as good and evil as evil. Once Nabi (salallahu alayhi wasallam) addressed Hadhrat

Abu Zarr Radiallahu anhu: “O Abu Zarr, the crux of religion is abstaining from sin and the secret of religion is obedience to Allah. The same terror which we have for fire, that terror should grip our hearts before we indulge in sin. The same care we take to guard a secret should be zealously adopted when we obey Allah Azza Wajal.

In a nutshell, Islam, as described by Nabi salallahu alayhi wasallam is to:ABSTAIN FROM SIN AND TO OBEY ALLAH
In this lies true success and peace of mind!