Brothers and sisters,
In response to the overwhelming amount of foward text, sms, and emails regarding the attacks on Gaza i would like to draw our attention to a few important points that we may have missed in the urge of our blind emotions.
The current situation in Gaza is not new, it hasnt come about over night, and sadly it seems that its not going to be over in the near future..
Reading and forwarding emails and/or sms messages regarding this matter is definitely not a solution.
Unconsciously reciting and repeating certain words as 'prayer' and asking each other to do the same isnt what Allah is expecting from us either. Besides, these such suplications/dua's are (should be) already a part of our daily prayers anyway..
We must be cautious of what we read/do and what we ask others to read/do as all of this hysteria will become pointless and fruitless, working only to aid ways of exonerating and justifying the 'self' from 'true responsibility' and worse yet, disregarding and disrespecting the Pre and Post Eternal Wisdom and Knowledge of the Almighty.
This being said, anyone whose faith tells them 'if you read these duas and forward these emails you'd be contributing to a greater good' needs to seriously re-evaluate their faith and their connection to their Lord.
Almighty Allah is far beyond need of any of us or our imitated prayers, most of which are on the tip of our tongues instead of being a natural and true projection of pure faith in our hearts.
[Prayer in its essence is the energy generated from our natural disposition and faithful acts, not the sounds we make with our tongues; reading certain words without knowing and living their 'meaning' will not generate the energy its designed for, hence becoming pointless. i.e. you eat something, then you DIGEST it, hence it becomes an INTEGRATED part of you, as opposed to you chew something, then you spit it out...]
Emotional responses will get us nowhere. Emotional and "reactive" responses are signs of escapism and a cheap way of gratifying the self (nafs) as having done its duty. Whereas our emotions are given to us to serve a purpose, that is, when sparked by such tragedies in our external world, they should be like facilitators channelling us to look internal, into our hearts and minds and to the depths of our souls so that we may truly submit. Unfortunatley we cannot submit because we are so trapped in our 'nafs' and because we are so busy with the external world that we do not really look internally to discover how deeply wounded we are in this trap!
In this case our first duty is to shatter the falsity we've entrapped ourselves in and to change our "own" lives before attempting to change the lives of others.
And true change and development can only happen with "knowledge"* and the application of it. But sadly, nobody wants to break out of their comfort zones, we're far more comfortable to keep static in our shells and forward emails asking 'others' to transform instead.
[*Knowledge = Knowledge of Allah, where 'Allah' DOES NOT mean a super being living up in space somewhere, but rather the WHOLE, entire, universal system by which He 'The Infinite Consciousness' operates]
Another important point to remember is that Allah's system, with It's infinite knowledge and wisdom only afflicts calamity as a 'reminder' to change, a 'stimulus' to make us move and grow.
What's happening in Gaza or other parts of the world for that matter is a global projection of this truth.
We as believers have stopped growing, learning and transforming, hence we are attracting these calamities.
Rain [Allah's mercy] is attracted by forests [constantly growing, living, productive life forms] rather than deserts [infertile, non-productive, lifeless forms]
Believers, in particular Muslims have become like deserts, we've stopped producing.
Im not suggesting we remain oblivious to what's happening, rather my proposal is, instead of reacting with cries and woes, let us engage in internal awareness, knowledge and growth, let us transform and start producing, let us become forests, then we will attract the mercy of Allah...
Mewlana Celaleddin Rumi says "STOP ACQUIRING WATER AND INCREASE YOUR THIRST.... THEN WATER WILL COME GUSHING TO YOU"
Signing petitions, joining rally walks, forwarding emails.... just stop and think for a minute, could this really be what Allah is asking of us???
Another vital point is, in the midst of all this emontional plight, we can become 'one eyed' and 'short sighted' taking sides unconsciously and unjustly. So let us also remember the countless innocent Jewish civilians killed by Hamas. And the many millions of other innocent children and women and elderly "casualties" from hundreds of other wars and crimes lived in the past. If we're not feeling equally upset for them, again, i urge that we recheck our faith.
This isnt a war between Palestine and Israel, and definitely not a war between Muslims and Jews.
You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh [Torah]
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! [Bible]
Who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah or rejects His signs? But verily the wrongdoers shall never prosper [Quran]
Clearly, its a war between true belief and hypocrisy... both of which are inherent in both sides...
Our stance should not be to take sides of either, but to be with HAK (TRUE JUST RIGHTS) alone... the HAK within both sides is what we support and the tyrant, terrorist, hypocrite in BOTH sides is who we condemn.
And finally, let us reflect on the important passage below by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, elucidating a matter much relevant to our current situation:
One time, I was asked the following question by the brothers who assist me:
"For fifty days now —and now seven years have passed (This refers to 1946.) — you have asked nothing at all about this ghastly World War, which has plunged the whole world into chaos and is closely connected with the fate of the Islamic world, nor have you been curious about it. Whereas some religious and learned persons are leaving the congregation in the mosques and racing to listen to the radio. Is there some event more momentous than the war? Or is it harmful in some way to be preoccupied with it?"
I replied to them: Life's capital is very little and the work to be done is much. There are spheres one within the other like concentric circles, from the sphere of man's heart and stomach, and that of his home and body, and that of the quarter in which he lives and his town, and his country and land, and the globe and mankind, to the spheres of animate beings and the world. Each person may have duties in each of those spheres, but the most important and permanent of these are those in the smallest sphere. While his least important and temporary duties may be in the largest sphere. According to this analogy, the largest and smallest are in inverse proportion. But because of the attractiveness of the largest sphere, it causes the person to neglect his important, necessary duties in the small sphere, busying him with unnecessary, trivial, peripheral matters. It destroys the capital of his life for nothing. It kills his precious life on worthless things. Sometimes, the one following curiously the struggles of the war comes to earnestly support one side. He looks favourably on their tyranny, and becomes a partner in it.
The Answer to the first point: Yes, an event more momentous than this World War and a case more important than that of world supremacy has been opened over the heads of everyone and especially Muslims, so that if everyone had the wealth and power of the Germans and English and sense as well, they would unhesitatingly spend all of it to win that single case. The case is this: relying on the thousands of promises and pledges of the universe's Owner, Who has disposal over it, hundreds of thousands of the most eminent of mankind, and uncounted numbers of its stars and guides, have unanimously given news —and some of them have actually seen— that for everyone the case has opened by which they may either win, in return for belief, or lose, eternal properties as broad as the earth set with palaces and gardens. If they do not secure the document of belief, they will lose. And this age, many are losing the case because of the plague of materialism. One of the diviners of reality and investigators of truth observed in one place that out of forty people who died, only a few won; the others lost.
Can any thing take the place of that lost suit, even rule over the whole world?
Since we know it would be pure lunacy to give up the duties which will win the case and abandon the wondrous lawyer who saves ninety percent from losing it and the task which the lawyer employs us in, and become involved with peripheral trivia as though we were going to remain in the world for ever, we are certain that if each of us had intelligence a hundred times greater than what we have, we still would use it only on this task.
< What my head did when I read that. Wow. Just wow.
