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“What about the terrible way Muslims behave?”

You’re not responsible for how others behave. You’re only responsible for yourself.

Perhaps the way others behave will be a test for you. Perhaps it will separate the wheat from the chaff, the true gold from false.

My wife belongs to an ethnic group, which, at the collapse of the Ottoman empire, faced what many would call genocide: mass murder or expulsion.

Similarly, I know of many Hindus and Sikhs who have taken up the path, despite the unspeakable horrors perpetrated against their forefathers during the partition of India.

How do such people reconcile their pursuit of faith with the wrongs committed by people associated with it?

Perhaps in the same way they reconcile taking up residence in a nation which once governed their motherland with merciless colonial rule, or which pillaged its vast wealth to enrich the few.

In every area of our life, we are able to compartmentalise experiences, whether separating the past from the present, or the actions of people from their beliefs.

Sometimes, I think to myself that, after a series of unpleasant experiences in my youth, it’s amazing I didn’t become a maddening racist, devoting my life to agitating against people I perceived had wronged me.

But I didn’t, because I understood that the behaviour of individuals says nothing about the whole. And, even then, every action has a context which can be understood with patient reflection.

The question is not really about how others behave but about how we will respond.

Will you be patient in the face of such trials? Will you repay a bad deed with a good deed? Will you forgive the one who wronged you? Will you give charity to your enemy? Will you pray for one who once broke your heart?

The call of faith is deeper than how people appear to behave. None of us who have survived this long despite the trials of the world took up the path for the sake of people. We were seeking the Oneness of God.

And when you are called by God, you have no choice but to respond.