Finding the balance in Islam

We know, and the heralded leaders of our people know, that we as young women and men are different and live in a far different circumstance of life. Yet we are branded as inexperienced, incapable, irresponsible, and blind when we refuse to conform to mysticism, when we are told not to think and speak out. As a woman, I find myself weak and feeling around in the dark for quicksilver reasons to be the loyalist so many expect. I’d rather realize the logic behind an atom. How else can one integrate both knowledge and life together as Islam teaches?

We as Muslims come from an ancient tradition of intellectualism. But our parents forgot. They forgot long ago to instill our true purpose. The Muslims of the past were the keepers of books, keepers of logic, and keepers of life. For us, as both youth and thinkers, our hands were chained to the ground by the fear of comfortable ancients and the thick minded culture of those far too attached to their homes. Our keepers failed to encourage the fact that we are everything. They failed to tell us that in time, in our truest of forms, we are part of all that is around us and, even so, belong to nothing. They failed to let us know and know well that we are, just as those around us, the guardians of mankind. We, in belonging to nothing, are universal adapters to any type of human being. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream to free all men. A man went to the moon because the reaches of human ability were still hidden behind the clouds. Charles Dickens and Rumi wrote because the world could be painted with words. And Muslims preserved Latin scrolls when Greek libraries burned to keep the knowledge safe for the world. It is our place to stand with these people. To help and change the world as they did. It is our place to integrate and balance our lives with all people. It is our place, moreover, to contribute even if there is no return.

But where have you heard this tale before? You've heard it in the static of your brain. Its the noise that permeates your thought processes as you walk from class to class or work to home. You, as I often have and do, have listened to silent cries within your mind amidst your troubles and worries, trying to understand what it is your mind and your instinct is trying to tell you. You hear it telling you to stop and say no for a moment. You listen to it telling you that our religion is not about the long beards, body strapped bombs, and mystic stories of those who have culture blasted the logical words of God. It is not about the amount of prayers you perform. It is not about how many woman you marry or the man you love. It is about balance and being the one to connect the links that bind religion, natural life, progress and solid conviction together.

Here man created the Hadith and with time and culture warped our books of pristine history and scholarship into the glorified ********s they are today. We can know what is wrong with our nation. We can know that this is our time to cure the cancer of our people. It is our time to capture the core of our pain and return our people to their intellectual heights. It is our time to put our foot down and demand the restructuring of our minds, our time to demand the re-teaching of our faith, the real understanding of our rules and the acceptance that our generation has a right to rule and actually give to our world.

When you start experiencing your own thoughts, you start understanding why certain rules exist. Why it is you are asked to be careful, to be nice, to be loving, to be integrated. You cannot really be Muslim unless you truly start to understand how our gears and pulleys work. Without understanding how logic enables us to spend our money, boost and run our economies, judge our world’s crimes, protect women’s rights, our racial rights and hold our families together. Why should we think? How should we think? We should think like engineers and doctors, like scientists and archaeologists, and like linguists and historians. All of whom show you your surroundings for what they are and let you understand the significance of our past, present, and future without the bias of skin, belief, or pride.
Our religion teaches us to be different but what is different when you share it with no one?
Can someone please help me understand how can one balance life, knowledge, and logic the way Islam teaches?
Mash'allah I was born Muslim, but family and I never really practiced Islam. Yes we would fast, but we would only step foot in the Masjid on Eid or Layla tul-Qadar. It was about only few years ago when I finally alhamdulilah surrendered my heart and summited myself to Allah (Swt). I am a very logical person. I don't fully believe in anything until sense the logic in it.