What does the Islamic religion mean to you? How does your religion help you find meaning in life? I look to it as my teacher in every aspect of life - as a means of guidance in everything I do. And it is a teacher that constantly urges its students (Muslims) to better themselves and the world around them.

It provides a cohesive worldview - one with limitless depth and that provides for the short term (my lifetime), the long term (future generations), and the very long term (afterlife). It acts as a balance between the extremes we often see enacted in the world and operates on the twin principles of justice and mercy. Through asking me to submit to God, it teaches me to not fear or submit to anything or anyone else - to put aside all fears and fetters that inhibit good actions. In other words it provides a very potent kind of freedom to my life - a freedom fused with responsibility, not the kind of freedom that is divorced from responsibility and is in fact a kind of vagrancy (that kind of freedom always leads to a dead end and ends up imprisoning or shackling you).