Seek knowledge
My friends and fellow Nigerian, please read the text below carefully without sentiment to your belief…

While it might not be compulsory for us to know some certain things, it becomes necessary when our circumstances require that we know. As a Nigerian and a Yoruba I learnt while I was very young that when you put a leaf in your mouth in front of a deaf and dumb it means you abuse his/her mum, it means you dare him/her and so on. I was naïve and I tried it with a playmate that was deaf and dumb, we got into a serious fight and we were separated after a while, from that moment, I understood the lesson and that was my first and last trial about that.

Now, to the trending religious arguments and misconception especially about the image of Islam and muslims as portrayed by the media and the hatred as shown by many individuals or group especially people of the Christain faith. I say to you...

Islam is a religion, a Muslim is an individual and while the two are inter-related they cannot be interchanged, even in language studies sometimes, two synonymous words cannot be used interchangeably. Islam is a religion perfected and ordained by God for all mankind and the Jinn, it is believing in one God, believing in the prophets, believing in the day of judgment (end time), believing in the books and believing in destiny. It teaches peace, patience, perseverance, tolerance, forgiveness, mercy, respect, love, loyalty, generosity and so on.

A Muslim is an individual and a human like any other, who can believe, who can err, who can change due to circumstances, and who can be tried by the devil like any other human. He can vary in his act of goodness, in his way of worship, communication, relationship, knowledge and so on. He can be ignorant, dull, aggressive and intolerant. In other words, a Muslim cannot be perfect and not every act of a Muslim can be said to be Islamic especially when such act is not in accordance with the teachings and the norms of Islam.

There is always a hype to defame Islam each time a Muslim man or woman has done something wrong which is not the case for other religion, in fact most people condemn Islam ignorantly because of the act of a singular person or group of people consisting of few Muslims. Islam is practiced by billions of people in the world, the decision of a particular few to choose a path of violence can therefore not be put on the whole entity or even the religion itself. I take an excerpt I read on Facebook recently, “John commits a crime and John gets blamed but Abdullah commits a crime and Islam gets blamed”, why so?

There is plenty of good aspect and practices of Islam that have been neglected such as; living and coexisting with and among others even when they are non-Muslims; Patience in judgment, patience in action, patience in decision and patience even when gravely offended; perseverance in hard times; tolerance of family, friends, neighbors, travellers, even when they are non-Muslims; forgiveness and mercy when wrong has been done against you; respect for the belief of others; love for your family, friends and neighbor especially when they are non-Muslims. It goes on and on than can be contained within this text.

Example of some of this practices as mentioned above can be seen in most Arab countries; Dubai being my first reference, is a location for trade and tourism for people around the world of different belief and race. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan also are all good examples. Even in our Nigeria, Muslims in different parts of the country coexist with people of different religion with peace and love as can be seen in plenty cases.

For the Muslims that has read the text to this stage, please shun violence and promote love, tolerance and coexistence as thought by the Prophet (S.A.W). Be a Muslim that knows the consequence of how you let the others perceive Islam. Incessant and unjustified killing or harm against others should never be an action any Muslim should be proud of regardless of the situation; it doesn’t portray a good image of our religion. Your status as a Muslim seems something the world is after and should therefore not be used to tarnish or degrade the image of the other billions. Don’t retaliate impulsively and try returning a bad deed with a good deed always as practiced by the Prophet (S.A.W).

Finally, for the non-Muslims that has read the text to this stage, please stop condemning and defaming Islam, stop abusing Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) and the entire Muslims for the fault of a few. Ask a Muslim close to you as a friend or family before you make comment against any action, the media report are not always accurate and mostly are on a mission to incite comments. In short say what you know and not what you heard. Be open minded and find facts about what you seem not to know.

Islam remains a religion of peace regardless of the previous and present circumstances. I am a Muslim…