No one wants to see you doing the right things...

I was talking to Brother Imam about how I feel like my social network is slowly deteriorating. There are some days that I really feel like I don't have any friends that I can just call up and hang out with. I used to. I had tons of friends. We would go out, go to parties, to clubs, act ridiculous :( And the minute I said that I don't want to do those things anymore POOF! my friends are gone.

He said something to me, that I've heard him say to other people before. He said that for some reason people love to see others doing wrong with them. They'll encourage you to drink and to do drugs and to have sex and to go to clubs and etc. But the minute you turn away from that, the minute you act outside of the norm, even if it is for the better, they discourage you and make you feel like you're doing something wrong. Why will people encourage you to sin but discourage you from living a better life? Brother Imam said he thinks it's because it forces people to look at what they're doing. They see you being happy without the drugs, the alcohol, etc. They see that you've embraced a religion that allows you to be happy and to feel confident and it makes them now have to look at their own actions. It makes people become introspective. I think most people know that some of the things they do are not right but they can ignore it because it's what everyone else is doing. Having that one person who steps out of the norm puts into light the things they KNOW they are doing wrong. And they will find anyway to break you and bring you back to where they are.

I can't tell you how many negative things I've heard since I started learning about Islam:

• Do you want your husband to beat you cuz that;s what Muslim men do?
• Are your kids going to be born with a bomb strapped to their chests?
• If you wear a scarf all the time you'll have no hair and then who will want to be with you?
• Muslims are all exteremists
• You won't be able to get to heaven if you don't accept Jesus as your savior?
• You think you're too good to hang out with us now
• You're judging what we do because now you think you're better than us.
  

And these are just a few things. I had a reverend tell how I need to accept Jesus after he finished telling me a story about how he got so drunk he wife almost kicked him out of the house! And you want to tell that you're the example I should follow?

I've been starting to think that it's not Islam that people have a problem with. They have a problem with themselves and how they're living their lives. Instead of taking responsibility for it they find ways to make others feel bad about the choice to live a better life. They're struggling internally and it's much easier to take the issue out on someone else than to work on their own problems.

I;m going to try to keep this in mind when I'm feeling left out. The way I'm trying to live my life now makes my friends, coworkers, family members uncomfortable because it shines a light on the way that they live. It has nothing to do with me. I pray that they do find the right path ishaAllah.