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For the eminent preacher, confessing in public to repeated and multiple enormities, the faithful will offer seventy-thousand excuses, celebrating his intellectual contribution to the ummah.

For the nurse that died in the line of duty, two decades spent serving the sick and infirm, there will be no celebrations of a life well-lived. No, for the nurse stands judged by a single Retweet of a Tweet by her employer, which to the faithful negates her faith entirely.

However disgraceful, odious and abominable this seems to me, it comes as no surprise, for we have seen this strange imbalance throughout the years. Witness the utter condemnation of men that play chess or listen to music, whilst men who perpetrate mass murder are given the benefit of the doubt. Note how theoreticians of faith who perpetrate the most heinous of crimes are still revered, whilst faith practitioners — doctors, social workers, aid workers, scientists, teachers and the charitable soul — are frequently condemned for all manner of misdemeanours.

How often the faith of the teachers and preachers of religion repulses me completely. Alhamdulilah for humble souls, living lives in the service of others, giving their lives in their pursuit of a higher goal, striving their utmost to make society a better place for all. Alhamdulillah for lived faith.