FRENCH
MON TÉMOIGNAGE I
My Testimony II
1
A capable MAN
It’s Saturday afternoon. Jilali, a construction
worker, gets his weekly pay (1000 dirhams), thanks his boss and mounts his old
motorcycle. On his way home, he stops at the hairdresser’s. While waiting for
his turn, he calls his wife, from his old smart-phone, telling her to prepare
hot water for his ‘shower’. After getting a nice haircut, Jilali moves on to
his neighbourhood's grocer’s. He pays his week’s debts and orders new
stuff to please his wife. Hearing the familiar sound of his motorcycle, his
children rush to open the door. The children and the wife are all smiles.
Jilali is happy too. The children are jubilating: Father bought us biscuits and
yogurt! The wife takes the bag into the kitchen.
Minutes later, Jilali is having a ‘shower’. He takes
water from a bucket and pours it on himself. This is a shantytown, and there
are no showers in shantytowns. But Jilali is happy.
After the shower, Jilali is sitting in the mrah, kind of tiny
covered patio serving as a living-room but also as a dining-room and
everything. The television is there. In front of him is a tea-tray with a hot
teapot and bread. Jilali is delighted. He is waiting for the night to fall, and
for the children to go to sleep, so that he too can go to sleep with his wife,
so that his enjoyment can be complete.
Now count with me how many things Jilali enjoys. (1)
Jilali has work, he enjoys that. (Not everybody has got work.) (2) Jilali gets
his pay every Saturday afternoon. (3) Jilali has a motorcycle. (Some of his
comrades come to work on foot.) (4) Jilali can afford a nice haircut. (5)
Jilali has got a Smartphone. (6) Jilali has a wife. (7) Jilali has children
too. (8) Jilali’s wife and children receive him with smiles. (9) Jilali has got
a place to wash himself in his small abode. (Compare with homeless people.)
(10) Jilali has got a television set. (11) Jilali has got someone to make him
tea on his return from work. HOW CAN’T JILALI BE HAPPY?
Who could say bad things on Jilali? The grocer has
never complained about him. Nobody has ever seen or heard him beg anybody
anywhere. He is a MAN, a capable MAN. He can support his family without
anybody’s help. He does not need anybody’s advice or preaching. His wife and
children are always as nicely dressed as anybody else in the neighbourhood. His
children go to school and get good marks. His wife goes to the weekly market
every Sunday and to the Turkish bath once a week. Everybody knows that Jilali
has many things to boast about. Jilali has no worries about his image.
Jilali has got a good image. But his cousin Larbi has
a much better image than him. Unlike Jilali, Larbi went to school, and it’s at
school that Larbi learned gypsum work. Larbi works for the same boss as Jilali,
but he is paid differently. Larbi does not touch gypsum with his hands. He’s
got three apprentices who do that for him. The boss pays Larbi for the whole
gypsum work and Larbi gives weekly pays to his apprentices. That’s why Larbi
comes to work by car, and he’s got a nice big smart-phone. He left the
shantytown a long time ago and then bought a small apartment in an old building
in an old neighbourhood, and now he lives in a three-storey house near
downtown. And he married a second wife. His personal development has made
several people jealous of him.
If Larbi is in a better situation than Jilali, he is
far from being the best. If he’s got a three-storey house, there are many, many
people who have got villas and even riyads. If he got a nice, new
car, there are many, many people who have got much, much nicer and more
expensive cars. If he got two wives, there are others who have four. His
possessions do not really distinguish him from the rest of the crowd. To stand
out, he got to do something outstanding. He should be like his boss’s
brother-in-law, who rose from nothing to become President of the Municipal
Council of the city. He became one of the important people of the city. Many
people still marvel at his meteoric rise in local politics.
The story of the brother-in-law of Larbi’s boss is
nothing compared to the story of Alejandro Toledo who, at the age of six,
worked as a street shoe shiner, before he became a distinguished economist,
then President of his country, Peru, from 2001 to 2006. Not every shoe shiner
can hope to become President of his country.
And not only Jilali and Larbi live for enjoyment and
image. We all do. We all aspire to personal growth. And maybe we all aspire
to rise in esteem. In the nineteenth century, people moved away from
horse-drawn carriages to trains, etc. To grind their wheat, some people
moved away from windmills to steam mills. And who among us wants to miss
the train of progress?
In those times one would boast that he invented a
steam mill, one that he installed steam mills, one that
he ground his wheat and barley at steam mills. One would boast
that he invented the train, one that he drove a train, one that he travelled by
train. One that he invented (produced) something, one that he used (consumed)
something.
You can’t hope to talk a whole day without succumbing
to the temptation of boasting to somebody or other about something or other.
Every one of us needs to feel that he/she is important, that he/she is not less
worthy than others. Then, why do we look at ourselves in the mirror? It’s a
basic need for recognition.
You go in a crowded street, enter a hotel lobby, sit
at a café, and all eyes are on you. All eyes will follow you as a snake would
follow a snake-charmer’s pipe. You were born with a beautiful face and your
beauty has stayed with you, dazzling people wherever you go. Or maybe you went
to market and spent hours picking and choosing until you found a dream of a
dress or suit. And you feel great when people look at you.
The more beautiful you are, the more stunning your
dress is, the more people will look at you. You are aware of that, and so you
seldom -if ever- go out before looking at yourself in the mirror.
But whatever you do, you can’t always be
eye-catching. You may get completely eclipsed by the Rich and the Famous. Even
beautiful people prick up their ears on hearing the jingle of coins or, where these are no longer used, when talking about
money. No wonder if a beautiful
girl preferred a rich, pimply-faced old man to a handsome youth with
little or no income.
The problem is when we don’t have things to boast
about while others around us don’t stop boasting. Unfortunately, we are exposed
to boasting every day. Even when you shun people and stay at (your secluded)
home, your television or Smartphone will bring you all the boasting of the
world. Boasting in adverts, boasting in soap opera, boasting in music, plus
undeclared boasting of all sorts.
Sometimes everybody -including governments and
corporations- go from bragging to begging. Once the crisis is over, everyone
starts bragging again. The suffering quickly falls into oblivion. Little or no
return to reason, to common sense. I am no exception. May God have mercy on us!
2
The Star of the day
Can everybody be rich? Can everybody become a
millionaire, as an influencer, for example? Then there would be no homeless
person in Silicon Valey. If everybody were rich, who would work in the
fields or in mines or in factories? Can any French native speaker be a good
teacher of French Grammar? Can any good football commentator be a good football
coach? Can any professor of Management make a good company manager?
A car hits a motorcyclist and knocks him off his bike,
seriously injuring him. The ambulance arrives right away, the police too. The
victim is transported to the hospital as a matter of urgency. Doctors and
nurses welcome him into the emergency room. His family learns the sad news by
telephone and soon joins him in the hospital, offering him flowers. A lawyer
comes to inquire about the facts. He wants to know whether the victim has the
right insurance. Meanwhile, a mechanic arrives to repair what he can. Then a
sweeper comes to clean the area of the accident. Is it not said that the
misfortune of some makes the happiness of others? When someone works in an SME
that manufactures cables, computer systems, or other, for military aircraft,
does he think for a moment of the potential victims of the planes equipped with
his cables, etc.? What would the doctors, nurses, pharmacists... do for a
living if there were no sick people? What would the mechanics, the lawyers, the
insurers, the paramedics, the courts, the flower vendors, the
telecommunications operators, the sweepers, do for a living if there were no
such problems?
Who can count how many people would “live off” a
wedding or a funeral? Apparently, a lot of people live off that!
We cry when we lose our father, we smile when we
receive our share of the inheritance. It is because one knows that he’ll be
hungry that he goes to the grocer’s. The hairdresser is there because there are
necessarily people who will need a haircut. In Casablanca, the economic capital
of Morocco, many people suffer during the period of the aïd-el-kebir,
because many shopkeepers and almost all craftsmen (plumbers, mechanics,
electricians, repairers of refrigerators, etc.) disappear from the city. They
go and spend the holiday with their families in their native towns and
villages. They return ten or fifteen days later to revive the white city. The
barber (tooth puller) needs someone who has a toothache but does not have
enough money to go to the dentist; the shoe repairer needs someone who has torn
his shoes but cannot buy new ones; the mechanic needs someone who has had a
road accident… When X or Y has such a terrible night-time toothache pain, does
he think of all this?
Some men remain poor all their lives and some men
remain disabled all their lives. But should a poor man accept his state of
poverty as something fated for him and not try to improve his living conditions?
Should I be like Jilali when I think I could be much better off?
If all men were like Jilali, for all his bliss and contentment, would there
have been such men as Alexander the Great or such civilizations as the Roman
Empire or such beautiful monuments as Taj Mahal in India and Alhambra in Spain.
If all men were like Jilali, would it be possible to have breakfast in Paris,
lunch in New York and dinner in the skies on the way back to Paris? If all men
were like Jilali, would there have been such cities as New York or Tokyo or
Dubai? Would there have been any star wars, space conquests, discoveries,
science, literature, any development at all? If all men were like Jilali would
there be any dreams?
We’re all tempted by the big-strong-and-fast kind of
life. The funny thing is, whatever we do, however genius we are, there’s always
somebody one step ahead of us, with something a little bigger, stronger or
faster than we have. It’s a Tom-and-Jerry game!
I go to the outskirts of the city to change air and
meditate a little. I go a little further and find not only large
fields belonging to rich persons, but also dazzlingly beautiful homes. Each
time I sigh (and say) “I wish I had such a beautiful dwelling!” I see another
one, more beautiful, then another one, much, much more beautiful. It’s like a
man obsessed with beauty looking for a beautiful woman in a big city, each one
makes you forget all about the others. Then I go a little further and find an
asphalt road. I stop for just a few moments and I see not one, but many cars
I’d desire to have for myself. Who then would I be jealous of? That asphalt
road leads me, past large farm houses, to a poultry factory. Will I be jealous
of the owner of this factory too? How many people work in this factory? How
many families do they support? How many people, jobless people, would be happy
to find work, even seasonal work, in this factory? How many chickens and eggs
does this factory produce every day? How many people will buy, transport, etc,
these chickens and eggs before they land on my dinner table? How many other
people will eat that factory’s chickens and eggs? That “poor” farmer and the
“poor” owner of that poultry factory and the people working for them…………… are
all servants of ME! They serve Me. I can’t count the people who are serving me
every day! The clothes I am wearing, who made them for me? I did not sew them
up myself? The watch I’m wearing, my mobile, etc, etc, etc. Am I not
a king? Who told me, for example, that the farmer is happy? Not every smiling
person is happy. Even a happy-go-lucky comedian who makes millions of people
“happy” with his gags may end up taking his own life, to everybody’s surprise.
I look at these poor women and children sitting on the ground, waiting for the
potato harvest to be finished. To while away the time, some of the women chat
and joke with one another. Others keep quiet, looking on as some seasonal
workers, men and women, poor like themselves or even poorer, dig up the
potatoes while others put them in wooden or plastic boxes. Other workers, men
and women, carry the boxes on their shoulders to the trucks outside the field.
Near the trucks are a few cars and a few men. One car and one man stand out.
Anyone can tell who the eye-catching man is. He is evidently the farmer. The eye-catching
car is his.
This man is the Star of the Day. I can well imagine that the men would wish to
be like him, having what he has. The women would not easily refuse to marry him
or accept him as an in-law. He has such a vast field worth a lot of money and
such a splendid car and he wears such smart clothes and glasses and everybody
is speaking to him politely and addressing him as Haaj ! Maybe
he has got other things elsewhere. His wife might be shopping, at this time, at
some mall or other, or maybe playing golf or perhaps having a sauna at a 5-star
hotel. His children, if he has any, must be at expensive schools… How
lucky he and his family are!
Yet, I stop to think. Starting with the land, it needs workers to prepare it;
maybe others, men and women, to do the sowing, etc. The farmer may also need an
engineer or specialized technicians. He certainly needs people to transport
something or other, etc, etc. On the harvest day, there’s more work for more
people. When the harvest is finished, those poor women and children sitting by
and waiting patiently will be allowed into the field to glean the leftover
potatoes … The “good” potatoes will be transported and delivered to markets,
supermarkets and small shops. Some will be exported or processed, etc, etc. I
say to myself: See? The farmer won’t eat all his potatoes! It’s people like me
who’ll eat the potatoes. The children (and husbands) of those poor women will
be happy to eat those “bad” potatoes. And who knows? Some of these poor women’s
children may become, one day, maybe less rich, but much better, in one way or
another, than the children of the Star of the Day. Then, part of the money that
this one man will earn from the potatoes will go into other
people’s pockets: hotels, restaurants, schools, hospitals, etc. I just can’t
count how many people will benefit in one way or another from this farmer’s
potatoes. I can’t count, for example, how many kids will be happy to eat the
chips made of those potatoes. Not to mention the other “lucky person”, the owner
of the potato chips factory and his employees…
I stand between two vast potato fields in order to meditate on all this. I
think about the seasonal workers who were happy to find work in these fields.
These workers, who have families of their own, were paid -whatever the pay.
This little casual meditation leads me to ask myself questions: do I want
to succeed at all costs or to be happy? It's not the same thing, I suppose. I
know that many people who have been successful are anything but happy, and many
people who are happy have not been so successful. So what do I want? Be both
happy and successful? Okay, but what should come first: success or happiness?
I have noticed that men remain men, after all. They
are human beings. There's a limit to what they can stand, whatever the (high)
level of their faith and (exceptional) degree of their sincerity. Even prophets
experienced moments of weakness vis-à-vis society, because every man likes to
be liked in society. No man would like others to speak ill of him, me first.
Sometimes I say my problem is not so much with God, or
with the Government, it's with society. People keep asking me -or wondering- what
I do; some want me to say I'm jobless. They lecture me on what I should do to
get a (new) job -as if I were new to this world! They want to see weakness in
my look, in my voice. They want me to feel small. They want me to feel ashamed
of myself. That's my problem. But then I think and realize what most people
have in common: greed, arrogance, impatience, envy, etc. What would people say
if I had a good job, etc. etc.? Wouldn’t they envy me? Wouldn’t that be a
problem too?
But it’s hard, it’s very hard to stand shoulder to
shoulder with other men when I can't even find words to explain my situation
without lying to them? How can I persevere? How can I be an ambitious man when
I see that people with less qualifications than I are by far better off? What's
left for me to dream of at this age? That's my problem. My problem is not with
the Scripture or with the State, it's with society. Then, I keep on thinking to
myself until I burst into laughter like a fool!
Gloom would enshroud me the moment I hear that I'll be
laid off, or the moment I leave my workplace for the last time. I know then
that I won’t be able to stand before people who are lucky to keep their jobs
without feeling some kind of shame or guilt. These are always hard moments.
Yes, it’s not always easy to think and laugh.
This is a very serious problem indeed -even in normal
times. Even very highly educated people who find very demanding, very
challenging job adverts in prestigious magazines, and reply to those ads and
pass all interviews and are accepted and do start work with very good
salaries…, they don’t know what may happen to them in the future. All the
education and skills you got, that’s the past. You may still have to worry
about marriage, if you’re not married yet, or about your children, if they’re
still young, or about your health… and all that is in the future. In other
words, problems never end.
You could go onto commercial websites and make some money without leaving your
bedroom, but that’s only one part of life.
I may have good insurance. The insurance will only
solve the money side. Insurance will not replace a lost eye or a lost limb.
Insurance will not solve the immaterial side (feelings and emotions, affection,
mental strength…). And all that is in the future. The best economic minds of
the world were unable to anticipate, let alone to avert, the 2008, Financial
Crisis and now the whole world is battling Covid and its consequences… I’m not
sure my mind can anticipate (and avert) bad things for my humble self?
Now imagine I got a good job after a long period of
unemployment. Probably the first thing I’d think of is to show that off. I
would love other people to know what I’m worth. And when things go badly, what
do I do? I might try to hide from people. But how long will I hide from people?
People will end up knowing that I am jobless, that I am suffering. People will
end up showing me their true faces. They will show me what I am worth in their
eyes. I would feel small, unworthy. I would realize that I am worth what I
have, what I possess. I would see how the people I thought good friends would
react to my misery. I would see how members of my beloved family would react to
my unending unemployment. I would see how people would let me down when I need
them most. But how would I feel when I have the money again to buy what I
couldn’t buy a year ago, or to go to places I couldn’t show up my face six
months ago? That's the shepherd's answer to the shepherdess, isn't it?
When I think about these fragile people I see on the
street (beggars, homeless people, prostitutes…), I realize how weak Man can
become after all his strength and power.
When I go out on the street with a clean jacket and
clean trousers, who will know that there’s no money in my pockets?
Because I don’t beg, people will think I am self-sufficient. So nobody
will come forward to help me even if I am over-laden with debts and probably
cannot even afford my day’s food. I go on the street like a normal person -as
if I were rich. Maybe I’m rich in my heart. That is to say, I am not impressed
by what other people got. I don’t care who has what. I am not amazed at other
people’s achievements. I respect everybody. I wish good to everybody. But -after
all- I too wish to be a normal person just “like everybody else”! If other
people are in a hurry to get everything in this world; if they want to get
something at age 20, another thing at age 30, another thing at age 40, another
thing at age 50… I just hope to get something before I die! And I’d do
everything I possibly can to achieve that, as though I’m going to live
forever.
At least, by talking to myself like this, if I'm lucky
enough to have strong nerves at the right time, I might succeed in temporarily
calming the ardour of my soul, which cannot accept the fact. Self-coaching can be more soothing than
somebody’s counseling sometimes.
Now, if I had the means, would I give a
thought to those people who would say the same thing, who would have the same
emotions, who may be in the same situation and I probably do not know about
them because they look alright when they go out on the street? Maybe many of
these people found themselves in need of basic things. Maybe they tried
everything they possibly could to get those basic things -all to no avail. And
maybe they were finally convinced that there was nothing the
matter with their personalities, or intelligence, or talent or physical
ability to get work, for example, and therefore be able to acquire what they
needed. Maybe they blame Fate. I don’t know.
I do follow the news. So I see that in many countries
a lot of people are losing interest in politics. They are convinced that their
vote has been rendered useless and that the democratic game no longer serves
any purpose. For them, nothing will change. And so they only go to the polls
when there are heavy fines. But I also see that many people still trust -or at
least expect something from- the Government. Only, unfortunately, many
governments are finding it increasingly difficult to meet people’s needs (jobs,
healthcare, education…). Some people chose to revolt and topple rulers and
bring down regimes. They want, they said, to have their Fate in their own
hands. It is the fear of the future. Is this fear legitimate?
Well, even a great emperor would be afraid of losing
his throne. More than fear, which may not always be justifiable, there are many
undeniable realities. Age is a fact: nobody remains young and strong forever,
and there's death at the end of the road. Even at the height of our youth and
physical and mental strength there’s sleep, for example, and this sleep is a
form of total helplessness. Do we think about such small things?
The world does not work in a mechanical or automatic
way. Certainly, a wheat grain will always give a grain of wheat and an egg will
always give a hen's chick. That's the rule. But it is not because a man slept
with a woman that there will inevitably be a child. It is not because it rains
that the land will yield fruit and vegetables. It's not because it's the same
father and the same mother that the children will have the same size or the
same facial features... In some places people are killed by floods, in
other places by drought.
A baby could be born in the best birthing clinic or in
the best palace in the world, but for him, at birth, it's not like in the womb.
That's probably why he cries! What does this mean to me, anyway? It simply
means that, as a human being, I should expect danger before quietude,
problems before solutions, boos before applause, suffering before
deliverance... We can all see that problems, danger and fear are part of our
world, whether we like it or not. Calling it pessimism or realism makes no
difference at all. Even if I started thinking about it in the most
complex way I would never be able to understand everything. I can never know it
all.
And yet the world isn't as nasty as that. There are so
many happy people in the world. That’s a fact. There aren’t just poor people.
So what do I do when I'm faced with any situation? Well, I choose, according to
my personal beliefs, or sometimes depending on the conditions in which I live,
and then I take responsibility for my choices. My choices, active or
passive, free or coerced, can move me away from other people just as they
can bring us together. There are many
people who convert to another religion without any problem. There are people
who flee countries where they no longer feel free to do what they want or
behave as they please. Others, on the contrary, leave the freest countries in
the world to live where life can look like hell. It's a matter of choice. And
it is also a question of possibility. It is not easy for a Sunni to convert to
Shiism or for a Shiite to become a Sunni, for example. So it's not always easy
to choose. Only, when you choose, you have to take responsibility for your
choice.
I only have to make use of my intelligence to discern
right from wrong. It’s up to me to see the beauty in humans, in birds, in
streams, in animals, in the starry sky, in the sea, in poetry, in music, in
arts, in people’s clothes, in their differences: physical, cultural,
civilizational and other. It’s up to me to appreciate this chance I’ve been
given to feel and sense the beauty of this world in all its forms. Certainly,
there is so much misery in this world. There are plenty of problems. And there
will be even more in the future. Who doesn't have one’s everyday little worries?
However, and no matter how difficult and short, life is much more beautiful
than it may look sometimes. If it is short and difficult it is certainly for a
reason -as we will see in the second part of these reflections. When we are
young, we often think of the good life. But even when you get it, life is not
just the salary and the company car. We could end up facing a tasteless,
utterly monotonous, meaningless life. We could find ourselves in a very nice
situation, but in a city full of pollution, waste, crime, etc. So would we say
that life is not beautiful? Life is felt, it is not lived. Whether you eat fish
or meat, potatoes or caviar, it comes down to the same thing. You are no longer
hungry. Whether you feel happy about it or not, that's the question!
Now, if I want to question myself in relation to
existential realities rather than just my daily worries, should I be content to
only be inspired by birds and not see the beautiful plumage of these birds or
their incredible migration? Should I be content to distinguish colours and
shapes and know their names and not think about where all these colours and
shapes came from? Who created them? And why?
I’ve grown to believe that we're all human. But
it is more than just a belief. It's a reality. We're all fragile. We have the
same fears, the same aspirations. All eat vegetables and fruit, bread and
cheese -if they can afford that. All want to grow up, work, get married.
All will have -more or less- the same problems and the same pleasures. We all
need water and oxygen. The same water from the Seine (River), or the Nile, is
drunk by plants, animals, whites, blacks, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists...
Provided there is water for all! Sometimes there is none, or not enough. People
die from hunger or thirst. Others migrate to flee famine. Who would talk about
beauty to these people? But what do we do when we have the rain, when we have
the breeze and the poppies, when we have the butter and the honey? What do we
do when life is smooth and easy? Well, we don't care about fate!
I see that our eyes do not always have the same
colour. Even eyes with the same colour are not identical. Everyone is a
separate being, regardless of his beliefs. Everyone has his/her own fingerprint
and his/her own eye print, and that's not because he/she is Christian, Muslim
or Buddhist. Everyone has his/her own voice, own heart, own brain, own life.
Who designed all this?
We could all say that the world would have been a
better place with neither poor nor beggar, no widow nor orphan, no war nor
famine. But, I wonder, what would be our merit, we humans, if we did not
show our humanity in the moment of earthquakes, droughts, floods, volcanic
eruptions, economic crises, etc.?
And that is the case, fortunately. In the worst
adversity, I see incredible mutual aid, solidarity, compassion… Yes, I also see
thieves and looters. In times of war, I see those who slaughter the innocent,
who destroy everything in their path, and, at the same time, I see people who
take incredible risks to save lives? Why should I not therefore see in
these events and in my own personal problems kind of alert, a reminder that I
have perhaps forgotten too much that I’m just passing through here on earth and
that it is high time that I prepared for some eternal life after death?
It is man who dared to kill humans. A man killed his
brother for a matter of jealousy. That same jealousy is still making war and
putting on the road millions of refugees. It is not any deity who burns down
hundreds of tons of wheat or throw them into the sea in order to raise prices.
It is not any deity who imposed to anyone opting for the nuclear or allowed
anyone to exploit people. The air is free for everyone. The sun is free for
everyone. Life is free for everyone. Nonetheless, I always have to leave a
place for the unexpected; I should always expect a climate-related disaster or
a serious economic or social crisis. Pessimism or realism, it doesn't change
anything. A good goalkeeper, you know, if we talk about football, must always
be on alert even against the smallest team in the world!
3
Glamour and power
Like anybody else I see the glamour of some people; I
see how “lucky” people live; I see the growing gap between the poor and the
rich... I say to myself : there were before us, in ancient
times, as well as in more recent times, people who enjoyed some glamour, too;
there were handsome men and beautiful women who loved each other, who had
children, who lived in beautiful mansions, who worked (for some), who listened
to music, who walked in beautiful gardens, who said sweet things to each other,
who made love, who dreamed of better days, who fell ill, who divorced, who
waged war, who killed each other, who got injured, and who died. People just
like us. Is it therefore simply a perpetuation of the human species? Where are
we heading? Will we, humans, always have the same pleasures, the same
frustrations? Why are we here on this earth? Will there not be a day when
misfortune disappears forever? What’s life worth if one does not live it fully,
in joy and quietude? What's the point of wasting time rehashing questions?
What’s the use of History, what’s the use of philosophy, what’s the use of
literature... if historians themselves, if philosophers, if male and female
writers take their own lives sometimes to escape their terrible realities? I do
not have answers to that. However, I just notice that there are many people who
do not commit suicide. They confront life with the few means they have. That
means that, at least for these people, life is worth living. Now, is life
really worth living -whatever our sorrows?
Question: why was I taught History at school? I don’t
know. But when I now read History books or ancient tales or
poems I can easily notice that people have always been more important than
their dwellings, mounts, money or anything else they might possess. Man has
always been afraid of sickness, death, poverty, among other things. Man has
always needed to feel reassured, protected, safe. Man has always made peace
after the war ; he has always created courts to do justice; he has always built
schools to educate future generations; he has always built cities and villages
to enable men to feel close to each other, to create all kinds of healthy
relationships, to join hands, to exchange services, even when personal
relations or between immediate neighbours or clans are not perfect. At times
man may suffer from the cold, heat, hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear, loss of
loved ones... But then he would enjoy the pleasure of eating after hunger, the
pleasure of drinking after thirst, the pleasure of rest after getting tired,
the pleasure of love, etc.
In the past people brought knowledge -in their heads- from their old people,
and then passed it on to the next generations. Each time new palaces, schools,
roads, gardens, factories, etc, were built. Man’s knowledge of the world
expanded. And each time there was a new kingdom, good or bad. The question is,
why didn’t those "good" kingdoms last forever? Why were there
"bad" kingdoms as well? That’s a hard one to answer. But,
interestingly, History gives us some clues.
Many of the things we use today were invented by different peoples in different
places at different times. Bronze, for example, was invented by the Chinese,
glass by people in Mesopotamia, paper by the Egyptians, alphabet by
Phoenicians, and so on. Each people learned from the other peoples and made
their own inventions, thus expanding man’s knowledge of the world. This
knowledge spread through trade and conquest. The conquerors inherited the knowledge
of the vanquished people and took it home or spread it to other places. At the
same time, the conquerors brought in their own way of life, their thoughts,
their arts and their religion.
The interaction between so many powers, so many civilizations and so many ways
of life made it necessary for each people to defend their own existence. Each
people had to defend everything that was at stake for them. That included their
culture. So those who happened to believe in a deity, any deity, had to defend
their own faith by using all the tools available, including those that had been
invented or developed by nations who did not necessarily share their faith.
Such tools may have included Phoenicians’ alphabet and Greek logic. Thus all
nations (I mean good or bad) were anything but "redundant". They were
just as useful to one another.
It is also interesting to notice that most of those early interactions between
various contending nations took place just in or around Palestine. The
Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Hittites, the Greeks, the Romans,
and many more in between -all had a foothold there at some point in history.
And then came the Arabs, from Makkah. Those Arabs found themselves thrusting in
every direction, going towards nations who had known impressive empires, and
ended up building their own empire stretching across most of the then known
world.
There followed a magnificent world interaction. The Arabs borrowed old, dormant
knowledge from the Greeks, the Persians and other nations, and updated and
enriched it, and then spread it in every direction. Baghdad emerged as the
world capital of science. And in the West there was Cordoba, in Spain, where
Arab science was passed on to Europe through translation. Averroes spoke to
Muslims and non-Muslim Europeans of God using Aristotle’s logic.
Baghdad was destroyed, but Islamic knowledge survived. It survived because it
was not only in the books that the Mongols threw into the Tigris River, but
also in people’s hearts and minds. Like the destruction of the Alexandria
Library in antiquity, the loss of Baghdad libraries could have been a much more
awful tragedy had there not been what I called interactions. Marrakesh, which
was built and made their capital by Morocco’s Almoravid dynasty, was deliberately
and completely destroyed by their Almohad successors. These rebuilt the whole
city in the most beautiful way possible, because they had already
"received" the necessary knowledge from their predecessors.
Even the rebuilding of a whole nation is possible if there is the necessary
knowledge and will. Europe made the best use of the early Muslims’ knowledge
and rebuilt itself in a matter of generations because its own people had the
will to do so.
In Europe the conflict between the Church and new scientists resulted in new
thinking. Some clung to their religious beliefs, defending themselves by use of
logic and philosophy. Others broke with the Church altogether and called their
way "Secularism". They defended themselves by experimenting with
their knowledge of the world, excluding any reference to the Unseen Realm.
The new knowledge of the world, based on experimentation, led to the Industrial
Revolution. The boom in industry led to the spread of knowledge on a phenomenal
scale.
Colonization made it possible for more people to go to more places. Africans
"went" to America, taking with them their religions, including Islam.
Other Muslims were taken into Europe, where they continued to practise their
faith at a time when large numbers of Christians ceased to go to Church.
Orientalists (from Europe) went to the Arab and Islamic world to
"return" part of the Arabic and Islamic heritage to the newly
awakening Arabs and Muslims.
Now that imported material is being re-exported with added value. It is done
through the Internet and satellite TV stations. And so Islam has become the
fastest growing religion in America. This was made possible by American
technology and Arab oil money.
Arab oil money has contributed among other things, to the building of large mosques,
big Islamic institutes and libraries, and to the printing of the Quran and
other religious books in large quantities in many languages in many parts of
the world.
Even within the poorest Islamic states Islam is growing as fast as demography.
Wherever you go, there is a new mosque and a new school because there is a new
village, town or suburb. Small towns are swelling into big cities, and so small
mosques and schools are becoming bigger and bigger.
Modern means of communication and transportation
together with modern education systems have made world interaction incredibly
easier every day. More and more people are overcoming illiteracy. More and more
people are learning more and more about each other. More and more people are coming
towards each other. Migration, tourism, business travel and war are playing a
great role in the ever-increasing exchange of human experience. Globalization
has pushed this exchange even further.
When, in the 7th century AD, Islam reached the lands beyond the Arabian
Peninsula, non-Arab Muslims (who learned Arabic for social, political,
professional and scientific reasons) shared the Arabs' astonishment at the
wonderful language of the Quran. If Romans and Persians had hitherto expressed
their aesthetic tastes and know-how through the way they adorned their palaces,
churches and temples, the Arabs had expressed beauty through poetic
descriptions of every beautiful thing they could find or see around them :
horses, camels, gazelles, human bodies and faces, landscape, feelings...
Putting the same Arabic letters together, the Quran did unimaginably better
than any Arab or non-Arab poet. The Quran came with something simple and
sophisticated at the same time for both Arabs and non-Arabs. Those non-Arabs used
tiny pieces of wood, glass, stone, etc, that they put together in basic
geometric forms (in imitation of flowers, stars, etc) to adorn gates, domes,
walls, floors, thrones, etc, in the best beautiful way possible.
In a way the history of Islam cannot be different from the history of ancient
Egypt or Greece or any other civilization or empire. They all reflect human
nature one way or another. Islam was a victim of its own success. Islam
appeared in Makkah, then moved to Madinah, then spread in a matter of years to
virtually the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Madinah became the Capital. There
was so much money coming in, an ever-expanding territory, and plentiful
opportunities for ambitious people. This could only lead to rivalries even
amongst Arab Muslims. This is human. This has happened in all nations
throughout History. In all nations kings killed sons and brothers and princes
killed their fathers and uncles -for the sake of power. The Prophet Muhammad’s
grand-sons were both killed for political reasons : Hussein was beheaded and
Hassan poisoned. That happened under the Umayyad dynasty, the same dynasty that
built the beautiful Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and brought Islam into Spain.
The last Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty was, according to some historians,
“rolled in a carpet and trampled to death” by the Mongols, the same Mongols who
later built the beautiful Taj Mahal in India. The Mongols not only massacred
countless people during their conquest of Iraq, they also destroyed the
libraries of Baghdad, which contained books of Greek philosophy and sciences,
books of Indian and Persian wisdom and arts, books of the Islamic theology: all
was thrown into the Tigris River. But those “barbarian” Mongols gave birth to
greatly civilized Mongol rulers who brought Islam to lands stretching from
India to China to Russia… Most of the old mosques in those places were built by
Mongols -the same Mongols who committed atrocities against not only Arabs, but
many other nations as well. It’s them who sold into slavery free men from
Central Asia, men such as Baibars, who became one of the greatest rulers in
Egyptian and Syrian history. The Mamluks, Baibars’ dynasty, had their part of
“barbarism”. They too committed atrocities, but people remember them more for
their beautiful legacy than for their ‘barbarian’ side. Cairo, Jerusalem and
Damascus are full of beautiful Mamluk monuments. The Mamluks were succeeded by
the Ottomans, who brought Islam deep into Europe and built a great empire
including most of the Arab world.
In my Baccalaureate year, I was assigned to give a lecture in Arabic on Mahmoud
Sami Al-Baroudi, a prominent Egyptian poet of Turkish origin. Some classmates
were avid readers and they read almost everything, especially philosophy and
literature. I knew I would have hard time once they began asking me questions,
no matter what my lecture might be like. Their questions were very hard indeed
and I was embarrassed, but I had a trick up my sleeve. When I felt defeated, I
offered to read excerpts of Al-Baroudi's poetry. I read out one of his love
poems and there was loud applause in the classroom! Even those hard-talkers,
who had never been convinced by anybody's answers, were bewitched by the beauty
of Al-Baroudi's poem. Al-Baroudi was a soldier who loved the Arabic language.
He gave it his heart and it gave him fame and glory. (He later became Prime
Minister of Egypt.) His time marked the beginning of the Arab Renaissance. This
Arab renaissance began with Arabic poetry. Ahmad Shawqi, who was nicknamed
"Prince of Poets", was Egyptian of Turkish origin, too. His poems
sung by Umm Kulthum 'united' the souls of so many Arabs and Muslims around the
world. Those "new Arabs" realized how much important Classical Arabic
was even in their time. Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad revived that beautiful Arabic
language. As a student, I used to hear the saying: "Cairo writes, Beirut
prints and Baghdad reads"! There were Arabic readers, writers and
newspapers even in the Americas! Christian Arab writers, such as Jubran Khalil
Jubran, Elia Abu Madi and Mikha'il Na'ima, who lived in the U.S.A., further
enriched the Arabic literature with their poetry and prose in Arabic. So many
old Arab and Islamic books were snatched from oblivion (by Arabs and
Orientalists) and broke into print, for the first time. Cairo became the Makkah
of Arabic-language writers and translators. The number of Arab schools and Arab
literate people started to grow by the day. But not all Arabs were proud of
their history, of their language, of their religion, of their civilization.
Many Arabs were impressed by the colonizers. Ibn Khaldoun had pointed out in
his Muqaddima that the vanquished peoples tended to ape the
victors.
A century ago, most Arabs lived in the countryside, most were illiterate, most
lived on agriculture and grazing. Under colonial rule, many Arabs drifted to
towns, many gave up agriculture and grazing to work as blue-collars in
factories or as artisans in small shops. Their children went to school and,
when the colonizers went away, became white-collars in franchises. Some became
state-employees in the new administration. More and more people tasted the
pleasures of lifelong jobs; youths became financially independent, then
socially independent. Anybody could lead the life he/she wanted in his/her new
home. Within a few decades, villages became towns and towns became cities. A
lot of jobs with the state, a lot of factories (mostly franchises), a lot of
workshops, a lot of shops of all kinds and sizes. Prosperity was within reach
for so many people, literate and illiterate. It was easy for many people to
build or buy a home, to send children to school, to set up businesses, to live
in the city. Those who went abroad, mostly as blue-collars, sent money back
home, then built their own homes, set up their own businesses. Their children
became very successful. In newly independent oil-rich Arab states opportunities
were much, much more important. You could therefore dream of glamour and power.
Then, the first economic crisis (in the 1980s). Then, the ever-worsening
problem of unemployment. Then, the ever-growing crisis of housing. Then, all
sorts of problems. Life is no longer as rosy as it was. People are now worried
about their retirement pensions, about the future of their children, about the
consequences of pollution… Fewer and fewer people dream of lifelong jobs and
comfortable retirement. And in the midst of all this, in the midst of the so
many newly constructed neighbourhoods, apartments upon apartments upon
apartments, you see a new mosque.
What happened in the Arab world also happened in other parts of the world. The
Welfare State was created to give people a certain sense of stability, serenity
and confidence. Unfortunately, the "Trente Glorieuses" (the 30 year
post war boom) is over. Some are still nostalgic for the communist era when
they could, at least, find with the state a safe haven: housing facilities,
schooling for children, free medical care, etc. Neither the welfare state nor
the communist state nor the best democratic state in the world can now reassure
anybody any more. Globalization has conquered all aspects of our lives to the
point that some have already started talking about de-globalization. Nobody
knows anymore what the future holds or will be like. It's the same old story of the
fear of the unknown.
4
Social justice
Someone said: "To solve the problem of
unemployment of our youths we only have one solution:
imperialism." This was possible in the 19th century. In all likelihood,
it's increasingly difficult to think of such radical solutions. What to do,
then? Multinationals are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with each
other as purchasing power is not all that good in much of the world. Education
systems are facing serious challenges even in many developed countries. The
morale of households and young people in so many countries is not at all
brilliant. Many young people went bankrupt even before they started working
because they were too indebted for their higher education. Others turn to
prostitution to finance their studies. In short, there is a problem.
A revolution broke out in Tunisia in 2010, then reached other Arab countries.
The protesters called for a new constitution. But people didn't want a new
constitution for the sake of a new constitution. They wanted social justice.
But then they didn't want social justice for the sake of social justice. What
they wanted, in fact, was a better life: safe jobs, decent housing, better
schooling, better health services, better infrastructure, stadiums... and a lot
of freedom. All these rights are now enshrined in the new constitution. As for
a better life, a certain feeling of betterment and security…we are still
waiting for that. This kind of prosperity is unfortunately hard to imagine
in the foreseeable future in this part of the globe, North Africa.
Many, many thousands, if not millions, of people in my region have bought homes
on credit and are purchasing all kinds of consumer goods on credit. Many of
these people are living on a tight budget. What about those who don’t have
money to spend? I often hear business people, economic analysts, and even
government officials, say that if tens of thousands of youths can’t find
work it’s because their training is inadequate for business. People with
degrees in History and Geography, in Philosophy, etc., if they are not lucky
enough to get a job in the public service, have nothing to do in the business
world. They only wasted their time at University. Business wants competent
people. It wants engineers, managers, specialized technicians, etc. So
what to do? What if, for one reason or another, you can’t study what business
wants? Will you then join sit-ins in front of Government buildings to pressure
the Government to find you a job? (It worked for some, but not for everyone.)
Will you wait for economic recovery or better economic growth? Will you use
heroin or cocaine to forget all about these problems?
That's a real puzzle. I have heard experts put
forward all sorts of proposals, from the most serious to the most outlandish,
and in the end they tell you: it is up to the government to make the decision,
to find solutions. But which government in the world would expect proposals
from anyone if it has the solutions? So who has the solution?
What's the problem, first? Apparently, it's not
just job seekers who are suffering. When there is a crisis almost everyone
suffers. And when we suffer we do not want to think. But when we only have our
eyes to cry, we have to think. We need a medicine at least to calm our pain a
little. So let's think!
One source of our unhappiness is our anxiety
about the future. How long will I keep my job in this time of crisis ? What
about my children? How will I be able to give them the appropriate education if
I lose my job? Horrible nightmares. Childless people are anxious, too. Who
will look after me when I grow old? I don’t have any social security, will I
have anybody to feed me when I grow too old to work?
We live in a world where precariousness and vulnerability no longer really
surprise anyone, with young people not knowing what to study, for how long, for
what business opportunity; with parents who do not know what to make of their
meager earnings, if they still have some. Chronic unemployment, divorce,
children born out of wedlock, abandoned children, single mothers, homeless
people, drugs, prostitution, pollution, fierce competition in all areas,
excessive individualism, fear of the unknown... We are reduced to dreaming of
what we are not or what we cannot be. But at the same time we do not want to resign
ourselves to witnessing our helplessness, however helpless we are, however
crushed, devoid of any tools of change. Even our cherished democracy guarantees
us nothing more than what we can and should receive from our elected
officials. Nothing can be done. The system is stronger than us. We only have to
manage our anger, our weakness, our fear. And if only we could understand what
is happening around us! But how can we understand a world full of wealth, full
of castles and Limousines and where we are told that's it, it's the end of
work. Your jobs today will be worth nothing soon. From now on you're on your
own…! We are constantly being told about restructuring plans, job protection
plans and unavoidable relocation to save national companies and jobs; we are
being lectured on public deficit, public debt, global crisis... We are
bombarded morning and evening with alarming statistics. Come on, you're on your
own! Needless to mention "frantic" consumerism and
inevitable loneliness. How to get out of this?
Well, anger and indignation do not seem to make sense any more. Even strikes
and protests aren’t bringing forth any good fruit in recent times. And when a
government spends some money to avoid or limit riots or breakage in the street,
it is -in fact- only widening the budget deficit and increasing the public
debt. In other words, it is creating problems for future generations. And we
have seen what revolutions have brought about all around us. What to do, then?
To endure one’s distress and depression without acting? To continue to suffer
in silence? For how long?
Imagine that some university teachers found
themselves forced to strike in order to demand the payment of six months’
salary arrears! (This happens in Africa, but not impossible elsewhere.) How can
these people live? It goes without saying that the people cannot be left to
die. The State must act even if it means going into debt. This in no way
contradicts what I said above. This has always been the case since ancient
times. People even went to war for this. But sometimes the state can do
nothing. And so, throughout history, entire tribes and peoples had to leave
their native country to invade other lands. Unfortunately, this is no longer
possible.
But -apart from bread and rice- what are we looking for, in reality? Well, we
are looking for our well-being. Some pray to Buddha, others pray to Ram, others
pray to Jesus or Allah, to get from them what we all aspire to: work, a spouse,
good health, good children... But wait a minute! Why, one would say, endure the
pain of patience and sacrifice for something which one is not really sure of?
So people turn to those who they believe can provide them with what they want.
Hence the WELFARE STATE. We did not have this in our Oriental cultures
before independence. Now, we are witnessing scenes of socio-economic miseries
in countries that are supposed to be havens of social peace, where the
destitute and the needy should not normally have to worry about their future,
since there is a Welfare State that is out there to provide for their needs and
to ensure that everyone is equal before the law. In Africa, not everyone has
access to electricity. In Western Europe, many households make big sacrifices
to pay their electricity bills. All this shows us that there is a certain limit
to what man can do for man. There may be some need for a stronger force than
Man : why not God? More and more people are looking for “the truth”, for a
solution, on that side. States struggling with the burden of debt and deficits
are powerless. How long can people wait to see an improvement in their lives?
In this context that hardly inspires confidence, some people are ready to try
out something else. But what?
The blame game is part of human nature. We all blame others for our
misfortunes. When there’s nobody specific to blame, we blame bad luck. But
let’s be objective for a moment! The best intentioned, most competent
government can’t guarantee jobs for all. The most compassionate, most patriotic
business establishment in the world can’t guarantee lasting economic growth.
There will always be a minority of “unlucky” people. Even highly educated
people (doctors, engineers, top executives…) in many countries around the world
may be surprised not to find suitable jobs. Even governments of developed
countries plead with other governments of developed countries to do better for
their national economy. The French would want Germans to do more for German
economic growth. The Germans would want the French to do more to reduce their
budget deficit. The U.S. would appeal to Europe to do more to avoid or get out
of recession.
Now, suppose we have work, we have a salary. Suppose we can purchase everything
we want. Is that the end of ours problems? Well, pay is money received in
exchange for work. Volunteers apart, every worker expects to be paid. As we all
know, some even refuse to work unless they get holidays with pay, a right to
sick leave and a pension. What more could an employee ask for? It depends!
As we all know, some employees do negotiate their pay with their employers.
Highly skilled people with prestigious university degrees usually get the best
salaries. Some job hop for better pay or more comfortable working conditions.
Less qualified workers may join unions to ask for pay rise or other rights.
But, still, is that all?
Interestingly, some people downshift for the sake of peace. They give up
positions where they were rightly paid and take jobs meant for people with less
qualifications. The reason, they say, is stress. They were willing to sacrifice
some of their original income so as to save their nerves.
There is yet another category of workers. These are people who do not “work”
and yet get their pay each month. They just go to their place of work, report
for work and sit idly in chairs while others work long hours so as to get the
same salary at the end of the month. Curiously, those who “work” are much
happier than those who “do not work”. The last-mentioned are not happy at all
because their working colleagues tease them always, saying something like, “You
useless people, we work to feed you. You steal our money…”
Many of those who do work before getting paid are not happy, either. The
reason(s) could be stress, harassment, bullying or any form of injustice. The
employer could be just and fair, but not thoughtful enough. He may not care if
you have personal or family problems. Your problems are your own problem; they
must not affect your work.
Other workers just take it easy and seldom, if ever, protest. Some almost never
take a vacation. Some work in dangerous mines or in steel industry, where fire
is a daily sight. Others work in the fields in the blazing sun. Others work far
away from home, leaving spouse, children and relatives behind. Some are migrants,
others are in the army or sailors on the high seas. They do all that as
uncomplainingly as possible because they cannot be paid if they don’t.
Hard work is much better than unemployment. A worker can pay for things a
jobless person cannot. It makes a big difference when you cannot borrow money
to meet an urgent need because you cannot guarantee paying the money back,
while a worker with a steady income can. Worse, it is absolutely painful when
you see yourself unemployed at the age of forty or older, while younger friends
and relatives are already well-off.
But once you get a job you become like other workers. You too start suffering
from new/old problems. You start thinking of holidays, among other things.
Holidays are the opportunity for many to rest and have fun. In France, for
example, as soon as people come back from the annual holiday, they start
preparing for the next, which obviously won’t come before eleven long months.
One reason might be the French like boasting about their holidays. Another reason
might be they simply get fed up with work between four walls. But this is
certainly not specific to the French.
What has stricken me all the time as strange is that most of those who fill
sightseeing buses in my country are old folks. Far be it from me to suggest
that senior citizens should stay at home and help their grandchildren with
their homework. But this, however, sets me wondering whether a large number of
people do not really look forward to old age and retirement. Couldn’t this be,
for them, the time to make up for the “lost time” spent “between four walls”?
Now, why should one wait so long? After all, work is not a curse. Indeed, work
is often something wonderful. Yet the pay that an employer gives to an employee
is but a nominal -say, moral- compensation for the effort made at work. This
pay just cannot compensate for all the effort that a worker invests in his
work. Every physical, mental or psychological effort you make to fulfill
whatever task your employer expects of you will certainly have some (negative)
bearing on your body or on your psyche at some point in later life. Whatever
money or privileges you may get in exchange for your work will not replace any
part of your body once damaged. Money cannot replace a lost nerve or a damaged
lung.
Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure are some work-related problems. If you
add to this harassment or bullying, for example, what would your life be like?
How would you behave towards your family? Would it be alright for you to shout
at your loving spouse at home and smile at your bullying boss at work? How
would you bear the stress of formality and etiquette if your child is suffering
in hospital?
Things get worse when yours is not a steady job. As long as your work is
precarious, anxiety will hardly let go of you. If you cannot provide for your
pension in later life, what do you do?
Your children too will suffer if you lose your job. They will shun their close
pals because they just cannot pay for the same little things, a sweet plus.
What do you do then? Will you wait until the next elections to vote for the
party promising more jobs?
Even if you do get a job after years of waiting, that will not “shake off” the
effects of your unemployment. The fear of losing your job will stay with you.
That fear will affect your health at some point in later life.
Almost all workers lose something as they do their work. The peasant working in
the fields in the blazing sun will have to deal with his aching head one day.
The constant fear of a bad crop year will add to his problems. Idem for so many
other workers.
So, if that is what work is like, how could it
be “something wonderful”, one would say?
One might imagine that some “workers” do not
have anything to worry about. One would imagine that, say, an artist, for
example, is someone who is free, who can work at his leisure and have a
successful, enjoyable work-life. But artists too do suffer. An artist may have
to weep days and nights, maybe years, before making you smile for a few
seconds. An artist too does experience such things as stress and anxiety. An
artist too needs money and stability. He too has his own social relationships.
He too fears poverty, if he is not poor already. (This is nothing new.)
However, many artists consider themselves happy and fulfilled.
Even those stars out there have their own “work problems”. It is not easy to
become a star. The glamour of fame and opulence may not last a lifetime. And,
for artists, this is painful. As soon as a star becomes a has-been, his
problems start piling up. But that's what happens to all of us somehow. As soon
as we reach a certain age, we begin to have health concerns, among other things.
It’s not unusual to see a writer with a happy smile on his face after finishing
a long novel. It’s not unusual to see a woman smile blissfully after delivering
a baby. It’s not unusual to see a student on top of the world after obtaining a
degree. But that novel has yet to be sold, and that baby has to be brought up,
and that degree has to be accepted by an employer. Such is life. That's the
charm of life.
Scientists say that if your head cools down after a heatstroke, that does not
mean that you will escape the long-term effects of that heatstroke. The pain
will go, but the effects of that and any subsequent heatstroke will pile up so
that they may -God forbid- develop into something worse in the future. By
analogy, all work-related problems will only accumulate over time. So what to
do? Do not work?
This is why it is beneficial to take the time
for introspection, to reflect in order to try to understand life and the world
around us.
5
Upbringing
Can you imagine a world without problems? Can you
imagine a world without poverty? Can you imagine a world without tears? Can you
imagine a world without disorder? Then it wouldn’t be the world we know in the
planet we know.
Problems, poverty, tears and disorder are all causes
of unhappiness for some, of happiness for others. No political or economic
system has ever been able to eradicate poverty or disorder forever. Historians
relate that in the times of Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul’aziz (682-720) there were
absolutely no poor at all. All men were married with their own money or with
state money. The state funds were such that the Caliph said to his vizier: “If
there are no poor, if all men are married, and there’s so much money left in
our coffers, then purchase huge quantities of grain and feed all the birds in
the country!” And yet only a few Umayyad caliphs succeeded Umar Ibn Abdul’aziz.
His caliphate did not last long after him. The question is, why weren’t all
rulers as good as Umar ibn Abdul’aziz? Why weren’t all rulers as just as Umar
Ibn Al-Khattab (584-644)? Why weren’t all rulers as science-loving as Abbassid
Caliph Al-Ma’mun (786-833)? Are the reasons for all that intrinsic or extrinsic?
Did those good rulers do what they did just to stay in power or because each of
them was what he was by nature? In other words, is it a question of upbringing?
Take, for example, a small city where unowned (stray)
dogs roam freely, where people throw garbage just everywhere, where people
drive or ride as they will. This is disorder, you agree. So where does one
begin to end disorder? Certainly not by simply chasing the unwanted animals out
of our cities or by fining people who pollute the streets or do not respect the
Highway Code.
In the past, upbringing started in the family. And
until recently upbringing started on television. A century ago kids would look
at their parents and listen as they spoke. A few decades ago everybody looked
at the television screen and all silenced one another if a handsome actor was
speaking or a ravishing songstress was singing. Until then the Quran was
television. The Bible was television. The Truth was television. Happiness was
television. And if you didn't look like the people you liked on television,
then you didn't belong to the world of today.
Even now, when the Smartphone and the iPad have become so essential and so
overwhelming, while social media have made addicts of all ages and everywhere,
television is still queen in many homes around the world. What do we see on
television? Well, I have seen, among other things, TV shows where a
girl could win in just half an hour by naming the maximum of songs and singers
more than a distinguished engineer could earn in sixty days or more. I have
seen stuff that gives the impression that it would be much better for a
schoolboy to be a long-distance runner or a tennis player than a doctor in his
own private hospital in the country's biggest city. I have seen illiterate
female cooks and amateur teen singers become TV stars while the country's
finest minds are "remembered" only when their death is announced to
the press.
By watching television everyday one might get the
feeling that “successful” people are already there -filling the TV screen with
their glamour and beatific smiles, and there’s just nothing left for a
poor televiewer to dream of. This happened even before the era of
influencers!
Is it television’s
fault, though? Is television the only culprit? To speak just for myself, I have
learned a lot from television just as I learned a lot from the Internet. So is
it a problem of television or a problem of televiewers? In other words, should
a televiewer have some kind of immunity when watching TV? How can he/she have
this kind of immunity?
In old times, there was no television. But there were
schools. People went to school to learn, but also to dream. When you are alone
reading a book of history or a book of poetry or a novel, or any kind of book,
you find yourself thinking of something as you read. But that can be true for
many televiewers too ! Many people became movie stars or famous players or even
distinguished scientists because they saw things on TV? Even at school not just
anybody can hope to find the opportunity to dream at leisure.
Yes, at school a student could learn much about the
World, about life, about problems and about ways of solving one’s problems
creatively without relying on the State to do everything for him/her. But not
everyone can do that. Life can be at times, and will increasingly be, complex
and complicated even for people who, as kids, studied 40 hours of Maths per
week or learnt computer programming at age 6. You can’t solve all your problems
by hacking people’s computers or by making genius calculations. So knowing the
world is a good thing, especially in our times when individuals take precedence
over the group.
Now what if you went to school and got a degree and
then a good job and saw a lot of TV, would you be happy? That’s not the
impression I get when I listen to the radio, for example, or see things on the
Web. In my country, at least, I hear a lot of people complain about society,
neighbours, relatives and so on. Easy examples: many married people just
don’t know how to solve their problems with their partners or with their
children or with their colleagues at work or employers. Many people just can’t
bear their health problems. Many people have psychological problems that they
can’t deal with. Believe it or not, I heard a frequent guest at a respectable
radio debate show say that he knew a number of psychiatrists and psychologists
who themselves consult psychologists! Also many rich countries whose citizens
are usually thought to be happy have loads of problems too, not the least of
which is obesity. We’re all in the same boat!
Problems are just everywhere. That’s not the problem,
as I said at the beginning of this chapter. That’s part of life. The problem is
how to deal with our problems. Some people go to extremes: some take their
lives, others change their religion or their way of life. Many Westerners have
become Muslim and many Muslims have become Westernized. Is it a simple outlet,
to overcome hard times, or escape any reality, or a real solution?
6
Prejudice
Someone told me this story: “I met a European couple,
who said to me, ‘When we wanted to come to Morocco as tourists we gave our
bathing costume and trunks to our friends in Spain, because we assumed that we
wouldn’t need them once we got into Morocco, which is a Muslim state. But as we
arrived in Tangier we were floored. We saw Moroccans in their swim trunks at
Tangier beach!’”
Also in Tangier, when I was a student there, I once
got into my school library and found a white American woman in her early
thirties dressed in a Moroccan jellaba and head-scarf. She was
sitting at a table and reading the Quran. Around her were Moroccan female
students in T-shirts and tight jeans."
“So what?” someone would say. “Where is the problem?”
The problem is that sometimes we judge before we know.
Between prejudice and reality there is only one step to take. It is to know. So
what do we know about our region? In my country, Morocco, there’s at least one
magazine fully published in Moroccan Arabic. And you have Algerian Arabic,
Libyan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Syrian Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Yemeni Arabic, and
everybody has his own Arabic. You needn’t wonder at it, since many of us have
never been to school, for only at school can one learn the Arabic which our
forefathers learnt at home as their mother-tongue and in which the Quran was revealed.
Now that Arabic is nobody’s mother-tongue anymore. Moreover, there’s not just
the Arabs in the Arab world. And so everyone has their beloved language That’s
why most of us simply don’t know the Quran. And most of those of us who do read
the Quran don’t understand it the way our forefathers did. So the Quran has had
a limited impact on our lives for a long time now. Even now, for many of us, we
only know some of it through our centuries-long customs and traditions.
This tenuous connection with the Quran is far from
being over. Another thing is the struggle for power. Wars of succession
have wreaked unforgivable havoc throughout our history. It’s the same old greed
for authority, the same old love of the throne, the same old hunger for worldly
glory. It is therefore quite natural if each Arab country has now its own
Arabic, its own “caliph”, its own army, its own borders. Needless to say it's
good or bad. Suffice it to say this is the world where we live in today.
For various reasons, this same Arab world, where I
live, has long been very important for many people in other parts of the globe.
As early as the 19th century, several renowned Russian authors, for example,
wrote beautiful things about Arabs and Islam. Curiously, people in the West,
too, began embracing Islam in their thousands after 9/11. America suddenly
discovered that it had full-fledged imams who spoke Arabic better than many
Arabs, and who knew the Quran and the Hadith by heart -which is not given to
all Arabs and Muslims-, and who were duly authorized to issue fatwas.
Some American imams became stars and were invited to speak on American TVs. It
was then discovered that American Muslims showed their fellow brothers and
sisters in Islam how to create Islamic websites and how to run Islamic
satellite TV channels. All this is to say how much it’s important to know
before judging.
When, in 1995, the Qataries launched Aljazeera, many
Arab regimes were afraid for their local audiences, afraid that these audiences
might snub their propaganda-packed radio and TV stations. After Aljazeera
came a myriad other Arabic-language satellite TV stations, mostly financed by
TV ads. This inspired people in many Arab states to launch, if not “free,
independent” TV stations, at least radio stations. (That is not a criticism
though. You know better than I that even in the best democracies in the world
there is less and less press freedom.) And so, in Morocco, for example, we have
13 independent radio stations, all funded primarily by advertising. At least
half of these radio stations have religion-related shows. Some of these shows
turned out to be so popular, so successful, that some of the best known
preachers and religious scholars in the country were hired to boost the
audience, to bring in more cash to the radios -although this money is never
enough. On some of such radio shows you would hear an Islamist university
professor discuss peacefully with a communist activist; you would hear people
talk of their problems, of their sufferings, of their criticisms of the
government without being persecuted. Similarly, other people became
increasingly convinced that Islamic banks (also called participative banks)
would have a huge success. Result: we have several of these banks right now.
I’m not saying that’s good or bad. J’m just saying this is the world where I
live.
For several decades our country was occupied by
France. It was therefore quite normal that the French language was for some a
means of social mobility and for others a means of social distinction. Speaking
French in public has long been synonymous with belonging to a certain elite, to
a certain class. School massification, television, gradual enrichment of
certain sections of society through commerce or the civil service or by
expatriation (in France, in particular) -all this made possible good command of
French by a greater number of people- until public schools, increasingly
Arabized, became, on the contrary, a brake preventing thousands and thousands
of people from gaining access to this status of French-like elite.
Even before Independence (in 1956), the
"conventional" elite, highly qualified, was already influenced by
Western culture. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, Hegel, Weber, Montesquieu,
Greek literature, Freud, etc. were common readings by these people, who would
understandably jeer at those who read "yellow books", in Arabic
language, printed locally or imported from Mashriq (the
Middle East). This elite, often politicized, was naturally able to take up
positions of responsibility, opening the way to a certain like-father-like-son
inheritance. And when new prospects, even more promising, opened up before the
offspring of this elite, spoiled by the historic opportunity of the time, the
development of events meant that, after Independence, the State had to Moroccanize
the administration. This progressive Moroccanization meant that the Arabic
language had to go in parallel or at the expense of the French language. The
demographic factor has resulted, among other things, in the proliferation of
faculties and universities, where, through the translation into Arabic,
complete courses started to be taught in Arabic. And so more and more teachers
no longer needed to master French, or even literary Arabic. A teacher of
History and Geography in Arabic received the same salary and social advantages
as a Physics-and-Chemistry teacher in French. Both could live decently, build a
house or even a villa, buy a nice car and so on. One and the other was able to
express himself as he saw fit, or read what he wanted, or join the political
party of his choice, etc.
It just so happens that elites from here and
everywhere else have always been associated with politics. And just like
anywhere else, here too money has a say in politics. We have a lot of polyglot,
very cultured entrepreneurs who contribute greatly both to the economy and to
the management of the country. Everyone has their place.
Of course, here as elsewhere, there are problems every
day. But what is beautiful is that there are solutions every day too. Almost
always news programmes begin with the red of blood and end with the red of
roses.
7
Solidarity
What does (or should) one feel when he/she watches on
television gruesome pictures of an earthquake or volcano survivors mourning
their loved ones or living skeletons of individuals who are victims of
starvation or acute hunger? Many of us watch such scenes while eating or
chatting with family or friends. The philosophers amongst us wonder why these
things happen in the first place. The religious-minded would probably say it’s
divine punishment.
Actually, many people dwell on such unfortunate
events. and start meditating on life. Such meditation could lead to devotion
just as it could lead to unbelief. But what could (or should) be learned from
such calamities in which thousands of people lose their lives and thousands
more are left maimed, orphaned, widowed or homeless; where whole towns and
villages are flattened; where paradisiacal landscapes are turned into desolate
places? Well, that has always been horrible. People who are safe and sound,
ensconced in their warm armchairs, could moralize as much and as long as they
wished -but would they say the same thing (in the same words, in the same
tones, with the same strength of conviction) if they were in the midst of the
disaster?
I remember seeing a programme featuring Australia’s
tropical forests. The TV cameras moved gracefully among breathtaking trees,
beautiful native flowers, exotic birds and animals. I thought there couldn’t be
a more tempting place for a holiday. But then suddenly a hellish fire broke out
and destroyed all the trees, the flowers, the birds and the animals. I sighed
as the voice commenting the scene explained that such fires were sort of
commonplace in these forests, and that it was a very natural phenomenon. It was
good of the programme to give that warning to nature-loving tourists and that
lesson to those who easily succumb to beauty. Unfortunately, natural phenomena
cannot all be predicted. So many tourists (from all over the world) died in
Tsunami in December 2004. No one -least of all the local people- could have
predicted such a catastrophe. People -then and as always- asked a lot of
(existential) questions. Some made some kind of change, others continued to
live their lives as if nothing had happened. Personally, I do ask questions
too. I read on the Web a question I had asked myself even before the Internet
entered our country. Were WWI and WWII divine punishment? That was the
question. I wondered why such a thing happened to people who were behind all
the incredible technological development whose fruits we enjoy in our everyday
life. Those people made great inventions, worked in coal mines, struggled for
human rights, etc, etc. So why were they rewarded with two bloody wars? The
curious thing is that during these two wars (and the subsequent Cold War) a
phenomenal technological development took place -as if our (civilian) planes
today couldn’t have been able to fly as far and fast as they do today, as if
our mobile phones, Internet connections, televisions, etc, could have remained
topics of science-fiction books, hadn’t there been two devastating (world)
wars. The United Nations was born only after those wars. Democracy became
widespread only after those wars, which claimed the lives of the children and
grand-children of great inventors, engineers, teachers and patient workers who
endured life in coal mines. Would it be superstitious to link that to the
so-called separation of religion and state (as was the case in France in 1905)?
Or would that be explained by people’s “increasing immorality”? (Some would
argue, though, that “real immorality” became even worse in 1968, more than two
decades after the War!) Others would argue that the War(s) had rather come as a
result of then big powers’ struggle for supremacy and their rivalry over
overseas territories. Whatever the reasons of this or that calamity, it’s never
bad to ask questions about it.
Very often -but not always- it’s people who came
within an inch of death in such disasters who DON’T ask the hardest questions,
such as, “Why should there be such a thing in the first place?” I was moved by
the story of a German young woman and her mother who happened to be in Sri
Lanka during Tsunami. In a programme aired on Alarabiya TV, the young woman
explained how a Sri Lankan young man had saved her, risking his own life. The
young man himself spoke while the two women -who had come back to Sri Lanka to
meet him and remember the incident- listened, their heads bowed in thought.
This unexpected friendship is an instance of the paradoxically wonderful things
that do happen during and in the aftermath of disasters. But the question
remains, though: why should there be such a thing in the first place?
In other words, could there be a good side to disaster?
Are earthquakes, hurricanes, cyclones, volcanoes, forest fires, floods, etc.,
just natural accidents that happen at random and spoil people’s lives? Even if
scientists, who started developing serious theories about this only in the
1960s, proved through empirical evidence that the above-mentioned are essential
to the overall equilibrium of the planet Earth, still some would ask, “Why
should the Earth need such disasters just to ensure its equilibrium?"
Those who would like “to settle a score” with God would ask, “If God is
perfect, then why did He create such an imperfect earth? Why should a
population in one part of the globe be callously sacrificed in order to save
populations elsewhere?"
I don’t pretend to have answers to these questions.
But let’s see things as they are.
The earth may not be perfect, but what would one say
of those tourists who wait a whole year and spend a lot of money to get to a
place? Why do they choose to go to a particular place rather than another? Do
tourists go to heavenly places or to hellish corners of the globe?
Besides, scientists say, for example, that “most
earthquakes cause little or no damage”. They also say that “most volcanic
activity is submarine, forming new seafloors” -far away from our cities and
villages.
So the “imperfection”, if any, was rather man-made.
Scientists say “man-made pollution is largely to blame for global warming”,
which, in turn, is responsible for at least some of such disasters as Katrina
(2005) and tincreasingly frequent, wildfires in North America and flooding in
Western Europe, in central China and elsewhere. Otherwise, why should there be
The Paris Agreement and all conventions on climate?
The poor are now begging the rich to stop polluting
the earth (thereby causing drought, floods, cyclones, El Niño and other
disasters), whereas the rich are begging the poor to accept money in exchange
for The Right to Pollute in their own countries. What logic!
So whether the earth is not perfect or whether it’s
man who made it so imperfect, it’s never too late for man to try and make it
perfect -or as perfect as possible. All
the alarming scientific reports that come out from time to time are really only
aimed at pushing politicians to act.
In normal times, one would find heavenly places all
over the world. Otherwise, why should there be tourists? If many foreign
tourists happened to be in South-East Asia during Tsunami (2004) it’s because
they had been attracted to the beauty of that region.
Even after a place is totally destroyed in a disaster,
man is always there to do something about it. This leads to talk about
solidarity. Most recently, wildfires have ravaged Italy’s Sardinia region.
Who’s going to help this devastated island recover if not Italian tax-payers?
When we speak of solidarity we also mean charity,
compassion, altruism, volunteering to help for love, not money. When you see
people from all walks of life rushing to help each other ; when you see
thousands of students donating blood and running to the most affected areas to
save lives, that is solidarity. Who will ever forget the help that the
international community provided (or at least pledged to provide) to the
Tsunami victims or the Syrian refugees or the current endeavours to help poor
states with anti-Covid vaccination?
Of corse, all men are not alike. While world
war-mongers are swearing at and fighting one another, the Red Cross and the Red
Crescent join forces to save people of different faiths and origins. What
matters is to put out the fire, no matter who started it.
When you learn that 200 rescue workers lost their
lives as they were trying to help their fellow citizens in China (in May 2008),
and many teachers died in the disaster after having saved their students, then
you can only feel proud of being a human being. We humans are capable of making
the world a better place -by serving one another.
Compare that solidarity shown by people from within
and without the places affected by disasters to the looting that sometimes
takes place in disaster-hit areas. Compare that solidarity to the rivalries
that led to WWI and WWII. Compare the bloodshed of those wars to the spirit
that led to the European Union. Definitely, man is capable of the best and the
worst.
And what is more beautiful man can do than rebuilding
shattered lives? Destruction is no doubt horrific. The repercussions may last
for years and cost gold and life. But that’s part of life. What we tend to
forget is that most destruction is man-made. Natural disasters had no hand in
the unbelievable destruction that occurred in the heart of Europe in the first
half of the twentieth century. Natural disasters have had no hand in the
destruction that has taken place in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, for example,
Practical-minded people get down to work at once to
repair the destruction, leaving to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is
Caesar’s. Sometimes the destructors themselves rush to reconstruction. The
U.S., who helped bring down Hitler’s Reich and Japan’s empire, put in place the
Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Europe and Japan. A thriving Baby boomer
generation enjoyed the fruits of that reconstruction, thus turning the page on
the horrors of the War their fathers had witnessed. "The misfortune of
some makes the happiness of others,” as the French proverb goes.
After every disaster, many people get a lot of work, a
steady income for years. A lot of companies thrive during this period and a lot
of trade takes place. Not only those demolished schools, but the whole (old)
infrastructure becomes much better than before the earthquake. This gives the
opportunity to newly graduated engineers and technicians to prove their worth
and build their lives and to SMEs and VSEs to grow.
Now, what about divine punishment? Well, divine
punishment means different things to different believers. Jews, Christians and
Muslims, for example, know the story of Noah, according to which the world then
was destroyed by the Flood. But then life went on with just a small number of
people and a limited number of species. The God who made life possible after
the flood is naturally capable of saving the planet earth from the worst
consequences of climate change, if he wills. Whether He willss it or not
probably depends on how humanity behaves. Hence the fear of divine punishment
for some. The Quran, for example, is full of warnings in this sense.
Divine punishment or not, a growing number of young
people are suffering from various forms and degrees of Climate Anxiety. They
are deeply concerned not only about the future of the planet Earth, but more
particularly about their immediate environment. Some simply believe that our planet
is doomed, "on the brink". The fact is that extreme weather
conditions are undeniable. We have all heard or read alarming reports from
experts predicting the worst for certain part of the globe.
But tell that to those people who go to seek their fortune
where the environment is most hostile, where illegal wildlife trade thrives,
illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal fishing… where there are no schools,
no hospitals, or even paved roads… where smilng means nothing.
Details abound. Who is not aware of the submerged
coasts with all the consequences that this implies, of the rising waters that
are threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, of the scary
wild dumps in many cities around the world? Of course there is cause for alarm.
And you have people suffocating in the heat wave in the middle of spring,
people who see their animals die of thirst before their eyes, goats which eat
their excrement, camels which eat other camels, seasides which disappear under
water each day a little more, non-renewable groundwater, dry or almost dry
wells…? It is not easy to be mentally strong in the face of such misfortunes.
But sometimes all it takes is rain, good weather, a good harvest... to lift
your spirits and feel good. Except that, when one has everything, he could
imagine himself touched by divine grace. Certainly, this happens in one's head,
not only in nature.
But it's not just the consequences of climate change.
Today, many people live in terror because of gangs or food insecurity. People
eat every other day. Some big cities in safe countries import more than 90% of
their food needs. In other cities 80% of the population lives solely from
tourism. What would happen when the tourists don't come? And for those who
depend on rain-fed agriculture, what if it doesn't rain? Right now uncontrolled
urbanization is swallowing up uncountable irreplaceable agricultural land. It
is reported that antibiotic resistance will kill 300 million people by 2050.
But all this is not so new. In my country, Morocco, in the 18th and 19th
centuries, there was a famine or an epidemic every 10 or 15 years! I don't know
what might happen in the future, but, att least, in almost 60 years, there has
been only one epidemic, it's Covid-19, and only one "famine", it was
in the 1980s. In addition, we are slowly but surely moving towards an
increasingly decarbonizes atmosphere, with the use of renewable energies,
electric batteries, etc. All this to say, there’s still room for hope.
That's unfortunately not always the case, though. In
any event, we will continue to see fires, for example, ravaging centuries-old
trees that may never be replaced. Many people will also lose their livelihoods
in the process. The same goes for earthquakes and floods. Insurance
companies are not prepared to cover everything for everyone. But that's what a
disaster is. We are not in Heaven. A disaster remains a painful experience -whether
it is natural or not, whether it is divine punishment or not. The right
question to ask is: What if I was among the victims?
8
We are all smart.
We have all witnessed or heard of this: big farmers
with vast agricultural lands had to kill their cattle with their own hands
because of the drought; young businessmen who lost everything overnight in the
wake of a sudden economic crisis; ordinary men and women who purchased for
their small families homes on credit, then failed to pay their mortgages and
then were forced out; hopeful students who took out loans too then went
bankrupt even before being able to honour them; parents who lost their only
child when they were so happy with it; people who were desperate for a loving
partner and when they got him/her, divorce drove them apart for good. Can
Mathematics solve such problems? Can the best software or AI solve such
problems? Did such people get such problems because they were so dull? Or do
these things need another kind of thinking?
Of course, it is very easy to dismiss out of hand any
desire to philosophize about all this under the pretext that all this talk is
but catastrophism and that life is by nature full of unpleasant surprises and
that everyone must take responsibility for their failure, period. But isn't
that really worth a moment of reflection all the same?
Journalism students learn that "when a dog bites
a man, that is not news"; “Man bites dog" is news. A woman called a
doctor live on a Moroccan radio programme to ask why her three-year-old
daughter still sucked at her baby bottle (even if it were empty!). THAT IS NOT
NEWS, one would say. And that's true. Another listener later
called to advise that woman to put something bitter in the feeding bottle or on
its teat to make it disgusting to the child. He said that he had tried that out
on his own daughter when she was three and it worked. THAT IS NOT NEWS, either.
But then the man conceded that there arose a much bigger problem. "Now my
daughter is 27 years old," he explained. "She is a University
professor in a foreign country and yet she still sucks her thumb!" THAT IS
NEWS, isn't it? But is it odd enough to provoke wonder in everyone?
So what provokes wonder in us? A Kenyan newspaper
exclaimed: "It’s a mystery: Africans can’t shoot Olympic arrows!" For
the author of this article "it is puzzling that Africa doesn’t dominate
archery yet no other continent uses bows and arrows for primary purposes as
much."
In The Unique Necklace, Ibn Abd Rabbih
(860-940) relates the story of a tabi'i (follower of the
Prophet Muhammad's Companions) who was travelling with some of his students
when they came across a drunken man singing a beautiful couplet in Arabic,
something like: My heart has become sick with love, But there's
no way to reach my love. (With rhyme, it sounds much prettier than
that in Arabic.) The tabi'i then alighted from his horse and
hastened to write down those lines. Amazed, his students asked, "You write
down words said by a drunken man?" The tabi'i replied:
"Haven't you heard the proverb that goes 'A pearl could very well be found
in the garbage.' Well, this is a pearl in a garbage!"
Somebody was introduced to the Abbassid caliph Harun
al-Rasheed as a man of genius who could make a hundred needles get into the
eyes of each other in such a way that not a single needle would fall down. The
caliph asked the man to show him how he could do that, and when the latter had
done that in the most brilliant manner, the caliph turned to his men, and said:
"Give this man one hundred dinars and one hundred lashes."
Sstupefied, the genius man asked: "Majesty, I can understand why you give
me one hundred dinars, but not why you give me one hundred lashes!" The
caliph replied: "I give you a hundred dinars for your genius, and a
hundred lashes because you wasted your genius on trivialities."
We are all intelligent, aren't we, but do we always
put our intelligence to good use?
As a twenty-year-old student, I was once standing
alone, facing our classroom, when a classmate came towards me, and said,
shaking with laughter: "On my way to Faculty, a group of little children
stopped me, and said, 'Tell us, if you know: does a hen urinate?’' You know
what, I had never thought about that before! Now I ask you the same question:
does a hen urinate?
We tend to take so many things for granted -small
things, I mean. How many times have you stopped to think about the tick-tock of
your watch, about that tiny insect that you sometimes find scurrying across the
page when you are reading a book, about the fallen leaves in your garden or in
the woods, about the human mind that made all the inventions you're using every
day? Like people in antiquity, who wondered at the Seven Wonders and
forgot about the million small wonders around them, we still marvel at such big
things as the Pyramids and forget to give a thought to small things in
ourselves and in our environment.
People marveled at the Montgolfier Balloon, at the
first solo nonstop transatlantic Flight in history, at the Airbus A380. They
still marvel at the Great Wall of China, at the Guizeh Pyramids, at the Eiffel
Tower and Lady Liberty. We still marvel at the breathtaking performances of
circus animals and clowns, at the robots which might some day have feelings, at
the stunning achievements of record-breaking athletes, at the extraordinary
talents of our artists (that are sometimes taken for gods!). Almost every week,
there's a new entry into the famous Guinness World Records.
When people think of something, they often forget
something else -something more important. When we look at ourselves in the
mirror, do we think of the mirror itself? When we use our computer, do we think
of the mind which invented it in the first place? When we wonder at our (human)
power of imagination, do we think of where the human mind came from in the
first place? How many of us wonder at the fact that although we have the same
father and the same mother, still, we are not identical. Even so-called
"identical twins" are distinguished by their fingerprints and irises.
Sometimes you suddenly find yourself in a situation
where you feel like a fool, when the most obvious things become hard to
understand, when your life suddenly becomes a burden, void of any meaning.
Should we wait until then to start meditating?
If exercise rids our body of its "poisons",
isn't it the same for meditation? Could it not rid us of the
"poisons" of our souls? Couldn't meditation on little things -those
things that most people don't even think about- give us a light that most
people don't have?
An American man went missing in Australia. After three
months or so, he emerged from the other end of the Australian desert, wearing
an ordinary shirt and a pair of trousers, with leather sandals on, and a water
bottle in his hand. Asked why he had braved such a frightening desert alone and
with so little equipment, the man said: "I just wanted to discover
God." Personally, I couldn't believe my eyes and ears as I saw those TV
pictures, having read about the times when Afghan cameleers took European
settlers through the uncharted deserts of the Australian continent.
Now, do I need to go as far as the Australian desert
just to mediatate? I can look up at the sun from where I am: isn't it the same
sun everyone sees everywhere? Isn’t it the same moon all people all around the
world know? Isn’t it the same sky, the same stars, the same earth, the same
water, the same air, the same human body, the same human soul? So couldn't it
be the same Creator, whoever it might be, who made all these things for us all?
Shouldn't we be asyonished at the fact that people share the same things and
yet worship different gods?
Is it easy to think, by the way? How could one
"think" with so many images falling like an avalanche over one's mind
from TV, the Web…? But how many people could go to the woods (with no cam, no
Smartphone, no cigarettes), with just a mind and a heart, and two feet willing
to go from place to place, and eyes willing to look at beautiful flowers -small
flowers- hiding behind small rocks that few people care to glance at? Who these
days would go into the woods and look at the fallen leaves, and touch them,
scrutinize them; at the insects, at the migrant birds, and think about his
whole life?
Who? How many? It is not easy. People will rather
think about their daily lives, their declining purchasing power, their abysmal
debts, their uncertain future. You have people who don't even have enough to
buy something to eat. You even have medical students, who are supposed to treat
us one day, who have the misfortune of dealing with burnout, depression and
anxiety on a daily basis. You have people who, on top of that, live with fear
in their shearts every day because they are not sure that their children will
come back from school safe and sound. Under these conditions, how can one think
in an upbeat mood? And yet, it is necessary to reflect. We have all seen that
getting fed up with politicians will not solve problems.
There have been big farmers with vast farming lands in
the times before us; there have been princes and nobility; there have been little
country folk full of dreams; there have been people who were happy for some
time then lost their happiness overnight. And the list is long. Maybe those
people who lived before us did not have calculating machines, sophisticated
computers and genius software, but they too were smart somehow. Maybe we, too,
need to be doubly smart, by thinking about the big things and by meditating
about the small things as well.
Take this example. We Muslims around the world have
just celebrated Eed al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice). Does
everybody enjoy eed in the same way? Well, many people
sacrifice a sheep but can’t eat of its meat simply because they are ill. Other
people, with healthy stomachs and bodies, can’t afford a sheep for eed.
Too expensive for them. Who should envy the other: the one who can’t eat of his
sheep or the one who can’t buy a sheep in the first place?
The problem is, feelings and emotions are sometimes
stronger than knowledge and convictions. It’s not easy for anybody to deal with
the feeling that his boss or superior is less qualified than him. It’s not easy
for a handsome man to understand why his beautiful beloved should marry an
“ugly” man. It’s not easy for a woman of colour to understand why she should be
so, if that is a problem for her, or for a successful engineer to understand
why his only son should be handicapped. Scientists can’t explain, for example,
why a married couple should fail to have a child, despite all imaginable and
unimaginable efforts. But they can evidently explain the
physiological/pathological, thing that prevented the couple from begetting a
child. Scientists don’t have problems with the physical world. That’s why they
have been so kind as to make our physical world so easy : they developed for us
wonderful transportation means, fairy-tale telecommunication means, unhoped-for
medical services. Our kitchens, our living-rooms, our offices, our bags are
full of technology gadgets that we owe to our venerable scientists. But
scientists are like us, like you and me. They too have feelings and emotions. A
scientist may remain disgusted all his life if one of his scientific discoveries
or contributions is attributed to someone else. You and I are aware of the
sufferings of so many medical personnel around the world during the current
pandemic. And so on and so forth.
Scientists can easily come up with revolutionary
techniques, treat human bodies and improve agriculture, etc, but could not
prevent death, drought or floods. Scientists can send humans onto Mars but
cannot ward off earthquakes or hurricanes, which do cause more destruction in a
few hours than science can build in years and years. It’s again a problem of
emotions. You can’t explain anything to a widow sitting in front of her home
destroyed by flooding or to parents who have just lost their only son to Covid.
What can you say to a person who can’t find an ICU bed or Oxygen to save his
mother or daughter?
What about Faith? Some people believe in it. They cling to it in normal times
and in times of crisis. They find therein explanations that can help them
overcome a loss, a breakup, a weakness or a personal drama. This explanation is
not fortuitous or trivial. It implies a commitment. If we ask a god for help,
we should reasonably expect to have to give thanks in some way. This is the
demarcation line between faith and unbelief. Some people can in no way accept
the idea of being dependent on anybody or obedient to anybody. They see
themselves as entirely self-made, self-dependent, self-sufficing, and that they
don’t owe anything to anybody, to any deity. They have nothing to thank God for:
because if they accept the idea of being much obliged to a deity, they fear
they might be asked to behave according to that deity’s wishes, not as they see
fit.
In reality, even the Quran, for example, does not say
that if you do not believe in God and the Hereafter you will fail in this world.
Worldly success is open to all. The problem is, when you fail, for any
objective reasons, you may find it hard to explain your failure objectively to
yourself. Because it’s human nature that man tends to blame others for his
failures and to be arrogant in times of success.
Now, where does our arrogance come from? It comes from
our desire to show off. We want to show people around us that we are
self-dependent, we are the best. We want the world to know that we got our job
because, as they say, "one Scotsman's worth 3 Englishmen". The same
goes for one's spouse, one's children, one's fortune. It's all the fruit of our
ambition. It's all a matter of merit.
This is also due to the fact that, most of the time,
we think about one moment in our life. Or do we always take all our life into
account? Do we think of the time when we grow old, when we can’t sing and
dance, when we can’t play golf or tennis, when we can’t swim or even walk, when
we can’t eat with a knife and fork, when we are put away in a nursing home,
abandoned by both our children and the staff of our nursing home?
Many people divorce after retirement. This moment that
they were looking forward to in order to rest and enjoy life suddenly becomes
hell because of the spouse, the children or whatever. If we are not prepared
for this, what’s the use of our brain?
Yes, I imagine a bit of History, a bit of philosophy,
a bit of spirituality, a bit of "free" tourism (just a short trip on
foot or by bike around our place of living), a bit of meditation -all that
may be just priceless. We all know that many people have good insurance and yet
are unhappy. Many people with the best retirement pensions are unhappy too.
There are definitely other things in life that are just as important.
9
Who we are
Over time it becomes so obvious that many of us just
don't care. But let's think about it a bit. Is it just a normal process that
each people has to distinguish itself from other peoples by its own language,
its own culture, etc.? Does a people knowingly and deliberately change its
language and culture to look different from other peoples? Or is it part of
human nature -kind of natural, historical development that takes place
spontaneously over time?
How does this change/transformation occur,
historically speaking? History has it that some people came to Europe from
Central Asia. Others moved southwards to people present-day India, Iran,
Pakistan, Afghanistan… That’s migration. Or call it "the drift to a better
world". I don’t have to tell you that this migration phenomenon has always
been caused by famine, war, military expansion… We Arabs and, before us,
Berbers, came to this part of North Africa, for quite the same reasons, from
the Arabian Peninsula. The United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and Latin and Central America are all obvious examples of how migration makes
peoples what they are. Americans and Australians, for example, don’t speak with
the same accent and they have different constitutions, etc., although they
originally came from the same places. Many peoples have the same origins and
yet you will hear talk of American culture, Australian culture, Brazilian
culture… Is there anything wrong with that? Shouldn’t an American boast his
culture is much more important than Moroccan culture, for example? How can a
Moroccan convince an American that, no, it’s Moroccan culture that is more
important? Even before agreeing on what culture means, it goes without saying
that many more Moroccan youths would love to live in the U.S.A. than Americans
would love to live in Morocco? Statistics speak for themselves. There are tens
of thousands of Moroccans who became naturalized American citizens and
thousands more of Moroccan immigrants in the US. The total number of legal
immigrants in Morocco is about 100,000 and the number of illegal immigrants is
around 40,000 -in a population of 34,000 000. More than 4,000 000 Moroccans
live abroad. How can one explain this? Why do Moroccans go to America? Do they
go for bread and honey or for American culture?
Many Moroccans who have been to America, or live
there, talk about American democracy, American sense of organization, American
sense of initiative and enterprise, American sense of risk-taking… In my home
city of Mohammedia there’s a big MacDonald’s and several pizza huts. I
have had among my tutors Americans who spoke Moroccan Arabic fluently. If many
Moroccans in the USA went there for money, what do Americans (whatever their
number) come to Morocco for? Yes, some of them come for work (in American
schools, in more than 150 American companies operating in my country, etc.),
but do they all come for money? I don’t know.
In Senegal, West Africa, for example, there are more
than 4,000 Moroccans, some of them are based there since 1870. I'm not going to
talk about their problems here. I just ask : why did they go there and not to
America or Europe? Also thousands of Lebanese and other Arab migrants went to
the Americas, but thousands of them, too, live in various parts of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
In the wake of the 1990-1991 Pursian Gulf crisis, I
was one of those who were surprised at the number of American and European
migrants in Iraq, for example. For decades, in the sight of many of us, Arab
Gulf states were synonymous with wealth and job opportunities more than
anything else. Now I hear respectable Moroccan and Arab intellectuals speak
with great respect of the “visionary policies” of, say, Qatari and UAE leaders,
among others. Where do such visions come from? Can money alone explain everything?
Doesn't culture have something to do with it?
Questions on culture lead us to questions on us, as
human beings. What makes me write in English and French and what makes some
English and French people learn Arabic? Why shouldn’t I write in
Arabic? If I write in a foreign language would I necessarily be influenced by
the culture of the language I am writing in.
Is culture important to me as a person? Well, I need
my way of thinking when I have a problem. I need the feeling of belonging
somewhere, to something, even when I don’t have a problem. If I don’t feel that
I belong where I am, that’s a big problem. That’s when I will need my way of
thinking to help me overcome this problem. In other words, my identity is more
of a psychological than social necessity. These identity aspects are all parts
of my culture, or rather my collective culture that I share with millions of
people in my country. But there’s a more specific part of my culture (my
individual culture) which I share with far less people in my country and with
far more elsewhere.
Personally, I eat with my hands and would never be
comfortable with a knife and fork. (Besides, it is said to be healthier !) If I
want to be modern (although I don't know what that means actually), should I
necessarily eat in a certain way or dress up according to fashion or speak this
way or that ? Well, I believe, for my part, that even if I consider my way to
be the best, others are free to have their own way within a general legal
framework accepted by all for the sake of a peaceful society. I should
therefore be able to eat what I want like I want when I am alone or with people
like myself. I wear what I want like I want without provoking or hurting
anybody. I speak as best I can without aping anybody or pretending what I am
not. This is my culture. My way of life is a "conspicuous"
representation of my culture. If I liked a piece of American music, that would
be part of my culture. If I liked a French radio station or magazine, that
would be part of my culture. I am a Moroccan and I like a lot of Moroccan
things. But I also like a lot of things that are not Moroccan. I like
Americans’ sense of duty. I like Germans’ love for reading. I like
nineteenth-century French literature, etc. And I am absolutely comfortable with
what I like.
If I can afford what I like, that’s great. If not, no
problem. I don’t need to have a car or even a laptop to be a modern person. I
can very well work in internet cafes and travel by taxi or take a bus. No
problem. If other people think I’m not a modern person, whatever that means, or
that I’ve failed socially or professionally, that’s not a massive problem for
me. What's important for me is that I work hard in order to achieve what I
want. What's important to me is that I be a man of today. I need to know and
understand what’s going on in the world. I need to understand History to see
what was possible in past times that is no longer today and what can yet change
in the future for better or for worse. I need to understand other people’s ways
of thinking. I need to learn about other peoples’ traditions and ways of life.
If I know how other people think and behave I will improve my own way of
thinking.
Now, should I go to a specific foreign country only to
see what its people are like? Why not? Yet, I can do it without leaving my home
city. What’s more important to me is to know how that people became what they
are, how they think, how they solve their problems, what their dreams and
aspirations are... I can know that at school, by reading, through the media.
When I know much about that, I push the boundaries of my culture a little bit
further. French authors become my authors, my teachers, and so do American
authors, Egyptian journalists, Arab poets… My culture would thus become as large
as my knowledge. This is what I meant by “specific culture” or “individual
culture”. I would not then make a difference between culture and civilization.
But still I will make a difference between my culture as an Arab-Berber culture
and Western culture, for example. They are not the same. And that’s very
normal. I won't start comparing which is best. My culture is good as long as it
suits me well, as long as I feel comfortable with it. I would not expect
anybody to dress the way I do, or to eat the way I do (even if he were a
Muslim like me)… I would only expect him to understand me -not even to accept
me as I am. We are all human beings: we have more or less the same problems and
different ways of dealing with those problems. When I write I am exposing my
way of thinking, my way of solving my problems -based on my own (individual)
culture, which is neither worse nor better than anybody's culture.
What would happen if I was invited to a special dinner
where I had to respect a certain etiquette? Frankly, I would be very
embarrassed and perhaps ridiculed. But once out, I would forget all about it
and be myself again. Besides, I have already experienced that and I would not
hesitate to do it again.
10
Spiritual security
If you love your country, would you leave it? If you
love your culture, would you give it up? We all know that thousands of migrants
from war zones, fir example, pay thousands of dollars for boat trips to safe
countries. But thousands of other migrants too pay thousands of dollars to
smugglers and make harrowing and perilous journeys to distant destinations
although they come from relatively safe countries.
In some places people don't feel safe because they fear floods. In other places
people don't feel safe because they fear drought. Yet, is safety always
physical? There are married people who don't feel safe about their marriage,
employed people who don't feel safe about their jobs, healthy people who don't
feel safe without proper health insurance, people who don't feel safe because
of their colour, “race” or religion; people who don't feel safe because they
are constantly being stereotyped, because other people are always judging them
by their look, by their cast, by their holidays...
You may probably have seen TV pictures of Chinese
people traveling on jam-packed trains on the eve of major Chinese holidays.
People who left their villages and hamlets to work in far-away towns and cities
are pining for their families, to whom they are bringing money and gifts. Who
needs the other? The migrant worker or his family back in the village? Who is
in need of safety? Isn't loneliness a form of lack of safety? Isn't feeling of
safety worth money and gifts?
My younger brother invited me one day to share Eed Al Adha (The Feast of
Sacrifice) with him in the Southern town of Essaouira. I went the day before
eed. I arrived at the Casablanca motor coach station late in the afternoon. But
I had to wait several hours for the Essaouira coach to leave the station. And I
didn't get bored with waiting. I was delighted to see how people struggled to
book their trips to nearly all places across the country. I saw several people
carry sheep on their shoulders, others hoist up the sheep onto the coach
roofs... And when our coach left Casablanca City, in the evening, a group of
passengers burst out singing, some in Arabic, others in Berber... They sang and
clapped their hands happily. They would have even danced had there been enough
space. The coach was running on four (rubber) wheels, at night, but everybody
felt so safe that many succumbed to sleep. Everybody put his trust in the coach
driver. In a way, we are all that little child that runs into his mother's arms
to feel safe.
For some people it's a quest for safety, for others a quest for happiness. Why
did the Romans come to my country, Morocco, North Africa? At that time
there were no Arabs, no Islam, in this country. But it was not a no man's land.
Volubilis, for example, the most famous Roman city in Morocco, was founded in
the third century BC. It was then the capital of Mauretania, an Amazigh
(Berber) territory. Also the Phoenicians had established their settlements on
our coasts around the 12th century BC. The Portuguese built their first colony
on our Atlantic coast in the early 16th. Then the Spanish and the French shared
our country between them in the early 20th century, but many other European
nations too wanted that privilege for themselves. Why? Well, they all saw
opportunities in this land; they all saw the means of attaining some kind of
happiness and prosperity for part of their respective populations. We all go
where we see the possibility of happiness.
Some people are concerned about another kind of safety and happiness. I have
listened to a few non-Muslim radio programmes in English. One frequently asked
question was: "If I do this or that, will I be saved?" Do all people
ask such questions?
When I lie on the grass in a beautiful park, in a wood, or in the greenery, I
may take it for granted. I may not even think about it. When I sit in the sun
and feel the sweet breeze I may take that for granted. When I have a glass of
water on a hot summer day I may take it for granted too. When I bite into an
apple I would also take that for granted.
I wonder whether you have ever seen a little child or teenager draw something
on an old copybook that he wouldn’t show to anybody. The copybook is full of
drawings of horses or pets or movie characters or imaginary or real persons -why?
You, who can’t draw, would say WOW! You are amazed at the child’s creativity.
But to him that’s quite normal, it’s natural. Even assuming that he wanted to
show his "work", who would be interested? Don’t you know of
painters/writers…who were recognized as such only after their death or very
late in their life? Don’t you know of artists who died poor whereas their work
brought lots of money to other people? Does such an artist necessarily have
someone in mind (an audience) when he creates something?
The other day I was walking in the nearby wood when suddenly my eyes fell on a
beautiful wild flower. As I was looking at that particular flower I noticed
other flowers just beside it -maybe much less beautiful, but each with a
different colour, each with a different shape. I was once leaving a school
where I gave evening classes when a 17-year-old female student of mine waved to
me and said in a voice filled with awe: "Teacher, look over there!"
She pointed with an almost trembling hand at a car that was parked across the
street from the school. I saw the car: it was just marvelous. So I understood
why the girl was looking at it in such reverence. Well, I too went around in
that wood, walking slowly, going from path to path, looking with such wonder at
all those wild flowers, examining, like a passionate botanist, the shape, the
colour, the peculiarities of each flower. When you are in such a place, looking
with your heart rather than with your eyes, you can’t help asking: But why did
God make this flower grow here, at this particular place, where nobody would
see or care about it? How many people would come and spend half an hour going
from flower to flower and looking at their colours and shapes? Well, is the
number so important? Allah says in the Quran: "And though thou try much,
most men will not believe." (12.103) "And most of them believe not in
Allah except that they attribute partners (unto Him)." (12.106) "How
many a portent is there in the heavens and the earth which they pass by with
face averted!" (12.105) "None payeth heed save him who turneth (unto
Him) repentant." (40.13)
Imagine we just were not here. Imagine there were only dogs and pigs and
donkeys roaming about where we now study, work, play, live. Imagine there was
no such thing as the tele, the Smartphone, the car, the chair, the bed, the
glass, the cooking pot, the bike, the knife, the book, the garden, the asphalt
road, the neighbourhood, the people, the nation, the country, you name it.
Imagine there was no such thing as the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the nose, the
hands, the feet, the brain, the heart and all the rest. All the things we
take for granted. Imagine there were only dogs and pigs and donkeys in this
beautifj world. Our quest for spiritual security make us
think about this at one time or another.
Now, in what is spiritual safety so essential? At least kings, dignitaries and
rich people who lived 3,000 years ago had more wealth and comfort than many
smart university graduates of the 21st century. We, people of the 21st century,
have fast planes, gigantic ships, fairy-tale communication and transportation
systems. Artificial intelligence is being developed every single day. 5 G is no
longer a curiosity. Our present is for sure nothing compared to the future. But
the Babylonians, who lived 4,000 years ago, were no less smart than us, given
the means they had. The Maths of today owes so much to people who lived
thousands of years ago. And then you have the Pyramids in Egypt, Petra in
Jordan; you have Pythagore, Aristotle, Avicenne, Galileo and so on. And yet,
even today, we still ask questions that people asked 6,000 years ago.
Some birds have very beautiful feathers, very beautiful colours, very beautiful
twitters, which other birds don’t have. Why? Some people have all good and
beautiful things, which other people don’t have. Why?
Once you start questioning, well, you don't stop! Where should I stand between
the quest for meaning and the quest for pleasure? Should I be pleased,
satisfied or happy? Is happiness legitimate? Is pleasure legitimate? Can I be
happy alone, indepently of others? Can I be happy in the midst of unhappy
people? Can I be happy in the absence of a certain minimum of worldly things?
Can I be happy while suffering a loss or lack? Can I be happy whenever and
wherever I want without awaiting divine intervention all the time?
By asking such questions I may sound as if I am "judging" someone,
judging God, as though he were a "presidential candidate". And yet
the Quran, for example, gives me, as a curious person, the possibility of
asking, of thinking -as long as I am doing it in good faith. But the Quran too
has questions for me. The Quran calls on me to reflect. Allah said to
the Prophet (pbuh): "Thou askest them no fee for it. It is naught else
than a reminder unto the peoples." (12.104) "Thine is but conveyance
(of the message). Ours the reckoning." (13.40)
The Quran is now available free online. Who's gonna read it? How many people
are reading it online or on paper? Allah only knows. "The Beneficent
Hath made known the Qur'an." (55.1-2) For a believer, it's not from just
anybody, any content creator; it's from the Lord of the Worlds. "It is no
pleasantry." (86.14) "Nay, but it is a glorious Qur'an." (85.21)
Allah says: "If We had caused this Qur'an to descend upon a mountain, thou
(O Muhammad) verily hadst seen it humbled, rent asunder by the fear of Allah.
Such similitudes coin We for mankind that haply they may reflect." (59.21)
"Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its
Guardian." (15.9) "And in truth We have made the Qur'an easy to
remember; but is there any that remembereth?" (54.17) The Quran is now
there, and then everyone is free to read or not to read. Noah (pbuh) said to
his people: "O my people ! Bethink you, if I rely on a clear proof from my
Lord and there hath come unto me a mercy from His presence, and it hath been
made obscure to you, can we compel you to accept it when ye are averse thereto?"
(11.28)
What is certain, though, is that millions and millions of people have read the
Quran in the last 1,400 years in various parts of the world, in a number of
different languages.
So why are some people interested and others in no way interested in the Quran?
Let's not talk of those who have never heard about it. Allah will not hold them
accountable for not reading it. "Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope."
(2.286) But what about those who have the intellectual possibility of reading
the Quran? It's to those people that Allah says : "O mankind! Now hath a
proof from your Lord come unto you, and We have sent down unto you a clear
light." (4.174) "Verily We have brought them a Scripture which We
expounded with knowledge, a guidance and a mercy for a people who
believe." (7.52) "If We willed, We could raise up a warner in every
village." (25.51 "Is it not enough for them that We have sent down
unto thee the Scripture which is read unto them? Lo! herein verily is mercy,
and a reminder for folk who believe." (29.51)
One may understandably question the veracity of the Quran as the Word of God.
But only an ignorant would cast doubts on the fact that people who believed in
the Quran as such did implement its teachings in the form of an undeniable
civilisation, the Islamic Civilisation, to which contributed various nations
over a number of centuries. Great Islamic empires were built on the basis of
Quranic teachings. In other words, the Quran is not just words. It's a source
of power and inspiration. If there's a problem, it's not with the Quran; it
must be with the way people deal with it. It's a fact, for example, that many
Muslims sold their souls to non-Muslim invaders and occupying forces, including
the Mongols and the Crusaders, in return for gold and power.
Now, how should one deal with the Quran?
Allah says: "Will they then not meditate on the Qur'an, or are there locks
on the hearts?" (47.24) "And verily We have coined for mankind in
this Qur'an all kinds of similitudes, that haply they may reflect."
(39.27) "Will they not then ponder on the Qur'an? If it had been from
other than Allah they would have found therein much incongruity." (4.82)
"Falsehood cannot come at it from before it or behind it. (It is) a
revelation from the Wise, the Owner of Praise." (41.42)
The Quran does not take the reader for an idiot. The Quran respects my
intelligence as a reader -be I a believer or not. All I have to do is be both
intelligent and honest, which means that I should first read and think before
arguing. Allah says : "And verily We have displayed for mankind in
this Qur'an all manner of similitudes, but man is more than anything
contentious." (18.54) "…but most of mankind refuse aught save
disbelief." (17.89) "In what statement, after this, will they
believe?" (77.50) "Lo! this is an Admonishment, that whosoever will
may choose a way unto his Lord." (76.29)
This is a serious matter. Believing means commitment. How can I make sacrifices
for something I'm not sure of? I have to have yaqeen (faith
which is sure). It is in this sense that Allah says in the Quran: "This is
a clear indication for mankind, and a guidance and a mercy for a folk whose
faith is sure." (45.20) "He detaileth the revelations, that haply ye
may be certain of the meeting with your Lord." (13.2) The Quran
speaks of "sure knowledge" (علم اليقين), "sure vision" عين اليقين) ) (102.5-7) and "certain truth" (حق اليقين) (56:95). It's
only when I have this yaqeen that I can hope to reap the fruit
of my belief. That's why the prophets were subjected to trial after trial until
they acquired/developed absolute yaqeen (unbreakable faith).
Allah says : "And when they became steadfast and believed firmly in
Our revelations, We appointed from among them leaders who guided by Our
command." (32.24) If you are not sure yourself, how can you guide others?
Whether Muslim scientists in the early
centuries of Islam invented things or just copied the Greeks and other nations,
they were nonetheless aware of the limits of men’s science. They did their best;
they contributed as much they could to the development of science while they
remained humble in their relation to Allah. They believed their science was a provision
from Allah and not only the objective fruit of their brain and sweat. Were they
to live today, they wouldn’t be greatly impressed by something like Metaverse
or a manned space station on Mars or even the best instant translator app.
People who believe in the Quran believe that there were at least two peoples
who reached the highest levels in science and in the end their science availed
them nothing when Allah waned to wipe them out. Aad and Thamud may be too far
away, but who would argue concerning the early Egyptians, for example? Even
today’s scientists have failed to unravel the mystery of the Saqqara tunnels in
Egypt.
Now that I am convinced, how can the Quran be useful to me? Allah says:
"Lo! this Qur'an guideth unto that which is straightest, and giveth
tidings unto the believers who do good works that theirs will be a great
reward." (17.9) "This is a declaration for mankind, a guidance and an
admonition unto those who ward off (evil)" (3.38) "And lo! it is a
guidance and a mercy for believers." (27.77) "And We reveal of the
Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy for believers." (17.82)
So if I am not a believer I cannot hope to get "a healing and a
mercy" from Allah. But would this be enough for me as a reward if I
believe? In other words, wouldn't I really need a healing and a mercy in a time
of crisis? Can anyone other than Allah grant me a healing and a mercy in a time
when nobody really feels safe?
But how can I believe? What should I
believe?
First thing, I should believe that the Quran is the Word of Allah. Then, I
believe that Allah is God. Then, I believe in Allah's promises and warnings.
The Quran says it's Allah who created the world. A scientific person may want
material evidence that it's actually Allah who created the world. Therefore,
Allah talks in the Quran about the earth, the sky, the mountains, the sea, the
rain, the winds, and so on and so forth.
But why should a non-scientific person believe in all
this? Allah created the world, and that's it. No. We are not made like this. We
are forgetful. When we go to market to buy fruits and vegetables we think about
prices, not about Allah who created them. We look inside our fridge with our
stomach, not with our hearts and souls. When we open our wardrobe we don't
think about (Allah who created) the wool, the cotton, the silk, etc. We don't
think about our vision and hearing until our eyes and ears ache. We don't think
about our heart until we are sick. So we need to be reminded again and again.
We need to remember that Allah has something to do with our life and death.
Forest fires need water to be put out. Only Allah can help us with rainfall -even
though some wildfires are started by humans. Drought, which can also be caused
by human activities, kills humans, animals and harvests. Only Allah can give or
withhold the rain. Allah is present in every aspect of our individual and
collective lives. Our livelihood depends on Allah. So we must listen to what
Allah has to say to us about our world and ourselves. And all that is in the
Quran.
In the end, it's a matter of choice. "Say: (It
is) the truth from the Lord of you (all). Then whosoever will, let him believe,
and whosoever will, let him disbelieve." (18.29) "Lo! this is an
Admonishment, that whosoever will may choose a way unto his Lord. Yet ye will
not, unless Allah willeth. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise. He maketh whom He will to
enter His mercy." (76.29-31) "Hath there come upon man (ever)
any period of time in which he was a thing unremembered? Lo! We create man from
a drop of thickened fluid to test him; so We make him hearing, knowing. Lo! We
have shown him the way, whether he be grateful or disbelieving."
(76.1-3) "Say: Believe therein or believe not, lo! those who were
given knowledge before it, when it is read unto them, fall down prostrate on
their faces, adoring. Saying: Glory to our Lord! Verily the promise of our Lord
must be fulfilled. They fall down on their faces, weeping, and it increaseth
humility in them. Say (unto mankind): Cry unto Allah, or cry unto the
Beneficent, unto whichsoever ye cry (it is the same)." (17.107-111)
If I have to choose, I choose what exactly? Well, I
have to choose between the way of Allah which is to say that there are two
lives, actually: this one on earth and another one after death. I have to make
a choice, because only those who believe and follow the way of Allah will be
admitted into Paradise, the others will go to hell. There's no other
possibility.
For there to be a Paradise, logically, there should be
a life after death. In the Quran we are told: "Or (bethink thee of) the
like of him who, passing by a township which had fallen into utter ruin,
exclaimed: How shall Allah give this township life after its death? And Allah
made him die a hundred years, then brought him back to life. He said: How long
hast thou tarried? (The man) said: I have tarried a day or part of a day. (He)
said: Nay, but thou hast tarried for a hundred years. Just look at thy food and
drink which have not rotted! Look at thine ass! And, that We may make thee a
token unto mankind, look at the bones, how We adjust them and then cover them
with flesh ! And when (the matter) became clear unto him, he said: I know now
that Allah is Able to do all things. And when Abraham said (unto his Lord): My
Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead, He said: Dost thou not believe?
Abraham said: Yea, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease. (His
Lord) said: Take four of the birds and cause them to incline unto thee, then
place a part of them on each hill, then call them, they will come to thee in
haste, and know that Allah is Mighty, Wise." (2.259-260)
It wouldn’t be a problem for a good believer to believe this But a non-believer
might not be satisfied with such words. He would ask for something concrete. He
would like to see in order to believe. So the Prophet (pbuh) wanted to
enlighten us all, believers and non-believers, on this, by saying:
"Everything of the human body will perish except the last coccyx bone (end
part of the spinal cord), and from that bone Allah will reconstruct the whole
body. Then Allah will send down water from the sky and people will grow like
green vegetables'."
We need to be reminded so as to calm our nerves in
hard times like these. In the Quran we read: "Those who disbelieve say: If
only a portent were sent down upon him from his Lord! Say: Lo! Allah sendeth
whom He will astray, and guideth unto Himself all who turn (unto Him), Who have
believed and whose hearts have rest in the remembrance of Allah. Verily in the
remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest!" (13.27-28)
11
Divinity and humanity
What do we think we know about Allah? Not as much as
He knows about us, anyway. The least we can say is that Allah is beyond
compare. He does not change: the same power as ever, the same infinite
knowledge, the same vigilance, the same readiness, the same Godness. Allah is
God. Man is man. Allah is One. Man is too many. Man can’t even be master of the
planet earth. And when he forgets this fact, and behaves as if he were God,
Allah wouldn’t hesitate to remind him through all kinds of misfortune and
suffering. And yet Allah remains "Merciful, Loving." (11.90) "Is
not He (best) Who answereth the wronged one when he crieth unto Him and
removeth the evil?" (27.62) "If Allah took mankind to task by that
which they deserve, He would not leave a living creature on the surface of the
earth; but He reprieveth them unto an appointed term, and when their term
cometh -then verily (they will know that) Allah is ever Seer of His
slaves." (35.45) "Allah is Full of Pity, Merciful toward
mankind." (2.143) That's the rule. Allah even cares about our feelings,
irrespective of our faith. In the Quran we read: "O ye who believe! Let not
a folk deride a folk who may be better than they (are), not let women (deride)
women who may be better than they are; neither defame one another, nor insult
one another by nicknames. Bad is the name of lewdness after faith. And whoso
turneth not in repentance, such are evil-doers." (49.11)
So it’s normal if Allah does not like us to be indifferent to Him. No matter
what we do, our belief in Allah will remain limited, and so will our gratitude
towards Him. We can never pay our parents back for their favours, what about
Allah? But if we don’t try our best to be thankful to Allah, who should we thank?
Allah is great and wants man to be great too: by having more virtues than
vices, by having great values, by living up to one’s values, by purifying oneself.
Allah said to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh): "And lo! thou art of a
tremendous nature." (68.4) Gratitude is one great value. Prostration to
Allah, for example, is an honour for man, not a belittling or a humiliation.
Prostration is glorification of Allah and sublimeness of the faithful’s conduct
and soul.
When I believe in Allah I only bear witness to an independently existing fact.
I only acknowledge a fact -whether I exist or not, whether I believe or not.
Before Galileo (1564-1642) most people believed the earth was flat. Before
Hubble (1889-1953) most scientists believed there was one galaxy in the world.
What should be amazing to us is that this small brain which Allah created in
our (small) heads has already known so much about the world. That which we
can’t know we have to believe. We should admit that "of knowledge ye have
been vouchsafed but little." (17.85) And yet Allah does not want us to
blindly believe in Him. As we saw in the verses above, Allah calls on us
to reflect, to meditate, to contemplate the world around us.
Even if we are lazy, or don’t have the time or the means, we don’t necessarily
need to travel to faraway places in order to meditate. Just in the nearest
market, we find innumerable varieties of homegrown and imported fruits of all
colours, shapes and tastes. But we often take that for granted. A good believer
of our times may not be able to dive into the sea and see for himself the
incredible life of fish and sea plants. He may not be able to explore the
Amazon forest and other jungles or walk and hike in the high mountains or the
glaciers and see how people, animals and plants live out there. He may not be a
neurologist or a cardiologist or a botanist, but when he is in front of his TV
screen and the like and watches documentary films or reads books, he just can’t
help chanting subhanallah (All praise be to Allah) with his
heart and tongue. From his safe place at home he can meditate about the vast
space above and about those weak creatures living in the wilderness among wild
predators and those isolated people living in extreme weather conditions in an
uncharted country, or about the cells in his own body… Lessons learned from
these meditations can only boost the morale of "him who hath a heart, or
giveth ear with full intelligence." (50.37) A believer who thus meditates
on Allah’s infinite power and knowledge can only become stronger and stronger.
And when the circumstances are stronger than him (personal drama, war, acute
unemployment, illness, sudden inflation...) and the devil and the demons
surround him on all sides, well, this precious knowledge of Allah saves him, if
only to overcome a crisis the time it takes to recover his mental strength. And
that’s what’s meant by "a healing and a mercy". Allah says: "And
We reveal of the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy for
believers." (17.82) Allah "guideth unto Himself all who turn (unto
Him), Who have believed and whose hearts have rest in the remembrance of Allah.
Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest!" (13.27-28)
Think this through. How many times did you ever get tired, sick, demoralized or
depressed? Maybe few or several times. But how many times did you ever succeed
in stopping your days and nights from being eaten away like an unemployed person’s
savings? Never. We are weak. We are mortal. Allah is God. Allah is not like us.
That sounds obvious, to a believer at least, but we often tend to forget it
when we are well off.
Suppose I got up in the middle of the night and thought about the whole
picture, not only my daily worries and routine, what would I feel? Well, first
thing, even if I worship Allah in the watches of the night, He is still
occupied with the rest of the world -all the time. "Neither slumber nor
sleep overtaketh Him." (2.255) For Allah it’s all DAY. Even if I make this
kind of effort that many others wouldn’t care to make, what would that add to
Allah? It’s all symbolic, and Allah likes that. "He is Forgiving,
Responsive." (35.30) It’s a sign of love. "He is the Forgiving, the
Loving." (85.14) Even the best expression of gratitude can’t pay Allah
back for the slightest of His favours. I owe everything to Allah, my life plus.
If I am beautiful, it’s Allah who gave me my beauty. If I am strong, it’s Him
who gave me my strength. If I am smart, it’s Him who gave me my wits. If I am
rich, it’s Him who provided me. If I become famous, it’s Allah who makes me so.
If I belong to a rich, democratic and powerful state, that’s a favour from
Allah too. Whatever I am, whatever state I am in, it’s by the grace of Allah.
Whatever good I do, it’s thanks to Him, that's by Allah's leave. In the Quran
we read: "And whatever of comfort ye enjoy, it is from Allah."
(16.53) And that includes worshipping Allah! "...and of them are some who
outstrip (others) through good deeds, by Allah's leave. That is the great
favour !" (35.32)
To Allah I owe my life, so His Hymn I praise, and unto Him I prostrate. To Him
and of Him I say: Glory is to Allah. Praise is to Allah. There is none worthy
of worship but Allah. Allah is the Most Great. There is no might and no power
except by Allah's leave, the Exalted, the Mighty.
QUESTION: if everything about me belongs to Allah, what is left to me to pride
on? What am I doing in this world? What am I worth as a being on this earth?
Well, I am a teacher. I don't own the school where I work. But I can do my job
right; I can enjoy my life as a teacher; I get my pay and buy the things I
need. And I can be happy with that. Many people don't own their homes and don't
have a problem with that. See my point?
Do I "own" my vision and hearing, for example? Allah says: "Who
owneth hearing and sight; and Who bringeth forth the living from the dead and
bringeth forth the dead from the living?" (10.31) "Say: Have ye imagined,
if Allah should take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts, Who
is the God Who could restore it to you save Allah?" (6.46)
Do I own my body? Allah says: "He whom we
bring unto old age, We reverse him in creation (making him go back to weakness
after strength). Have ye then no sense?" (36.68) "Allah is He Who
shaped you out of weakness, then appointed after weakness strength, then, after
strength, appointed weakness and grey hair. He createth what He will. He is the
Knower, the Mighty." (30.54) "And Allah createth you, then causeth
you to die, and among you is he who is brought back to the most abject stage of
life, so that he knoweth nothing after (having had) knowledge. Lo! Allah is
Knower, Powerful." (16.70) "Allah receiveth (men's) souls at the time
of their death, and that (soul) which dieth not (yet) in its sleep. He keepeth
that (soul) for which He hath ordained death and dismisseth the rest till an
appointed term. Lo! herein verily are portents for people who take thought."
(39.42)
Do we "own" "our" water? "Have ye thought: If (all)
your water were to disappear into the earth, who then could bring you gushing
water?" (67.30)
Do we "own" our crops? What if Allah sent against them the flood and
the locusts and the vermin or just a few months' drought? Read, if you like:
"So We sent against them the flood and the locusts and the vermin and the
frogs and the blood -a succession of clear signs. But they were arrogant and
became a guilty folk." (7.133)
"Say: Have ye thought, if Allah made night everlasting for you till the
Day of Resurrection, who is a god beside Allah who could bring you light? Will
ye not then hear? Say: Have ye thought, if Allah made day everlasting for you
till the Day of Resurrection, who is a god beside Allah who could bring you
night wherein ye rest? Will ye not then see?" (28.71-72) "Say: Who
can avail you aught against Allah, if He intend you hurt or intend you profit?
Nay, but Allah is ever Aware of what ye do." (48.11) "Or who is he
that will be an army unto you to help you instead of the Beneficent ? The
disbelievers are in naught but illusion." (67.20)
"And remember Allah's favour unto you." (3.103) "Remember (all)
the bounties of your Lord, that haply ye may be successful." (7.69)
Yes, to many people Allah has nothing to do with our
life or our success. But those who believe in Allah and the Hereafter want to
know how they can best express their gratitude towards Him.
Well, if I cannot pay Allah back for His innumerable favours, I could still do
my best. The Quran is full of examples of what I could do for worship. At the
same time, I could pay it forward -to humankind- by serving people. "Allah
is He Who accepteth repentance from His bondmen and taketh the alms."
(9.104) Allah takes the alms, not for Himself, but for His bondmen -believers
and non-believers alike. "Allah is Full of Pity, Merciful toward
mankind." (2.143) "Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom He
will" (24.38), that is to believers and non-believers alike. "Each do
We supply, both these and those, from the bounty of thy Lord. And the bounty of
thy Lord can never be walled up." (17.20) And yet Allah gives me, as a
believer, the chance (and the honour) to do good, to give charity, if I can, to
His bondmen, out of love for Him, as a sign of gratitude to Him, and I don’t
say, like non-believers, who, "when it is said unto them: Spend of that
wherewith Allah hath provided you", they "say unto those who believe:
Shall we feed those whom Allah, if He willed, would feed? Ye are in naught else
than error manifest." (36.47)
Also, I may do challenging high studies and accumulate interesting experience
and then get a well-paid job and be proud about it. If I lose that job amid an
economic downturn, what do I do? I may have a serious social or health
problem that prevents me from finishing my education and getting my dream
job : what do I do, then? Of course, faith will not bring me a
concrete solution to a concrete problem, at least not right away, except in the
case of the "wronged one" when he "crieth unto"
the Lord (verse (27.62)). Just because I'm "a
saint" doesn't mean I'm going to walk on water or go through a mousehole.
But the fact that I believe that my livelihood (rizq) and age ('umr)
and everything about me are in the hands of Allah, of God, the Lord of the
Worlds, gives me some serenity. When somebody refuses to hire me or lays me
off, I know that's only a trial for me, and that that person or that business
cannot prevent me from getting what I want elsewhere, Allah willing. We all
need some kind of protection. The work unions were created for that purpose.
Health care and all kinds of social assistance were designed to this end.
Besides, the most generous relief plan, the kindest state help, is limited in
time. But when we are hard-pressed with rents to pay, with food to buy to one's
kids..., it's normal, it's human, to seek help from humans. We all need
protection. But what's the problem if Allah is my, our, Protector? On the
contrary, it's our best insurance! Allah says in the Quran: "Lo! those
whom ye serve instead of Allah own no provision for you. So seek your provision
from Allah, and serve Him, and give thanks unto Him, (for) unto Him ye will be
brought back." (29.17) "Say (unto them): If ye possessed the
treasures of the mercy of my Lord, ye would surely hold them back for fear of
spending, for man was ever grudging." (17.100) "Or have they even a
share in the Sovereignty? Then in that case, they would not give mankind even
the speck on a date-stone." (4.53) So everything that happens to me, good
or bad, is supposed to be some kind of education, of good upbringing, a kind
and thoughtful reminder for me. I should therefore think of others as much as I
think of myself. If I manage to curb my greed and selfishness, that's good for
me. Allah says: "And whoso is saved from his own avarice - such are they
who are successful." (59.9)
Have you ever seen a nest? Have you thought about it? If a man and a woman take
care of their offspring, they may hope to benefit from them in their old age.
But when a couple of swallows takes great pains to make a nest, and then takes
pains to feed and protect their chiks, these will grow up and become fully
fledged and fly away. Who will then pay back the parents for their kindness ?
This is but a mercy from Allah. In the Hadith we read: "Allah divided
Mercy into one hundred parts. He kept ninety nine parts with Him and sent down
one part to the earth, and because of that, its one single part, His Creations
are merciful to each other, so that even the mare lifts up its hoofs away from
its baby animal, lest it should trample on it."
That's when I can give; what about when I am in need of help? Well, when you
see a flock of swallows can you differenciate between them, can you tell who
from who? Allah says: "There is not an animal in the earth, nor a flying
creature flying on two wings, but they are peoples like unto you. We have
neglected nothing in the Book (of Our decrees). Then unto their Lord they will
be gathered." (6.38) Unless we use special cameras, we can't differenciate
between them, but those swallows know one another, one way or another, and each
knows its God. "Hast thou not seen that Allah, He it is Whom all who are
in the heavens and the earth praise, and the birds in their flight? Of each He
knoweth verily the worship and the praise; and Allah is Aware of what they
do." (24.41) Likewise, when I get up in the middle of the night and go
into the kitchen to get a glass of water, who is aware of that? If I pray to
Allah in the middle of the night, who is aware of that? None but Allah, Who
says: "Your Lord is Best Aware of what is in your minds. If ye are
righteous, then lo! He was ever Forgiving unto those who turn (unto Him)."
(17.25) "Those who avoid enormities of sin and abominations, save the
unwilled offences - (for them) lo ! thy Lord is of vast mercy. He is Best Aware
of you (from the time) when He created you from the earth, and when ye were
hidden in the bellies of your mothers. Therefor ascribe not purity unto
yourselves. He is Best Aware of him who wardeth off (evil)." (53.32)
"And thou (Muhammad) art not occupied with any business and thou recitest
not a Lecture from this (Scripture), and ye (mankind) perform no act, but We
are Witness of you when ye are engaged therein. And not an atom's weight in the
earth or in the sky escapeth your Lord, nor what is less than that or greater
than that, but it is (written) in a clear Book." (10.61) "Ask pardon of
your Lord and turn to Him repentant. He will cause you to enjoy a fair estate
until a time appointed. He giveth His bounty unto every bountiful one."
(11.3) Yes, one would say, but, still, that doesn’t answer the question! What
about when I am in need of help?
Well, when I do something good I am establishing a direct connection with my
Lord, with Allah Almighty. I show my care for Allah and He cares for me -even
when, because of my seemingly unending woes, I get the feeling that Allah has
forgotten all about me. The truth is nobody knows when salvation comes or what
it will be like. Even prophets can't know. Allah says: "Till, when the
messengers despaired and thought that they were denied, then came unto them Our
help, and whom We would was saved. And Our wrath cannot be warded from the
guilty." (12.110) "And (mention) Dhu'n-Nun, when he went off in anger
and deemed that We had no power over him, but he cried out in the darkness,
saying : There is no Allah save Thee. Be Thou Glorified! Lo! I have been a
wrong-doer. Then we heard his prayer and saved him from the anguish. Thus we
save believers." (21.87-88) Allah said that to His last Prophet! What
about us, who are quick to fall into despair?
Trial is not easy. It's not easy to see people look down on you because you're
jobless or single or sick or whatever. It's not easy to see people let you down
in you hour of need. It's not easy to see all doors shut in your face. It's
painful to see yourself like a wingless, tailless bird. It's not easy to feel
lonely. But trial is not the same for all. As in the Hadith, a man said:
"O Messenger of Allah! Which of the people is tried most severely?"
He said: "The Prophets, then those nearest to them, then those nearest to
them. A man is tried according to his religion; if he is firm in his religion,
then his trials are more severe, and if he is frail in his religion, then he is
tried according to the strength of his religion. The servant shall continue to
be tried until he is left walking upon the earth without any sins." Also
in the Hadith: "A believer does not receive (the trouble) of running a
thorn or more than that but Allah elevates him in rank or effaces his sins
because of that." Ibn Mas'ud, a companion of the Prophet (pbuh), reported:
"I visited the Prophet (pbuh) when he was suffering fever. I said, ‘You
seem to be suffering greatly, O Messenger of Allah.’ The Prophet (pbuh)
replied, ‘Yes, I suffer as much as two persons.’ I said, ‘Is that because
you have a double reward?’ He replied that that was so and then said, ‘No
Muslim is afflicted by a harm, be it the pricking of a thorn or something more
(painful than that), but Allah thereby causes his sins to fall away just as a
tree sheds its leaves’". Ayeshah, said that the Prophet (pbuh) (her husband)
said, "If a thorn pricks a believer or he is hurt more than that then that
is an expiation for his sins." What can be clearer than the Hadiths above?
Allah does not try anybody except for a purpose that He alone knows. Trial (by
ordeal) means loss and suffering. But does misfortune only happen to strong
believers? What about ordinary people, believers or non-believers, who are
tsruck by flooding, drought, fires, war, epidemic, unemployment, inflation...?
Allah says: "He launcheth the thunderbolts and smiteth with them whom He
will while they dispute (in doubt) concerning Allah, and He is mighty in
wrath." (13.13)
Right now millions of souls have been lost to
Covid-19. How many people learn a lesson from that? How many people lose not
only an income or a loved one but their lives? In the Quran we read: "If
ye are suffering, lo! they suffer even as ye suffer and ye hope from Allah that
for which they cannot hope. Allah is ever Knower, Wise." (4.104) "Do
men imagine that they will be left (at ease) because they say, We believe, and
will not be tested with affliction? Lo! We tested those who were before you.
Thus Allah knoweth those who are sincere, and knoweth those who feign."
(29.2-3) "If ye have received a blow, the (disbelieving) people have
received a blow the like thereof. These are (only) the vicissitudes which We
cause to follow one another for mankind, to the end that Allah may know those who
believe and may choose witnesses from among you; and Allah loveth not
wrong-doers." (3.140) "What concern hath Allah for your punishment if
ye are thankful (for His mercies) and believe (in Him)? Allah was ever
Responsive, Aware." (4.147)
It is this hope (of obtaining Allah's love and pleasure) that one should
treasure. Allah reminds the faithful that "…the mercy of thy Lord is
better than (the wealth) that they amass." (43.32) "This life of the
world is but a pastime and a game. Lo! the home of the Hereafter - that is
Life, if they but knew." (29.64) That's for believers only. Even if I had
everything I wanted my happiness wouldn't or shouldn't be total in a world
where I am not alone, where there are millions of homeless people, of orphans,
of single mothers without income...
Besides, trial has a prize. When you pass a test, you
win –eventually- both the life of the world and that of the Hereafter. If I
don't care about the Hereafter, if I only want social success and happiness and
joy and eternal fun here and now, why should Allah care about me?
Allah says: "Say: Who hath forbidden the adornment of Allah which He hath
brought forth for His bondmen, and the good things of His providing? Say: Such,
on the Day of Resurrection, will be only for those who believed during the life
of the world. Thus do we detail Our revelations for people who have
knowledge." (7.32) "So Allah gave them the reward of the world and
the good reward of the Hereafter. Allah loveth those whose deeds are good."
(3.148)
Allah says in the Quran: "What have they (to fear) if they believe in
Allah and the Last Day and spend (aright) of that which Allah hath bestowed
upon them, when Allah is ever Aware of them (and all they do)? Lo! Allah
wrongeth not even of the weight of an ant; and if there is a good deed, He will
double it and will give (the doer) from His presence an immense reward."
(4.39-40) "That is because they have chosen the life of the world rather
than the Hereafter, and because Allah guideth not the disbelieving folk."
(16.107)
If we are vexed because of our material living conditions, in the Quran we read:
"How many were the gardens and the watersprings that they left behind, And
the cornlands and the goodly sites And pleasant things wherein they took delight!
Even so (it was), and We made it an inheritance for other folk."
(44.25-28) These people, who lived thousands of years ago, had all signs of
success. They had all the material comfort they expected. When they passed away
they left all behind. Allah says: "Eat of that which Allah hath bestowed
on you as food lawful and good, and keep your duty to Allah in Whom ye are
believers." (5.88) "O ye who believe! Observe your duty to Allah. And
let every soul look to that which it sendeth on before for the morrow. And
observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do." (59.18)
"This life of the world is but a pastime and a game. Lo ! the home of the
Hereafter - that is Life, if they but knew." (29.64) "On the Day when
every soul will find itself confronted with all that it hath done of good and
all that it hath done of evil (Every soul) will long that there might be a
mighty space of distance between it and that (evil). Allah biddeth you beware
of Him. And Allah is Full of Pity for (His) bondmen." (3.30)
This is preaching, yes. But the fact is that even those who don't believe in
the Hereafter are not really so sure what may become of them after death. Allah
says : "If thou obeyedst most of those on earth they would mislead thee
far from Allah's way. They follow naught but an opinion, and they do but
guess." (6.116) "Most of them follow not but conjecture. Assuredly
conjecture can by no means take the place of truth. Lo ! Allah is Aware of what
they do." (10.36)
Even if the ice-cream seller does not see you, you can't just take the
ice-cream and go away. He gives you what you want, you give him his due. Even
if Allah did not ask of us anything at all, we should still be grateful to Him
for all He gives us -all the more so as "All that are in the heavens and
the earth entreat Him. Every day He exerciseth (universal) power." (55.29)
"See ye not how Allah hath made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the
skies and whatsoever is in the earth and hath loaded you with His favours both
without and within?" (31.20)
How many people know of the Mississipi river? How many people know the
tributaries that feed into the Mississipi, the Amazon or the Nile rivers? Most
people either don't know or don't care. But Allah does know and does care.
"Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the darkness of
the earth, naught of wet or dry but (it is noted) in a clear record."
(6.59) Well, tell that to the experts who say they are worried that Data
storage is becoming increasingly challenging due to Internet expansion.
Many may imagine the past and the future, but
imagination is not equal to the truth. Allah says, for example: "Assuredly
conjecture can by no means take the place of truth." (10.36) Allah not
only "imagines", He knows. While writing a novel, for
example, a novelist may forget a detail. He may forget that a character had a
horse, a hat or a phone call. But Allah does not forget anything. "...and
thy Lord was never forgetful." (19.64) "My Lord neither erreth nor
forgetteth." (20.52) "And not an atom's weight in the earth or in the
sky escapeth your Lord, nor what is less than that or greater than that, but it
is (written) in a clear Book." (10.61)
Humans may never know the guy who started that devastating forest fire or the
greedy guys who contributed to drought in one place because of savage
deforestation and illegal logging. Allah knows them all. "Deem not that
Allah is unaware of what the wicked do. He but giveth them a respite till a day
when eyes will stare (in terror)." (14.42) The state may not know all the
citizens who are in need of urgent assistance. Allah knows them all. He says:
" (Alms are) for the poor who are straitened for the cause of Allah, who
cannot travel in the land (for trade). The unthinking man accounteth them
wealthy because of their restraint. Thou shalt know them by their mark: They do
not beg of men with importunity. And whatsoever good thing ye spend, lo! Allah
knoweth it." (2.273) "And let not thy hand be chained to thy neck nor
open it with a complete opening, lest thou sit down rebuked, denuded. Lo! thy
Lord enlargeth the provision for whom He will, and straiteneth (it for whom He
will). Lo, He was ever Knower, Seer of His slaves." (17. 29-30)
Before asking why Allah does not come to the rescue of those in urgent need,
one should ask: why does Allah bother to reckon every leaf that falls, every
grain amid the darkness of the earth, every wet or dry in a place where nobody
goes, where life is impossible? We may comprehend why Allah reckons our
slightest thoughts and deeds. He says: "… each soul requited that which it
hath earned; no wrong (is done) this day. Lo ! Allah is swift at
reckoning." (40.17) "And He forgiveth much." (42.30) But which
book can hold all this unimaginable amount of information about people,
animals, plants, rivers, mountains, deserts, glaciers, clouds, crops,
livelihoods -to speak only of our planet earth....? Which intelligence can
process all this data? "Lo! Allah is swift at reckoning." (14.51)
"Hast thou not known that Allah knoweth all that is in the heaven and the
earth? Lo ! it is in a record. Lo! that is easy for Allah." (22.70)
And why all that? One probable reason is that this data is part of Allah's
bounty, Allah "Who created the heavens and the earth, and causeth water to
descend from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you, and maketh the
ships to be of service unto you, that they may run upon the sea at His command,
and hath made of service unto you the rivers; And maketh the sun and the moon,
constant in their courses, to be of service unto you, and hath made of service
unto you the night and the day. And He giveth you of all ye ask of Him, and if
ye would count the bounty of Allah ye cannot reckon it. Lo! man is verily a
wrong-doer, an ingrate." (14.32-34)
When I think about this I ask myself: hey, if Allah
cares so much about so much, about so many, my humble person included, how
can't I care about Him? With what face shall I return to Allah if He is not
pleased with me? Will He be glad I returned to Him? Will He be happy to see me
again? In the Quran I read: "Those are they who disbelieve in the
revelations of their Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefor their works are
vain, and on the Day of Resurrection We assign no weight to them." (18.105)
"Allah will neither speak to them nor look upon them on the Day of
Resurrection, nor will He make them grow..." (3.77) Shouldn't I care for
Allah NOW so that He'll care for me THEN? Allah says: "They forget Allah,
so He hath forgotten them." (9.67) "He will say: So (it must be). Our
revelations came unto thee but thou didst forget them. In like manner thou art
forgotten this Day." (20.126) If I like a song, for example, I may be
tempted to repeat it all day long, but what about Allah, who says: "Therefore
remember Me, I will remember you. Give thanks to Me, and reject not Me."
(2.152) "And be not ye as those who forgot Allah, therefor He caused them
to forget their souls." (59.19) "And when ye have completed your
devotions, then remember Allah as ye remember your fathers or with a more
lively remembrance." (2.200) "Such as remember Allah, standing,
sitting, and reclining, and consider the creation of the heavens and the earth,
(and say) : Our Lord! Thou createdst not this in vain. Glory be to Thee!"
(3.191)
When I have everything I want I may be complacent in my relation to the Lord;
and when it's all over, when I can never come back to this world, I would
probably say: "Ah, would that I had sent before me (some provision) for my
life!" (89.24) "Would that I were dust!" (78.40) And it would be
said to me: "Thou wast in heedlessness of this. Now We have removed from
thee thy covering, and piercing is thy sight this day." (50.22) "Read
thy Book. Thy soul sufficeth as reckoner against thee this day." (17.14)
"Ye squandered your good things in the life of the world and sought
comfort therein. Now this day ye are rewarded with the doom of ignominy because
ye were disdainful in the land without a right, and because ye used to transgress."
(46.20) "Did I not charge you, O ye sons of Adam, that ye worship not the
devil -Lo! he is your open foe! - But that ye worship Me? That was the right
path. Yet he hath led astray of you a great multitude. Had ye then no sense?"
(36.60-62)
When we are being tried with ordeal we think right away of the way out. But
trial is, paradoxically, in man's best interest. It's meant to open our eyes to
the Truth of our existence in this world. That's why Allah says: "And if
Allah were to enlarge the provision for His slaves they would surely rebel in
the earth, but He sendeth down by measure as He willeth. Lo! He is Informed, a
Seer of His bondmen." (42.27) In other words, Allah wants to save us from
our lusts and illusions. He says: "Is he who relieth on a clear proof from
his Lord like those for whom the evil that they do is beautified while they
follow their own lusts?" (47.14)
Many things have changed in the world over time, but
many things in man have stayed more or less the same. Man still kills and man
still saves man from death. Think about this verse: "Allah (Himself) is
Witness that there is no God save Him. And the angels and the men of learning
(too are witness). Maintaining His creation in justice, there is no God save
Him the Almighty, the Wise." (3.18) There is therefore human justice and
divine justice. One aspect of this divine justice in this world is that we all
see that Allah does not provide believers only. In the Quran we read: "And
there is not a beast in the earth but the sustenance thereof dependeth on Allah
He knoweth its habitation and its repository..." (11.6) (... bet it
believing or not !) "Whoso desireth that (life) which hasteneth away, We
hasten for him therein what We will for whom We please. And afterward We have
appointed for him hell; he will endure the heat thereof, condemned, rejected.
And whoso desireth the Hereafter and striveth for it with the effort necessary,
being a believer; for such, their effort findeth favour (with their Lord). Each
do We supply, both these and those, from the bounty of thy Lord. And the bounty
of thy Lord can never be walled up." (17.18-20) That’s Allah's
"justice", (in Arabic Al-Qist) meant in the verse
"Maintaining His creation in justice". (3.18) Again
that’s divine justice. In other words, it is an example for man. That's what
Allah would like man to do on earth. Allah says: "Allah loveth the
equitable." (49.9) "Lo! We offered the trust unto the heavens and the
earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And
man assumed it. Lo! he hath proved a tyrant and a fool." (33.72) What's
this "trust" (in Arabic amana)? It's the fact "...that
mankind may observe right measure." (57.25) Explained in the Quran:
"...and He hath set the measure, That ye exceed not the measure."
(55.7-8) "Fill the measure when ye measure, and weigh with a right balance;
that is meet, and better in the end." (17.35) "But observe the
measure strictly, nor fall short thereof." (55.9) "Give full measure,
and be not of those who give less (than the due). And weigh with the true
balance. Wrong not mankind in their goods, and do not evil, making mischief, in
the earth." (26.181-183) "Woe unto the defrauders: Those who when
they take the measure from mankind demand it full, But if they measure unto
them or weight for them, they cause them loss. Do such (men) not consider that
they will be raised again Unto an Awful Day, The day when (all) mankind stand
before the Lord of the Worlds?" (83.1-6) "O ye who believe! (...)
help ye one another unto righteousness and pious duty. Help not one another
unto sin and transgression, but keep your duty to Allah." (5.2) "O ye
who believe! Be ye staunch in justice, witnesses for Allah, even though it be
against yourselves or (your) parents or (your) kindred, whether (the case be
of) a rich man or a poor man, for Allah is nearer unto both (them ye are). So
follow not passion lest ye lapse (from truth) and if ye lapse or fall away,
then lo! Allah is ever Informed of what ye do." (4.135) "O ye who
believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any
people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your
duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do."
(5.8) "...But if thou judgest, judge between them with equity. Lo! Allah
loveth the equitable." (5.42) "Lo! Allah commandeth you that ye
restore deposits to their owners, and, if ye judge between mankind, that ye
judge justly. Lo! comely is this which Allah admonisheth you. Lo! Allah is ever
Hearer, Seer." (4.58) "And if two parties of believers fall to
fighting, then make peace between them. And if one party of them doeth wrong to
the other, fight ye that which doeth wrong till it return unto the ordinance of
Allah ; then, if it return, make peace between them justly, and act equitably.
Lo! Allah loveth the equitable." (49.9)
"O ye who believe! When ye contract a debt for a fixed term, record it in
writing. Let a scribe record it in writing between you in (terms of) equity. No
scribe should refuse to write as Allah hath taught him, so let him write, and
let him who incurreth the debt dictate, and let him observe his duty to Allah
his Lord, and diminish naught thereof. But if he who oweth the debt is of low
understanding, or weak, or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of
his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call to witness, from among your
men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women,
of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through
forgetfulness) the other will remember. And the witnesses must not refuse when
they are summoned. Be not averse to writing down (the contract) whether it be
small or great, with (record of) the term thereof. That is more equitable in
the sight of Allah and more sure for testimony, and the best way of avoiding
doubt between you; save only in the case when it is actual merchandise which ye
transfer among yourselves from hand to hand. In that case it is no sin for you
if ye write it not. And have witnesses when ye sell one to another, and let no
harm be done to scribe or witness. If ye do (harm to them) lo! it is a sin in
you. Observe your duty to Allah. Allah is teaching you. And Allah is knower of
all things." (2.282)
"Prove orphans till they reach the marriageable
age; then, if ye find them of sound judgment, deliver over unto them their
fortune ; and devour it not by squandering and in haste lest they should grow
up Whoso (of the guardians) is rich, let him abstain generously (from taking of
the property of orphans); and whoso is poor let him take thereof in reason (for
his guardianship). And when ye deliver up their fortune unto orphans, have (the
transaction) witnessed in their presence. Allah sufficeth as a Reckoner."
(4.6) "Give unto orphans their wealth. Exchange not the good for the bad
(in your management thereof) nor absorb their wealth into your own wealth. Lo!
that would be a great sin." (4.2)
"And there may spring from you a nation who invite to goodness, and enjoin
right conduct and forbid indecency. Such are they who are successful."
(3.104) "Lo! comely is this which Allah admonisheth you. Lo! Allah is ever
Hearer, Seer." (4.58)
Hence the importance of (STATE) law and order. Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (576/573-656)
said: "Allah takes away with the Ruler what is not taken away by the
Quran." (That's because some people obey rules out of fear of the Ruler
rather than the Quran.) Law and order are of paramount importance. If people
can't live in peace and serenity, most of them cannot accomplish their two main
missions in the earth : gratitude towards the Creator and solidarity between
humans.
And this man has always done, both in tribal and state
systems. Allah says: "And if Allah had not repelled some men by others the
earth would have been corrupted. But Allah is a Lord of Kindness to (His)
creatures." (2.251) So it happened that we have laws; we have a judiciary
(formal justice) and we have, in principle at least, social justice.
One may ask: if Allah is so "adamant" about justice, why does He make
people so different from each other in terms of colour, physical health and
shape, material living conditions, etc., etc.? Yes, it's Allah Who is behind
these differences. He says: "See how We prefer one of them above another,
and verily the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in
preferment." (17.21) The differences are there, if not in the life of the
world, then it'll be there in the Hereafer. So would you tolerate these
differences in this world (which are only temporary) or those in the
Hereafter (which are everlasting)? If you think about it a little more
objectively, you will wonder whether these worldly differences are not really
the best proof, the clearest evidence, that there is actually a life after
death and that all our differences here are only a trial for each and every one
of us.
Allah did not make me poor or weak to make others revel in my misery, but for
you, when Allah gives you the means, to help me in a dignified way as a fellow
human being with a human soul like you. By doing so you are expressing
gratitude towards Allah and solidarity towards humankind. Of course, Allah
could help me directly, He could have put you in my place, but what makes you a
human if you don't help me? What makes me a human if I don't help you were you
in my place? Would I say: "Shall we feed those whom Allah, if He willed,
would feed?" (36.47)
Yet, one is not supposed to be “angelic”. An individual has his part of the
job, the state/community has its own. Even if you have the means to help
everybody around you, you are not supposed to give away all your money to
people, that's not your job and your money is not entirely yours. So just do
what you can, just show your humanity. Allah says: "And let not thy hand
be chained to thy neck nor open it with a complete opening, lest thou sit down
rebuked, denuded. Lo! thy Lord enlargeth the provision for whom He will, and
straiteneth (it for whom He will). Lo, He was ever Knower, Seer of His
slaves." (17.29-30) "And those who, when they spend, are neither
prodigal nor grudging; and there is ever a firm station between the two."
(25.67) Just be a human, treating the needy humanely. That’s all the point.
The Covid pandemic has shown how rich European states have asked for help, and
nobody, me first, sees any kind of disgrace in that. "O mankind! Ye are
the poor in your relation to Allah. And Allah! He is the Absolute, the Owner of
Praise." (35.15)
Human solidarity, both on the individual and collective levels, makes humans
beautiful; it spreads love amongst honest mankind. In Argentina, for example,
many people swapped goods or services during the economic crisis. This is
fabulous. The crisis may go, but good memories abide, stay with one for life.
In Gruissan, a French fishing village, the fishermen established kind of a
court to share the fishing zones in a fair way and they record everything
concerning their fishing activities in special records, some several centuries
old. This is amazing, and it's all human. In Morocco, too, we had a somewhat
similar system for sharing water in the old medinas. Some kind people collect
the unused food from restaurants and hotels, instead of letting it be thrown
away, and use it to feed people in need. Others make great efforts to reduce
plastic and other ocean and river pollution... In short, I can't enumerate all
good work done by so many people around the world. All this is human and all
this is wonderful! Even during wartime you have health personnel who risk
their lives in order to save people from danger. You also have many people who
donate money or whatever to care for animals. As I said, Allah is great and wants
man to be great too. Throughout Islamic history, many Muslims understood this
perfectly well. There has always been the Waqf institution,
which collects donations from voluntary donors and spends it, according to each
donor's wishes, on schooling, bridge/road/water well projects, etc. The State
itself is a form of solidarity in the sense that it collects taxes and so on
and spends them as necessary. When a town is leveled by an earthquake or a
tornado both poor and rich are affected. Not all rich people have private jets.
Many need roads and bridges and schools for their children, and the state is
there for help. But the state can't do everything. Calamities may be a (hard)
way to remind man of this fact.
Thankfully,
my state can give me Food Stamps, unemployment benefits or any kind of
assistance as a compensation for job loss, etc. What if I lost my life to
something like Covid-19 or a hurricane or flash floods, etc. ? Allan can give
me another life after death. No state can do that. Many people are grateful
just because they survived a disaster. In the Quran we read: "Bethink thee
of him who had an argument with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given
him the kingdom; how, when Abraham said: My Lord is He Who giveth life and
causeth death, he answered: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Lo!
Allah causeth the sun to rise in the East, so do thou cause it to come up from
the West. Thus was the disbeliever abashed. And Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk."
(2.258) We also read this: "Is it they who apportion thy Lord's mercy? We
have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world, and
raised some of them above others in rank that some of them may take labour from
others; and the mercy of thy Lord is better than (the wealth) that they
amass." (43.32) "This life of the world is but a pastime and a game.
Lo! the home of the Hereafter - that is Life, if they but knew." (29.64)
"That which ye have wasteth away, and that which Allah hath remaineth. And
verily We shall pay those who are steadfast a recompense in proportion to the
best of what they used to do." (16.96) "Knowest thou not that it is
Allah unto Whom belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth; and ye
have not, beside Allah, any guardian or helper?" (2.107) "Allah is
able to do all things." (18.45)"...and He maketh none to share in His
government." (18.26) "As for these similitudes, We coin them for
mankind, but none will grasp their meaning save the wise." (29.43)
Why does one read stuff like this? The best
explanation can't convince everybody. The mind may be strong, the heart may be
strong, but the psyche loses its strength, abruptly or gradually, in the
absence of material or moral support; so the nafs ammara revolts
against the nafs lawama, and it may take some time before the soul
is soothed. Sometimes it takes very little for the soul to be calmed down if
the mind is already prepared. Hence the importance of Quran reading. Sooner or
later the Quran, if read correctly, does help to allay one's fears of
unemployment, illness, loss... In the Quran we read: "...and will give
them in exchange safety after their fear." (24.55) "Lo! thy Lord
enlargeth the provision for whom He will, and straiteneth (it for whom He
will). Lo, He was ever Knower, Seer of His slaves." (17.30)
So who should I lean on?
By the way, during the reign of Caliph Umar (584-644) and some other Muslim
leaders, Muslims and non-Muslims alike were entitled to state assistance. This
was based on genuine Islamic principles, and did not depend on the goodwill of
the leaders. It's only a question of state funds availability. It's public
money. It is the duty of the State, when it can afford it, to help the needy,
not a favour from the top leader. Very few leaders would give out of their own
pockets. It may be an unfair move towards future generations if my state
borrows excessively in order to help me without making sure it can repay it in
the foreseeable future. Recent statistics show that public debt levels have
never been so high since WWII. In many states around the world many people
can't even get their monthly salaries or retirement pensions on time and many
businesses go bankrupt because they are overwhelmed by state payment delays.
Similarly, if Allah exhorts the faithful to help each other in a dignified way
through zakat and alms, even in normal times and when the state's coffers are
full, it's because, philosophically speaking, the only difference between the
haves and the have-nots is that Allah gives the haves directly and the
have-nots indirectly, through the haves. Allah gives me my salary through my
boss. So, for this matter, I give thanks to Allah, not to my boss or whatever.
I thank humans when they do good to me for the good they do to me “by Allah’s
leave”, but I believe that it’s all from Allah. I vote for the person who did
good to my community, because it is only natural to like and encourage people
who do good. The problem is, when each and every time I have a problem I turn
to the government/state for help. I could get the help I want, but the risk is
that my Iman could weaken over time due to this dependence on the state. And
then, every state has anything but unlimited means. If each government that
comes starts spending with all its might, to ensure social peace or for any
other reason, this could lead to socio-economic and even political disasters.
Hyperinflation, default… all this comes from that. And then I may need Allah’s
help, with illness, a loss, etc. After all, life is a feeling, it’s not all
about money. "Lo! Allah! He it is that giveth livelihood, the Lord of
unbreakable might." (51.58)
That's why Islam was accepted, at least in the
beginning, as a way of life by non-Arab nations and became the Faith of great
empires over a long period of time. If we Muslims of today are not that great,
it's most probably because we don't want Islam as a way of life, but only as a
religion, as rituals. The problem is therefore not with Islam. The problem is
with us Muslims, me first. Think about this Hadith: "None amongst you
believes (truly) until he loves for his brother" -or he said "for his
neighbor- "that which he loves for himself." In the Quran we read: "If ye publish your
almsgiving, it is well, but if ye hide it and give it to the poor, it will be
better for you, and will atone for some of your ill-deeds. Allah is Informed of
what ye do." (2.271) "O ye who believe! Render not vain your
almsgiving by reproach and injury, like him who spendeth his wealth only to be
seen of men and believeth not in Allah and the Last Day. His likeness is as the
likeness of a rock whereon is dust of earth; a rainstorm smiteth it, leaving it
smooth and bare. They have no control of aught of that which they have gained.
Allah guideth not the disbelieving folk." (2.264) "A kind word with
forgiveness is better than almsgiving followed by injury. Allah is Absolute,
Clement." (2.263) "Know they not that Allah is He Who accepteth
repentance from His bondmen and taketh the alms, and that Allah is He Who is
the Relenting, the Merciful." (9.104) We are all poor in one way or
another. You may be rich, but you would looked entreatingly at your doctor when
you are sick. Would you then love it if a needy person look at you in a
beseeching manner? If we believe in the Quran we should believe that money is
Allah's money. Again in the Quran we read: "...and bestow upon them of the
wealth of Allah which He hath bestowed upon you." (24.33) "And let
not those who hoard up that which Allah hath bestowed upon them of His bounty
think that it is better for them. Nay, it is worse for them." (3.180)
"...If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall
preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise." (9.28)
"And whatever of comfort ye enjoy, it is from Allah. Then, when misfortune
reacheth you, unto Him ye cry for help." (16.53) "He it is Who hath
placed you as viceroys of the earth and hath exalted some of you in rank above
others, that He may try you by (the test of) that which He hath given you. Lo !
Thy Lord is swift in prosecution, and Lo! He verily is Forgiving,
Merciful." (6.165) "Lo! thy Lord enlargeth the provision for whom He
will, and straiteneth (it for whom He will). Lo! He was ever Knower, Seer of
His slaves." (17.30) "And covet not the thing in which Allah hath
made some of you excel others. Unto men a fortune from that which they have
earned, and unto women a fortune from that which they have earned. (Envy not
one another) but ask Allah of His bounty. Lo! Allah is ever Knower of all
things." (4.32)
Most people don't seem to understand this. Allah says: "Verily Allah heard
the saying of those who said: "Allah, forsooth, is poor, and we are rich!"
(3.181) "And when it is said unto them: Spend of that wherewith Allah hath
provided you, those who disbelieve say unto those who believe: Shall we feed
those whom Allah, if He willed, would feed? Ye are in naught else than
error manifest." (36.47)
"Lo! verily the friends of Allah are (those) on
whom fear (cometh) not, nor do they grieve." (10.62) "Lo! power
belongeth wholly to Allah. He is the Hearer, the Knower." (10. 65)
"They measure not Allah His rightful measure. Lo! Allah is Strong,
Almighty." (22.74) "And there is not a thing but with Us are the
stores thereof. And we send it not down save in appointed measure."
(15.21) "And there is not a beast in the earth but the sustenance thereof
dependeth on Allah. He knoweth its habitation and its repository. All is in a
clear Record." (11.6) "And how many an animal there is that beareth
not its own provision! Allah provideth for it and for you. He is the Hearer,
the Knower." (29.60) "In Allah let believers put their trust."
(58.10) "And whosoever keepeth his duty to Allah, Allah will appoint a way
out for him, And will provide for him from (a quarter) whence he hath no
expectation. And whosoever putteth his trust in Allah, He will suffice him. Lo!
Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah hath set a measure for all
things." (65.2-3) "And Allah was predominant in His career, but most
of mankind know not." (12.21) "Your wealth and your children are only
a temptation, whereas Allah! with Him is an immense reward." (64.14-15)
"Whoso desireth the reward of the world, (let him
know that) with Allah is the reward of the world and the Hereafter. Allah is
ever Hearer, Seer." (4.134) "No soul can ever die except by Allah's
leave and at a term appointed. Whoso desireth the reward of the world, We
bestow on him thereof; and whoso desireth the reward of the Hereafter, We
bestow on him thereof. We shall reward the thankful." (3.145)