Faith

[Born Lopsided]

Faith. A word I know but dont understand. My faith is lost. The words of the preacher passes thru 1 ear and goes out the other like a bullet cutting thru a piece of paper. The beautiful feeling of God's divine love has dissipated. I hv a heart made of stone that leaks with blood for the pain of not feeling it anymore. I await death with no feeling of apprehension at all. Im weak, yet in spite of all this negativity I still pray, I still refrain from drinking alcohol & I still say his name before I eat. Yet none of that can fill the emptiness inside of me. The door 2 my heart is locked 2 prevent Satan from making it his nest. & Im left brooding in the darkness as my soul gently weeps & mourns over the demise of its dear friend "Faith". I follow the path of righteousness, my religion, my faith blindly. Its only a matter of time before the devil shoots me with his arrow of indulgence & throws me in2 the whirlpool of temptation.

Hv u ever lost ur faith in god?

Hv u ever gone thru a phase of not feeling anyth when sum1 talks 2 u abt religion?

Despite of how i feel, howcome i cant bring myself 2 go against my religion?

[Arabian Princess]

First, faith is only tested during hard times. You wouldnt know how strong you are attached to god until you are in trouble, then u will feel he is the only one who can help you and you can surly depend on him.

you questions:

have you ever lost your faith?
Alahamdulilah no, but I admit that from time to time the level of following my religion can go down (you see I didnt ssay faith coz every minutie of the day I have faith in Allah)

Have you ever gone thru a phase of not feeling anyth when sum1 talks to u abt religion?
well am a difficult student or listner .. I dont get impressed easily and the preacher or the person talking has to be impressing for me to actually listen to them. Thats not because I dont like it, but sometimes it bothers me how some preachers have a very narrow mindness about Islam.

Despite of how i feel, howcome i cant bring myself 2 go against my religion?
if you follow your religion, it means your faith is there .. but you werent tested yet (which you should be grateful to allah because some tests can be really painful).
I advise you to keep listing to Quran and read it .. choose a reader who enters your heart, for me its Shiekh al Shartri, I love his way of reading Quran. keep listing and your heart will start beating with faith.
Just dont block your ears, and heart. Keep them open and inshallah soon you will feel closer to Allah.

[Pineapple Thief]

Yes, I think it does happen to all of us, our faith wavers at some point, and we are unsure of what to do next. For some of us, it doesnt recover, and we continue life in that state. For others, our faith returns, stronger than ever.
Faith is not something others can instill in you. True faith, that comes from within. It takes time. Yes, talk to the right people, listen to them, but ultimately its a feeling and decision you have to make yourself.

[Don Khaled]

Born Lopsided, your definition of faith is amazing. I love the way how you put it together.

Born Lopsided, since I was brought up to life, I have been struggling with one question. And to be more accurate, actually couple. The first one which doesn't seem to have an answer for me, as long as I do not read religions, which of course, creates the emptiness deep in my heart. But maybe this question has an answer, but it is beyond my knowledge or imagination's reach. My existence is my only struggle in this life. Why do I exist? What is my duty on earth and towards my nation, community, my family, and finally, my own soul?

As you mentioned above; “I follow the path of righteousness, my religion, my faith blindly.” All our life, we have been taught such things, and told to believe because science had proved it that way. But if science did not prove it that way, then we should believe it blindly. If you can prove something wrong, then you had made a point and you can stick to it, as long no one can prove you wrong. Now, do I have to go every time to prove something is wrong just to satisfy my own pleasure or maybe own satisfaction? Here we come to another question, after the question of my existence and my struggle in life, what do I get from proving something right or wrong? What is my point behind all this? Maybe pleasure? Satisfaction? Aren’t all these objects temporary ones? Something which fade away through time. Some tried to prove the earth was round, and were executed because of that. Now, we know that the earth is round, not flat as millions of people lived with that idea. But the main question here, did you see the earth yourself as a round object? Did you go outer space and look at it from above? For most of us, if not, all of us, did not have the pleasure to do that. So why do we believe in that? We are even told that gravity exists. They show us some experiments which proves that. Lots of theories had been written about it. But again, did you see gravity with your own eyes? No! It is only something we feel, or maybe something we are told to feel.

Look around you, the world is based on wars. No more. No less. All what man wants in life is power. Being a pimp would make him more famous and enjoy more sex. Driving a Porsche in your neighborhood would make you more known. So we come back to the theory of what man all wants is power. Either money-wise, woman-wise, whatever-wise, just name it. What about women? Are they any less devils than us? I have a smaller *** than my best friend. How come she can keep her beauty at an old age while I can not. I am bored of my mind to death. I need makeup, where can I buy the best ones at! And so on. Men and women, both love to *****. Yap, they just love to ***** all their life, starting from their head to their toes, their family to their friends, their allies to their enemies, to the known to the unknown. Unfortunately, we always do blame God on many things too. It is easy to blame him, because he is not in front of us holding a stick.

You want to know what do I believe of faith? Everything I mentioned above, in a nutshell, is what faith is not. Faith is something different, something we need to struggle to understand. But that’s the beauty of it. If you want to earn something, you have to work for it hard. You can not sit in bed, and expect God to send you a gift which has faith. At the same time, it is not an impossible task for us to find God’s love.

Born Lopsided and to the rest, always have a good intention inside you, because the darkness which you are living in would be gone when you communicate with God.

Answering your questions, I surely lost in faith alot, and at some point had been athiest. I lost faith in my people at some point, and I surely lost faith in myself. But what made me come back to track, and atleast stabalize myself, was Islam. It cured alot of my problems, and still is surely curing more.

[Orion]

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason once accepted, despite your changing moods."
- C.S. Lewis

[amo_l_oman]

I third that, though it goes between ups and downs sometimes.

[Arabian Princess]

Answering your questions, I surely lost in faith alot, and at some point had been athiest. I lost faith in my people at some point, and I surely lost faith in myself. But what made me come back to track, and atleast stabalize myself, was Islam. It cured alot of my problems, and still is surely curing more.

This statment made me cry!! May Allah always keep your faith stronger and stronger and cure every struggles you went through!

[Wardat_il'7leej]

There are times when a person loses touch with who he/she really are. i want to share something i got in an e-mail this morning....

Imagine yourself after you pass away
Imagine your grave through night and through day
Wishing that you did not do as they say
Wishing that you had got up and had prayed.

Imagine the day you'll be called to account
Imagine the sum to which your life will amount
Think for a moment of the deeds which you mount
Think for a moment how much they will count.

What will they say of you when you are dead?
What will they say, what will be said?
Will they speak of all the poor who you fed?
Will they remember all the Qu'ran that you read?

Think not of them, but of Allah, Lord of mankind and jinn
Think of Allah when tempted to sin
Think of the paradise which you will dwell in
Don't wait till later to think what might have been.

Think about your end and not you present...live for 2morrow and not 2day...Don Khalid I must say that your reply is very touching and purely from the heart…thank you

[Haroundb]

Lopsided…
Do you know where is the nearest mosque to you?

[IceTea]

To bring the strong faith back pray the 5 daily prayers espacially fajer in time and with pure intention.

[Enigma]

I think you have faith BL, but you don't FEEL it. When you hear verses from Quran, a mufti speaking, the call for prayer, read a new fatwa... you have to really LISTEN to it, understand it and get yourself to feel the words and meanings.

When I read Quran sometimes, it just goes in one ear and out the other; mainly because I'm not paying attention to what I'm reading. Do you really have '7ushu3 in your prayer? Or are you just going through the movements like a robot?

I remember telling a friend once who really loved music and dancing (I'm not comparing though; just offering an example) and how she could only dance when she felt the music within her. I told her that, its the same when you pray; you have to feel the words, verses du3as.... it all has to come from your heart. There's nothing like the feeling of belief in your religion, it can get so strong you feel it completely take over you. But its so wonderful too, you feel you have a pupose, a meaning. Its like an adrenaline rush yet so peaceful.

The reason I went into all that emotional talk is because you mentioned that you still follow Allah's teachings and you don't sin. Which pretty much means that you do believe in it BL; otherwise you wouldn't bother caring. What you lack is, the knowledge of Why you don't want to sin. And thats where the whole feeling of belief comes in.

I hope I haven't rambled on meaninglessly, and that it somehow helps you. My only advice for you is to just start listening & understanding anything to do with Islam from prayer to Friday mosque lecture to athan. And above all, pray to Allah SWT to help you regain your feeling of faith.

[Pineapple Thief]

To bring the strong faith back pray the 5 daily prayers espacially fajer in time and with pure intention.

This may sound somewhat ambiguous, but what he says makes a lot of sense. If you carry out your prayers, on time, 5 times a day, as a start, it helps. Not just do them, but to concentrate on them. Think about what you are doing, why. It gets you thinking :scratch: Read the Quran in your native tongue, and think about each and every verse, think 'why is this?'.

This advice may sound like religious piffle, but it works.