I think I do understand you. I can follow your reading and interpretation, your justification for giving it value. Do you really need Allah to be a decent person, to stop you lying, stealing, cheating, hurting etc? I see it that if we decline bad behaviour we do so of ourselves and for ourselves because that is where our moral compass naturally sits. What makes a person a philanthropist or a murderer? You think it is some choice given in an old book? The complexities of human choice and motivation can be difficult to unravel. But they are all human, we cannot blame nor thank god or the devil for anything and to do so is to neglect a very important facet of personal responsibility. Being the most pious and upright believer does not protect you from chance, good or bad. And the gods allow such injustice to prevail! Terrible diseases and afflictions, natural disasters, brutal tyrants, crazed gang leaders, petty thieves all conspire to make this world far from ideal, and difficult for the vast majority of us. What I believe you do is call what is good that which belongs to Allah and what is bad as belonging to the devil. I see it is futile to expect the evil-doers to develop a fear of god and repent their evil ways. Successful thieves and tyrants are usually bestowed with cunning, guile and inteligence. And are more than willing to press the god concept to their service.
Nowhere but nowhere can we see any evidence of outside, supernatural interference. There is no divine retribution, justice or law, just our own human made ones. We are all just people, with imaginations, fears and longings struggling through as best we are able. I appreciate what you get from your faith is important to you and helps you in some way. But to me the truth of what Islam is and how it was founded is the antithesis of nobility and righteousness. It is like using handfulls of putrid battlefield gore as poultices for the injured. It is a submission to a mysoginistic elitism. I could never overlook such truths to allow me to embrace the meaning and value you extract. It would be like me befriending a serial rapist because he once gave to charity. I think I do the right thing in looking at the religions holistically, assigning value to that which is good or bad within them. That I come out on the side of them being dark and malignant is because of the misery they have inflicted on billions is far far more important in the scheme of things than the selfish gratification I could extract from it. In such a selfish extraction you support the institution that does so much wrong. I could not do that.
I am just a man. An ordinary man. I will live my life and die then probably be incinerated, (though I would prefer a burial at sea, and to feed a few lobsters, crabs etc). I have a large extended family, my genetic heritage is as assured as anyones. I have produced two children, my biological emperitive has been met. I have loved often yet never hated. I have begged, borrowed and stolen. I have given, selflessly, and been brought to justice. I have helped some whom it has been within my ability to help, and others I have passed by. I am no 'saint' but I am also an infrequent sinner by any but the most judgemental standard. I do not need religion to be a reasonably good and very ordinary man.
This poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns is in Scots dialect, you can find translation in the link that follows.Your tradition in Morrocco is Islam. Here Robert Burns is an institution. He was an atheist.
Is there for honest poverty
That hings his head, an a' that?
The coward slave, we pass him by -
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an a' that!
Our toils obscure, an a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.
What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hodding grey, an a' that?
Gie fools their skills, and knaves their wine -
A man's a man for a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
Their tinsel show, an a' that,
The honest man, tho e'er sae poor,
Is king o men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie ca'd 'a lord,'
Wha struts, an stares, an a' that?
Tho hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a cuif for a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
His ribband, star, an a' that,
The man o independent mind,
He looks an laughs at a' that.
A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an a' that!
But an honest man's aboon his might -
Guid faith, he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, an a' that,
Their dignities, an a' that,
The pith o sense an pride o worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
)
