Assalam alaikum!

[aaaz1618]

Assalam alaikum dear brothers and sisters and may the blessings and mercy of Allah be upon you all.

I saw another user make an introduction, so I thought I would too. 

I came to Islam as the light at the end of the tunnel and attended the only mosque in my Welsh county, slotting by default into hanafi ideology. 

I moved to a England and to larger Muslim and mostly Indian/Pakistani community after marriage. Despite members of the Welsh community telling me that the community in this English city was better, it became quite clear, quite quickly that they weren't right.

Increasingly isolated by both the community and the hanafi school, particularly hadiths, increasingly ashamed by terrorist attacks and sectarianism, after three years as a Muslim I felt at conflict with myself. I really struggled as I felt between two cultures, the culture of Islam and the culture as a British white man, and I didn't slot into either. I came to this religion because I saw inclusion of the Abrahamic narrative, inclusion of white people, people from Asia, Africa and elsewhere, I saw Islam as the final message of God, one of salvation, hope and solace. I did not see these things being practiced.

I grew up respecting people of all faiths and views, and I hold that stance to this day. Muslims are Muslims, I see beyond the sects, if you love Allah and His messenger and you uphold the principal of peace, charity, kindness and so on, then who am I to hate you or be a takfiri on you!?

I attended a salafi mosque on Ashura, because it was the only one that did English sermons, I saw a congregation humiliate a student (who I assume was Iranian by his accent) for asking why nobody mentions Hussain on such a day. I also saw brothers stand up and defend a man who had been arrested and later charged for trying to buy firearms for terrorism in a sting operation on a separate day. I myself had been targeted for not doing footsy during prayer with the person next to me. I continued to see this idiotic approach to people who follow the Ahlul Bayt, it trickles down from adults to kids, my nephew said that Shi'ites worship Ali, astaghfirullah. He said his friend at school told him. I corrected him.

I used to have an Instagram account where I posted lessons and tidbits that might inspire people to be peaceful and good, I had even aspired to train to become an Imam and open a mosque, it would have been, to my knowledge, the first to feature a prayer room where women prayed behind men and not closed off in a tiny 2nd class room upstairs. It would be one of only a few where management would have not been of one school of thought, but many, where women would play an important role and where counselling services would take place for domestic violence and mental health... All sounds great, but because of my own mental health, I did not feel I could take on such a task. What did come out of Instagram was that I was responsible for reporting somewhere between 30-50 Daesh inspired or far right inspired profiles which as a result were removed, alhamdulillah.

Anyway, for a long time I felt unhappy, with people, with the thought that people churn out such nonsense, whether it is about people or even things like hadiths. Andwe are expected to just take it all as gospel because an Imam said it, a sheikh said it, a pillar of the community said it. I started following the maliki maddhab, but now I don't adhere to any ideology as such. People might erroneously say I cherry pick, but picking the truth isn't always the easy option, so I hardly call that cherry picking. I seek truth and logic according the the Qur'an and if that comes from Ammar Nakshawani, so be it, if it comes from Abdal Hakim Murad, so be it.

So why am I on Shiachat? Because first of all I want to meet like minded people in my area, and second of all, because I respect you and care for you as fellow Muslims.

I just can't live a life spewing hate, teaching my children to hate and expect the world to be a better place for it. It does nothing here on Earth and it does nothing up there in Jannah either.

Apologies for the novel, but at least I used paragraphs hey!

 

Oh Lord send Your peace and blessings upon Muhammad and his family.

May You always be pleased with us, keep us firm upon your truth and your religion. May we be standing together and may you always allow the light, wisdom and intellect to exist in this world so that we learn to love and put down our hatred, as although we are different people with different opinions and of differing backgrounds, we are all in need of Your light, all in need of Your mercy and all in need of Your pleasure with us.

Forgive us all for what we say and do, what You know but we don't of the things we do to displease You. 

Oh Lord, send Your peace and blessings upon Muhammad and His family.

 

[Guest Unity]

Salaam Alaykum Brother,

There are too many hadiths in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim talking about Ahlul Bayt. One of the important ones is Hadith Thaqalayn that Prophet says:" As long as you follow Qur'an AND Ahlul Bayt, you never get lost".

I found this hadith, Hadith Thaqalayn, in Sahih Muslim in Arabic. Someone posted it somewhere in ShiaChat, but I can’t find it now. Please do research on this Hadith. You WILL find it in both Shia and Sunni books. FYI, Shiias never hate people. It is Haraam to hate people. Shiaas hate opression like when 37 innocent people were killed in Sauudi Arabia who claims to be an Islamic country (which is not obviously).

[Aflower]

Walaikum Salam and Welcome! I apologise @aaaz1618, but I must confess that I've only skim read through your post. Which city in England do you reside in? 

[aaaz1618]

57 minutes ago, Aflower said:

Walaikum Salam and Welcome! I apologise @aaaz1618, but I must confess that I've only skim read through your post. Which city in England do you reside in? 

Fair enough, I suspect most will skim through and that's fine. I live in Preston.

[Revert1963]

Wa alekom Salam. Welcome brother.
Your story is so sad, but unfortunately so common.The Wahabi/Salafi ideology has unfortunately hijacked the beautiful religion of Islam. Both in the way people from outside view Islam and how many Muslims view their religion. It is unfortunately to easy for a convert to get in bad company. Alhamdulilah I have managed to avoid the Salafi dawah. One of the reasons I chose Shia is because I strongly oppose the Wahabi/Salafi ideology.
I am glad that you did not give up on Islam all together. I see a lot of people on the internet and elsewhere who opt out of religion and become Atheist when they have become fed up with the Wahabi/Salafi ideology. These guys really give religion a bad name.

[Aflower]

2 hours ago, aaaz1618 said:

I live in Preston.

@aaaz1618 I asked the question because I have many Shia friends throughout the United Kingdom and I hoped that I may have been able to provide you with some helpful local information. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who lives in/close to Preston. Perhaps someone else on ShiaChat who lives in/knows/is familiar with the local Shia community in Preston could be of more help to you. Best wishes.