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Confessions of a Millennial Muslim

Today was one of those days, where I had it with procrastinating.I wanted to write because I wanted to share what goes through a mind of a Muslim. I am a mother of three children, living in a western society pretty much like a single parent, considering my hubby dear is trying to make a living for us , in this ever so fast paced society.

While cooking for chicken Karahi( you can guess I am a Pakistani) I realised one thing. And this self realization that you can call introspective is what makes a Muslim different. I don’t know about others but I think of living in God( Allah’s) way 24/7, while sitting, drinking, cooking, eating, you name it in pretty much everything. So yes even while cutting vegetables . Today I noticed one of the tomatoes was rotten. Normally my instant response is to throw it right in the bin, but today was a bit different. After watching David Attenborough blue planet and following him and Greta Thunberg on how to save the planet. The biggest thing that touched my heart was the fact we all are related, from food to water to humans to animals this interconnection and realization that we as beings have to play our part individually in this vast planet, gives us a purpose. He mentioned to reverse climate change the first step is to reduce waste. It means not to be sitting idle in the car while the engine is turned on, or it can even be not to waste the tomatoes despite being half rotten.

thoughts : I held the tomatoe in my hand and tasted the other half. It was absolutely perfect. There you go! I wondered how could I have thought of throwing the whole thing in. After all it took the plant ‘time’ (which is another thing Muslims owe to the world) to produce this fruit. Imagining the plant to be a living thing ( no I mean actually living , talking) The sole purpose of that plant was that it made an effort , used the sunlight, used the water and produced this fruit it’s best product to be used ? It’s purpose for existence!. The farmer then took care of it and spent time to protect it from birds and pests and without realisation we just dump it! Something is wrong. While shopping in a supermarket we pick the best fruits completely flawless, afterall we are paying so much right ? Well there is no difference on how much we pay, it’s worth will remain the same. May it be a half rotten one or a ripened one. Both have the same value since both had the same amount of universal time and resources being spent on its production.

No one is perfect , everyone makes mistakes , but to realise and not to repeat them is true learning. I must confess, I’m feeling guilty of wasting that meat lying in the fridge for about 4 days. I was too late to cook it and now that life (lamb) has gone to waste. At the end of the day, that meat landed in my fridge as rizq ( sustenance) from god( Allah) . If we imagine that everything in this planet has a soul- a purpose and that purpose is not fulfilled till the end , then we have failed it and us. It may be the water that runs through our taps or the air we breathe in. It is for us for a purpose, and to make use of it – is our purpose!

What do you think?

Written by aimen