Horizons Two: Fighting Sea-Sickness

As a child in school I remember the excitement I felt when one of my friends in class began wearing glasses. “The optician said I was short sighted,” she would announce with great pride. Now you may be thinking, what child would announce their need for glasses with pride? You see, my friends and I were part of the group known as the ‘nerds.’ But remembering this, I cannot but relate this further to our vision of the world. Are we amongst the self-absorbed, who only see what is near us, or do we look at the world we live in with a clearer vision, and see what is beyond us?*

A Muslim scholar, at a recent retreat, gave the analogy of sea-sickness in the dunya (i.e. the world) due to absorption in it; what we might call ‘worldliness.’ He relates the time at sea when as a chef working in the galley he would start to get that feeling in the stomach indicating sea-sickness. To counter the feeling, he would look out the window towards the horizon. He’d do this because unlike the pots and pans close up that were moving to-and-fro the horizon provided a still image, grounding him.

Just like a person on a boat which is moving to-and-fro fights sea-sickness by looking at the horizon to that which is beyond him, so, too, the scholar alluded that we as humans must look out to the horizon (i.e. to God) in our day to day lives. In doing so, it is hoped, we will realise that there is a Great Power in control of all affairs, and the world in which we live in is not just made up of our own temporary reality, but a bigger picture.

The contemporary social media age has made it easy (if not fardh [obligatory]), to focus on what is near (i.e. the dunya and ourselves) rather than what is far (i.e. the Afterlife). Whether it is what we ate for dinner, who we went out with, or what products we like, before long enough the only people in our life is us. Yet, if we were to wear glasses of reflection and fix our short-sightedness we could look to the horizon, and perhaps this would enable us to see the bigger picture we are a part of.

May Allah Allow us to see the bigger picture. May Allah Grant us vision beyond the horizon, Aameen.

*True story, as narrated by my wife.