I Am Free. Are You?

By Abdul Adil Lukungu · AdVibe · August 2026

We gasp at the thought. We push back at the slightest feeling of being controlled. We don’t want to be put in a “box.” This is our life. Nobody tells us what to do.

All over the world, we tightly guard our freedoms, and this is good; it creates boundaries. We do not get stepped on.

The irony is, as much as we claim or want to be free, we willingly submit to all sorts of desires and addictions. You are enslaved to your phone, taking your first waking hour! Your desires. You spend your waking hours thinking about work. It’s hard to go a day without sucking your nicotine pen. You keep on racking up credit card debt. You want to impress everyone. You don’t answer to anybody — except everybody.

Without proper guidance, we are slaves to all sorts of distractions and desires. And to be guided, you must submit. It could be a tribe. A cause. A higher being. The universe. A creator. You must follow a set of rules to keep yourself accountable. To keep yourself in check.

Here’s the part that stings: freedom was never actually on the table. Not for you, not for me, not for anyone. Every human being submits to something. The only real choice is what.

The Islamic tradition doesn’t flinch from calling this what it is. As Ibn al-Qayyim is often quoted as saying, the one who’s truly imprisoned isn’t the one behind bars — it’s the one whose heart is locked away from his Creator. The real captive is whoever’s desires have taken him hostage.

Islam’s answer to this isn’t “stop submitting.” It’s submit on purpose — to choose one thing worth bowing to before you’re taken over by a million smaller things without even knowing it.

That’s the whole point behind the five daily prayers, fasting, the discipline of a daily practice — not a cage, but a rehearsal. You’re training the part of you that wants to be ruled by everything to answer to one thing instead. The ultimate higher power. Your creator.

That’s the cost. It’s not a small price to pay. I won’t pretend it is. Real submission means there are things you don’t get to do anymore, cravings you don’t get to chase, hours you don’t get to waste. You will feel, at first, like something is being taken from you.

And it is. That’s the whole point.

So, how free are you?