Telling my father my beliefs?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm 16, and a guy, and my father is a moderate Muslim, and he is part of the gulen movement... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClen_movement

I, on the other hand, have grown apart from the movement, and want to follow a stricter interpretation of Islam.... such as salafism...... He's expressed his hatred of salafis and the similar group called wahhabis before, saying they are "animals" and "savages". The problem is my dad is part sufi, which is a mystic branch of islam, whereas i am more traditional... we have such beliefs as the prohibition of music, images of living things, celebrating prophet muhammad's birthday because he didn't order it, not watching the vast majority of television programs, and growing a beard.... As you can see, my dad will not be pleased, since he is a moderate.... how do I break it to him?

You should talk an listen to your dad.

Wahhabi/Salafi is not a movement you should be associating with. There are other conservative moments that you should consider first.

You are young and impressionable. I wouldn't make up you mid yet. I would go out an learn about the world more. Seek knowledge from many different sources.

I think you should examine why you are drawn to this more conservative side.

You don't want to associate with the Salafi. If you need some stricter form of religion, at least look for one that doesn't seek to impose it's values on others. The Jews have such movements and schools, so there should be also muslim schools of the type. Have you heard of Quranism? It is rather a strict movement among it's own believers but isn't as aggressive towards unbelievers as Salafism is.

Why do you seek a stricter movement anyways? Do you feel that you are not capable of making the right decisions with out it? Or are they offering you a feeling of community that you haven't experienced in the rite of your father?

Additionally, I would like to add that the Salafi and Wahhabi tend to see all others outside of their movements as unbelievers, which would even mean the demonization of your own family. There are many risks of stricter movements. I recommend you to do your research well and make a wise choice. Avoid extremism.

About the only things you can do is break it to him and just deal with the ensuing schism in your relationship with each other if and when he takes it badly or just keep this decision to yourself. I'll warn you right now there's a chance he might stop being so distant and return home if you do this and he might try to "alter" your views if you tell him. I don't know what type of man your father is though. He might react better though since he's a moderate, but he might also react negatively to seeing his son heading in a potentially radical direction. I won't comment about your choice of direction in religion, it's your choice.

The foes list function is broken Monstercrack and it only hides your foes comments from your eyes, it can't stop them from commenting.

Quranism is not always liberal. In the Pakistani sense they are liberal but in the Nigerian sense they are pretty strict. Quranism is based on that Islam can do without hadiths as hadiths are unreliable as they were oral tradition and as you know that when something is passed on from person to person, it changes. Do you think you should value hadiths, oral traditions that may have been modified, as more of an authority than the Quran?