Simplicity

Most of us think that the world is advancing, becoming more civilised, easier with technology, everyone thinks we're moving forward. Are we? Seems like almost the opposite to me. Maybe society didn't know where to stop.

Lately it seems like everyone is too busy running around trying to survive, instead of actually living. It's the nature of the society we live in- we acquire assets, and then we spend our lives as slaves to their maintenance. Like the high-interest bank I wrote about earlier. The solution? Simplicity. Minimalism. Content. Crazy as it sounds, I would be happy just getting by if it means that I can sleep at night without worrying about how much I owe who, how many hours I need to work to buy whatever, etc, etc...the worries go on and on. Call me lazy, but I just think life is too short to get caught up in this material mess.

Imam Ali (a.s) says that detachment is not that you own nothing, but that nothing owns you. The sad truth, as I see it, is that we have become possessions and slaves of this consuming system we live in. No sense of freedom, and the freedom that we do have, we don't have the time or platform to express. Society has set a standard to which most people have agreed to conform, et voila, surprise surprise, we no longer have lives. Our sole purpose has become to survive, to study, get a job, earn a living. Those things are fine, but not as goals. These are means, and most people have forgotten that or been forced to accept the opposite.

The only practical steps I can think of to take to avoid this are pretty drastic (that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to take them though), like moving, completely flipping my lifestyle around. Basically, it's not easy and I don't think there are any short cuts. And that's not surprising- as I've said before, good things don't come easy.

Details & Precaution

When we think about becoming better Muslims, improving ourselves, personal development, we always think of big, clearly black and white, must or must not do kind of things- cutting out the music, praying 5 times a day, not back-biting, the list goes on...but what I think we don't pay enough attention to are the details of a lot of the  things that we already do.

I used to have the mentality that people who focused on religious details beyond the requirement of their respective Maraje's fatwas were OTT or had some sort of OCD and that they just worried too much, but lately I have come to realise that actually, these details add up and have immensely significant bearings on our lives. Every minute action has a profound effect. The accuracy in our daily prayers, our choice of words when we speak, the subtlest implications in our conversations- these things have consequences. 

Just as an example of what I'm trying to say- most of us know the story of Yousif (a.s) so I won't explain the details here, but towards the end of his saga, when Yousif (a.s) was going to be reunited with his father Ya'qoub (a.s), he was waiting for his family's arrival on his horse. As he saw his family approach from the distance, it crossed his mind that perhaps he should dismount his horse out of respect for his father, but he decided that they were still too far and that he would wait until they were a little closer until he got off the back of his horse. 

When his family finally got closer, Yousif (a.s) got off his horse, greeted his family and even made his father Ya'qoub (a.s) sit on his own throne out of respect. Despite all this, Jibra'eel descended from the heavens and told Yousif (a.s) to open his hands, and Yousif (a.s), being the obedient prophet that he was, did so. As soon his he opened his hands, he saw a beam of light leave his hands and ascend towards the heavens. When he asked Jibra'eel what had just happened, he was told that because he had not shown enough respect towards his father, that light, which was the light of the prophecy of his lineage, had been taken away from him and that his lineage would no longer be a lineage of prophets. (This light was instead given to his brother Lawi or Levy, who had suggested to his other brothers to sell Yousif (a.s) to the traders instead of killing him, many years before.)

Yousif (a.s) hadn't actually sinned, he hadn't even done anything that you and I would notice to be disrespectful and yet he was stripped of a great honour because of those few moments of hesitation about getting off his horse. And this was Yousif (a.s). What about people like me and you? Yes, prophets of God obviously have a lot more required of them, but this incident demonstrates clearly how such subtleties have such major implications in our lives. 

What kind of negative effects must music, Haram food, lying, back-biting, cheating have on our lives? What sort of calamities are we inviting towards ourselves with the sins we commit? In fact, let's not even go that far. What are we doing to ourselves when we rush through our prayers, or when we accept food which we're doubtful about, or when we make that slightly mocking expression when mentioning an absent person's name in a conversation? We need to take precaution. The sad thing is that nowadays, we actually do the opposite and try and find loopholes for everything. We look for justifications, left, right and centre when the Ahlulbayt (a.s) have advised us otherwise:

On the authority of Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, the grandson of the Messenger of Allah, and who is dearest to him, who said: I committed to memory from the Messenger of Allah, (the following words): "Leave that about which you are in doubt for that about which you are in no doubt."

The thing we need to understand is that a lot of the time, it's not Allah wanting to punish us for our deeds, but just the natural consequences of our actions that catch up with us. As Imam Ali (a.s) says, we should fear nothing but our own deeds. If I sip on poison, Allah isn't punishing me with death directly- it's just how the system works. And that goes for everything- the smallest details of our actions are part of the system- not just the black and white, right or wrong, Halal and Haram obvious ones. Everything in between has consequences too.

No Words

True Love

Today I was watching an old video of the changing of the flag on Imam Hussein's (a.s) dome from this Muharram, 1432. There were instances in the video that showed masses and masses of people raising their hands in allegiance towards his shrine and I was thinking to myself, "Wow, he only a small group of loyal companions in Karbala, and he has so many now", before reproaching myself for my naivety.

The depressing truth is, there are probably just as many true lovers now as there were back then. I'm not saying that we pretend to love the Ahlulbayt (a.s), but just that naturally, very few of us can maintain that love when there is a price to pay.

Ameeri Ali

The poets have written and the scholars have preached,

Yet the value of Ali no understanding can reach,

An eternity has passed and another will come,

The earth’s ink could diminish and all tongues could go numb,

Yet no heart of his lover is able to rest,

For this love of Ali remains trapped in their chest,

No words can unlock it and no action can earn,

And through a million books, only a fraction they’d learn.

What is this mystery that no mind can perceive?

What lies in the depths of the souls that believe?

What is the reason that they call us insane,

When the essence of sanity with his love we gain?

It is the man that no man understands,

Save the last messenger to all of these lands,

The Lion from whom the enemies would flee,

The servant who would break his bread on his knee,

The man who would cry out into a well,

With secrets in his heart and no believer to tell.

Which man speaks words like pearls from the heaven?

Which light is this, followed by the other eleven?

Which prince shares his progeny with a mistress unmatched?

To which soul and which mind is all truth attached?

This soul is the hero of Siffeen and Hunayn,

The nurturing father of the pure Hassanain,

The generous slave who bows while he gives,

This is the man whose name always lives,

Whose enemies’ lives are wasted in vain,

In countless attempts to have this gem slain.

But what is this rarity that circles my mind?

Makes me hear nothing and turns my eyes blind,

So that his words are the only words that I see,

And a servant of these words all hearts want to be.

Which man is the line between falsehood and truth?

Which warrior’s courage stood unshaken since youth?

The soldier who did not need his sword to slay,

Only his novel of a name he would say,

“Know that I am Ali” and the enemy inside would die,

One strike and soon after, “Allahu Akbar” he would cry,

He, whose shield had shielded his brother,

A man like whom there has been no other,

The seal of the prophets and best of all men,

…Inseparable now and inseparable then.

The hero who lifted the gate of Khaybar,

My master, Ali, my leader, Haidar,

The half that Our Lady perfectly completed,

By whose enemies the fires of hell are heated,

The man who one night sold his soul to his Lord,

And cried out in victory upon being struck by the sword,

Sayyidi, Mawlai, Ameeri Ali,

Ni3mel Ameer wa ni3mel Wali.

Women (And Men)

I was listening to a very interesting lecture yesterday about perfection and the speaker explained that perfection is a relative concept. The perfect cow is one which produces the most milk. The best horse is the fastest one. Now if we had a fast cow, sure, it might be a cool thing, but would it be the best cow? No, because it's not serving its purpose to the best of its ability. Therefore perfection is relative depending on the purpose that something or someone serves. As humans, we are always striving for perfection. Everything we do, we do because we want to reach the top, the state of perfection. The irony is that most of us on this planet don't even know what our purpose is, so how exactly do we expect to reach perfection?

When Satan rebelled against God's instructions to bow to Adam (a.s), he had forgotten or become confused about his purpose. He said that he was made of fire while Adam (a.s) was made of clay. The purpose of fire in relation to clay is to assist the clay, fire it so that it becomes hard. Satan would have been closer to perfection if he had bowed down to Adam (a.s) because he would be serving his purpose in doing so.

Anyway, enough examples. Let's just get to the meat of it now- if you agree with the above then you'd also agree that the perfect woman is one who acts like a woman, one who fulfils the purpose of a woman, and similarly the perfect man is one who acts like and fulfils the purpose of a man. It's impossible to compare the two genders because they were created for different purposes- it's like comparing a doctor to an architect.

The question is, what exactly is the purpose of a woman? Society has distorted the answer to this question so much that nowadays even I find myself confused. Suddenly the purpose of a woman has become to take on a man's role and compete to fulfil it better. Go out and work, reach the top of every field, earn a huge salary, and all the other womanly stuff that men couldn't do even if they wanted to.

People think that women have been "liberated" over the last few centuries. Have they? I think they've been burdened. They've just had men's roles forced onto them and been told, "Oh, now you're allowed to do the stuff that men do." Women are now "allowed" to go out and provide for the family, they're "allowed" to go out and serve complete strangers instead of being "trapped" at home and serve those about whom they actually care. Nowadays if a woman decides that she wants to stay at home and look after her family, she's "backward". Liberation? My foot.

Now I'm not saying that women should stop everything and get back into their houses to serve their families. I just have a problem with the deception that's been created. I find it hilariously tragic how some feminists are fooling themselves. (And when I say feminists, I don't mean the Women's Rights movement people, but the women who reject their feminine nature). Feminism is an insult to women. It creates a competition between men and women, except men aren't really competing, are they? It's the women who have to reach the men's standards. "Women should be able to do everything that a man does". Why? Why even draw that comparison? Why should women serve the purpose of men? There couldn't be a more appropriate situation to facepalm myself about.

Scary how society can distort things so convincingly. God help us all.

Ambition

I had a bit of a wake-up call a few days ago when a friend and I started talking about ambitions. For a while, I'd been worrying about not being motivated enough to do certain things that I need to do, namely surviving university for the next 5 years. The truth is, I'd forgotten to be ambitious.

I've always said that education is a means, not an end for me but until recently, I hadn't actually thought about what the end actually is. I mean, the end is good- I knew that much, but I hadn't thought about specifics until a few days ago and after thinking about it, I think I'm quite motivated.

But I haven't made this entry to go on about my ambitions- I've made it because I find it somewhat depressing that so many people forget to be ambitious. There's no harm in thinking big. In fact, if anything, having these ambitions in mind must increase the chances of their realisation. What is life without ambitions? It's merely survival, not really living.

Overrated

I make it a point not to blog when I'm feeling down because I know I'll probably disagree with what I write when I'm back in my right mind again, which is why I've been putting off this entry for quite a while now. However, I think maybe I'd mistaken pessimism for realism in that time, so here goes.

The world is truly overrated. Every "good" thing can go unimaginably wrong, one benefit doesn't come without the sacrifice of another, life will test us with the things we least expect and want it to test us. Then again, what else is life supposed to be? Life is life. It's pretty much a prison of our sins- if we didn't sin, we could just ask for death and escape from this overrated world.

So I guess sinners like myself should both, be grateful that we're still alive with potential to rectify those mistakes, and kick ourselves for making them to begin with and prolonging this arrest.

The King of Kings

Yesterday, they sent me a king,
One whose praises they all seem to sing,
He told me he could grant me some wealth,
And if I served well, some more for my health,
But with this king, I was not content,
So him, like the others, away I sent.

I met another who offered me fame,
Said all the world’s tongues could utter my name,
All it would take was my obliging hand,
And he’d turn my lowliness into something so grand,
But with this king, I was not content,
So him, like the others, away I sent.

A third one arrived a fortnight before,
Met my humble abode with a knock on my door,
He told me he’d make my children my pride,
And in a house of gold, he’d make me reside,
But with this king, I was not content,
So him, like the others, away I sent.

Like this they kept coming and as always, they went,
And my heart wished not to serve any king the world sent,
And so in this frustration, I sought a way out,
I went on a journey with my luggage of doubt,
Perhaps I was too harsh on the kings that had come?
Should I have listened a little to some?
But now on this journey, it was too late,
And to turn them away, it seemed was my fate.

In the midst of this voyage I still had no goal,
For I knew not where to find the cure for my soul,
So I stopped for a while and stepped onto the ground,
And a scent filled my heart with beauty profound,
And as I walked on the sand to follow this scent,
The weight on my shoulders seemed to relent,
‘Til I reached a sight that was ice to my eyes,
In this heat of the sun under heaven’s red skies.

I saw a gold light where the sun hit the dome,
And a red flag like a sign on the door of a home,
And masses of servants running to their master inside,
Where I thought the royals of this land would reside,
But I looked again and saw no servants around,
Only kings and queens in their dignity, crowned,
So, confused, I asked where the servants might be,
And one man told me that the servant was he,
But another man came and said, “Servant? That’s me,”
Then another and another, and they all said the same,
And soon every royal in that place made that claim.

Finally, a woman told me the truth,
She was the wisest and most modest of youth,
She said that these people were not kings or queens,
Until they had served her son through their means,
She told me that his service turned slaves into kings,
The way a goldsmith turns stones into rings.
She showed me why other kings, I had turned down,
Why each one was simply a slave in a gown-
What king needs his servants and roams the low earth?
The true king’s servants struggle to meet him since birth.

Like lost orphans who seek a father’s embrace,
I’d serve all my life for the peace in that place,
So here I stand, still waiting outside,
And by his principles, I try to abide,
So that maybe one day, we might finally meet,
And this king of kings, I might humbly greet,
And perhaps he might accept me as his,
Maybe he’ll turn my pain into bliss,
For the servants of a king of kings feel no pain,
The cure for their ailments is the love of Hussein (a.s). 

Poetry

The last poem I wrote was on the 1st of Muharram, and I wrote it as I watched them change the flag on the dome of Imam Hussein (a.s) from red to black.

I really want to write another poem, but every time I sit down to write, it's pretty much my last poem that I want to write out again, but with more intensity, more emotion, more yearning. It's frustrating only because I feel slightly useless not doing anything else for Ahlulbayt (a.s), but in a way, it's a relief knowing that the "flame is still burning".

Allahumma irzoqni ziyaratel Hussein (a.s)

Arba'een

The topic of the speaker at the Arba'een Majalis that I've been attending is the Sermon of Hammam by Imam Ali (a.s)- the qualities of a pious man, and the Majalis have really opened my eyes. There are over one hundred qualities mentioned in the sermon and each one carries so much depth and meaning that it's scary that we aim to tick all these boxes by the time we die.

And that's another thing. A lot of things have happened recently to make me more aware of death. Seeing other people's problems has made me think that life is truly over-rated and death, for some, could be an escape. I'd like to be among those "some people" for whom death is salvation rather than a dreaded deadline, which means a tonne of preparation and a lot of sorting out. A lot.

Heartbreaking

A while back, I heard the most heartbreaking Hadith in a lecture. The narration said that after the reappearance of the Imam (a.f) of our time, his first inaugural speech will be at Masjid al Kufa. He will be addressing masses upon masses of people outside the mosque, he will be speaking, but nobody will be able to hear him. Why? Because the people will be sobbing upon seeing his blessed face, in awe of his presence and beauty, in disbelief that their saviour has finally arrived.

I imagined the scene. Cameras everywhere, a beautiful man standing outside a mosque, millions and millions of people gathered together in anticipation, his lips moving but the only audible sound being that of people's wailing and crying. Just wanted to break your hearts too.

Alhamdulillah

One word: Alhamdulillah! A very close friend of mine got back from Iraq, I got into the University that I wanted to, have been to some amazing majalis in the last couple of days, and Sayed Hossein Qazwini is in London for Arba'een. Could I want anything more right now? I think not.