Ways
&
Laws

You know, for us to find the best way to live our lives we need to choose the good and not the bad.

But what do we mean when we say something is good?

Do we mean that it looks good,

or smells good, or tastes good?

Well, sometimes the shiny skin of an apple can make it look good to eat,

but then the taste is bad when we bite into it because it is rotten inside.

And sometimes a spoonful of medicine doesn't taste too good,

and we can feel like spitting it out

even though we may know it will do us good,

and make us better when it reaches our insides.

So we can't always tell what is best for ourselves from the look or taste or smell,

and anyway people like different tastes and smells,

so what is good for one is not always good for another.

So that kind of good doesn't help us to know the best way of life for us to follow.

No,

the best Way of Life is a kind of good that is good for everyone,

and avoids what is bad for everyone.

But how is it possible for one Way of Life

to be the best for everyone, when we are all so different?

That's because the kind of good we need to choose when we want what is best for all of us,

lets us all be just about as different as we want to be

when it comes to the looks, tastes and smells, that we prefer.

And that Way of Life lets us do almost anything we want,

as long as we do things in a way that is good

for ourselves and other people.

And God will help us find that Way of Life, that Deen,

because God knows the ways that are best for us

even when we can't tell what is best for ourselves.

So we can learn what is good from the words that we read in God's Message to the people of the world,

and we can see how to live our lives in a way that is good

by looking to the example we were given by God's Messenger, Muhammad.

So those differences in people can be seen in those who follow their different Ways of being Muslim.

But when people accept that they must all do some things and not do others for the good of everybody,

those things are then made into a set of rules known as their Laws.

So the Open Road has Ways and Laws.

How do we find the best way to live our lives?

What is good and bad for us?

How do we find our way in a world without rules?

Choosing a way to behave.

What are the rules that Muslims share?

How can we know what we must and must not do.

What is the main road on which Muslims travel?