Bismillah
Submit
Someone told me that they are Agnostic and said "convince me". This is what I thought (some parts are from my responses to other online places but Wallahi I am not plagerising 
)
Salaam brother,
What you must first understand is the basic reality of Islam; belief in tawhid, or absolute oness of Allah
. This is the one transcendent truth that we must all abide by and literally "submit" to. It is our duty to recognize that we come from an infallible divine source and that our presence implies a purpose.
Every thing we do and every action that we look forward to is constantly in mind of this one fact. "Woe betide you, O son of Adam! What distracted you from contemplating me? Did you not know that I am the house of trial, the house of darkness, the house of solitude and the house of worms? This is what I have prepared for you. What have you prepared for me?"
We, as humans, have the potential to be the most noble of creatures or to be the most base and whose actions are lower than those even of beasts; for beasts have no ability to rationalize.
We did offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear its burden and were afraid of it, and man picked it up. Indeed he is unjust (to himself), unaware (of the end).
(Chp.33:Vrs.72)
Our duty and our burden is thus monumental. Something so powerful that it can only be man who, so foolishly, agrees to the task and in the process shows his fragility. But his fragility is compounded by his tendency to go astray. For this very reason have we been blessed with the divine words of Allah
and the mannerisms of the best of us, our Prophets, so that we may know how to correct ourselves.
With this acknowledgment of the absolute transcendence of Allah
the onus is on us, as humans, to achieve unity with Allah
. Of course this is an absolute ideal, which none of us can ever attain and the Prophets of the past have come closest to reaching. Through reading and imbibing, to the best of our ability, the moral codes of the Qur'an we reject our pathetic original state and trod on the noble path, though it is fraught with hardship in this world, for we know the reward in the next.
The Islamic goal of achieving tawhid (unity) with God rejects any intermediates and acknowledges both the depth between humanity and divinity and the fact that this journey is a very personal one. It is a reflection of the dualistic tendencies based on both a great ignorance and inability to grasp the nobility of God while being intensely familiar of his creation, after all his power is reflected in the nature that abounds around us and even our own symmetry and inherent beauty (the same beauty that drove the Greeks to spend their lives marveling at the perfection of the human physical state).
When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him. 15:29
Tawhid is a stratification and purification of oneself to reduce the plurality of human emotions and desires through one divine facet. To reduce our contrasting disjointed nature into one singularity that fuses the mortal with the divine so that every action one takes holds a barakah (blessing).
It is not asceticism or monasticism in that you still are involved with the mundane, but the trivialities of the mundane become sacred in their own right. That earning bread for the family or pursuing our sexual desires are manifestations of piety.
This plane of spiritual divinity is not alien to us that we our spirit is derived from Allah
and ideally we must conquer our fallibility for the greater purpose.
And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein 50:16
Ultimately Islam, as I understand it, is a reduction of the plurality of life that represents the chaos of the world and unifying these threads into one divine ribbon. It is a recurring theme that you will find in Islamic jurisprudence or reducing the many maddhab opinions into one implementation as well as the overarching definition of the oneness of God that fits into the entire scheme of things.
This is tantamount to our faith and is reflective in our practice. While the rest of the "believers" of the world sleep, Muslims make supplication, day and night. While the rest of the "believers" work we bow before the majesty of Allah
. Life does not dictate our spirituality, our spirituality dictates our life.
We gather as a community of ascetics, fasting in the month of Ramadan and feeding the poor. Standing shoulder to shoulder on our knees and even then, unable to bear the majesty of Allah
, on the floor in them most submissive and supine position.
We live and abide by a strict moral code that avoids the perils of a sex-driven society increasingly splintered. Muslim families, which are symbolic representations of the Ummah with three generations living under one roof.
That as opposed to Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are Gods for Muslims there is no division or contradiction. All of this abode is of our Lord and we live under his divine mandates.
Ultimately we will all be judged by our creator on the merits of our life.
This of course is my humble opinion and I pray you find guidance, Ameen.
)Salaam brother,
What you must first understand is the basic reality of Islam; belief in tawhid, or absolute oness of Allah
Every thing we do and every action that we look forward to is constantly in mind of this one fact. "Woe betide you, O son of Adam! What distracted you from contemplating me? Did you not know that I am the house of trial, the house of darkness, the house of solitude and the house of worms? This is what I have prepared for you. What have you prepared for me?"
We, as humans, have the potential to be the most noble of creatures or to be the most base and whose actions are lower than those even of beasts; for beasts have no ability to rationalize.
We did offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear its burden and were afraid of it, and man picked it up. Indeed he is unjust (to himself), unaware (of the end).
(Chp.33:Vrs.72)
Our duty and our burden is thus monumental. Something so powerful that it can only be man who, so foolishly, agrees to the task and in the process shows his fragility. But his fragility is compounded by his tendency to go astray. For this very reason have we been blessed with the divine words of Allah
With this acknowledgment of the absolute transcendence of Allah
The Islamic goal of achieving tawhid (unity) with God rejects any intermediates and acknowledges both the depth between humanity and divinity and the fact that this journey is a very personal one. It is a reflection of the dualistic tendencies based on both a great ignorance and inability to grasp the nobility of God while being intensely familiar of his creation, after all his power is reflected in the nature that abounds around us and even our own symmetry and inherent beauty (the same beauty that drove the Greeks to spend their lives marveling at the perfection of the human physical state).
When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him. 15:29
Tawhid is a stratification and purification of oneself to reduce the plurality of human emotions and desires through one divine facet. To reduce our contrasting disjointed nature into one singularity that fuses the mortal with the divine so that every action one takes holds a barakah (blessing).
It is not asceticism or monasticism in that you still are involved with the mundane, but the trivialities of the mundane become sacred in their own right. That earning bread for the family or pursuing our sexual desires are manifestations of piety.
This plane of spiritual divinity is not alien to us that we our spirit is derived from Allah
And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein 50:16
Ultimately Islam, as I understand it, is a reduction of the plurality of life that represents the chaos of the world and unifying these threads into one divine ribbon. It is a recurring theme that you will find in Islamic jurisprudence or reducing the many maddhab opinions into one implementation as well as the overarching definition of the oneness of God that fits into the entire scheme of things.
This is tantamount to our faith and is reflective in our practice. While the rest of the "believers" of the world sleep, Muslims make supplication, day and night. While the rest of the "believers" work we bow before the majesty of Allah
We gather as a community of ascetics, fasting in the month of Ramadan and feeding the poor. Standing shoulder to shoulder on our knees and even then, unable to bear the majesty of Allah
We live and abide by a strict moral code that avoids the perils of a sex-driven society increasingly splintered. Muslim families, which are symbolic representations of the Ummah with three generations living under one roof.
That as opposed to Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are Gods for Muslims there is no division or contradiction. All of this abode is of our Lord and we live under his divine mandates.
Ultimately we will all be judged by our creator on the merits of our life.
This of course is my humble opinion and I pray you find guidance, Ameen.
