My University had their Freshers Fair last month. Thinking back, three words come to mind: Identity, Decisions, and Dilemmas. Do I join the Asian Society or the Islamic Society? Why can’t I join both since I am an Asian Muslim? Then again, I knew that the Asian Society was just a free dating agency which occasionally held the cheap Bhangra Night or Boat Party on the Thames.

I can imagine the founders thinking over it: “We should call it Asian Society because that way we can get some of the more confused or insecure Muslims to join up too.”

By the time I reached my second year at uni, I was fortunate enough to have deliberated over my confusions and was quite happily sitting behind a stall for one of the more Islamic Societies inviting interest(ed/ing) students to join our mailing list. On my right sat a sister representing the society and on my left sat a brother. None of us really knew each other and it was simply the dawah that brought us together.

By the end of the day when we had what looked like hundreds of signatures a guy confidently approached our stall with a few of his friends and said “I’m not going to join your society”.

I waited for him to continue but he didn’t so I said: “Ok bro”. He stood there for a bit and then said: “You can’t make me join, ever.”

It seemed he wanted me to respond so that we could have a discussion but admittedly I didn’t know what to say. He went on: “I’ve joined so many religious societies and been to so many religious events but up to today nobody has ever been able to explain to me what is wrong with having a beer with a couple of my mates!”

Ahh, I was right! He was looking for answers. Well, the reason why it’s wrong is because Allah forbids it. It’s as simply as that. I was just about to respond when the guy started talking again. This time much louder than before: “I’ve never got drunk and hurt anyone; I’ve never stolen anything or been involved in alcohol related crime, which I admit is wrong. But just having a beer with your mates? Come on, man! What’s wrong with that?”

“Yeah, I completely agree with you. What IS wrong with having a beer with your mates?” I replied.

The guys eyes lit up and a big surprised smile appeared on his face. He looked at his friends and then shouted out: “Yeah!”

At the time I was wearing a topee, I had a beard and on my T-shirt were the words: “ISLAM ““ THE IDEOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM!”

No wonder he looked surprised. I continued: “What’s wrong with going clubbing?”

“Yeah!”

“What’s wrong with having a girlfriend?”

“Yeah!”

“What’s wrong with sleeping with your mother?”

His mouth, quite literally, dropped. By this point, a crowd of freshers were listening in to this strange conversation. The brother and sister sitting on either side of me had the same look of surprise on their faces as everyone else who had tuned in.

“But you can get kids with genetic disorders doing that”

“Use a condom”.

He was even more disgusted”¦ I thought it was time I explained.

“I can’t explain to you in a five minute conversation what is really wrong with having a beer with your mates. But you can’t even rationally explain to me what is wrong with sleeping with your mother? Then why are you disgusted at the very sound of it?

Every one of us is affected by the environment we live in and we pick up concepts from the experiences we have in life. If I was born in Africa I would probably be very different to how I am now, born in London. None of us were born with an innate understanding of what is right or wrong; rather we picked up these concepts from our family, our friends, our teachers and our society. However, all of these people are also flawed human beings who are prone to mistakes and influenced by their environment.

We have been brought up in this society to find nothing wrong with having a girlfriend and drinking a beer. But we have been brought up believing it’s wrong to sleep with your mother!

However, this changes from country to country, from person to person, from century to century. A hundred years ago, it was considered a crime to wear a bikini on the beach. A hundred years later, how many of us would see that as wrong. No two people have exactly the same experience. If our concepts are based solely on our experiences in life, is it any wonder that relationships almost always fall apart in this society? For all of these different people to interact together harmoniously, concepts about societal issues must be derived from the same reference point.

As a rational human being I believe that only an unlimited, infinite Creator can be that source. So the only questions that we need to answer are whether or not a Creator exists and which Book (if any) is from Him. I believe a Creator definitely exists and the Qur’an is definitely His word and I can prove it to any rational person. That is why my source for right and wrong are from Him regardless of what concepts I’ve picked up over the years because I know that these concepts are from other fallible human beings and are prone to change and disparity.
Having a beer with your mates, having a girlfriend and sleeping with your mother are all wrong, simply because the Creator tells us they are forbidden. If it was not for this it would be extremely arrogant of me to decide what is right and wrong based on my mere twenty years of experience of life and then to impose my view on society. In this society we even go to such lengths as imprisoning others who have broken the law. A law which was set by an arrogant majority (at best) or a rich Capitalist minority (at worst)”

The guy picked up a pen and wrote down his e-mail address. He took a flier for our first event and promised he would be there. It was clear that this guy had started to think. Maybe what was not so clear was the fact that in a matter of minutes this guy’s concepts had been drastically changed. This change in concepts led him to do an action that he had, only a minute before, promised he would never do”… ever.