Being A Good Muslim By # 3.6

      To me being a good Muslim does not only mean doing the five pillars of Islam, like prayer five times a day, but also doing other things.

      One of these things for example can be taking care of our environment. Allah gave us the earth to live on that we should take care. Something that we should do to take care of the earth is that we should not litter or pollute it. Another thing is that we should pay attention to issues that would have an impact on the world. An issue like that could be global warming. One way to reduce global warming is to walk, to ride bikes or a bus to get to places. We should not throw away our trash or household waste on the ground or into the body of water. Instead we should clean up and throw away the trash with care. Taking care of the earth is one of our tasks as stating in the Quran.

      Another thing that we should do to be good Muslims is to have a good attitude. If we acted misbehaving in front of non-Muslims, then they would start to think bad things about our religion. Muslims should be good examples for them. That way you will convey the good things about Islam to them.

      When a Muslim brother or sister has trouble, then we should try to help him or her out. Then, that way we would be able to get a closer relationship as brothers or sisters. Even, you do not need to ask them if they are in need. “The believers, in their mutual friendship, mercy and affection, are like one body; if any part of it complains, the rest of the body will also stay awake in pain.”(Bukhari and Muslim)

      The most important thing is that we should respect and obey our parents, being nice to them, not back-talking to them, and even saying “ah” to them is prohibited in our religion. We could go to the Jannah or Jahannam depends on our deeds to our parents. There is a story about a young man who was dying, but he could not die. This man prayed five times a day and looked like a good Muslim. Prophet Muhammad (saw) was told that he was not nice to his mom. Prophet asked his mom to forgive him, but she refused. Then, Prophet ordered to burn him live. Before people did, his mom forgave him. Then, he could die.

      Sometimes we can join or create groups to do thing that would help people. For example we can make a group to feed homeless people by giving free lunch for them. We can also even try raising money to donate to shelters. The poverty is a decease that we should cure, because the poverty can lead poor people to hate Allah, then they will disobey Allah and not believe in Him.

      Therefore, to me being good Muslims is not only doing five pillars of Islam, but also enjoining what is good even small thing, and forbidding what is evil.


      Norfolk, July 20’08