RATIONALIZING THE TRUTH: FACTS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELING.
— Balogun Abdulbasit Umar
“It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed in a plain error.” -Sura Al-Ahzab, Ayah 36
The Maxim that forms the title of this write up is a reflection of what has overcome Muslims in our world today. We tend to question every thing that does not go inline with our own flawed and adulterated reasoning. You see a Muslim questioning the reason why Allah would allow a Man to marry four and restrict women to one, saying Shari’ah is barbaric (Allah forbid), why did the Prophet say women should not be leaders, why are Muslim men commanded to raise their trousers and keep their beards (you’ll hear them say “That’s Backwardness!”). Some will even go as far as arguing with their reasoning and when you present them with a Hadith or a verse in the Qur’an they say “I disagree with you…!” which translates to one thing; they disagrees with the Qur’an or the legislation of Allah the Almighty. May Allah forbid.
In line with the aforementioned, the Prophet clearly warned us to steer clear of excessive questioning in one of his hadith:
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (ra):
I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say, “What I have forbidden for you, avoid. What I have ordered you [to do], do as much of it as you can. For verily, it was only the excessive questioning and their disagreeing with their Prophets that destroyed [the nations] who were before you.” [Bukhari & Muslim]
When such people come out with this reaction what I reply them with is a simple statement, “well, facts don’t care about how you feel”. It’s your problem to feel that you think you’re reasonable than the one who created you and gave you that brain to reason with. It is also your problem that you think the Messenger which was sent to you is not as intellectually gifted as you are.
A Muslim is not like an adherent of other religions. Everything we do has a reference, either from the Qur’an or Hadīth. We don’t do things out of the blue and bring poor evidences like:
وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَىٰ أُمَّةٍ وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ مُهْتَدُونَ
“We found our fathers following a certain way and religion, and we guide ourselves by their footsteps.”
-Sura Az-Zukhruf, Ayah 22
A Muslim is not like this, we pray because we were commanded to, same as we fast, go for Hajj and other legislated actions and deeds in our religion.
So whenever you as a Muslim are challenged by people who are narrow-minded like that, tell them it’s not about how they feel. They should rather suppress their own desires to meet the legislation of Allah. In a weak Hadith from Imam Nawawi on the Authority of Abdullah bn Amr bn al-‘As the prophet was said to have said: “None of you have believed until his desires are in line with what I have brought (Islam)” this is a weak Hadith but are we suppose to worship or be a Muslim in our own way or in the manner Allah wants us to be?
The one who is afflicted with self-desire should shed that cloak and embrace what has been revealed to him from his Lord in good faith even if his brain doesn’t seem to grasp it. He should also learn more about Islam, what is in it and what is against it. He should not worship Allah based on his whims and caprices.
And remember whenever you hear retorting statement about religious issues from one miskeen Bakr or Zaid tell them that “Facts don’t care about how you feel”¹
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¹. The statement was from a Ben Shapiro discuss with some students of a university in America. Ben is an Islamophobe but he was right there even though he is a liar!
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