"Wearing your religion on sleeve!"

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Today something happened which I would like to keep a record of. I know I have lately become very lazy in updating my blog and this laziness has reasons behind it. I am becoming more and more self-reflective with every passing day. Trying to decipher the purpose behind every act of yours is a painful act in itself. And yet this pain is imbued with a certain kind of wholesomeness. Before I go on with my usual rant, let me get back to what I wanted to record...

We, five people in all, were sitting in our 'research communication skills' class. The (female) Professor in-charge was discussing the checklist according to which we will be evaluated in the  upcoming paper-reading sessions. One of the pointers in the checklist was about 'looking presentable' during the event. Why? I asked myself? While I was trying to figure out the answer to the question in my head only, the professor  carried on, "how would the audience feel if someone standing before them is clad in black from head to toe!" My colleagues and I exchanged glances (I so wish the professor could have seen the smirk on my face!); obviously the comment was directed at me. I just nodded my head without actually arguing for my case because of various reasons: I did not want to engage myself in an argument with the Professor because firstly, I do not like arguing (you can say I am too complacent to argue at times. Yes, I know it might be counted as a 'bad' habit!), and secondly, she has been a teacher for the past six years now! Anyway, I did not say anything to her and finally the class came to an end. Now this was something that would not leave my mind for quite a while. Alhamdulillah, Allah arranged for a sabab and I got a chance to see Dr I.S. after the class...

... My friend needed to ask him something and I too was present there. I told him about this 'dire need to LOOK presentable' during a paper-reading session. I told him that almost everyday I teach a class of seventy people and that too without a microphone! Was it not just the clarity of the voice that mattered most? And was it not the substantiality of the content being presented that was to be sought after? He very calmly listened to me and with a smile on his face said, "this is a limitation (not the looking-presentable-matter, but bearing with such people who think that way!) that we have to live with." He narrated an incident in which an old Professor asked him about his colleague (also my teacher) as to why he always kept his head covered with a Topi and wore an Islamic attire. The old professor said to him about his friend that "why does he need to wear his religion on sleeves?" The answer Dr I.S. gave to this very senior professor was, "who doesn't?" And then he went to explain this point to me. He said that if someone chooses to grow a beard, that is his ideology. Moreover, if someone chooses not to grow a beard, that is again their choice. The point is that the person who has decided not to grow a beard or don an Islamic attire is as reflective of his ideology as a person who has an Islamic appearance. Is it not a part of his ideology that he has accepted something and rejected the other? On listening to this, I was not only calmed but this also came as a reassurance of my personal beliefs. Alhamdulillah. He further said that during presentations it is the substance in our content that matters. If it is substantial enough then the audience (a serious audience, that is!) would not notice the "external" paraphernalia on display. He said a few more things and we finally left his office...

... Since then I am wondering how great a crisis Westernisation has become for us, Pakistanis. Our identities have become so polluted and impure just because we give in to every change that comes about in our society. It is the television advertisements and soaps that tell us what our standard of living should be, and how should we carry ourselves in the society. As a result, the existence of any such person who does not subscribe to this television/media-prescribed existence is considered abnormal by the society. Okay, now this topic needs another full-fledged post for discussion which I am soon going to write, inshaAllah. Right now it would suffice to say that there is nothing wrong or abnormal with wearing your religion on sleeve because everyone, practically everyone - religious or irreligious - does that!

And when I talk of 'wearing religion on sleeve' I am not talking about the 'reluctant fundamentalist' (c.f. Mohsin Hamid) kind of figures for whom religion is just a matter of appearance. Religion sure goes deeper than that. I am talking about those 'religious appearances' that come into existence as a result of the change of heart due to the Love of Allah SWT and His Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wassallam).