My latest Facebook post:
You know what? I think I'm finally done with Islam. I mean I'm done saying I'm a liberal Muslim or Agnostic Muslim or trying to reform Islam. etc... What will be will be. If it reforms then good luck. If it doesn't reform then goodbye. Others can take that up. I'm not going to waste my time anymore. Yes of course after over half a century of being a Muslim there are lots of things I like and respect in Islam and will remain a part of me and I even still enjoy the occasional prayer. But I simply don't believe in it. I have known for some time now that it is a man-made religion. All religions are. Let's be honest. Religion is bullshit. I think I have to be true to myself rather than trying to save the world.
Ps it doesn't mean I'll stop critiquing Islam tho. It's still one of my favourite pastimes after football and music.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess that I love the stuffing out of you, old chap. Now that that’s out of the way, we can all relax and drink a pint or two of that disgusting craft beer you love so much.
Now, I don’t, as a rule, enjoy seeing you throw in the towel. Still, I’d rather see you do the full circle above while being honest with yourself than to see you engage in the sort of theological bait-and-switch which calling yourself (divinity-based) Muslim is always going to entail.
Personally, I’ve never been partial to tactically dressing up one’s post-Islam individuation as (to quote Theresa May’s feeble attempt to cover her dementia tax U-turn by repeating twice) “nothing’s changed!”
The most important thing, really, is to be happy and spread whatever you suspect as constituting happiness, however little that might be, to those most immediately around you and those with whom you interact and are within the sphere of your influence. To wit, family and friends.
Beyond that, you should always kid yourself into thinking that your transformative influence does not extend. This little technique has done wonders for my potbelly & soul alike.
I remember feeling fantastically free when I first accepted I’ve done quite a bit of handing out dawah and that from that moment onward I should pension myself off having reached it (it =مرتبة اليقين) as far as trying to increase humanity’s awareness is concerned. In fact, I would still like to invite humanity — especially that portion of it which is the remotest away placed from my influence — to do one, if it’s all the same.
In those heady days, I was more concerned with “freedom from” Allah and hardly paid any homage to “freedom to”. It was only recently that I started chartering and patrolling the areas which lay beyond the mere fact of being free from Islamic interference that emanated from others who either sought to obstruct my will and or to tyrannically impose theirs on me. Fuck that, Sir.
Whilst sodding that to Hades, life remains to be explored at leisure. That's the old wisdom I found of late; it was but for the self-imposed theological blinkers, the writing on the wall, on Islam's wall, has always been there. Finger pointing to the moon and imbeciles examining the finger and all that.
Topic: Finally Done with Islam