Poems and Aphorisms 19

Excitement

In the moment

Adrenalin rushing

Eyes wide open

Neurons firing

Fully alive                                      

Fully functioning

Soul and matter unite

So exciting

As you twiddle your beads in the park

Feel that wooden spark

Reciting Meccan and Madinan words

Your spirit soars as high as the birds

Back home, you place your head upon the floor

That excitement of being close, you crave more

I only speak for those far away

Who wonder where they’ll stand that Day

Every now and then we get a taste

And for a while from sins we’re chaste

But alas, comes the mocking bird

Whose tunes the sinner’s plenty heard

“You’re on a path to death—the final moment”

I reply, “I am full of excitement.”

Because, without a tear, I’ll leave this temporal place

To enter barzakh’s* grace

No cheer from the guide

Onlookers shall sigh

“Do not despair oh lonely one

Our Lord’s will be done.”

‘Tis music to my ears

I hope Heaven hears

My excitement

*Barzakh is the temporal period between this life and the Hereafter. 

Poems and Aphorisms 18

Goodness

Disregard the feelings of the other

Fitra, smothers the Devil’s whispers:

“Mock, humiliate, hurt,

Your own status assert”

But the brave dis-incline

Cause peace rather than crying

Inspire, whom others admire

Who don’t give in to selfish desire

Tis hard to be strong and fair

Extend a hand, and show care

Criticising comes easy

Using insults as currency

But the empath will reign

And make the world sane

Give to charitable organisations

Through generous donations

And skip through the meadows

On a cloud of cheerful serenity

Through good actions character grows

With altruism, water your tree

And so, the saga continues

The choice between right and wrong

Be goodness and receive good news

Sing Heaven’s song

Islam: The Introvert’s Seclusion; The Extrovert’s Party

Roger de Pasquier (1990, viii) says that “To unveil Islam as it is, is to find proof that this Truth (i.e. God) can still be lived, both on the individual and collective levels . . .” I’m particularly interested in the words individual and collective in this statement and how they relate to religion.

Often when talking about religion we read about its relationship with gender, race, social status, nationality, etc. Hardly do we read about how religion integrates personality differences. This is an overlooked area of religious studies. I believe religions like Islam play a vital role in attending to the psychological needs of humans, including different personality types.

Humans can broadly be divided into introverts and extroverts. Introverts are people who gain energy from being alone, while extroverts are people who gain energy from being with other people. The words introvert and extrovert do not indicate how much a person talks. An introvert can be very talkative, while an extrovert can be quiet.

Having forwarded definitions, we can now analyse how Islam attends to the needs of both introverts and extroverts. Firstly, the introvert. Imagine someone ensconced in his favourite rocking chair in a woollen blanket on a chilly Winter evening. It’s 10pm, an hour before bed time. What better thing to do (for an introvert) than read a book. Well in this example, the introvert happens to be Muslim. Are there any Islamic activities an introvert might partake in? There are plenty, which all centre around the same theme: remembrance of God. These include prayer, rosary beads, reciting Qur’an, the Sufi practice of muraqaba (taking account of oneself), and even calligraphy. All these practices are connected to Islam in some way; all can be done by oneself in the quiet of one’s room; all enable one to explore one’s inner world; all enable an introvert’s seclusion.

What if we change the time, location, and personality type? It’s 6pm, at the mosque, and we are observing an extrovert. What better thing to do for an extrovert than be around people. In this example, the extrovert is Muslim. Are there any activities an extrovert might partake in at the mosque? There are plenty. These include greeting people he knows and those he doesn’t know with the Islamic greeting “assalaamu alaykum” (peace of God be upon you), absorbing the spiritual energies of those around him, listening to adhaan (the call to prayer), listening to the recitation of the Imam during the congregational prayer, chatting to friends after the prayer. Simply put, being at the mosque for the congregational prayer makes the extrovert feel connected.

In the ways described above, Islam facilitates a feeling of connection in both individual and collective environments. Myself, I am an introvert, and I love being able to be alone with my rosary bead or Qur’an or Islamic book. These cultural artefacts enable me to feel connected even while alone. My wife on the other hand is an extrovert, and she loves being able to recharge her batteries from being surrounded by positive people at Islamic events.

May God make us all, introvert and extrovert, feel connected always. Aameen.

We Have Freedom

We’re always complaining about the lack of control we have over our lives. We “gotta pay taxes”, “we gotta follow the road rules”, “we gotta do what the government says”, and so on.

Actually, there are countless moments of choice in our everyday lives. We can say ‘good morning’ or keep our head down and walk past without a glance; we can say that mean word or withhold it; we can judge someone harshly or give them some leeway; we can take out our frustrations on others or step back, take a deep breath and ‘get over it.’

In all these instances, the way we behave is totally in our control. Nobody is commanding us to do one thing over the other. Even God has given us the freedom to choose. Sure, He tells us what to do and what not to do, but has left the decision to act or not to act in our hands. I find it empowering to know that I have the free will to choose what I want to do, when I want to do it.

Of course, this is not to say that there are no influences on our behaviour outside ourselves. There are celebrities, actors, pop stars, athletes, and our own peers, all who tell us in commercials, movies, television shows, music videos, and one-on-ones, what we should do in certain situations. But even here whether we listen to their suggestions or not is our choice. We have the freedom to say, “sorry mate, but I think your way of doing things is not right.”

On reflection, then, we do have a lot of control over our lives. May God grant us guidance and wisdom in our choices. Aameen.         

Learn From Experience

In Choosing Happiness, Stephanie Dowrich makes the astute observation that “your own life experience is the greatest teacher you will ever have” (p. 38). What does this insight tell us? Well, for one, it suggests that complaining about life is the wrong way to use our emotional energy. Rather than complain, we should embrace the events of the day because each one is a lesson for us. Weeks are lessons for us. Months are lessons for us. And years also provide lessons. The more we live the more we can learn.

Have you heard the saying “haven’t you learnt anything from your past mistakes?” That’s a phrase none of us wants to hear. But from time to time we get it slapped in our face after an alcohol fuelled altercation, a speeding or parking fine, a telling off from the boss for being late again on a Monday.

All these things could have been avoided had we learnt from our previous experiences. A Sufi shaykh makes the point that we can train ourselves to prevent the occurrence of certain negative outcomes. What we can do after some unfortunate incident is reflect on the situation this incident occurred in: the time, location, social environment (people one was with at the time of the incident).

Take the example of the boss telling you off for being late on Monday. It makes sense to think back on what happened on Sunday to identify possible causes or correlations for the lateness. For one, every few Sundays, you attend a social gathering at a friend’s townhouse. This friend invites several young men over to watch the Sunday night basketball game and drink lots of beer. Each time, despite telling your friend and the others present you want to leave the gathering at 10pm to be home and in bed by 11pm (to wake up at 6am the following morning), you end up giving in to their requests to stay until midnight.  

To apply the shaykh’s teaching, let’s break down the event:

Time: Sunday evening

Location: Friend’s townhouse

Social environment: friends

What can we conclude from the information above? Obviously, the friends are the problem. They do not seem to care about your responsibilities of having a job. It might be time to find new friends, ones whom you can enjoy spending a Sunday evening, and still be home in time to get plenty of sleep before the next work day.

Or is it that you have a problem, in that you do not want to disappoint your friends or seem unsociable by leaving early? You are worried about the impact it may have on your friendships. Thus, although being consciously aware of the time, feeling guilty even, you give in because the company is sweet and having a break from the day to day grind feels necessary. These are good people and have been friends for a long time. And we all know good friends don’t come so easy in life. But as time has gone on, lives have changed and responsibilities increased. Some friends are still living the bachelor life, others have kids, a mortgage repayment, and the circle of life to get through.

The upshot of the shaykh’s teaching is to look for patterns. Life is full of patterns. It is our job to be aware of them. Stephanie Dowrich says “once you recognise a pattern, it loses the power that it had while it was still unconscious” (p. 9). Isn’t it true sometimes that realisation of our habits comes as a shock? Sometimes it takes a nudge from someone else, and sometimes it’s inspired, but always a surprise. It usually sounds something like “I can’t believe I’ve been doing that all these years.” However, after the shock comes relief that we don’t need to suffer anymore, and excitement about how we’ll do things differently from now on.

Reflection and learning from life are gifts from God. May God enable us to reflect and learn. Aameen. 

Character is Action

Been doing some reading on character, from both sociological and philosophical perspectives. Here are some reflections on what I’ve read so far.

Developing good character is not the mere reading of manuals on morals and virtues; one must practice. The specification of the virtues is not just some abstract exercise; its value is in its practical utility. Aristotle was clear on this matter when he said the following:

The purpose of our examination is not to know what virtue is, but to become good, since otherwise the inquiry would be of no benefit to us. And so we must examine the right ways of acting.

Reflecting on ideals is a step toward become people who practice good morals. Doris (1998, 512) says that “through reflection on moral exemplars, we may improve our own character and conduct.” In Islam, reflection involves reading about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, who is said to have the most perfect character and is the moral exemplar par excellence for Muslims. Proof for this comes in the sahih hadith in Musnad Ahmad in which the Prophet is reported to say, “I have only been sent to perfect good moral character.” Common sense says that only someone with excellent character can teach others about how to develop good character.

I should add here that the Prophet Muhammad was not only sent to Muslims. In the Qur’an, God says, “And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds” (21: 107). Anybody and everybody can benefit from learning about his behaviour in various situations: through sadness, trial, joy, marriage, friendship, fatherhood, as a leader, as an orphan, as a worshipper of God. Hence, the beauty of the Prophet’s story is that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can relate to him.

May God grant us good character. May we have beautiful manners like the Prophet Muhammad. Aameen. 

Symbolic Interactionism and Muslim Behaviour: Part Two

In continuing the theme from the previous post, I shall talk about Muslim behaviour in the context of how it is understood by Muslims and non-Muslims. I shall take the hijab as a case study.

The theory of Symbolic Interactionism holds that “the definition of the situation” is critical in social interactions. Two people can experience the same environmental stimulus with two very different perceptions of the experience. Thus, while the stimulus is the same, objectively speaking, on another level the experience is subjective. Take the experience of seeing a woman with a headscarf. Person A has a positive experience because she sees the headscarf as the exercising of the right to dress how one wants. Person B has a negative experience because she thinks the headscarf limits women’s freedom. Person C has a neutral experience in the sense that she doesn’t think twice about the image, neither forming a positive perception.

The common theme throughout the three experiences was the definition of the situation each person held. I’m talking about this to stress the importance of Muslims defining the situation. Muslims must define what their practices mean to them. By disseminating clear definitions, individuals like Person B might change their definitions of the situation.

Sad as it is, Muslims need to spell out what the hijab means to them. 

Symbolic Interactionism and Muslim Behaviour: Part One

I’ve been wondering for a while about the motives behind our behaviour. Why do some of us smoke? Why do others jump off buildings to their death? Why do we give in charity? I came across a sociological theory developed by university professors in America in the 20^th century called Symbolic Interactionism. I think it explains in some part how we come to act the way we do.

The term “symbolic interactionism” was originally coined by Herbert Blumer. It operates on

three fundamental assumptions: 1) that human beings act towards things based on the

meanings the things have for them; 2) that these meanings are derived from social interaction; and 3) that such meanings are created and modified through an interpretative social process (Blumer 1969:2).

Simply put, symbolic interactionists view behaviour as motivated by the meaning it carries for the doer of the behaviour. An advantage of this theory is that it can explain how the same action can mean different things when performed by different people. Take prayer as an example. Praying can be an example of obedience to God where a person prays solely out of the intention to obey God’s command to pray. On the other hand, another person may pray with a conscious or semi-conscious belief that others will think good of them; here, prayer denotes showing off.

In both situations, the individual acted after an interaction in their mind. In the first instance, the person reacted to a command from an “Other” (i.e. God). In the second instance, the person reacted to the praise of an “other” (i.e. a fellow worshipper in the mosque). Thus, Symbolic Interactionism says that both interactions with a physical or abstract other influenced the behaviour of an individual. While on one level (i.e. God) the meaning of prayer is unchanging, on another level (i.e. that of people), the meaning the actions of a prayer take on depend on the intention behind them.

This analysis of prayer through symbolic interactionism shows that the theory supports the Prophetic narration “actions are but by intentions” (ref). Amazing that a sociological theory that academics came up around fifty years ago, lends credence to what the Prophet Muhammad said some 1430 years back.

Are there any other instances of Muslim behaviour that Symbolic Interactionism may shed light on? Don’t hesitate to share in the comments.

Conflict Theory and Islam

Wishing to keep my blog in focus, the next few posts will be the sharing and documenting of reflections which I stumble upon while reading up on the major sociological theories and what they say about religion and character. Every blog post will end with a focused question, to enable further reflection and thought. Your comments are welcome.

I’m currently musing doing a research degree on the topic of character. Because my potential primary supervisor is trained in sociology, I need to approach the subject of character from a sociological perspective.  

One social theory is “Conflict Theory.” Per Conflict Theory, religion can reinforce and promote social inequality and social conflict. This view is partly inspired by the work of the German philosopher Karl Marx, who famously said that religion was the “opiate of the masses”. By this he meant that religion, like a drug, makes people happy with their existing conditions. Marx repeatedly stressed that workers needed to rise-up and overthrow the bourgeoisie. To do so, he said, they needed first to recognize that their poverty stemmed from their oppression by the bourgeoisie. But people who are religious, he said, tend to view their poverty in religious terms. They think it is God’s Will that they are poor, either because He is Testing their faith in Him or because they have violated His rules. Many people believe that if they endure their suffering, they will be rewarded in the Afterlife. Their religious views stem from a spiritual belief and therefore do not lead them  to blame the capitalist class for their poverty and thus not to revolt. For these reasons, said Marx, religion leads the poor to accept their fate and helps maintain the existing system of social inequality.

The rise of Islam in 7^th Century Arabia is evidence against Marx’s views. The Prophet Muhammad battled against the oppression of the poor by the bourgeoisie of his society because of religious values. He taught his fellow Arabians that a person’s worth is not determined by what clan he is born into—in those days some clans were thought to be more prestigious than other clans—but by his God-fearingness and character. Character is the mark of a man, not possessions or lineage.

Marx’s theory may have related to a certain people at a certain time, but it does not translate or transcend era and culture. Do you think Conflict Theory relates to the unfortunate circumstances individuals in Muslim majority countries find themselves in?

Update!

Dear reader

I've been travelling since the last post on this blog. Travels took me from London to Kuala Lumpur to Sydney. I left Australia in November 2015 single and returned married, to a wonderful, loving lady from England. 

Sincere apologies for not informing you of my hiatus. I now return to normal activity (i.e. one post per week). Posts will be much the same as before, general reflections on life and other topics. 

Thank you for visiting. Take care. 

Rizwan

Submit to be Powerful

A month or so ago, I saw the movie Doctor Strange. It had some moments that should resonate with Muslims. Perhaps the most Islamic part of the film was the part where the master, called The Ancient One, tells the master-to-be, the arrogant yet charming Doctor Strange, to “submit!” in order to use the power of the energy around him.

Submitting to become more powerful might seem counter-intuitive, but Islam holds that through submission, people become more in tune to the Will that is God. It is not as though we tell or inform God what we want to happen. Rather, we come to accept God’s will.

May God make grant us the humility to submit. Aameen.