definition of religion
...reater being than us, it also provides the opportunity of transforming ourselves into a greater being. I had learned about many religions in my Sunday school class because I was brought up Unitarian, but I do not remember specifically learning about the religion of Islam. ‘The Book of Strangers’ was a great book to begin to understand the basis of Islam and expand my definition of religion. Ian Dallas wrote the book in a personal and relatable manner through the story of his narrator. The narrator begins his story by stating, ‘Today I am leaving. I am leaving the Library, my house, my friends, the city where I live. I do not know where I am going. Strangest of all, I am leaving the library in order to find a book’ (Dallas, 5). He then began on a spiritual journey that led him to discover his beliefs and therefore his God. He initially was searching for his predecessor and the explanation of his mysterious disappearance but ended up finding himself instead. He follows a labyrinth of puzzling signs and winds up in the community of an insightful Shayk. When the narrator first arrived he explained how he had to lose himself in order to find himself, ‘It was during these sessions that, little by little, the illusory layers of the ‘identity’ would fall away’ (Dallas, 98). The book made me feel as if the narrator’s destiny was to embrace Islam and he had not truly become himself until he reached his fate. Instead of describing religion as a concrete or tangible concept, Dallas proved to me that it was instead something that one becomes and constantly redefines. ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X’ by Alex Haley helped me take the next step in defining my beliefs on religion. Malcom X’s story is so comprehensive and relatable; it is hard for one not to be changed by this book. Malcom ‘X’ described his feelings after his first experience with the ‘Black’ Islam religion, ‘When Reginald left, he left me rocking with some of the first serious thoughts I had ever had in my life’ (Haley, 164). When one discovers the truth, it changes their reality. They change everything- even their thinking process. Malcom X then told about his transformation into a follower of Allah and the prophet Elijah Muhammad. After Malcom devoted himself entirely to Islam, he started to realize certain things that made him question his beliefs. After Malcom traveled to Mecca he stated, ‘Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds…My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white (Haley, 382)! The fact that Malcom X changed his philosophy and expanded his definition of religion demonstrated to me that one continually searches for the truth. ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X’ by Alex Haley verified that religion is constantly being defined and grows along with you. One of the last books we read, ‘ I Could Tell You Stories’, helped to complete my current definition of religion. The particular story that affected me the most was ‘Czeslaw Milosz and Memory’. In it, Patricia Hampl discusses the philosophy of the Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz. Milosz was a survivor of a concentration camp and believed in remembering our past to define who we are today. I have thought about my past with regards to who I am but mostly for personality or physical traits, not ever to define myself. One of Milosz’s statements really struck me, ‘I mistrust the probings into the subconscious that are so honored in our day’ (Hampl, 84). Being a psychology major I took offense to that statement at first but read on to see that Milosz also stated, ‘one can focus attention on the background, looking upon oneself as a sociological phenomenon. Inner experience, as it is preserved in the memory, will then be evaluated in the perspective of the changes one’s milieu has undergone’ (Hampl, 85). Looking at myself in comparison to all of my ancestry, gives me a certain sense of pride and also ...