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Are You A Real Muslim? Pakistan's Quest For True Muslims

By Sikander Hayat
A battle to find an ever purer form of Islam is being fought in Pakistan. There were different stages to this battle:
  2. We started on a path to find good Muslims and bad Muslims  
  3. After finding the good Muslims, we separated them on the basis of sects with Sunni Islam coming out on top.
  4. We then began a journey to find the real Sunni Muslims and further sub sects.
This is the problem of Pakistan. Ever decreasing circles of Islam in which people are continuously being excluded from the category of Muslim and into an ever increasing circle of kafirs. All those who are declared kafir by one sect are the good Muslims of the other sect. All those declared kafirs are liable to be killed by good Muslims. So who decides about other people’s faith.
Who decides if someone is a good Muslim or a Kafir. Who decides if one should be killed for being a bad Muslim. Pakistan was once a majority Muslim nation but now it has turned into a country where there are lot of mutually exclusive minority Muslim sects.
In Pakistan it is very difficult to be a Muslim as you have to define your version of Islam. As far as I knew, anyone who believed in Allah, his last prophet Muhammad & five basic pillars of Islam was a Muslim. Now people ask:
  1. Which mosque do you attend
  2. What hand gestures you make while praying.
  3. Do you cover your ankles or not
  4. What is your dress type
  5. Do you raise your hands in prayer


And the list is endless. After passing all those hurdles people will declare you a Muslim, a bad Muslim or a downright kafir depending on which sect they think you belong to. This is what Pakistan has come to. A country where everyone judges everyone else on the degree of their faith and may be just may be that is reason that we are not doing very well as a country. I know that you guys will think this is over the top but try discussing the definition of a good Muslim next time you are with your friends and colleagues and you will get your answer.
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Comments

  1. Hassaan Bukhari27 November 2016 at 19:14

    Hmm...a quite statement. First we have to qualify these conditions and then we can at least hope to be called a Muslim. Barelvi declared all Deobandis and Ahl-e-Hadees murtid and Gustakh e Rasool, Deobandis declare Barelvi Mushrik and Biddati while Ahle Hadees declare both heretics. Sunni say shia kafir, shia say themselves to be the truthful muslims. All are at each others throats.

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  2. Anonymous13 February 2018 at 16:24

    @Syyed Hassan I think u r very right. Both sides have different views, but the point is, we need to focus more on the fundamental principles of Islam and be united. After all, both Sunnis and Shias believe that Allah is One. If we keep on fighting among ourselves, how can we expect to succeed?

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