Soul searching
OP - December 05, 2015, 12:53 AM
Salaam,
I've been following the forum for around a month and I hope to learn and participate in the quest for seeking the truth.
I was born in a relatively moderate muslim family. Practically all of my relatives are practicing Muslims.
Despite being religious, non of my family members are intolerant and my folks are extremely nice, loving and hardworking people. Thus, I never took an issue with Islam per se because they turned out to be great people even though they are religious.
This whole notion of religion is dangerous or somehow makes you evil never flew past me.
At one point in life, I did a lot of research in comparative religion (or what I thought was in-depth research), and even became a Da'i as I was convinced of the truth. I might have even be party responsible for a couple of non-muslims accepting Islam.
UNTIL
I questioned the veracity of my research itself.
I was naturally inclined to Islam because of my upbringing and environment (and as I mentioned earlier, I had no reason to think it was bad). This belief was further strengthened when I ran into material from Dr. Zakir Naik and having attended one of his live talks in my city in India.
I browsed through his website and learned "how to respond to <christian/atheist/etc>".
There was this program on his website that guides you on how to do dawah or something.
Since he uses "logic", "reasoning" and "science" in deducing some of his conclusions, and being a student of science myself, it made even more sense to me.
However, since the past few years now, I've come to realize, what I thought was research, was simply an intellectually dishonest excursion.
The more I read, reason and question things, the more skeptical I have become.
I feel cheated that most of the arguments that Dr. Zakir Naik used in his videos are intellectually dishonest.
I'm guilty of having gotten carried away by the sensationalism of his talks but I know better now.
However, being true to logic and reasoning, Dr. Naik's arguments are no reflection on Islam.
Thus, here I am, soul searching, trying to seek the truth. Every day I see myself turning more skeptical and agnostic, but somehow it's hard for me to renounce a religion whose products have been incredible people in my life. At this point, I'm a non-practicing Muslim with an agnostic bias.
Maybe all my family/relatives are such loving and nice people DESPITE religion. Who knows, seems my quest for truth is going to be long and hard.
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those that cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. - Alvin Toffler
Topic: Soul searching