Tom Facchine – Ayah Series #38 – Is Islam Just An Identity

			Prophet Muhammad Ali Salam, he told us that we would follow the path of those gone before us just
like following them down into a lizard hole. And by that he meant, you know, the Christians and and
the Jews before us the other communities of faith who had been given revelation before before us.
And it's important that everybody knows this, right? But the question is, how how's it going to
happen? Because it's possible that you can know this hadith and know the outcome, but still not be
aware when it's literally happening right in front of you how this is going to happen. And one of
the ways that this happens when we reflect on souls of Bukhara is that it happens by trying to
		

			switch a laws covenant to an identity, trying to convert the Covenant, the agreement, the pact that
we have with a law and to an identity that was one of many Australia's main problems is that they
thought that they were God's chosen people. They thought that it was about who they were, and not
what they did. And this is kind of like a paradigm, right? It's a it's a huge, it's a pattern. It's
a type of theological mistake. And the last part is telling us the story, not just the past time,
he's telling us a story because he doesn't want us to follow the same way. Just like the Prophet
satellites. Saddam said in the Hadith, don't follow them down the lizard hole, okay, well, how to
		

			not do that. Okay, step one is to not turn your religion into just an identity, okay? Because we
talk a lot about Muslim identity, especially when it comes to the youth, we want them to have a
strong Muslim identity, and that stuff is good. But what what we're talking about here is that when
we imagine that being a Muslim is just about being a Muslim, and it's not like about acting like a
Muslim, okay, so I can have whatever name I want, and I can have whatever lineage I want. And I can
say, you know, I'm a proud, unapologetic Muslim, and then maybe I don't pray, maybe I don't cover
myself properly. Maybe I don't behave the way I should. What's the point of calling yourself a
		

			Muslim? How valuable is your identity? Your identity is worthless, right? It's about what you do.
And we have this all over the Koran. I lost my one daughter, he says from no sun, right? The sun?
Um, no. So he's not from your family. He's not from your family. He's not really your son anymore.
Why? Because of what he did. What's the strongest possible bond? Is it blood? Is it lineage? Is it
identity? No, it's what you do. It's what you do. Ibrahim Ali Sadam, he prays to Las Palmas Allah
when Allah makes him an imam. He says, What about my little Ria? What about my progeny, my
descendants, Allah says that my covenant isn't going to encompass or include those people from you
		

			who are oppressors, the people who don't follow your guidance. And so Islam has got to be what we
do. It's got to be a verb. It's got to be a way of life and how we live and if we settle for making
it an identity we're following right in the footsteps of those who went before us will be happy and
feel comfortable about calling ourselves Muslims, but the substance of reality of being somebody who
submits to Allah a Muslim will be non existent.