you wrote: "If a person is genuinely good, they don’t forget to do good."
Therein lies a major part of the problem. The concept of what is good changes over time and from culture to culture, and individual to individual. At one time in the west it was thought to be good to kill off the native Americans because they were not properly using the land they were on; also there are some in this part of the world who think that Female Genital Mutilation is a good thing for women in spite of Islam being against it; and there are many more examples of how what is considered good to some may be considered bad to others. At the end of the day when left to our own devices humans will collectively be subjective in our thinking rather than objective.
Islam settles all of that by defining what is good and what is bad. Further, Islam gives us the ways and means to actualize the good and refrain from the bad. Someone in this thread pointed out the example of the parent child relationship. If we left a small child to do as he likes whenever he likes then that child would be seriously injured or dead in a short period of time. The reason for that is because of the child's lack of knowledge of the dangers in things that they are unaware of. For example: I close the front door to my house because if I didn't my 16 month old son will run into the street. So I, as a responsible parent, place restrictions on him to keep him safe from getting hit by a car. I have more knowledge than he does and I want what is best for him so I do things like that for his benefit.
Similarly, Allah, being the one who created everything and has knowledge about all His creation, has revealed the religion as a means for us to be safe. The more we follow his rules the safer we are. The more we ignore His rules, in preference for our own rules (which are based on our limited subjective knowledge and experiences), the more we fail as humanity.
We cannot escape rules. If you live with a roommate then both of you will come to agree on how the rent is paid, how the house is kept clean, how each others personal items can be used by the other, etc. The same goes for families, and societies in general. Rules or laws are needed in order to avoid chaos. In a family or a society we will always find some individuals who are not always 100% pleased with the rules. In Islam they can either be patient or leave the religion. There is a verse in the Quran where Allah says that there is no compulsion in the religion, truth has been made clear from falsehood. Essentially, whoever whats to be guided will find guidance and with guidance comes rules that the individual must follow to the best of their ability. If there are things in the religion that a Muslim doesn't like or understand the it is his responsibility to ask those who have a greater knowledge that he does for clarification. If after doing that he still finds difficulty understanding or liking a rule then it is best for him to be patient. Most people have a decent understanding of basic mathematics but some have problems with algebra and others find it easy, while those who find problems with algebra may find trigonometry difficult. So should the person simply discount and disregard all of mathematics simply because they don't like or are having trouble understanding trigonometry? Clearly it is better for them to be patient.
Finally, any problems that exist in Muslim countries (or between individual Muslims) is a result of the Muslims themselves failing to follow Allah's guidance. We have free will to follow the guidance like a map or risk falling off course. Whatever the case, the map will always be there so its up to the Muslims to follow it for success.
Nic,
you wrote: "If a person is genuinely good, they don’t forget to do good."
Therein lies a major part of the problem. The concept of what is good changes over time and from culture to culture, and individual to individual. At one time in the west it was thought to be good to kill off the native Americans because they were not properly using the land they were on; also there are some in this part of the world who think that Female Genital Mutilation is a good thing for women in spite of Islam being against it; and there are many more examples of how what is considered good to some may be considered bad to others. At the end of the day when left to our own devices humans will collectively be subjective in our thinking rather than objective.
Islam settles all of that by defining what is good and what is bad. Further, Islam gives us the ways and means to actualize the good and refrain from the bad. Someone in this thread pointed out the example of the parent child relationship. If we left a small child to do as he likes whenever he likes then that child would be seriously injured or dead in a short period of time. The reason for that is because of the child's lack of knowledge of the dangers in things that they are unaware of. For example: I close the front door to my house because if I didn't my 16 month old son will run into the street. So I, as a responsible parent, place restrictions on him to keep him safe from getting hit by a car. I have more knowledge than he does and I want what is best for him so I do things like that for his benefit.
Similarly, Allah, being the one who created everything and has knowledge about all His creation, has revealed the religion as a means for us to be safe. The more we follow his rules the safer we are. The more we ignore His rules, in preference for our own rules (which are based on our limited subjective knowledge and experiences), the more we fail as humanity.
We cannot escape rules. If you live with a roommate then both of you will come to agree on how the rent is paid, how the house is kept clean, how each others personal items can be used by the other, etc. The same goes for families, and societies in general. Rules or laws are needed in order to avoid chaos. In a family or a society we will always find some individuals who are not always 100% pleased with the rules. In Islam they can either be patient or leave the religion. There is a verse in the Quran where Allah says that there is no compulsion in the religion, truth has been made clear from falsehood. Essentially, whoever whats to be guided will find guidance and with guidance comes rules that the individual must follow to the best of their ability. If there are things in the religion that a Muslim doesn't like or understand the it is his responsibility to ask those who have a greater knowledge that he does for clarification. If after doing that he still finds difficulty understanding or liking a rule then it is best for him to be patient. Most people have a decent understanding of basic mathematics but some have problems with algebra and others find it easy, while those who find problems with algebra may find trigonometry difficult. So should the person simply discount and disregard all of mathematics simply because they don't like or are having trouble understanding trigonometry? Clearly it is better for them to be patient.
Finally, any problems that exist in Muslim countries (or between individual Muslims) is a result of the Muslims themselves failing to follow Allah's guidance. We have free will to follow the guidance like a map or risk falling off course. Whatever the case, the map will always be there so its up to the Muslims to follow it for success.