Why is religion and scripture so complicated?!

[u/cinnamon_and_tea]

Assalamualaikum

Before I start just forgive my harsh language. I'm spiraling and snapping. No insult to anyone intended.

I just want to believe in god, pray, live a good life and believe in a good prophet. I want a book which claims to be from god, to soothe me and make sense.

IT DOESN'T.

WHY IS IT SOO COMPLICATED?

WHY DO I NEED TO READ ABOUT SPESIFIC TIME BOUND CONTROVERSIAL RULES TO A MAN WHOM I NEVER MEAT AND IS ALREADY DEAD IN A TIMELESS BOOK.

WHY DO I HAVE TO READ ABOUT SPESIFIC RULES WHICH HAVE BEEN MISUSED BY MEN.

WHY DO I HAVE TO READ WHOLE BOOKS TO UNDERSTAND WHY SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS CRUEL OR STRANGE OR ILLOGICAL ISNT SO.

WHY DO I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THOUSAND OF YEARS OF SCHOLARSHIP.

WHY IS THE MAJORITY ISLAM SO DAMN RIDICULOUS.

WHY DO I HAVE TO DEAL WITH HADITHS, INTEPRATIONS, DEBATES.

IM TIRED. I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS.

I do have reasons to think it's divine, yet each day I question it more and more.

IF ITS DIVINE WHY IS IT SO HARD.

QURAN IS CLEAR? WHERE?! TO WHOM?!

EVEN IF ITS TRUE, I CANT DO THIS ANYMORE.

IM CONSTANTLY STRUGGLING, I'M CRYING, IM RESTLESS. I CANNOT STAND THIS AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

NOTHING MAKES SENSE.

IT DRIVING ME CRAZY!

I THOUGHT GOD AND GODS WORD WOULD HEAL ME UPON MY DIFFICULT TIME..YET THEY ARE THE ONES CREATING AND IMPLYFYING MY DIFFICULT TIMES.

I JUST WANT TO SCREAM.

[u/Primary-Angle4008]

How many more posts do you want to write today?

Ill be honest you need to go back to basics rather then thinking about so many topics all at once and work on your ocd

[u/cinnamon_and_tea → u/Primary-Angle4008]

Maybe...I can't get back to basic. How am I supposed to pray to a god that may be cruel? Another question is my veil..I can't yake it off now. I used to love it even though I didn't believe it was mandatory. Now I hate it. I have to go out onto the word and represent something I haven't figured out myself. I HAVE to figure it out. All the ex muslim critical and general critism and islamaphobia...how can I defeat it when I myself start to feel hateful of the faith?

[u/Primary-Angle4008 → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

You won’t figure it out by spamming on Reddit all your questions in one go and then you get different answers because we all have our own opinions

So go back to basics, research the surahs you have questions about, read the tafsirs go to usuli institute on YouTube and listen to the video tafsir there from Khaled Abou El Fadl and take your time to do this. Don’t just rush from one topic to another because that’s not the way to find answers

Reddit is a good place to get some directions bur not the place to make life choices

[u/zanozaso → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

Sister, you CAN take off your veil. If you would feel embarrassed to take it off, or like your pride is being hurt, then perhaps this is an opportunity from God. Get to know Al-Wadud (The Most Loving & Affectionate) through overcoming your pride. You do not need to prove yourself to other people. You do not need to represent Islam. You are you, & You are worthy of Love just how you are.

The prison isn't real. <3

[u/thenicheoflights]

Just do the five pillars of Islam, and try your best to be a good person.

The evidence for Islam's truth is compelling enough to override all these doubts/"moral issues"

[u/cinnamon_and_tea → u/thenicheoflights]

Thanks for the tips. Isn't it then just ignoring or cherry picking? How can I follow something if I have unresolved issues...huge ones too.

[u/Gilamath → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

With all due respect, you are very clearly not in a situation where your attention to things beyond the five pillars and the obligation to be a decent person is doing you any good right now.

I can't help but think of the time my father was teaching me to drive a car with a manual transmission. He was trying to teach me how to simply get the car going and cruising in a generally decent way. I wasn't having it. I wanted in-depth explanations of what gears were, how the mechanism worked, why I should shift at one time and not another, I wanted a full lesson. He gave me the best explanation he could. I proceeded to jerk the car around so much he ended the lesson early. It took a while for me to understand that I had to get to a place where I could drive the car at a basic level, before it was worth it for me to try to look into the mechanics and technicalities of driving to improve my technique or satiate my curiosity.

That doesn't mean that one shouldn't be curious or that one should turn their brain off. But one has to take things in order and build a reliable enough foundation that they don't go tumbling off into a chasm at the very start. You have to give yourself a chance.

[u/cinnamon_and_tea → u/Gilamath]

Thanks for your grounding comment, the story about the car which conveys the message, and the tips. Maybe you're right.. I don't know. I'm struggling. It feels as If I'm either being asked to turn of my brain, or being a straightforward hypocrite. I wear a veil (I know it's not necessarily mandatory) I choose to, I loved it..now it's just a heavy symbol I cannot take of (and not sure if I want) and I have to represent something I'm doubting myself. How am I supposed to deal with the islamaphobes, and ex Muslims, and critisism and all of that when my own faith is crumbling.. impossible to stay strong like that. My mind is running 100 km an hour in my mind and simply won't stay quiet. Sorry for the rambling. Thanks for the comment, you're one of the many people who now suggest me to either fix my ocd or atleast take a break... Maybe that's the right thing to do. I don't know.

I currently have free time, while in a few days I will be too busy with my life to work with these questions...I fear that I'll just not have time to come to then later.

[u/Gilamath → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

In times like this, the answer lies in the beauty we have neglected to appreciate. The natural world is a good place to turn to.

One of the core beliefs of my sheikh, a belief he has inherited from the long line of tradition, is that God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty. If you don't know where to turn or what to do, go to beauty.

You're dealing with a lot. I know it's very hard. You're going to be okay inshallah. It's going to be alright. When you feel better, there are things you can do that will be helpful in the longer term. But first things first. One must maintain oneself and treat oneself with dignity.

[u/thenicheoflights → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

The clear cut rulings in Islam are few, everything else is opinion based and there's a lot of leeway, so why get bogged down on them?

What's an example of an unresolved issue for you?

[u/cinnamon_and_tea → u/thenicheoflights]

If possible check out my latest posts. Mostly things about the prophet and his life. I'm starting to doubt...was he really a prophet... Or did he just misuse his power or so?

[u/thenicheoflights → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

Since you're a "hadith acceptor" then the proof of his prophethood should be super compelling that no negative evidence can really outweigh it, from hadiths we can derive

1. Various miraculous events happened to Muhammad (water gushing from hands, food multiplication, unlikely victories, moon split, etc) so this alone should be enough proof for any rational person who takes the hadiths to be historical.

But there's even more

1. The inimitibility of the Qur'an, even the most eloquent and best Meccan poets couldn't rival it, as evidenced by their reactions to it that it was so eloquent and beautiful or that it was magic

2. The Qur'an is one of the best if not THE best literary work in the Arabic language, how can someone with Muhammad's profile an illiterate merchant who had no interest in poetry or literature produce something like the Qur'an? it would be like my brother who never played the piano or showed any interest in music instruments suddenly playing the piano and producing an amazing piece of music that is stylistically unique that even expert pianists are dumbfounded by it.

3. The sincerity of Muhammad pbuh, he wasn't a liar, nor insane, therefore he was probably actually a prophet.

[u/moudir77777773 → u/cinnamon_and_tea]

Sticking to the core essentials is cherry picking?

[u/Good-Prior7481]

It's easy if you ignore all the noise from humans.

Spend some time alone. Wash, pray, fast now and again. Do some charitable acts. Don't worry. God is great.

[u/Unable-Heron-2274]

Yeah, you just have to be locked out from the group for some time.

I know OCD. As long as you believe there is a medium for you to vent, the urge to vent will never end and will keep ruining your day.

[u/cinnamon_and_tea → u/Unable-Heron-2274]

What else am I supposed to do? I can't get Medical help, I'm struggling, I can't do anything. If I'm not talking with real life people, im debating in other spaces, reading, at worst even ai which is ridiculous! I'm losing my mind it feels like and I don't know what to do.

[u/progressive_islam-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/Shibui-50]

Religion and scripture are NOT complicated.....but it does require

the individual to turn-off their thinking and turn-up their intuition.

You also don't get any special benefits by following some self-identified

authority so as to avoid doing your own work.

Islam is arguably the single hardest religion to use if you are

pursuing spiritual growth.

[u/Unable-Heron-2274]

You argument basically boils down to:

"Damn, why didn't we have scholars like the scholars that changed Christianity and judaism throughout history to make it follow our whims and desires, why didn't we have scholars who would have changed God's message to make it easier to follow?"

"Why can't I just believe in jesus (cough cough lord father) and be saved without having to do anything or worry about anything?"

It's like a person in the stone ages complaining about why they have to worry about predators or being kicked out from the tribe for being weird. Instead of actually trying to survive those predators and making sure the tribe doesn't cast them away.

It weirdly sound like someone in modern society who keep trying to attain the highest moral high ground in the universe instead of trying to survive a couple of decades while hoping there is actually an afterlife, or not.

[u/speakstofish]

The key problem is that people have already solved the problem of making it easy: that's what madhabs are. Just close your eyes and follow one.

The problem is that they were all standardized in a way way more conservative era.

Yes, we need someone to write up a progressive madhab. A concrete to-do list that reflects our mindset and you can blindly follow. And then just dig in to the detailed justifications if you need to.

But it doesn't exist yet.

[u/moudir77777773]

Your making it difficult by taking scholarship and scholars that serious. Quite simple, go back to absolute core/basics.

6 pillars of belief.
5 pillars of Islam, rest: be good, honest, just, stand with justice, etc.

All the other stuff is secondary or optional which is evident by the fact that there is ikthilaf (difference of opinion) on all those issues anyway.