Blame the Driver, Not the Car!

By Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

ISLAM today is one of the most misunderstood phenomena. Unfortunately, people are looking at Muslims by some of the incidents which we see going on in the world today, which are supposed to be a reflection of Islam. They are not a reflection of Islam. They are a reflection of badly misbehaving the Muslim community. That is the problem which is besetting the Muslim community.

There are, of course, very good elements and good practising Muslims but these are not normally seen. It is usually the bad and the most sensational elements which are shown on television and in the media. The way to solve this is for someone not to look at the Muslim, but to look at Islam. It would be wrong for someone to judge a car as being a bad car if the driver of the car was drunk and he crashed into a fence. You say,” That car is bad.” It has nothing to do with the car. It is to do with the driver. So you must look at the car and see what kind of a car it is. How many miles it does for a gallon and so on. Once we look at the actual description of what the car is then you will see that there is nothing wrong with the car. It is the driver.

Islam is to guide all human beings in their daily lives, in their spiritual, mental and physical dimensions. But we must find the source of this instruction which is, firstly, in the Quran and then secondly in the examples of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) being the last Prophet. So once we come to these two things, the Quran and then the example of the Prophet, which is called the “sunnah” of the Prophet, then we can see the ideal Islam.

The most important thing which I found in Islam was the belief in One God. This is not just said in the sense that some people say they believe in One God and they leave it at that. The whole understanding of Islam is based on this truth. Nothing could exist without His will and every breath that we take is directly commanded by God. Everything in our life is happening because God has given it that allowance. He has given us that life.