Humanity & Religion

All too often Ive been reading about humanity being above religion or that being a good person doesn't depend on religion, etc etc and I'm stumped! How can a Muslim make/agree with these statements. If one does, then it can be said they are not aware of the tenets of Islam. The majority of our deen is based on principles of humanity and justice and standing up for whats right even if that means going against your brother. Also maybe people aren't aware of the meaning of humanity. Here is what Wikipedia says:

The virtue, humanity, is a set of strengths focused on “tending and befriending others.”The three strengths associated with humanity are love, kindness, and social intelligence. Humanity differs from justice in that there is a level of altruism towards individuals included in humanity more so than the fairness found in justice.That is, humanity, and the acts of love, altruism, and social intelligence are typically person to person strengths while fairness is generally expanded to all.

So actually humanity is an incomplete concept as far as our deen is concerned and Islam actually goes one step ahead of this virtue to establish and serve justice. Allahu Akbar. A Muslim cannot be separated from his deen in any sphere of his life and hence claiming that humanity is above religion actually puts you in a very dangerous spot as a believer. The Lord who created us, chose this way of life for us and in it you will find such whole principles of community that empty statements like the above wont hold any water.

Ok. Rant over!

Habitual or Contemplative?

Is your ibadah or dhikr habitual or is it contemplative? This is a question that i ask myself time and again. Also, this is what initially would confuse me because when i'd start a dhikr and if i contemplated everytime, i would 1) not be able to complete the tasbeeh 2) not be able to continue to do it regularly. And Allah likes an act, however small, that is done consistently. I would get all flustered and eventually abandon the practice Aaoozubillah!
If you are facing anything similar and struggling between contemplating over daily adhkar and ibadah and making it a habit; here is something i  did, which may help.
1) Choose one big ibadah or couple of small ones that you want to practice. If you do many together, for sure you will end up doing nothing consistently
2) Be aware of the excellence of the tasbeeh/dhikr/ibadah. Understand the meaning of the verses.
3) Focus on  making it a habit.
4) Once you find istiqamah, move on to contemplation. Because you're so used to the act now, you can afford the luxury of contemplating.
The process isnt written in stone and I go back and forth between steps. Sometimes, i forget the meaning so i revisit that; other times i feel im not contemplating at all and i focus on that.
For eg. Reading Surah Al Kahf on fridays: I am currently in the process of getting into the habit. Alhamdolillah i'm aware of the tafseer but for sure i cannot focus on every lesson each time. So i pick a passage and try and make that the focus of the week.
Ofcourse ibadah will be habitual but i think the key is to find the balance between that and contemplation Insha Allah