Independence

You know, new born humans don't have much in the way of independence,

they depend on other people for just about everything.

They come into this world,

and the first thing that they do is learn to breathe for themselves,

then to suck and swallow food from their mother's breasts,

get the goodness out of it

and squirt out the stuff they don't need

from the other end of their digestive system.

And that's about it.

They can't actually move around much,

or feed themselves,

or keep themselves clean,

or dress themselves in whatever they need to keep themselves warm,

or shade themselves from the sun.

Then as they get to grow they learn to do these and other things,

but because they know so little about the world,

to keep them safe they have to learn to do as they are told.

But they also get to play.

They get to do what they decide to do for themselves,

and start to learn to be at least a little bit

independent of those who are looking after them.

And slowly they learn to do more and more things on their own,

from the time that they first learn to say the word 'No'

when they are about two years old,

to their teenage years

when they start to think that they should be free to do whatever they choose

whenever they choose to do it.

And we call this ability to choose for ourselves 'Free Will',

and it is part of our human nature.

It is given to us by our Creator,

and along with Free Will

we are also given Responsibility.

That is what makes us different from the animals,

the ability to see a difference between right and wrong

and choose between them.

And in this ability to choose

we are given a glimpse of the Divine.

Growing up is a process of taking more responsibility for ourselves,

as that responsibility goes along with our independence.

We need to face our lives as something that we are responsible for,

which doesn't mean being responsible for any situation that we might be given to deal with,

but being responsible for the way that we choose to deal with it,

our behaviour.

Our deen involves taking responsibility for our actions,

making choices that we are happy with,

and enjoying the awareness of our independence.

We need to know that what we are doing is the best that we can do.

We need to know that our intentions are always to do what is right

and avoid what is wrong.

If you want free will and independence,

you have no one else to blame.

When we face our Maker at the end of our lives

a parent will not be able be able to speak up on behalf of their child.

the cells of our bodies will testify as to what we have done

and we will only be judged on our own actions and intentions.

And each of us will be given what we deserve,

what we have earned,

and there will be no injustice.

For Allah is the Most Just of Judges.