Groupings

You know, people can do amazing things if they learn to work as a team,

and teams usually have a captain to decide on the best way for the team to do things,

and to make sure that everyone on the team is working together.

In the same way, people that have gathered into tribes or nations

have leaders who get to decide on the laws of the land,

and what to do to those who disobey them.

And tribes usually have a part of the world that they call their own,

in which anyone who goes to live there needs to follow that tribe's rules,

even if they come from another tribe

that thinks and lives quite differently.

But if tribes have rules and laws that must be followed,

who makes the rules?

Who rules the tribe and why?

Who says what you can do,

and who says why you should do what you are told?

Well, one reason for doing what you are told

is because you are afraid of those who are telling you what to do

because they are stronger than you

and can hurt you,

but it's not much fun to live that way.

Or you can choose to join a group,

and agree to follow the rules of the group that you join,

which is alright if you trust the people you are joining.

You see,

it's not always a bad thing to have to do as we are told,

especially if the one who is telling us what to do knows more about things than we do.

You just have to be careful who you follow.

What we have to hope is that we are born into a community where those who have power over us also love us

and can be trusted to care for us

and only be strict with us to keep us from making mistakes

and to save us from harming ourselves.

For we don't always know what is good for us,

especially when we are small,

and we need to be able to trust our family

and our community

to care for us and protect us

from ourselves as well as others.

But just as others have power over us,

we have power to help or hurt those of God's creatures who are weaker than ourselves,

and being muslim means being kind and caring towards those around us.

So we care for other people

and try to protect them from hurt,

and don't bully them

or make fun of them,

or try to be cruel to them.

We try to be good to our neighbours.

And we care for the world

and all the people and animals that live on it.

Of course we use animals to work for us

and to feed on,

but still we must do our best to treat them kindly.

Caring for the world and all its creatures is a duty for all muslims,

and in the Way of Islam it is understood that people need to take care of the world

if they want to take care of themselves.

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