Today is one of the rare cases that I didn't fell into a deep slumber during the Jumu'ah (Friday prayer) khutbah (preaching) like the majority of other people, mostly because there are kids sitting next to me that were playing whatever kids these days do and kept talking through the rest of the khutbah.
I did fell asleep, but not to the extent I completely forgot where I was and what I was doing. However, I do notice that I have been developing the ability of still paying attention while taking a light nap, although the required condition is that I shouldn't be too tired to begin with.
Not as good as this girl, but it's a start
That being said, I managed to catch some of the contents, which is the importance of having a muslim leader. Now this is something that I still have a problem to accept, even though it is true that having a leader with the same belief as you do will make tolerance and harmony within the group/organization easier, the fact remains that A LOT of muslim people took that concept literally and with no further comprehension, just like most of other concepts out there.
The khutbah gave an example about a town led by a christian because no muslim dared to step up and be the leader (this is most likely just a story). The non-muslim leader was unable to hold proper funeral rites when a citizen died because he has no clue of how to do it in islamic way, especially since he don't know how to read arabic. However, since he's dedicated to his job he managed to do so with whatever resources and options he has access to.
The morale of the story was supposed to be that "we should be ashamed if a non-muslim can pull it off while other muslims can only sit back and watch him do leadership stuffs while eating popcorn and listening to religious speeches", but many would also translate the story to "a muslim should stand up and be a leader, doesn't matter if he's the worst candidate there is, as long as he's a muslim". This is a serious mistranslation because we already know how bad it would be if a country or an organization is led by a 'muslim' with the worst method of leadership point of view.
"Hi"
And this is an opinion of mine that might get me flamed by islamic extremists; I think the current Pope is a lot more muslim than the we do. Many of the things he did for the people, save the religious practices, are the things that were actually taught by Islamic teachings. You know, like being nice to people whatever their background and religion is, being humble and not a hedonist, accepting the fact that people are different with each other and we should live together in harmony and not judging them simply because of who and what they are, remember all that?
I'm not exactly a proper muslim myself, far from it, really. But at least I know what should be expected from someone who is supposed to be an example for the rest of us despite whatever belief he has. The point is having the proper quality to be a leader is a lot more important compared to the religious 'requirements' for it. If the leader is doing a good job, then support them and help them keep up the good work. If the leader sucks at their job, then they should be replaced by whomever that are more qualified to do so.
Unless, of course, the other candidates are also full of crap
That being said, I believe that every religion's teaching is supposed to make people be good to themselves and those around them as well. And, yes, even though my belief in religion is around the grey area (which mostly involved eroticism ideals), there are rules that I do follow. As a human being, we'd love to live in a world where all people can share the world together despite whatever beliefs they have, because it is something that we can all look forward to.
Your religion is yours, and mine is mine, but when we are interacting please put whatever concept we have aside and let's treat each other like a normal person would wanted to be treated like.
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