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Sorry, I can’t take you seriously. You would condemn me as a heretic for occasionally listening to acoustic folk, because I’m a nobody.

But you will stand by one who has publicly admitted to what are enormities in our deen, because he is famous and somehow serves your cause.

In this warped worldview, I must be exposed for not toeing the dogmatic line of sectarian orthodoxy, every word once written scrutinised at length to cement my downfall.

But what has not yet occurred to you is that there is no place to fall from, because I am already insignificant, unknown, read by none but one or two.

All the same, I am content to be a heretic in the eyes of the unprincipled masses: I have lived my life this way. It’s the path that chose me, from my first steps forth.

If anything, I wear my heresy with pride. The heresy that we are accountable to God alone. The heresy of not mixing truth and falsehood. The heresy of holding the rich and poor, fuqara and famous, to the same standards of justice and equity.

The heresy of not turning a blind eye to what is clearly wrong because the perpetrator is our brother. The heresy of not standing up for those who do wrong. The heresy of being bound by truth alone.

I do not fear being excommunicated because I have already excommunicated myself from communitarian expediency. That’s not the path I walk, and I have no desire to take up that path now.

I have no pretensions to be a leader of men. Even my fellow bloggers refuse to link to me. I have always wandered alone, ignored by all but the few, and I reconciled myself to that reality years ago.

You won’t find me on social media, prancing before great crowds. I could count my friends with my fingers. But still you must silence the silent one, who has no reach or influence.

So silence me. What difference does it make? Perhaps I will thank you, disappearing back into complete obscurity, to tend to my garden alone. That suits me just fine.

If I should withdraw, it would be no great loss. The world will tarry on as before. Just one less voice in the wilderness calling himself back to truth, virtue and sincerity. I can do that just as well in private.

So do whatever you wish to do. In the end, both you and I are accountable to the One who created all things. We will be judged justly and equitably, and not a single soul will be wronged an atom’s weight.

That is the promise of God. The promise of a zealous activist serving a different master, I couldn’t care less about. Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for God alone, Lord of all the worlds.