Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are those of the author’s and don’t necessarily represent or reflect the views of MangoBaaz.

By: Talha Ahsen Khawaja

I was at Kohsar today, sitting outdoor at Gloria Jeans waiting to meet an acquaintance regarding a project of mine. A group of Germans was sitting nearby, casually having snacks and drinks. Which seemed perfectly fine to me.

Yes, I was fasting but the essence of fasting is to look beyond our temptations and I couldn’t care more as to what anyone else was doing.

However, it was around 5pm and some people were headed over to the mosque in Kohsar for the Asr prayer to cleanse themselves of their sins, because praying in a mosque in just this month makes up for whatever you do throughout the rest of the year. I’m no one to judge but I speak from my observations and experiences, the prevalence of hypocritical values I see every Ramadan are truly tragic.

Anyhow, I look back for a moment and see a self-righteous “Muslim” saying something to the foreigners, and clearly they are offended and decide to leave immediately.

As the man passes by my table, I ask him what he said to those people, a proud response is fostered “Mai ne unhey kaha ke hamaray rozay hain tou iss tarah saamnay khaana peena na karein“.

To which I rebutted, “agr aap ka asl me mazboot iman hai tou aap ko koi faraq nahi parhna chahiye”.

He seemed like a well-educated man, as he even mentioned later on how he is a general manager at an international cement company or something. A bilingual discussion followed where he stated “it is their right to respect our religion”, to which I obviously argued in my own style imploring him to respect other people for their own beliefs without trying to impose his own suited to his own benefit.

He asks, “are you even a Muslim?”, shocked by his question, I get cheeky and say, “no, but I believe in one God and His messages, regardless of Sunni/Shia/Wahabi school of thoughts”.

He responds, “aap ko pata hai idher hee Salman Taseer ke sath kiya hua tha?” To which my internal dialogue burst into a sad little giggle, “mai ider hee behta hoon, dekh lete hain”.

As he walks away, angered by the ignorance I bellow, “because of people like you with their narrow mindset this country is going down the drain”, he looks back and responds, “mujhey iss mulk se kuch nai hai mujhey Islam se hai”

But doesn’t every religion including Islam preach humanity above everything else? Moreover, patience, tolerance, and respect?

I realized today that our war is much greater than just ideologies, everyone believes they are right just as I do right now, it’s human nature that we must fight against and we must strive to have enough knowledge so that we can justify our beliefs and opinions.

Simply; we are stuck in a facade of futility and vanity, too obsessed with and influenced by religion, politics and mainstream while forgetting the real issues.

No one talks of spirituality anymore, the hot topic would rather be how you place your arms when you pray or whether it’s right to hit a female with your napkin.

You can find the original post by Talha right here.

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Cover image via: rferl.org