Freedom and Justice in Islam

I feel compelled to put my thoughts down on the true definition of "freedom", especially for the youths of today, whether they come from a broken family or simply live within a secular society in this era of Fitnah.

From the Secular or Western perspective, freedom is defined as the liberating development in choosing between good and bad to an extent that some go through civil marriage instead of the prescribed solemnisation via Syariah court simply because they misinterpreted the ayat:

"There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Tâghût and believes in Allâh, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allâh is All-Hearer, All-Knower." [Surah al-Baqarah: 256]

"Freedom" as defined by Islam is beautiful - a choice between good deed and better deed because it is unfathomable for a True Muslim to even consider an evil deed that goes against the Truth (Haq), doing this is not exercising smart choices. Truly, freedom is to act as one's real and true nature demands - that is, as one's haq and one's fitrah demands. That is why training of the soul (Tazkiyatul Nafs) is needed to enable us to discern reality and truth from falsehood and it is our ibadah that provides constant reminder of the All-Seeing.

Afternote: I could totally relate to this especially during the earlier days of my youth. Human being, by design, makes mistakes resulting in our Imaan fluctuating between a low and  high point and when it is at a low point, we feel lousy, simply because our heart and soul is not aligned to the Haq as it is supposed to. And when we increase our good deeds, it resulted in that feel-good aura. Hence, we have to perpetually ikhtiyar to counter our bad deeds with good deeds. Dowload the article Symptoms of a Weak Iman and Its Cure. May Allah protect us from the hellfire, ameen.