On the train this morning, i looked around, saw all the clean faces and wondered how many were Muslims. It struck me a moment later what a weird thought that was to have, and i began asking myself why that was important.
How do Muslims become Muslims? I would venture a majority of Muslims are Muslims because their parents were Muslims (who were Muslims because their parents were Muslims). The average lifecycle of a Muslim includes periods of study/exposure to religious practices when young, and conditioning either through the family or through the State and non-State education system. Most Muslims i saw on the train this morning were born Muslims, and nearly everyone of them, myself included, were taught how to be a Muslim.
The next question that appears in the mind hence is -- if we were taught to be Muslims because we were born Muslims, where does the element of faith and belief come in?
Are we taught to believe as well? Or do we believe as a consequence of learning and understanding the religion? If this were true, could we be taught to believe in any other religion too? Or is it our destiny through birth and environment to be Muslims regardless of anything else that we may be exposed to in our lives?
If we are taught our beliefs, is it possible to unlearn what we were taught, thus unlearning our beliefs?
If we believe because we believe (not because we were taught to believe), what was the catalyst fo belief? How did we begin to believe independently of our teachings and environment?
These questions are relevant even to non-Muslims who later in life embraced Islam. Did they learn about the religion, did they learn about Islam, which led to belief (i.e. they were taught to believe)? Or did they have this feeling one day of unshakable belief that Islam was the religion they believed in?
I have a problem with believing in something i was taught to believe in. No doubt about it, i believe i am a Muslim, but i refuse to accept that this belief was taught; its just unacceptable that belief is something you can be taught/conditioned -- that isn't real belief. I believe i'm a Muslim, i want to be a Muslim but the fact that i was exposed to the inescapable instruments of my environment that taught me belief, i'm caught in a paradox: am i a true believer?
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