What is the importance of religion in your personal life?

Religion is the one facet of life that has brought people from all walks
of life together for hundreds of years in this world. It has accorded a unifying
language and culture for individuals who believe in a supreme being. It has
given meaning to lives that might have seemed forlorn and hopeless before.
While the spirit or person receiving the worship and praise may differ, the
practices are often similar and achieve the same purpose which is to provide
guidance, insight, fortitude, and a holy connection. Most of the population has
(or had once) a religion that has been guiding us throughout our lives, but how
important is it to me?

Being raised from a religious family, the moral values of the religion
have been deeply embedded in my mind as I grew older—although I wouldn’t
consider myself to be devout, not for now. However, I am intuitively aware
that I am within the source of creation. I often reject my own boundaries
because I cannot identify with any self as being separate from the universal
cosmic self, or God, or Allah as we call it in Islam. Conversely, I am
sometimes frustrated and feel alienated from the source and had this tendency
to seek out substitute divine in an effort to achieve the oneness I know to be
true, or in the worst-case scenario, I reject the notion of a supreme being’s
existence. There I realized too much rationalization of religion puts one in
confusion but it’s through the test of time where my faith is challenged yet at
the same time strengthened.

I am reminded by this Islamic belief that faith and action go hand-in-

hand, that I am also responsible for the course of my life and must choose
right from wrong— and I would have not realized that if it was not for
religion. It has always been my moral compass for it directs me in figuring out
which actions to be done, and to make sound judgments about right or wrong
and good or bad things in life. It is one of the crucial aspects that shaped me to
be the person I am today. It is highly important to me because even if I believe
we aren’t born with a purpose, but it is the religion that helps me ascertain it
in order to evolve to my higher self and to attain true happiness through God.