Why should I give a khutbah on devotion to faith?
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding recently released an analysis of various faith groups, surveying their private and public religious practices. The study found that 71% of Muslims surveyed said that religion was “very important to their daily lives.” This was a much higher percentage than Jews (35%), Catholics (35%), Protestants (61%) and the general public (36%) who claimed that religion was very important to their daily lives. In fact, the only group that surpassed Muslims in this category were White Evangelicals, who were at 82%.
Overall, Muslims are more likely than Catholics, Jews, and non-affiliated Americans to express personal devotion to their faith in their private lives. However, the data begins to shift a little when analyzing devotion to faith in a more public sense. When it comes to reflecting on our commitment and devotion to our beliefs, we have to ask ourselves what we have invested in our faith. When deciding whether or not to publicly display aspects of our religion, we must teach ourselves to minimize our fears of possible backlash by reinforcing our trust in Allah.