I have always held that belief in God, and all activities that follow from this, such as prayer, are private matters. I do not have discussions about God or religion with anyone, and in public I rarely use such phrases as "God willing" or "I'll put my trust in God". There are exceptions, such as when I am talking to my family and friends back home, or Arabs here in Britain, where phrases like "God willing" have become figures of speech.
This has nothing to do with whether or not I believe in God. It is simply because I see no point in making such utterances in public. If I am relying on God’s will or putting my trust in Him, then that is a matter for me. There is no reason why I should share this with my interlocutor(s).
For Muslims, belief in God carries certain obligations, such as praying five times a day and fasting during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. Personally, I neither pray nor fast, and I think that other aspects of my relationship with religion are entirely my business, and my business alone.
However, there are many Muslims who assiduously observe their religious obligations and would abandon whatever activity in which they were engaged in order to pray. For example, in November 2008, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yawm reported how doctors abandoned their patients to attend prayers during Ramadan. Similarly, over here in Britain I have observed how Muslim colleagues would interrupt their work several times a day, despite tight deadlines, in order to pray. And in Ramadan, they would come to work hungry and tired, performing half as effectively as they would if they had eaten.
To me, this is unacceptable. Interrupting one’s work to pray five times a day and starving oneself during daylight hours for a whole month every year might have been fine 1,500 years ago but is not compatible with the modern workplace. It is unfair to those who slog themselves to meet deadlines, and it is exploitative of people who have to carry the burden of those who suffer from a moral superiority complex. To use a British colloquialism, it is taking the piss. Besides, Islam is far more flexible than my morally superior co-religionists would like to make out. For instance, it allows you to postpone your prayers to the end of the day, and it permits you to give to charity in lieu of fasting in Ramadan.
I know that many Muslims will be outraged by my views on this subject. However, I would contend that I, Muhammad al-Arabi, who neither fasts not prays and who is not averse to the occasional alcoholic drink, is a far better Muslim than many of them. To be sure, my religious observances are weak-to-non-existent but I believe in justice, I campaign for justice, I risk my livelihood for justice and I have lost an awful lot for the sake of justice. This is the true substance of Islam, not the rituals or being seen to be performing the rituals.
I wonder how many of my observant, morally superior co-religionists can truthfully say before their Creator that their Islam amounts to anything more than rituals?
