A wise man once sat in the audience & cracked a joke.
All laughed like crazy. After a moment he cracked the same joke again and a little less people laughed this time.
He cracked the same joke again & again, When there was no laughter in the crowd,
he smiled and said
“When u can’t laugh on the same joke again & again, then why do u keep crying over the same thing over and over again.”
Arif’s comment: Thanks for this email forward Hina :-)
Fear is a theme that I have touched time and again on this blog. I recently heard this excellent documentary-podcast on the Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San, keeps appearing in the press now and again for being under house-arrest. But being historically-illiterate I had no idea why she was put on house-arrest and what’s the big-deal really. Her confi/dence and aura of courage is extraordinary. The podcast provides a wonderful background of her upbringing and what has made her so courageous. It’s through this podcast that I learnt of her award winning essay on Freedom From Fear. You may download the podcast from this page and read the whole essay by clicking here. I am pasting my favourite excerpts of the essay below.
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote man’s desire for harmony and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature.
Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.
Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’ – grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
A dear friend (Navaid Alam) has written this well-expressed article on Ramadhan, that was selected by The Hindu (a leading national newspaper) for publishing in it’s Open Page. This has been re-published here without his permission, (hopefully he won’t sue us, it’s Ramadhan after all :-).
The ninth month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, Ramazan (or Ramadan), holds a special significance for Muslims around the world. It is in this month that Muslims attempt to let go of the worldly pleasures and decide to reorient themselves towards being better humans — humans that are not so lost in the pursuit of their desires that they cannot sense the needs of others. The cruelties that man shows towards his own body round the year are redressed in this month. The body is allowed to rejuvenate and repair the damage caused during the rest of the year. Conscience, that guiding light, is strengthened and prepared to shine through the dark alleys of human greed. And the soul is provided with the spiritual nourishment that it needs to connect with its creator.
Although many obvious benefits for fasting have been observed both by spiritualists as well as scientists, the Muslim fasts because God has so commanded. This, while it may seem dogmatic, is inherently cogent. A command of an omniscient god cannot possibly be wrong because if it was then He wouldn’t be omniscient. However, this holds good provided it can be established through reason that it is indeed His command. This is one of the fundamental rationales of the Islamic thought and the foundation of its call to acceptance because faith built on unreasonable premises is unworthy of submission.
Fasting has always been prescribed by God for communities around the world, a fact attested by the the Holy Koran. And why shouldn’t it be, after all if fasting has such fundamental benefits then those benefits must be for the entire human race. And one fundamental benefit mentioned by the Koran is taqwa in Arabic.Taqwa means, among other things, self-restraint, a quality fasting so strongly creates. When man is able to control his two most basic urges namely the digestive and the reproductive, it becomes easier to contain the others. And such control is the first step towards the greater realisation that these are the necessities of life not its purpose. However, the purpose of fasting is to control these urges and not to kill them for they are fundamentally essential to human existence and a system that destroys them cannot be natural or divine.
Islam did not, however, merely prescribe fasting but prescribed it for a specific period of time. One whole month to be exact, dawn to sunset is a Muslim required to fast abstaining from food, drink and sex. Token or symbolic fasting for a certain day cannot provide the results that Ramazan seeks to create. It is only when people abstain from these day after day for a good one month can they attain control of their selves and a sense of concern for the less privileged begin to develop. Moreover, fasting that is accompanied by massive eating before and after the prescribed period of the day cannot yield those results.
How can one feel the pain of those not fortunate enough to have their daily meals if one gluttons himself and feels no pangs of hunger? The Sufis have always held in accordance with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, that one ought to eat less even during that portion of the day when one is not fasting otherwise the spirit of the fast is weakened. However, pragmatism requires that people be not subjected to undue duress hence the tradition of sahr, the pre dawn meal and iftar, the ‘breakfast’ meal.
Fasting however is not merely about avoiding food and drink; it is also about building your character. The one fasting is required to control his talk so as not to say words of abuse or even dislike to other fellow human beings. The Prophet said, “Whoever does not give up forged speech and evil actions, God is not in need of his abstinence from food and drink.” Anger, that form of temporary madness, is to be subdued, a lesson that Muslims around the world would do well to follow. Said the Prophet, “Strong is not the one who overcomes people by his strength, but he who controls himself while in anger.” This is the demand oftaqwa.
And when the faithful fulfils this commandment of God, having fasted and abstained from all vices and actively sought virtue for nothing but the pleasure of God, then he breaks into thankful joy on the first day of the next month,Shawwal, the day of Eid. After the prayer of thanks in the morning, the day is spent meeting friends, neighbours and relatives. Grudges of the past are buried to make a new beginning in human relations.
However, those struggling with the necessities of life are not to be forgotten and they are as entitled to enjoy this day as the others. Besides the zakat which is not directly connected with this month, Islam has prescribed another mandatory charity called the Sadqatul Fitr. This is a small sum given by those capable to the poor to enable them to engage in the festivities of Eid for there can be no festivity for the well off unless they have taken care of the have-nots.
(If you’ve liked the above article, do let Navaid know at naf@engineer.com).
“O Allah, do not try me by letting me resort to other than You when being compelled, not submit to other than You when being poor and not invoke other than You when being frightened lest I will deserve, by that, Your humiliation and Your turning away from me.” – Imam Ali Zain ul Abideen.
Photo courtesy: mrehan
One of my more favourite verses of the Quran is when it commands us to speak and act justly even if it be against your community, your parents, even yourself. The exact verse is:
4:135 O you who believe! Be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness of Allah’s sake, though it may be against your ownselves or parents or near relatives; if he be rich or poor, Allah is nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow (your ) low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do.
Pretty common sense when you come to think of it. But very difficult to live by. How many times we protect our loved ones for wrongs that they have done. As parents we protect our children for their mistakes, instead of letting them face the music. Or as a Manager or Fellow employee protect another fellow employee. We give in to our “low desires” rather than striving for and sticking to higher ideals of living that we’ve been destined for.
I’m posting the below video not to air my political views, but simply to share my awe in how he is not afraid to speak up for what he believes is right inspite of the seemingly overwhelming opposition. Furthermore this video is also an epitome of the Silent Majority syndrome. Observe how vociferous the minority of the audience gets when what they hear is not to their liking; but as soon as the speaker responds at 1:14 the crowd explodes in applause. The same thing happens towards the end, the crowd responds in an overwhelmingly positive manner. The question is, why was the crowd silent till that time? Why did they wait for the Norman Finklestein to air his frank views on the Holocaust to then offer their support? It’s the same reason why I don’t standup for the corruption and injustice that I see today. It’s so much more comfortable to sit and watch instead. And give support when only when everyone else is doing so.
Have a look at this landmark 3 minute video:
