Peace be on to you all! :)
So far I've been trying to cover up as many topics as I can under Salah... And there's more coming up In sha Allah. ;) :P
But Alhamdullilah recently I got an amazing opportunity to render a speech (more like a talk). As I started speaking, I saw the girls there could easily relate themselves to my speech.. And I thought to myself that I should be sharing that talk to a more wider audience..
As my heading states, I spoke of the importance of a person's identity. And it started this way..
How many of us have ever felt lonely? And how many of us felt the need to be accepted by a group? Especially in the groups during our schooling... As expected, all the girls present there raised their hands.
Imagine this;
You are feeling very lonely. Frustrated because there's nobody you think who can understand what you're going through. You shoo your family away, hide your worries because you feel you're either bothering them or they just might not get your point and instead start yelling at you. Now, you happen to see a phone near you. And you really wana call someone up and share your problems with them. Who is the first person that comes to your mind?
Since my audience was the youth, most of them replied it was their friends.
That's where we start losing our identity. I also made myself very clear that I'm not against friendship. It is human nature to be having the need of someone who can hear you out. But "who" is gonna hear you out, that's very crucial.
As teenagers, we anticipate to becoming a part of the school's most popular group. And in no way they're away from the not-so-islamic lifestyle. In order to join this group and become popular, we start following them.. and in this process we lose our ourselves.. lose our identity..
Everyone of us is unique. We all have a different personalities, ideas, ambitions, strengths, weaknesses and instead of representing the person we are, we adapt someone else's thoughts. Do you want to be a part of a popular group or do you want the world to know the person you are..?
Each one of us has the power to influence. That's how strong our personality is. Allah (SWT) has blessed us all with intellect, not to follow others blindly but to be able to make our own choices and decisions and create an identity of ourselves in this world. Do we want to live as a nobody when Allah has given us the power of creating a difference in this world?
Reminds me of the beautiful example my teacher had given. She spoke of one of the rightly guided Caliphs, Umar Ibn Al Khattab (RA). Prior to Islam, he was among the mushrikeen, a nobody. Following the practices of his people and ancestors. But after his acceptance of Islam, he is somebody about whom we talk about to this date. Even after a thousand years, the Islamic world takes his example for piety, strength, intellect, generosity and wisdom and so much more! Rasullulah (SAWS) spoke of him saying, if there was a Prophet after Muhammad (SAWS), it would be Umar (RA).
Islam has already raised your status above all! All you need to do is to prove you're worthy of it. You were not created to blend in a group with messed up thoughts. But you were created to stand out.
I know it's easy to speak than to follow. But all of which I've talked about so far are the things I've practiced and experienced myself. Let's not become so weak and vulnerable for anybody to make us feel that we're not worthy as individuals.
Let us build our personality and beliefs so strong that we're able to influence others and become living examples of this amazing religion, Islam. :)
May Allah make this path easy for all of us. Ameen. :)
As Salam Alykum.
