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.